Born in Warren, Pennsylvania, Jack Eaton earned a basketball scholarship to Washington & Jefferson College. Graduating in 1950, at the start of the Korean War, he went into the Air Force Officer Candidate School and served his country until 1953.
In 1954, he earned his Master’s degree in TV production from Syracuse University. Jack came to Memphis in 1956 to work for WMC-TV & Radio, and retired in June 1991. From 1959 to 1963, he did play-by-play for Memphis State basketball and Ole Miss football. He left Ole Miss to call the play-by-play for Memphis State and did that for 28 years. To this day, he is known as the Voice of the Tigers. He recalls the high point of his career in 1973 – when Memphis went to the NCAA basketball finals. But with every high point, there is always a low point, and that was in 1969-70 when the Memphis State basketball team lost to Union University at home. But to Jack, the honor he most relishes is being the only person in Memphis to be hired as a staff poet. In 1994, WHVQ-TV offered him a job writing poetry once a week for the evening news. His best one he still remembers – “Bill and Hillary were planning a trip, when suddenly there developed a slip, Bill said hey the plane is full there is no more room, Hillary said, I’ll take the broom.” Jack Eaton passed away in 2016 at age 86.