ST. LOUIS (AP) - Jack Snow could always be counted on to make big receptions for the Los Angeles Rams. Over the middle, down the sideline or in the open field, Snow simply had a knack for catching the football.

``Jack had the greatest hands in that time period,'' Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones said. ``You won't talk about his speed, but his speed was deceiving. He would catch that slant pattern over the middle and I've seen him outrun some guys that we THOUGHT were fast.''

Snow, a star wide receiver for the Rams from 1965-75 and a longtime team broadcaster, died Monday night, the club said. He was 62.

Snow had been hospitalized on and off for the past two months with a blood-borne staph infection. His family was with him when he died at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, said Duane Lewis, a team spokesman.

``He was a great teammate, one of the hardest-working guys that I played with,'' Jones said. ``A terrible loss, a terrible shocker. Jack was a young man.''

Snow, the father of Gold Glove first baseman J.T. Snow, was an analyst on the Rams' radio broadcasts, moving to St. Louis with the team 10 years ago. His last game in the booth was Nov. 20 during the Rams' home loss to Arizona.

Snow was selected to the Pro Bowl in 1967 and still ranks among the team leaders in several receiving categories. He had 340 receptions for 6,012 yards - a 17.7-yard average - and 45 touchdowns in 150 career regular-season games for the Rams. In 1967, he averaged 26.3 yards on 28 receptions and scored eight TDs.

``The guy ran the best patterns of any receiver during our period,'' Jones said. ``He was one of the few guys we had that would go across the middle and catch that football. He was tough - tough as nails.''

After an All-America career at Notre Dame, Snow was drafted eighth overall by the Minnesota Vikings in 1965 but soon traded to Los Angeles, where he spent his entire 11-year NFL career.

``This is a very sad time for all of us,'' Rams owner Georgia Frontiere said. ``Jack was a special part of the Rams' family for many years. It's very painful when a loved one is taken from us, but fortunately we are left with so many exciting and beautiful memories that we shared with Jack on and off the field.''

In addition to Snow's broadcast duties, he helped out during practice, voluntarily.

``Jack was a true professional,'' said Lawrence McCutcheon, the Rams' director of player personnel, who played with Snow from 1972-75.

``When I came in he had been in the league four or five years. He was well-established, a great route runner, very dedicated to the game with outstanding hands, and he had the ability to relate to younger players and help them adapt to professional life. He was a great, great man.''

McCutcheon, a five-time Pro Bowl running back, said he and Snow stayed in almost constant contact - even after their playing days ended.

``Jack, all the time I knew him, was a pretty healthy guy,'' McCutcheon said. ``To see him have to struggle with this type of thing was gut-wrenching.

``I think Jack had a sense of humor. I've always thought of him as a no-nonsense guy who took life by the horns. He enjoyed life, enjoyed his kids and was very proud of them. It's a sad day for everybody who knew him.''

Before he fell ill, Snow often helped the Rams' receivers during practice.

``He always had great words to say about you as a player and person,'' star wideout Torry Holt said. ``I used to go by his office and see him getting ready for game day.

``He always had things we needed to do to win.''

Rams internal medicine physician Douglas Pogue said last week that Snow's staph infection originated as a sinus infection, then entered the bloodstream and infected an artificial hip joint. His staph infection was not the kind that is resistant to first-line antibiotics, like the one several Rams players suffered three years ago, Pogue said.

In a widely publicized health episode reported last February, five Rams players who had suffered turf burns in 2003 developed a type of staph infection that is resistant to a common antibiotic known as methicillin.

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine said a few members of the San Francisco 49ers developed infections after playing the Rams early that season.

Last week, Joe Vitt, who served as the Rams' interim coach for the last 11 games of the season, checked into a hospital for treatment of a lingering strep infection on his hand. It was initially mischaracterized as a staph infection.

Ousted Rams coach Mike Martz was treated this past fall for endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart valve. Pogue said the infection most likely was strep infection from the teeth or sinitis, and ``was definitely not staph.''

Snow is survived by three children, J.T., Michelle and Stephanie.

Funeral services will be held at St. Joseph's Shrine in St. Louis at 11 a.m. Saturday. In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

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AP Sports Writer Mike Fitzpatrick in New York and AP reporter Cheryl Wittenauer in St. Louis contributed to this report.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.