Historical Anderson Icon Passes Away this Week.....
James Robert “ Radio ” Kennedy , a beloved fixture of an Anderson, South Carolina high school football program whose life served as inspiration for the 2003 film “Radio,” passed away Sunday. He was 73 years old. Kennedy, who was mentally disabled, was an unofficial 11th grade student at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, South Carolina , where he was one of the football team’s biggest supporters and hype men since the 1960s. He often attended games, cheering on players from the sidelines, and even led players out onto the field. He did little without his trusty transistor radio pressed to his ear, which earned him his iconic nickname. It was head football coach Harold Jones who took Radio under his wing when he first appeared on the school’s football field as a teenager in 1965. He would become an integral part of the football program, mimicking the coaches on the sidelines. Kennedy could barely speak and never learned to read or write, according to Anderson n