Valley sports icon dies

His friend and on-air partner called the passing Tuesday of Joseph "Pippo" Falsetti the end of an era.

Falsetti, 83, who had been a mainstay in local radio and TV sports broadcasts for more than 40 years, died in Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh due to complications from a recent bout with pneumonia.

He was inducted into the Alle-Kiski Sports Hall of Fame in 1989.

Falsetti started his broadcasting career at WHJB in Greensburg before he joined Bob Tatrn at the former WKPA station in New Kensington for the WPIAL championship baseball game between Arnold and Beaver Falls at Forbes Field.

"We started in 1964, and we've been together ever since," Tatrn said. "We had literally covered a couple thousand events that we did as a team, doing play-by-play for football and basketball, mainly."

Falsetti hosted Sports Line on Comcast Cable Channel 3 with Tatrn until 2001. The show later was reborn on Cable Channel 13.

He was one of the commissioners of the AR-Brook Softball Association, which featured major regional and national softball tournaments at Sokol Camp, now known as Wolf Pack Park, in the 1960s and 1970s. He managed some of the area's top softball teams during that time.

Falsetti's talents stretched beyond his sports knowledge and broadcasting abilities. He also could sing and dance, even coming in second place in a Pittsburgh talent show in the late 1940s. The first place winner was a man from Steubenville, Ohio named Dino Corcetti, who later changed his name to Dean Martin.

Falsetti was born in Cosenza, Calabria, Italy, and came to the U.S. when he was 6 in 1929. He lived in Arnold.