Sports Announcer. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, for over 40 years, he was known as The Voice of the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, for his dapper style of announcing and tuxedo attire. In 1932, he began working as an MC, for multiple jobs singing, performing, sports events and police events in the Los Angeles County area. Soon he was hired as the regular ring announcer for all the events at the Olympic Auditorium and the Ocean Park Arena in down town Los Angeles. He was a favorite among the Hispanic Community as he was a master at the Spanish dialect, as well as several other languages, which he presented whenever introducing a boxer or wrestler with a foreign name by accurately pronouncing the difficult names. In addition, Lennon was the uncle of the singing group, The Lennon Sisters, plus appeared in role as himself in many feature films such as "Alias the Champ" (1949), "World in My Corner" (1956), "The Main Event" (1979), "Raging Bull" (1980) and "Rocky III" (1982). For TV, his credits included "Mr. Lucky", "Mission: Impossible", "Ironside", "The Fall Guy" and "Amen". He died of heart failure at age 79 in Santa Monica, California. In 1997, he was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of fame and is a member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. His son Jimmy Lennon Jr. is a renowned sports announcer in his own right for championship boxing matches, plus HBO and Showtime pay TV sports specials.
Sports Announcer. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, for over 40 years, he was known as The Voice of the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, for his dapper style of announcing and tuxedo attire. In 1932, he began working as an MC, for multiple jobs singing, performing, sports events and police events in the Los Angeles County area. Soon he was hired as the regular ring announcer for all the events at the Olympic Auditorium and the Ocean Park Arena in down town Los Angeles. He was a favorite among the Hispanic Community as he was a master at the Spanish dialect, as well as several other languages, which he presented whenever introducing a boxer or wrestler with a foreign name by accurately pronouncing the difficult names. In addition, Lennon was the uncle of the singing group, The Lennon Sisters, plus appeared in role as himself in many feature films such as "Alias the Champ" (1949), "World in My Corner" (1956), "The Main Event" (1979), "Raging Bull" (1980) and "Rocky III" (1982). For TV, his credits included "Mr. Lucky", "Mission: Impossible", "Ironside", "The Fall Guy" and "Amen". He died of heart failure at age 79 in Santa Monica, California. In 1997, he was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of fame and is a member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. His son Jimmy Lennon Jr. is a renowned sports announcer in his own right for championship boxing matches, plus HBO and Showtime pay TV sports specials.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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