Category Archives: Sherman Spotlight

Minister Lundquist? After 50 years, announcing still is Verne Lundquist’s ‘calling’

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Here’s the link to my USA Today piece on Verne Lundquist. The great CBS announcer recently celebrated his 50th year in the business.

However, after he graduated college, he almost went into another business.

From the story:

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If Verne Lundquist had felt the calling, he might be beginning his 50th year as a minister.

After graduating from Texas Lutheran College in 1962 with a degree in sociology, he had planned to follow in the footsteps of his father. However, after six weeks at the Lutheran School of Theology in Rock Island, Ill., Lundquist realized he didn’t have the dedication or the calling.

“I have six (credit hours) in Greek, which hasn’t come in particularly handy,” Lundquist said.

While preparing for what figures to be a huge season opener for CBS — Alabama at Texas A&M on Sept. 14 — Lundquist, 73, reflected on his milestone anniversary.

“I know it is a cliché, but I can’t believe I’ve done 50 years,” Lundquist said. “I was thinking, ‘How could this have happened?'”

Lundquist inherited his father’s voice skills. He soon put them to use, landing a job at a radio station in his hometown of Austin. Aug. 31, 1963, Lundquist launched a career that has made him among the most popular and enduring broadcasters in the business.

He eventually became a sports anchor in Dallas. In the days before ESPN, he recalled, he was a one-man operation, shooting and editing his own film.

It was his Lundquist’s radio work on Dallas Cowboys games that attracted the attention of the networks. He started at ABC in 1974 and joined CBS in 1982. He is the network’s lead voice on college football and is a fixture on its NCAA basketball tournament coverage.

Lundquist has been part of the familiar soundtrack for both sports. His play-by-play features an easy and engaging style that adds a distinctive texture to the telecasts.

“My role model was Jim McKay,” Lundquist said. “He was the greatest storyteller we’ve ever had. I try to do the same thing.”

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There’s more in USA Today. Coming next week, I will have the complete interview with Lundquist.

Former Northwestern QB launches innovative new college football site; features former athletes writing about their schools

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C.J. Bacher threw for 7,319 yards and 43 touchdowns as a Northwestern quarterback from 2005-08. Good numbers, to be sure, but after getting cut by the Bears, Bacher put his Masters degree in communication into use.

Football, though, remains in his blood. Ultimately, it led him to his new enterprise, HuddlePass.com. The video provides an explanation.


Danny Ecker of Crain’s Chicago Business writes:

That’s the basis of HuddlePass.com, the 27-year-old’s college sports commentary website, which launches today and brings together the written insights and opinions of 92 former players (to start) into a single hub.

It’s free for users, and it’s different from popular “message board” sites like Scout.com and Rivals.com, which offer “insider” information about teams from week to week. “Huddle experts,” as they are called, will write articles that provide context to what coaches might be thinking, why teams ran certain plays and what players go through on a day-to-day basis.

Here’s more from Bacher in a Q/A.

Short version: How do you describe this concept to people who ask you about it?

HuddlePass is a platform for former college athletes to share their unique perspective with Fans and ultimately bring the Fans closer to their favorite programs. This perspective is focused on two things: providing a behind-the-scenes look at the day-to-day routine of the team and teaching the strategy of the game.

What made you go in this direction?

Over the past three years, I had been writing segment for Wildcat Report focusing on the same type of information (providing an insider’s perspective & teaching the game) and the segment generated a lot of interest from Wildcat Fans. I wasn’t doing anything special and I’m not an exceptional writer; I just focused on what I knew about the program and about the game and the reception of this information was better than expected. Fans want to be closer to the Huddles of their favorite teams.

Talk about some of the people who are contributing?

We’ve got a great group of contributors for HuddlePass in 2013. Kyle Kleckner (Illinois DB), Brandon Villarreal (Purdue OL), and Chris Malleo (Northwestern QB/TE/LB) have assembled a team with a strong emphasis on “diversity of perspective”, which our Chief Brand Officer TJ Jones (Northwestern WR) has stressed. Football is a completely different game for different positions and there is a lot to learn. I have found myself learning the game in more depth from some of our guys that played other positions, particularly DL and LBs. Some of the more notable Experts that will be contributing to HuddlePass include Eric Crouch, Craig Krenzel, Juice Williams, Zack Mills, Jeff Smoker, Stuart Schweigert, Bobby Carpenter, Brandon Williams, Tyrone Carter, Keith Conlin, Josh Gaines, Justin Kershaw, and many more. We were very selective in our choosing of Ambassadors from each school, who in turn put together their team of Experts. They have done a great job and our new Ambassadors that we are recruiting in our National Expansion efforts are doing a great job too.

Will they be getting paid. If not, why are they doing it?

First off, I want to mention that the site is completely free to Fans. 50% of all revenue that we generate will be split with our contributors based on the metrics their Huddles generate. Additionally, every Ambassador and Expert that is with us through 2013 will own an equity stake in HuddlePass. It’s really less about the money and more about improving the Fan experience and the Student-Athlete experience at our respective programs, but as Stuart Schweigert put it at our HuddlePass Conference that we held in Chicago in July, “Profit is not a bad word.”

How will your site be different than the myriad of other college football sites out there?

This is a great question. Most sites that are currently out there do a great job of telling Fans the “What.” Our focus is on the “Why”. Why did the Head Coach decide to punt on 4th and Inches? Why did the curl-flat combination work against Cover 3? Why did the team get off to a slow start? This is information that is covered well at the National Level by ESPN and covered at the Conference Level by the Conference Networks like BTN, but not really covered well at the Program-Level.

How would you define success for this site?

Success is defined by the enhancement of the Student-Athlete experience, which is a byproduct of the Fan experience. College Football is such a thrilling experience and it’s really the Fans that make it so great. The more engaged that we can get the Fans and the more knowledge that they have, the more thrilling the Student-Athlete experience will be.

Anything else?

Many people ask us when we will be expanding to other schools and if we are going to expand to other sports. We are currently expanding rapidly to other schools across the country utilizing the network that we have built. As soon as we have the correct infrastructure behind a Program’s Huddle (Ambassadors and Experts, Managing Content Editors, a solid Marketing/PR plan, Program Support, and much more), we will release that school on HuddlePass. We are probably a week or so away from releasing Maryland and Rutgers and we are getting close with other schools like Alabama, Oregon, Oregon State, Boston College, Georgia, and many others. As for other sports, we have begun the process of building out Basketball Huddles, which is going great, and we have plans on expanding to other sports from there.

 

 

Q/A with author on new book on Notre Dame’s 1988 national title team: Miami game was among best ever

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Whenever I get asked about my favorite game to cover, I always go back to Notre Dame-Miami in 1988. Of course, the famous “Catholics vs. Convicts” game.

I can’t remember ever attending a game that had a more electric atmosphere than at Notre Dame Stadium on that October Saturday. The game then lived up to its hype, with Miami’s missed two-point conversion at the end sealing the Irish’s 31-30 victory. The thrilling finish left everyone spent, not just the players.

It’s all recounted in a new book, Unbeatable, by Jerry Barca. Barca, who attended that game as an 11-year-old tells the complete story of Notre Dame’s 1988 national title team. It will serve as an early Christmas present for Irish fans.

As someone who covered most of its games that year, including Notre Dame’s win over West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl, it was a chance to relive some old memories.

It’s hard to believe 25 years have flown by. Here’s my Q/A with Barca.

How did this book come about?

I was helping produce the documentary film Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself when I met with literary agent Scott Gould. I was asking him if any of his clients had been influenced by Plimpton’s sports writing. As the conversation splintered into different tangents, I told him I was surprised no one had gone back and revisited Notre Dame’s 1988 national championship team. He didn’t believe it. At that point, the thought was that if I could gain access to the archives, and the former players and coaches, this idea could become a book. The next day, I was on the phone to the Notre Dame Sports Information Department and work began that day in late 2011.

How much time did you spend with Lou Holtz? What memories stood out for him after 25 years?

I spent about two and a half hours with him in New York City. Since there was a lot of source material on him, including two books he wrote, I wanted to know details about games from ’88, and specifically what it takes to win a championship at Notre Dame and how it was different than other places where he had coached.

There were a lot memories that stood out for him: visiting the Notre Dame dorms to talk to students; scrutinizing his quarterbacks in practice; the players who weren’t stars, but great character guys.

Among many others, two other memories stand out and they have to do with the No. 1-versus-No. 2 matchup to end the regular season at USC. I found it funny that both he and Tony Rice talk about Notre Dame’s first offensive play from scrimmage – a play action bomb to Raghib “Rocket” Ismail with Notre Dame backed up to its one-yard-line – and without prompting they both remember ABC play-by-play announcer Keith Jackson misstating that Rice had stepped out of the back of the end zone. The other memory was of Rice’s 65-yard touchdown run. Holtz actually ended up using my notebook to draw up the play. He specifically designed this reverse option to get a half step on the USC middle linebackers and spring Rice for a big play.

Besides Holtz, the other compelling character in the book was Tony Rice. What memories stood out for him?

He has a very detailed memory of how Lou Holtz coached him in practice and that Holtz did not even call him by his name until his junior year. Instead, Holtz called him Rickey, as in Rickey Foggy, an option quarterback out of South Carolina who played for Holtz at Minnesota.

I covered that Miami game, and it is in my top 3 for favorite events I attended. For those who weren’t there, what was the atmosphere like in Notre Dame Stadium?

The atmosphere, it wasn’t just the stadium. It was the campus. It was the months, weeks and days leading up to it. Ever since Miami put that 58-7 pasting on the Irish at the end of the ’85 season Notre Dame fans had the game in ’88 marked on the calendar because it would be the first time the ‘Canes would visit South Bend since that thrashing. It was really as if nothing else was going on in the world.

Loud is probably an understatement to describe the fans inside the stadium. They wanted the win so bad, maybe even more than the players, if that’s possible. I was in the corner of the student section in the 59th row of what was then a 60-row stadium. When Pat Terrell returned an interception for a TD to put the Irish up 21-7 I remember my older brother having to quickly grab me and move me out of the way as this mass of bodies piled on each other in celebration.

As a sporting event, it was the perfect combination of storylines. Miami was the elite program of the era and Notre Dame was resurgent. The revenge factor from ’85 played a role and of course the flashiness of Miami and its pro-style attack countered the veer-option run-first style of Notre Dame. But let’s be honest, the student-made bootleg T-shirt dubbing the game “Catholics vs. Convicts” took the game and the series to an unmatched, galvanizing level.

Besides what people already know about that team, what surprises did you learn while researching the book?

How much the hypocrisy of NCAA and the battles about big-time college football haven’t changed all that much. The particulars might be different, but the fights for TV rights, and, more pointedly, money, along with the questionable fulfillment of the “student-athlete” ideal were as ever-present then as they are now. 1988 provides a great snapshot in time just before the full-on explosion of college football that we have today.

Talk about the legacy of that team?

I think it gets overlooked. While talking to Notre Dame and college football historians during my research, they were quick to tell me, “You know, this wasn’t Notre Dame’s best team.” But people forget this is the group that started and accounts for more than half of the longest winning streak in school history. The ’88 roster had 34 guys who went on to sign NFL contracts. Then the gauntlet of teams they went through, beating the No. 1, 2, and 3 teams throughout the year, winning 10 of 12 games by a double-digit margin. That’s a pretty good legacy to leave.

As someone with close ties to Notre Dame, are you surprised they have gone 25 years without winning a national title?

In 1988, I think if somebody offered you a bet that it would take Notre Dame at least 25 years to win another national title, you’d think the person offering it was crazy. Back then, not winning another title for this long was inconceivable. But things changed and in the post-Holtz era it has taken a while for Notre Dame to find the right guy at the helm. It seems like now they have that type of a leader in Brian Kelly.

 

Major shift: Why several NFL beat writers left newspapers to join ESPN

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My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University is on one of the bigger sports journalism stories of the summer: ESPN hiring away several NFL beat writers from newspapers for its major initiative to cover all 32 teams.

From the post:

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There is an element of the big-fish-little-pond tale as it relates to Rob Demovsky. He lives and works in Green Bay, a town that happens to have a football team named the Packers.

Green Bay may be the smallest market by far in the NFL, but when it comes to the Packers, breathing ranks second on the importance meter. For more than 15 years, most of those fans woke up every morning to breathlessly read Demovsky’s reports on the team in the Green Bay Press Gazette.

It would be hard to ask for a better situation as a beat writer. Yet in July, Demovsky left the newspaper to become the Packers reporter for ESPN, a really big pond that has a staff almost large enough to fill Lambeau Field.

“I had a great job at the Press Gazette,” Demovsky said. “I always said it would take something extraordinary to change. This qualifies as extraordinary.”

Demovsky is part of one of the biggest developments occurring in sports journalism this summer. Seizing on the infinite popularity of the NFL, ESPN is going to have a dedicated reporter for each of the 32 teams. Their work mainly will appear on the NFL Nation page of ESPN.com, and they also will be featured on ESPN’s other TV and radio platforms.

“The expansion of NFL Nation represents one of ESPN Digital’s most ambitious projects in our continuing effort to provide the ultimate personalized experience for fans,” said ESPN.com Editor-in-Chief Patrick Stiegman.

ESPN’s staffing targets have been established beat writers from the city’s top newspapers. Besides Demovsky, Jeff Legwold (Denver Post), Mike Wells (Indianapolis Star), Ben Goessling (St. Paul Pioneer-Press), Adam Teicher (Kansas City Star), Scott Brown (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) and Phil Sheridan (Philadelphia Inquirer) are among the writers making the jump to ESPN.

Why? Legwold, who will cover the Denver Broncos for ESPN, explained his children (ages 10 and 12) influenced his decision on two key levels.

“I saw their reading habits,” Legwold said. “They read tons of books, but not actual books. They always are on their devices. It’s not like how we did it.”

And that brings up reason No. 2 for Legwold. He is worried about the future of newspapers, and with good reason. He was part of the staff when the Rocky Mountain News folded in 2009.

“That definitely affected me,” Legwold said. “I love newspapers. It’s been my whole adult life. If a newspaper that good closed, it really is a testament to what’s going on within the industry. I had to think of my family. When I was offered the ESPN job, it really was an easy decision.”

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And there’s more at NSJC.

 

Dan Hicks expects scrutiny as new voice of Notre Dame for NBC

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My latest Chicago Tribune column is on Dan Hicks, who assumes the full-time play-by-play role for NBC’s telecasts of Notre Dame games this fall. You also can access the column here via my Twitter feed.

From the column:

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Dan Hicks knows he will be subjected to intense scrutiny as NBC’s new play-by-play voice for Notre Dame football.

And that will be from within his own home.

His wife, ESPN’s Hannah Storm, and members of her family are avid Notre Dame alums.

“Her dad, Mike Storen, (a one-time ABA commissioner) watches every second of every game,” Hicks said. “I’ve got to make sure I keep the family happy before I worry about everyone else.”

Hicks, though, likely will hear from everyone else at some point, starting with Notre Dame’s season opener Saturday against Temple (WMAQ-Ch. 5, 2:30 p.m.).

While he has done fill-in work on three Irish games previously, he assumes the full-time duties this year, taking over for Tom Hammond, 68, who said his leaving the broadcast was a mutual decision and that he wanted to cut back on his NBC duties.

Hicks walks into a rare position for a broadcaster. He will be doing a national telecast focused on one team. Earlier this year, NBC extended its contract to air Notre Dame home games through 2025.

“You know you’re going to be watched closely,” Hicks said. “People are going to say, ‘Who is this Dan Hicks and why is he covering our team now?’ The sensitivity level of Notre Dame people runs high.”

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The dynamic will have Hicks being accused of being pro-Notre Dame from viewers outside of the school and anti-Notre Dame from Irish fans who will bristle at any criticism of the school. Such are the love-’em, hate-’em passions that surround the Irish.

Hicks knows the drill. He insists he is going to do a down-the-middle, objective broadcast. To wit, he plans to detail Notre Dame’s rocky off-season during the opener.

“We have a responsibility to tell people what happened,” Hicks said. “It hasn’t been a fantasy world here since the (BCS title game against Alabama). We can’t ignore those things. … I am going to try to do a fair job of putting the school and the game in perspective.”

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And there’s more on Hicks and a look at the first big weekend of college football in the column.

 

Olbermann’s first show: Did he really spend first 13 minutes on Jets? Did Whitlock really praise Deadspin on ESPN?

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Please somebody wake me up.

I’m having a dream that Keith Olbermann spent the first 13 minutes of his new show on the New York Jets. And that his rant included the takedown of a New York Daily News sports reporter who dared to suggest the coach could get fired after his No. 1 (or 2) QB got hurt in the final quarter of a meaningless preseason game.

And then, and this is where my dream really got bad, I saw Jason Whitlock with Olbermann, and Whitlock is praising Deadspin, which has made a name for itself by assaulting ESPN.

I figure Rick Reilly, and probably countless other ESPN staffers, didn’t see the rest of Olbermann’s show, because they destroyed their TVs after hearing Whitlock’s comment.

But of course, it didn’t happen because it was just a dream, right?

Oh my goodness.

I mean, really 13 minutes on the Jets? This is what happens when you live in New York and do a show from New York. The problem is, nobody outside of Manhattan besides Mike Greenberg cares about the Jets. We have had enough with that goofy franchise and its goofy coach.

Would Olbermann have gone on the same rant if a similar situation had occurred with the Jacksonville Jaguars? How about if Cam Newton got hurt in the fourth quarter of a Carolina preseason game he had no business playing in? Would that have warranted 13 minutes? You know the answer.

Then Olbermann extended his target to Manish Mehta, the Jets beat writer for the New York Daily News. He jumped all over Mehta for daring to suggest that Rex Ryan could get fired as a result of his bonehead decision. Was that really such a stretch for a coach who probably will get canned sooner than later?

“Reporting is dead,” Olbermann said. “Long live making something out of nothing.”

What? Are you kidding me? Keith, have you seen what your old/new network is pumping out these days? It’s all about making something out of nothing.

Also, to say Mehta and the New York Daily News represents all of sports newspaper journalism is ludicrous. And a reminder, Keith: Your new/old network currently is hiring reporters to staff all 32 NFL teams. The majority of those new hires are newspaper beat reporters. So by extension, you just insulted your new teammates at ESPN.com.

And speaking of sports journalism, Dave Zirin of Edge on Sports asks in a tweet:

How does @ESPNOlbermann not do a full segment on NFL/PBS/Frontline doc this week? Keith was made to cover this story.

Indeed, remember what they say about glass houses, or in your case, big glass picture windows overlooking Times Square.

The Whitlock segment went off the rails when he praised Deadspin. “We need somebody to watch the watchdogs,” he said.

OK, thankfully I didn’t destroy my television.

As for the rest of the show, I thought Olbermann had a good interview with Mark Cuban and I enjoyed his Worst Person in Sports segment. And nobody does sports highlights like Olbermann. Obviously, there’s plenty of potential for a compelling program.

However, I never make it to those segments if I wasn’t reviewing the show. I would have tuned out two minutes into that Jets stuff. And I have to think a significant number of viewers did.

As I have written previously, I am a big fan of Olbermann and have high hopes for the new show. So I’ll admit I was disappointed in show No. 1, especially the first half.

I’ll tune in again with the hope that Olbermann reports on the sports world beyond the Hudson River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will conservatives tune out Olbermann’s new ESPN2 show? He says ‘sports transcend politics’

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Olbermann makes its big debut tonight at 11 p.m. ET following ESPN2’s coverage of the U.S. Open. However, not everyone is pleased about Keith’s return to ESPN.

I received this note from a reader named Joe:

Very simply, when the visage of Olbermann appears anytime on my TV screen, I will instantly change the channel. I know many people who will do the same. Good move, ESPN.

I understand how Joe feels. When Rush Limbaugh was featured on The Haney Project a few years back, I couldn’t separate his politics from the golf. As much as I like the show, I only was able to watch a few minutes before pretty much bailing on the entire series. Frankly, I didn’t want Rush to get good at golf.

So while I am a big fan of Olbermann and his immense talents, it also helps that I agreed with his political views on MSNBC and Current. But as reader Joe suggests, many people, namely conservatives, don’t feel the same way.

Since that faction makes up roughly 50 percent of the country, I wonder if those viewers will continue to tune out Olbermann even though he insists he won’t be talking about politics on his new show. The potential of losing half of a viewer base doesn’t matter to MSNBC or Fox News, but it is a big deal for ESPN.

During a recent teleconference, I asked Olbermann if he was concerned about losing viewers due to his polarizing views from his previous stops.

Olbermann began with a long, “Uhhhhhhh….” Then he launched into a three-minute answer.

Not worried: “I don’t have any particular worry about that. You have to remember long before I had done my first newscast, let alone my first political broadcast, there were people who wouldn’t tune in to watch me because of my attitude about sports.

“People do not not notice what I’m doing in television. It’s probably my greatest sell-able asset. So the nature of why people would not watch will change from time to time. It might be my political orientation one time or whether or not I’m wearing a mustache. In local news, I once had a guy threaten to cut out my tongue because I said something bad about the Dodgers.

WAR talk with Ari: “There are various different reasons why people won’t watch. I will say this. During most of my spare time away from sports, I hung out at the ballpark. My guess would be 5 percent or less of everyone connected with baseball would not be described as a conservative. I never had a problem with a ballplayer.

“I’ve had long, warm conversations about baseball with Ari Fleischer. He sat behind me at a Yankees game and we talked for nine innings. If you would have told me in my previous incarnation, that would have happened, I would not have believed it.

Sports trumps all: “One thing about sports, it does transcend politics. It is the place where you can go to heal those wounds politics inflicts every day.

“If I could guarantee 100 percent of the audience, I probably could get some more money. If you have a different political point of view than the one I’ve expressed during the last few years, you probably should be happy I’m not doing politics anymore. So there’s also that.”

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As I said, I’m an Olbermann fan. Even with all the programming being launched by the new Fox Sports 1, I think Olbermann’s show has the most potential of all of them. On the surface, it was a brilliant counter-move by ESPN president John Skipper.

However, as we all know in politics, people hold grudges. If those people tune out, it could impact the show’s prospects.

Please let me know how you feel. Will you be able to separate Sports Keith from Political Keith?

 

 

 

 

 

Noble mission: Props to Jason Whitlock for new ESPN site that will provide opportunities to African-American sportswriters

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Finally caught up with Bill Simmons’ podcast with Jason Whitlock last week. Aside from the incredible reversal in Whitlock’s view of ESPN (Disney park theme music should have been included in this love fest), the reports of what he will be doing have been underplayed.

Whitlock actually is embarking on a noble mission. He will be assisting in the launch and will be the featured columnist in a new ESPN website that will be aimed at minority sports fans.  He referred to the site as “a Black Grantland,” which generated some headlines. But there’s more at play here.

“I want to try to engage all sports fans, particularly minority sports fans, in a conversation about sports,” Whitlock said in the podcast.

Now here’s the kicker: the site will be looking to hire and develop young African-American sportswriters. It’s hardly news that the profession has a dramatic shortage there.

Evan F. Moore wrote a compelling piece about the issue this week at ChicagoSide:

(When) I go to media events around town, I can’t help but notice that I am one of the few African-Americans I see. For example, I went to the media reception at the Cubs Convention earlier this year, and the only African-Americans I saw in attendance were myself and WCIU’s Kenny McReynolds. A couple of months later, I went to a similar media reception for Sox Fest. Laurence Holmes, Micheal Mayden, Ryan Baker and yours truly were the only black media professionals I came across.

I’ve always wondered why there was such as discrepancy between the number of black sportswriters and the number of black athletes. Even though two other African-Americans have contributed to ChicagoSide in the past, I’m the only one who contributes on a regular basis. Come to think of it, I’m one of the few African-American sportswriters at the other websites where I write. I don’t blame the publications, It’s just something I notice. I appreciate those sites for allowing me to add my own ingredients to the mix.

During the podcast, Whitlock talks about the impact Ralph Wiley had on his career as a mentor. Now he wants to do the same for other upcoming African-American journalists.

“I think there are talented, young African-American journalists out there,” Whitlock said. “I just don’t think they have been mentored properly. That falls on people like me, who have had some success, to take it upon ourselves to do that. At the end of the day, we can do better. I hope this website will change some of that.”

ESPN president John Skipper addressed the new site during media day in Bristol Wednesday.

“We have lots and lots of African-American talent at ESPN.com, but we don’t have a place where it’s an African-American-themed, or centric, site, where that conversation can take place…We’re going to do a talent search. We’re going to do what espnW did in identifying female reporters. Jason is going to help us look for new, young African-American sportswriters.”

I have had some issues with Whitlock, and we even had a Twitter spat earlier this year. So he likely will be surprised to see some praise coming from me.

However, any initiative that looks to provide opportunities and help diversify press boxes and newsrooms ranks high with me, and I’m sure others in the profession.

Skipper said the site still is in the planning stages. He added, “It won’t be titled ‘The Black Grantland.'”

How about “Wiley?” Sounds good to me.

 

 

 

 

 

My Golf World story: How several journeyman pros are major presence for Golf Channel

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It’s always a thrill to have a story in Golf World. Great editors and writers. I only hope I was able to live up to their high standards.

During the spring, I spent two days at the Golf Channel in Orlando, visiting and observing their analysts, many of whom have become bigger stars on TV than from their playing days on the golf course. Here is a link to the piece that appears in this week’s issue.

From the story:

For the most part, these golf analyst jobs are being filled by former players such as Isenhour and others who don’t have the cachet of having Hall of Fame résumés as players. They are, for lack of a better phrase, journeymen pros, who now are viewed as experts when it comes to dissecting the work of Tiger, Phil and Rory.

Besides (Tripp) Isenhour, who never won on the PGA Tour, Golf Channel’s roster of studio analysts includes Brandel Chamblee, Frank Nobilo, Charlie Rymer, Steve Flesch and Notah Begay. John Maginnes has emerged as a major presence for PGA Tour Radio. Combined number of major-championships victories: zero.

Compare that to the group of studio analysts for the NFL Network: Hall of Famers Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Michael Irvin, Warren Sapp (who will inducted this year), and a likely for future enshrinee, Kurt Warner. Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson do high-profile studio work in basketball; Terry Bradshaw, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, became an even bigger star during his years on Fox NFL Sunday.

The difference, of course, is that professional golf is the only sport in which the top stars seem to play forever. While a football player’s career is done by his early-to mid-30s if he is lucky to last that long, elite golfers play well into their 40s on the PGA Tour and then make a seamless transition to the Champions Tour in their 50s.

As a result, the roster of available big-name talent for TV is much slimmer, if non-existent for Molly Solomon, Golf Channel’s executive producer. “It’s difficult because golfers never want to quit,” Solomon says. “Once they get to 50, another door opens for them. It’s hard to get them to commit to TV. Why would you want to work for a living?”

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And there’s this from Rymer:

“I’m not going to make statements I’m not qualified tomake,” he says. “I’m not going to try to get inside a major champion’s head. I will talk about how I would feel if I was in that situation. I try to be really honest about that. I understand my place in the game. I don’t want to walk in a locker room and have Tiger Woods say, ‘Why did you talk about that. You never did that.’ ”

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And there’s plenty more. Please check it out.

 

 

 

New HBO documentary: ‘Glickman’ finally places legendary announcer in national spotlight

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My latest National Sports Journalism Center column is on Glickman, the upcoming HBO documentary on Marty Glickman. I had a chance to talk to the film’s producer, James Freedman, who worked for Glickman when he was 17.

For those of you who never heard of his story and his obstacles with Anti-Semitism, read on. And I highly recommend you watch this film.

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When I was coming up as a sports journalist in Chicago during the 80s, I only had a vague notion of Marty Glickman. I always had heard he was an iconic, trend-setting pioneer in sports broadcasting.

Yet in the days before cable and satellite radio, I had no real idea of why New Yorkers held him in the same reverence as they do in Los Angeles for Vin Scully, or why he was considered one of the most influential announcers ever to sit behind a mic.

A new documentary, Glickman (HBO, Monday, 9 p.m. ET), provides the answers. The film’s producer, James L. Freedman, who was a producer on Glickman’s WNEW radio show when he only was 17, wanted to give a true legend the national exposure his life deserved.

“When I moved to the West Coast, I was stunned nobody ever heard of him,” Freedman said. “If you grew up in New England during the latter part of the 20th Century, he was part of the soundtrack of your life. His story was so remarkable, I want people to learn about Marty Glickman from this film.”

Indeed, Glickman lived a truly incredible life. He gained notoriety first as an athlete. He was an accomplished sprinter, earning a spot on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team, and a star football player at Syracuse. None other than Jim Brown, a pretty fair running back Syracuse, praised his play for the Orangeman in the film.

Glickman eventually went into broadcasting. He basically invented the play-by-play template for basketball with his work on college games and the Knicks. He also was a memorable radio voice for the New York Giants and later the Jets. Along the way, his style and hands-on mentoring had a direct and profound impact on Marv Albert, Bob Costas, Mike Breen, Charlie Steiner and countless others.

However, Glickman had to overcome several obstacles due to Anti-Semitism.  He and fellow Jewish sprinter, Sam Stoller, were knocked of the 400-meter relay team during Adolf Hitler’s Games in Berlin. While it never was stated, it is clear top U.S. officials didn’t want to offend the dictator with the possibility of Jews winning a gold medal.

Later when the NBA signed a national TV contract with NBC in the early 60s, a deal Glickman helped arrange, he was passed over to be the lead voice. Again, it seems likely that being Glickman being Jewish was a factor in the decision.

Yet the film shows that Glickman didn’t let Anti-Semitism suffocate him. Instead, he marched on.

“To me, the heart of the film is what happens to an 18-year-old when he faces racism?” Freedman said. “Not only did he not allow it to beat him, he used sports as a vehicle to transcend all the racism he faced.”

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And there’s more in the entire post at NSJC.