LOS ANGELES (AP) Chick Hearn, the passionate radio and television voice of the Los Angeles Lakers for 42 years, was remembered by players, fans and colleagues for his catch phrases and friendship.

"There's never going to be another Chick Hearn," former Lakers star and basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson said Monday night. "He's a man who will be remembered long after. Some people grow bigger than their sport, bigger than their job."

Hearn, the only play-by-play announcer the Lakers ever had, died at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Northridge Medical Center Hospital, team spokesman Bob Steiner said. He was 85.

Hearn fell and struck his head Friday in the back yard of the Encino home he shared with wife Marge. They would have celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary Aug. 13.

Surgeons operated twice Saturday to relieve swelling in his brain, but he never regained consciousness.

Honored as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and the American Sportscasters Hall of Fame, Hearn was immortalized in 1986 with a star on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame" where a flower and candle tribute quickly grew.

Hearn introduced radio and television fans to now standard phrases such as "slam dunk" and "air ball" as he became an inseparable part of an organization that has produced nine NBA championship teams.

"Generations of fans were brought to the NBA by the voice and vision of Chick Hearn," NBA commissioner David Stern said. "From Wilt and West to Magic and Kareem to Shaq and Kobe, Chick was a fixture as the 'Voice of the Lakers' and a legend in his profession."

About 100 fans gathered outside the hospital, and many broke into tears when they heard Hearn died.

"I've been following the Lakers for 39 years. The only voice I ever heard was Chick's," said Carol Weissberg, 46.

Neurologist Dr. Asher Taban combined his sense of loss with his description Monday night of the severity of Hearn's injury.

"I personally felt that the chance that he had (of recovery) was one out of 10," Taban said of Hearn's severe intracranial bleeding. "I really feel that we have lost an icon. It was very hard for me to deal with it from the beginning in terms of his personality and knowing him."

Another Hall of Fame broadcaster, Vin Scully of the Los Angeles Dodgers, also paid tribute to Hearn.

"We have lost a dear friend and a true broadcasting legend today," Scully said. "I would like to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for having to be able to enjoy his work for all these years."

Hearn called a record 3,338 consecutive Lakers games starting in 1965 before the streak ended in December 2001, when he underwent heart surgery. His absence stretched when he broke a hip in a fall in February. He returned April 9 and broadcast the Lakers' playoff run to their third consecutive championship.

During the NBA Finals, Hearn said he was getting stronger every day and planned to work at least one more season. He believed his call of the Lakers' Game 7 victory over Sacramento in the Western Conference finals might have been as good as any in his career.

Last week, he drove to Las Vegas with his wife to speak at a fantasy basketball camp.

"The city of Los Angeles has lost an incredible icon," said former Lakers star and general manager Jerry West, now the Memphis Grizzlies' president of basketball operations. "He certainly helped me appear to be bigger than life. More importantly, he was a true, great friend."

He joined the Lakers when the team moved from Minneapolis for the 1960-61 season.

Hearn's career was far longer than such Lakers standouts as Johnson, West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jamaal Wilkes, James Worthy and Michael Cooper.

And he was calling games long before current stars Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were born.

"He gave me 'Big Game James.' He was the one responsible for my nickname," said Worthy, a Lakers star of the 1980s championship teams. "I'm known by that nickname everywhere I go."

Johnson said he will remember Hearn for more than what he did in the broadcast booth.

"When I talked to Chick, a lot of times it was hardly about basketball," Johnson said. "He was always so proud of me. I would get little notes from him. That would make me feel so good."

Born Francis Dayle Hearn on Nov. 27, 1916, in Aurora, Ill., Hearn described action on the court with terms like "no harm, no foul," "the mustard's off the hot dog," "ticky-tack foul," and "faked him into the popcorn machine."

Whenever he believed a Lakers victory was clinched, Hearn would say: "You can put this one in the refrigerator. The door's closed, the light's out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard and the Jell-O is jiggling."

The Hearns had two children, but both died - a son of a drug overdose, and a daughter after battling anorexia. The couple was very close with Shannon, their granddaughter, and her family.

Funeral arrangements were pending. A family spokesman said there will be a public memorial service. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that people make donations to the charity of their choice in Hearn's name.

AP Sports Writer John Nadel contributed to this story.

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