Smokin' Jim Frazier

James Frazier III, known across Pittsburgh sports as Smokin' Jim Frazier, was a sportswriter, television co-host, NFL draft analyst, and boxing announcer whose career was rooted in the city's Black sports media tradition and in a lifelong obsession with football. He died in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, on 26 August 2026, at the age of 66.

Born on 17 July 1960, Frazier grew up in a close-knit neighborhood on Banfield Avenue in Penn Hills, where childhood friend and New Pittsburgh Courier columnist Bill Neal later recalled a street of two-parent households that produced Division I athletes and community leaders. Neal, who lived next door and was Frazier's first unofficial football coach, described him as a natural from the start: quicker, faster, and stronger than most, with a competitive fire shaped by parents James Frazier Jr. and Dorothy Jean Frazier and by siblings Pamela, Scott, and Eric.

At Gateway High School he starred as a running back and wingback for the Gateway Gators under legendary coach Pete Antimarino. He was part of an undefeated WPIAL AAAA and Pennsylvania state championship team whose defense allowed only 32 points, a school mark still cited decades later. In September 1999, Pennsylvania Football News nominated him for its Pennsylvania High School All-Century team in an issue that also named LaVar Arrington, Ty Law, and Tony Dorsett. After graduating in 1978 he continued as a wide receiver, wingback, and returner at California State College in Pennsylvania (today Pennsylvania Western University, California), where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. Contemporaries described him as a four-year starter and multi-year captain who also excelled in off-season weightlifting.

Frazier turned that playing background into a scouting and media career. He published Smokin' Jim's Scouting Report and newsletters, built a reputation for predicting which college stars would struggle in the NFL, and became a longtime freelance sportswriter for the New Pittsburgh Courier, the historic Black newspaper serving Pittsburgh. In June 2005 the Press Club of Pennsylvania honored him with a Golden Quill Award for "A Fighting Chance," a Courier piece on local boxer Paul Spadafora and Spadafora's struggles with alcohol, violence, and the law. He partnered on camera with Emmy-winning broadcaster Brian Cook Sr. for Courier Steelers preview videos and for WPXI-TV's Championship Chase, appearing alongside Dee Thompson and Ty Miller at a time when an all-Black sports panel on a major Pittsburgh station was still rare.

For years he co-hosted Steel City Sports World on PCTV Channel 21 with producer Luther Dupree Jr., and from 2011 he was a regular co-host of Pittsburgh Sportsline, the weekly Bethel Park public-access show later carried on Verizon and Comcast and archived on YouTube. He announced boxing cards across Western Pennsylvania for roughly three decades and worked as an MC at community sports events. With Neal he helped build Achieving Greatness Inc. and the Pittsburgh City League High School All Sports Hall of Fame, serving as senior vice president for about thirty years and as a board member of Western Pennsylvania and statewide Hall of Fame committees. Neal credited him with accountability for a substantial share of Hall inductees over more than a decade of sellout induction ceremonies.

Away from microphones, Frazier remained a devoted Steelers fan who once held season tickets with his father and loved Sunday games, cherry cheesecake from former wife Terry Lynn Lipscomb, and holiday dinners with his grandchildren. He was survived by his father, James Frazier Jr.; children DaVonte' James Frazier, Terri Era Marie Washington, and Brianna Nicole Washington; six grandchildren; siblings Pamela, Scott, and Eric; former wife and friend Terry Lynn Lipscomb; and godchildren Tyrayne and Tyrique Coleman. His mother, Dorothy Jean Frazier, preceded him in death.

Visitation and a celebration of life were held on 4 September 2026 at House of Law Funeral Home in Monroeville, with a repast at the Triveni Center. The New Pittsburgh Courier published Bill Neal's remembrance on 3 September 2026; the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a formal obituary on 30 September 2026 under the headline that he had "lived and breathed sports." Pittsburgh Sportsline aired a tribute episode on 8 September 2026. Colleagues remembered not only the draft boards and fight-night introductions, but a man who offered compliments, loans, late-night rides, and an unbroken loyalty to Pittsburgh athletes and neighborhoods.