Bill Brill, who covered Atlantic Coast Conference sports for 40 years including 118 straight UNC-Duke basketball games, has died at the age of 79. Brill, who wrote three books about Duke basketball including one co-authored with Coach Mike Krzyzewski, died at Duke University Medical Center Sunday suffering from esophageal and liver cancer.

Here’s what is being said about Brill:

Anticipating his own death, “Ever the newsman, Brill had hammered out a 1,500-word, third-person obituary on March 3 that was made available to The Roanoke Times and The (Raleigh) News & Observer,” wrote Doug Doughty of the Roanoke Times, where Brill worked for more than 30 years.

“Some sports columnists pass themselves off as experts. When it came to college athletics, especially college basketball, Bill Brill was a real expert,” said Bill Millsaps, a former executive editor and sports editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“Bill kept his readers on the edge of their seats because some days they loved what he wrote and some days they hated what he wrote, but he always wrote what he thought was right at the time. We will all miss him, as he was there for almost every important game in ACC basketball history,” said former Virginia men’s basketball coach Terry Holland.

“He truly cared about NCAA issues, and the school-sports balance and he wrote and spoke with distinction about those topics — sometimes with praise, sometimes with criticism and always with passion. To me, that always will be an important part of his legacy,” said Dave Glenn of the ACC Sports Journal.

“Bill was a fixture at Duke athletic events for many years. He was one of the most knowledgeable and respected journalists in the country. His passion for college athletics was unmatched in both his words and his work. College athletics, and specifically Duke, lost an icon today,” said Duke athletic department spokesman Jon Jackson.

“Bill Brill was an American original. I am one of hundreds of sports writers to listen to him, learn from him, and laugh with him along the road of this crazy business we called newspapers. He took his craft seriously and was damned good at it. A lot of us are better writers and reporters today because our paths crossed with Bill Brll. We are going to miss him,” wrote Tony Barnhart of CBS Sports.