Terry Boers dead at 75 Credit: 670 The Score
By Sam Neumann on

Terry Boers, one of the founding voices of 670 The Score and half of the legendary Boers & Bernstein show, died Friday at his home in Florida from liver failure. He was 75.

If you listened to Chicago sports radio at any point over the past three decades, Boers shaped how you consume it. He was there when The Score launched in January 1992, back when the station was on AM 820. Before that, he’d spent two decades at the Chicago Sun-Times as a columnist.

But it was radio where Boers became indispensable.

When The Score paired Terry Boers with Dan Bernstein in 1999, the intention was to put two contrasting voices together and see what happened. What followed didn’t resemble much of what existed in Chicago sports radio at the time. The show wasn’t designed to agree with callers or move them along politely. It questioned them, pushed back, and occasionally embarrassed them.

Boers and Bernstein never pretended their show was for everyone. They understood sports could be ridiculous and serious at the same time, and they didn’t overthink where that line was. And while Boers had decades of reporting experience covering Chicago teams, that was almost beside the point on the air.

Health issues forced Boers to retire in January 2017 after 25 years at the station. He’d been battling the illnesses that would eventually take his life, including cancer. His last media appearance came in September on Bernstein’s podcast, an emotional conversation that Bernstein now says means far more in hindsight.

Chicago sports radio exists in its current form largely because Terry Boers proved you could be funny, smart, and challenging all at once, according to the people who knew him best.

“The Score lost one of our own today. Terry Boers passed away today, surrounded by loved ones. Terry was one of the founding fathers of The Score and one of the most popular people on the air and in The Score hallways,” 670 The Score VP Mitch Rosen said in a statement. “Terry retired in 2017, but he remained part of The Score family forever. He frequently appeared on the station, and many of us had the pleasure of having dinner annually. Terry was original, funny, smart, witty and most importantly a beautiful person.”

The Score will celebrate Boers on the air next week. Per the family’s wishes, there won’t be a funeral.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann