Bobby Hicks
Robert R. “Bobby” Hicks was born in New Orleans and moved to Tampa after his father died, growing up in the Seminole Heights area and graduating from Hillsborough High School. He studied journalism at the University of Florida and became a reporter for a year with the Tampa Times followed by nine years with the Tampa Tribune.
After serving in the South Pacific in World War II, Hicks returned to Tampa and joined the Army Reserve, an organizations he would remain active with for the rest of his life. He returned to the Tribune in 1946 as a sports writer, then became the hunting and fishing editor of the paper’s “Hook, Lyin’ and Sinker” column.
For several years Bobby hosted an early morning and evening fishing show on WFLA radio and, in 1956, started “The Bobby Hicks Show” on WFLA-TV. The TV show ended in 1961 when he was named sports editor at the Tampa Tribune. Several months later, he suffered his first heart attack and returned as the paper’s hunting and fishing editor.
Bobby had a second heart attack in 1966, this one fatal, and passed away at the age of 54. He had been active in Tampa’s civic affairs for many years, as a Shriner, Mason, a director of the Tampa Tarpon Tournament and the Florida Sports Writers Association, and a member of the Baseball Writers of America. In the late 1960’s a city park was named for him and the Bobby Hicks Memorial Pool was opened in 1976.
Station History
1956 - 1961 Other Tampa Bay Area Stations (On Air Personality)
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