Longtime Boston sports writer Dave O’Hara has died at the age of 86.

According to a report from the Associated Press, O’Hara died of cancer at his home in Winter Haven, Florida.

O’Hara spent 50 years writing for the Associated Press. Much of that career was spent in Boston, where he covered sports, including the Celtics, the Red Sox (including the infamous ‘Buckner’s folly’ incident during the 1986 World Series), Ted Williams, and Larry Bird.

According to the AP, O’Hara began his career in 1942 as a copy boy in the AP’s Boston bureau. He was 15 at the time. Aside from his time in the Korean War and a short stint covering Milwaukee sports in the early 60s, O’Hara covered Boston sports and became the AP’s New England sports editor in 1965. O’Hara retired in 1992