Radio host, charity giant, Pembroke Pines resident John ‘Footy’ Kross dies
South Florida radio personality, nonprofit leader and longtime Pembroke Pines resident John “Footy” Kross has died, according to the charity he spearheaded.
Kross, 77, first shot to fame in the 1970s as a DJ and talk show host for Miami’s Y-100 radio station, where he’d retire from in 2006. His on-air moniker — hailing back to his early days as the station’s sports reporter, when he went by “Athlete’s Foot” — was the name behind his annual charity concert in Hollywood, “Footy’s Wing Ding.”
“John generously used his voice, influence, and passion to raise awareness and funds for those we serve, leaving an enduring impact on our programs, our community, and countless lives,” the nonprofit he led, Here’s Help, said in a Dec. 13 statement announcing his death. “His commitment to service, advocacy, and compassion will never be forgotten.”
A cause of death has not been released as of Dec. 15.
The Y-100 DJ started his career at the Opa-locka-based addiction treatment center — which offers residential, outpatient and in-home therapies for those ages 13 and older — when it opened in 1969 and remained its CEO for 50 years.
Even after a 30-year stint in radio, his loyalties stayed with the charity.
“I always knew I would continue on at Here’s Help,” Kross told the Miami Herald, the Pembroke Pines News’ sister publication, in 2010. “That’s my first world, my main focus.”
Kross was also a staunch Pembroke Pines resident, residing in the city for over 40 years and forming close friendships with its former mayor, Frank C. Ortis, and his wife Barbara Parlavecchio Ortis, who has served on Here’s Help’s board for 27 years.
When Ortis presented Kross with a key to the city in 2023, the former mayor choked up while honoring the radio host “for his years of service and dedication in helping those who are struggling with substance abuse,” adding that Kross’ own struggle with drug use in his late teens helped him “understand the trails and the challenges of those who are addicted.”
“Best thing I ever did in my life, and I did a lot of things, was move to Pembroke Pines,” Kross told the audience at the June 21, 2023, ceremony at City Hall. “I came back in ‘69, ‘70, and never left.”
He added that the “comfortable feeling” he got from living in the city was owed to its “special people, great schools, great ballfields I spent [time] with my two sons” and clarified the first Footy’s Wing Ding — mistakenly believed to be held in Hollywood — was hosted at a shopping center off University Drive and Pines Boulevard.
“Thank you, Pembroke Pines, for letting me live here and I’m going to continue on and on and on,” he said.
Take a look back at Footy’s decades-long career in pictures:
