LOS ANGELES -- Longtime Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn fell in his home and was hospitalized in critical condition Friday night.

The 85-year-old Hearn had bleeding in the skull, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Firefighters rushed to Hearn's San Fernando Valley home shortly before 8 p.m. after neighbors saw him fall, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said. The broadcaster's wife of 42 years, Marge Hearn, was at the hospital with him, he added.

"We were summoned by a neighbor's 911 call and arrived quickly to discover Hearn to have sustained a serious head injury,'' Humphrey said.

Northridge Hospital Medical Center spokeswoman Kate Preston said Hearn was in critical condition late Friday and surgery was scheduled. She declined to release further details saying another announcement would be made later Saturday.

Hearn, who called a record 3,338 consecutive Los Angeles Lakers games over 36 years, saw his streak end last season when he had to undergo heart surgery to repair a blocked aortic valve. He had a further setback when he fell during rehabilitation and suffered a broken hip.

Still, he was able to return to the Lakers in time to broadcast the team's run through the playoffs to its third consecutive NBA championship.

During his 42 seasons with the Lakers, his unique ``words-eye view'' has provided the soundtrack for nine NBA championships -- one with Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain in the 1970s, five with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1980s, and the last three with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.

Hearn is credited with adding to the NBA lexicon such signature phrases as "slam dunk'' and "air ball.''