MCLEOD, FRED (1 September 1952-9 September 2019) was a television sportscaster, most notably for the CLEVELAND CAVALIERS.
McLeod was born in STRONGSVILLE, but his family moved to the Pittsburgh area when he was a child. After graduating from Elizabeth Forward High School, he attended Point Park College (now Point Park University) in Pittsburgh, where he played baseball, pitching in an NAIA World Series game.
He began his sportscasting career in Missouri in 1974 with KQTV, and a year later, was named the sports director at WSTV (now WTOV) in Steubenville.
McLeod joined WJKW (now WJW) in November 1976, serving as a reporter and weekend sports anchor. McLeod called CLEVELAND INDIANS games in 1979 for WJKW, and then called Cavs games for the first time for the 1979-80 season. While at WJKW, future Cavs owner Dan Gilbert was an intern for McLeod.
After a brief stint in the Bay Area with KPIX in San Francisco, McLeod went to Detroit, where he served as sports anchor for WDIV and WJBK, as well as the longtime voice of the Pistons, from 1984 to 2006. His tenure encompassed all three Pistons titles, in 1989, 1990 and 2004. McLeod also called Detroit Lions preseason games on TV from 1983 to 1988, and again in 2019, as well Tigers games on TV from 1995 to 1997, and high school football and basketball games for Fox Sports Detroit.
Cavs owner Dan Gilbert hired McLeod to be the voice of the Cavs in 2006, suddenly supplanting Michael Reghi in an unpopular move, but McLeod served ably alongside partner Austin Carr, calling the Cavs’ 2016 title, among other highlights.
In addition to the television play-by-play voice of the Cavs, McLeod was also the executive producer for multimedia. He was preparing for his 14th season as the Cavs announcer when he died.
He was married to Beth McLeod, a meteorologist for WJW, and they are the parents of a son, Sean, and two daughters, Jenna and Molly.
Vincent Guerrieri