PARIS — Eloquence, wit, charm — with a dash of pizzazz.

And always — always — a smile.

Fred Gage, an award-winning former Sun Journal sports journalist and local radio personality, died Saturday. He was 90.

“Fred Gage truly was a Lewiston-Auburn institution,” former Sun Journal sports editor, columnist and reporter Kalle Oakes said. “As a cub reporter, still in high school, I had the honor of working with Fred at the end of his career. What I learned from Fred and Ted Taylor about the work ethic, skill of turning phrases and good humor required to thrive in the business cannot be quantified.”

Gage’s time with the Sun Journal book-ended a stellar local broadcasting career, during which he covered thousands of high school sporting events, as well as professional hockey. And, in perhaps one of the defining moments of his radio career, he covered the Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston rematch in Lewiston in 1965.

“The event itself was kind of a disaster,” Gage said during an anniversary retrospective in 2005, “but the two weeks leading up to it was probably the most amazing two weeks of my life.”

A native of Strong, Gage graduated as his class valedictorian in 1943, and served two and a half years in the U.S. Navy during World War II before enrolling in the School of Public Communication at Boston University. While a student, Gage was an intern for the Lewiston Sun, and later worked for the newspaper upon graduation.

In 1949, he married the love of his life, the former Carolyn Mitchell, and they remained so for nearly 67 years until his passing.

Professionally, Gage left the Sun for the Wilton Times and the Androscoggin Sunday News in 1952, and in 1953, he began his long stint with WLAM radio.

“When I was in high school, I loved to hear him on the radio,” said Anita Murphy, a longtime coach at Lewiston High School and a colleague of Gage’s with the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame. “He made you feel like you were at the game. I couldn’t always go, of course, but with his words, his descriptions, it was like you could see every play.

“He always had that voice,” Murphy added. “If you were anywhere and heard his voice, you knew immediately it was Fred Gage.”

Gage was with WLAM for more than 20 years. During that time, he covered football, basketball, baseball, hockey and golf, including playoffs in various sports from venues such as the Boston Garden, Rhode Island Auditorium and even Minnesota, when the L-A Wings played in the AHA national tourney.

In 1969, Gage was named Maine Sportscaster of the Year by a vote of his peers, and during the first two seasons of the Maine Nordiques in Lewiston, Gage served as the team’s play-by-play voice, a stint that included traveling with the team.

Gage returned to newspapers in 1976, joining the Lewiston Evening Journal as its sports editor, a title he held through the Journal’s merger with the Lewiston Sun in 1989 to form the Sun Journal. Gage remained on board one year after the merger, retiring in 1990.

Joe Gromelski, managing editor of the digital edition of Stars and Stripes, worked with Gage at the Sun Journal. Gromelski called Gage “a good guy.”

“He was easygoing,” Gage said. “He was the mainstay of sports in L-A.”

When at Bates College, Gromelski said, “he was the one you’d listen to on WLAM. When he came to the Sun Journal, he was a good sports editor — a real professional.”

“He had a huge influence on the sports community in Lewiston-Auburn,” said Joe Clark, general manager of the North American Hockey League team in Topeka, Kan.

A former Sun Journal sports writer, Clark worked with Gage in the 1980s.

“Fred put his whole heart and soul into the job,” Clark said. “He made an impression on the people in the community. He knew everything that was going on and had a great passion for sports, the minor and major sports.”

Reflected in the way Gage did his job was including everyone, Clark said.

“That meant a lot to a lot of people,” he said. 

Gage may have retired, but he was far from being done writing.

After receiving the Media Award in 1990 from the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association, Gage continued to write weekly horse racing columns for the Sun Journal sports section well into the early 2000s.

In 1998, Gage was honored by the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame, an organization with which he was proud to be affiliated. Gage also sat on the Hall’s board, and helped with the selection process.

“It was amazing,” Murphy said. “It didn’t matter whose name you brought up, he knew it, and he had a story about them. He kept so many things alive in people’s minds.”

Gage also continued to visit the newsroom with regularity.

“In my years as sports editor, it was equally valuable having Fred’s columns about harness racing and Maine and New England sports in our section,” Oakes said. “His visits to the newsroom were always a highlight of my day. Fred always had a smile and was easygoing in a manner that most newspaper men are not.”

“Fred was one of those guys you were always happy to see,” former Sun Journal sports editor Doug Clawson said. “Over 20 years later, the prized Clay-Liston poster he gave me sits in my office. People see it and go, ‘Wow!’ I say, ‘Yeah, but let me tell you about the guy who gave it to me.'”

Eloquent, witty, charming and full of pizzazz — that was Fred Gage.

Editor’s note: Staff Writer Bonnie Washuk contributed to this report.