COLUMBUS, Ohio — Bill Davidge, who helped establish Division I hockey at Miami University and later became the program’s second coach, and then had a second career as a longtime TV and radio analyst with the Columbus Blue Jackets, died on Tuesday. He was 72.His son, Rob, confirmed his passing to The Athletic.Davidge, one of the Blue Jackets’ earliest employees, was a pro and amateur scout for the club in the late 1990s as Columbus prepared to enter the NHL as an expansion franchise in 2000. He then switched to the broadcast booth, where he was ever-present on the airwaves, both locally and nationally.Along with his radio sidekick George Matthews, the Blue Jackets’ first play-by-play voice, Davidge reached near folk-hero status with fans in Columbus.His perfectly coiffed white hair, power suits and infectious energy were ever-present — earning him the nickname “Dapper” — as were his homespun tails of life growing up in Dunnville, Ontario, a tiny village of 6,000 on the north shore of Lake Erie. In Dunnville, Davidge created his own Lake Wobegon.Matthews, in a text exchange on Wednesday morning with The Athletic, said “nobody breathed the Blue Jackets’ brand more than Billy.”“Nobody enjoyed their time on this Earth more than Billy D,” Matthews wrote. “He lived each day tip to tip. He made the world a more enjoyable place, and he’ll be sadly missed by anyone whose life he touched.”Davidge’s positive attitude, even as he battled cancer and the effects of a stroke in recent years, never seemed to fade. “Any day at the rink,” he used to say, with a big smile, “is a heck of a day, ain’t it?”“Bill was a true ambassador, not just for the Blue Jackets but for the game of hockey throughout Ohio,” said Dave Maetzold, who worked side-by-side with Davidge on Blue Jackets TV broadcasts through the years. “He was always positive, always prepared, and, of course, always impeccably dressed. He set the standard for the broadcast.