06/16 — We don't want to let the passing of Charlie Jones fade without honoring the legendary announcer's contributions to the AFL and NFL and specifically to the New York Jets.

Jones, who died Thursday night at the age of 77 at his home in La Jolla, did it all in his career, handling the play-by-play for 28 different sports, some at the Olympics venues he worked for the Peacock Network in 1988 and '96. NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol called him "one of the great pioneers of NBC Sports."

But he and his deep, mellow vocal chords are best recalled around these parts as "The Voice" for the American Football League.

"As a kid growing up, what I identify with the early AFL and the Jets and the Titans was Charlie," said Bob Parente, the Jets' vice president of broadcasting and production. "Certainly for any of our fans in the Sixties, he was the guy."

"Charlie was a consummate professional, always one of the most prepared announcers, and a really good guy," Frank Ramos told me this afternoon. Ramos was the longtime public relations director who went all the way back with the Jets to 1963, their first year as Jets when they were still in the Polo Grounds — and Jones was still with ABC, the original AFL network.

"It was very good for the AFL to have a guy who cared as much about the league as he did. Later on, he took it a step further by helping the young analysts who were former players."

Jones admitted in interviews he was superstitious. He described one of his habits to Tom Danyluk in his book "The Super '70s": dining on French toast in his hotel room every morning before a game broadcast. When one hotel didn't have French toast and later the audio feed was lost from a Patriots home game, Jones recalled: "I knew it was those damn scrambled eggs."

Ramos had another Jones hotel habit: ordering a case of Coca-Cola or, later, Diet Coke, for his room the night before a game.

The Jets' PR man also said Jones had a trick of the trade that some announcers relied on back in the day: to deepen the voice, take a puff on a cigarette.

"Even guys who didn't smoke, like Joe Namath, would take a drag at halftime."

Jones' deepened voice conveyed the details from a couple of historic pro football games. As the Texans' announcer in 1960, he called the first game in AFL history, and more than three decades later he was in the NBC booth for the greatest comeback in NFL history, the Bills' 32-point rebound for their 41-38 overtime win over the Oilers in the 1992 AFC Wild Card Game.

As for the Jets, he had a few games Green & White fans may remember. He and Len Dawson worked the 1981 home playoff loss to the Bills and the '82 "Super Bowl Tournament" first-round win at Cincinnati.

And Jones and Randy Cross should have gotten hazard pay for working seven of the games in the lost '96 season — including the Jets' only victory that year, by 31-21 at Arizona in Game 9.

Jones' last Jets game in his 38th season of football broadcasting came the next year alongside Bob Trumpy in the 24-17 Game 10 loss at Miami.

But the telltale sign of a great announcer is that his voice echoes through the years even after he's gone. And I can still hear Charlie like it was yesterday. Our condolences to Ann, his wife of 54 years, his two children and three grandchildren. A celebration of Jones' life will be held Wednesday at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club.