South Carolina football legend ‘Radio’ dies, high school confirms
One of the most popular figures in South Carolina high school football has died.
James “Radio” Kennedy died surrounded by his family early Sunday morning, T.L. Hanna High School officials said.
“It’s sad. It’s very sad for us,” former T.L. Hanna football coach Harold Jones said, according to ESPN. “Everybody loved him at the school and anybody he met loved him. He was just so outgoing and loved to hug you.”
His niece, Jackie Kennedy, said he died at Hospice of the Upstate in Anderson County, WYFF reported.
No funeral arrangements have been made, according to Hanna Athletic Director John Cann, who asked to “please keep his family in your prayers in this difficult time.”
The 72-year-old never played for the Yellow Jackets, but rose to fame roaming their sidelines in the Upstate. Kennedy even was the subject of a Hollywood movie appropriately titled “Radio.”
He got the nickname because “the mentally challenged” teen who barely spoke would show up on the football field in the 1960s “with a transistor radio seemingly attached to his ear,” former principal Sheila Hilton wrote in an essay.
He became a fixture mimicking coaches and displaying an encyclopedic memory for high school football mascots across South Carolina, growing into much more than a fan favorite — but truly a part of the family for six decades, Hilton said.
Kennedy’s story drew attention from around the world, as he was profiled in Sports Illustrated, Readers’ Digest, ESPN, and CBS News, according to Hilton.
The Sports Illustrated story was the basis of the 2003 movie that brought stars Cuba Gooding Jr., as Radio, and Ed Harris to Anderson. Harris portrayed Jones, who became a surrogate father for Kennedy, and the movie focused on their relationship.
“His courage made them champions,” was the film’s tagline.
Jones said Kennedy had been hospitalized earlier in the month because of “pancreatitis, along with ongoing diabetes and kidney issues,” WYFF reported.
Before falling ill, not only was Kennedy a staple at Yellow Jackets’ home games, he was also at basketball games, the school district said. Through 2018, Kennedy also rode the bus to and from school four days a week, save for Tuesdays, when he would go bowling with the Rainbow Gang, an Anderson County group for people with intellectual disabilities.
Despite his ailments, Kennedy led the Hanna football team on the field twice this season, riding in a golf cart, the Greenville News reported.
For more than 50 years, Kennedy was considered a junior at the high school because that is the highest grade to be without having to graduate, according to the school district.
Kennedy was inducted into the high school’s athletic hall of fame in 2016, a decade after a life-size, bronze statue of Radio was mounted at the football stadium, according to ESPN.
“It was destiny that he arrived on that football field some fifty years ago,” Hilton said. “He was without a Harvard degree or Pulitzer Prize or professional football contract, but his fame surpassed all of these accolades. And the story is simple: love and compassion can change lives. It has changed his, and, in return, he has changed ours, and we are better people for having known him.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2019 at 2:57 PM.
