Sean Doherty, a former sports director at Duquesne University's radio station WDUQ-FM, who also produced and announced many WPIAL championship football and basketball games over the years, died Saturday night from complications related to kidney failure. He was 47.

Sean Doherty

Kevin Gavin, a close friend and news director at WDUQ, said Mr. Doherty was hospitalized in July and had been ill for about a year.

"I'm going to really miss our spirited discussions about sports," said Mr. Gavin, holding back tears. "He was a great example of spirit and courage. He loved sports, especially amateur sports because of its purity."

Mr. Doherty grew up and lived in Mt. Lebanon and attended Shady Side Academy. As a sophomore, Mr. Doherty was playing for Shady Side in a football game in Cleveland when he made a tackle and suffered a spinal injury. The accident confined him to a wheelchair, as a quadriplegic.

"It's ironic that he would be injured at Shady Side Academy when the reason he went there was because he felt he was too small to play at Mt. Lebanon," said childhood friend Dan Donahoe. "Despite the fact that the sport he loved crippled him, he never lost his love of sports or athletes. He was never bitter. Everyone that knew him was better for it."

After completing high school, Mr. Doherty went on to earn a journalism degree from Duquesne in 1984.

Soon afterward, he joined the sports department at WDUQ.

In 1987, he was appointed the station's sports director, a position he held until he became ill. Mr. Doherty also was the color commentator for Duquesne basketball for three years.

From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Doherty and Mr. Donahoe produced and announced WPIAL games on the old KBL, which became Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh.

In 2000, Mr. Doherty spent nearly three months in intensive care after suffering a blood clot in his lungs. After being released from the hospital, he resumed his role on Adelphia cable's Wednesday night "In the Bleachers" talk show and announcing Friday night scholastic football games in the South Hills.

Mr. Donahoe said, "Quadriplegia could not touch his mind, could not touch his heart and could not touch his soul."

Mr. Doherty is survived by a brother, Michael Doherty, of Bethel Park, and four sisters, Barbara Lillard of Vienna, Va., Christine Fisher of Rosemont, Pa., Denise Simonik of Solon, Ohio, and Margaret Lynch of Haddonfield, N.J.

Visitation will be Thursday and Friday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at John A. Freyvogel Sons Funeral Home, 4900 Centre Ave., Oakland. A Mass will be celebrated Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Bernard Church, 311 Washington Road, Mt. Lebanon.