Ed Goren has encountered many memorable characters during his 46 years in television. One, though, always has stood out: Dimetrios Georgios Synodinos, aka Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder.

During an interview for my recent Q/A with the longtime CBS and Fox Sports producer, Goren told a long story about The Greek. It was Goren and cohort Mike Pearl who set the wheels in motion for The Greek reinforcing his legend on CBS’ NFL Today.

Goren’s tales were so good; I figured The Greek deserved his own post. Here’s Goren recalling the man and the $10,000 debt he never collected:

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First meetings: I was at CBS News doing the sports element of the daily affiliate feed (in the early 70s). I had an idea for this guy, Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder. I thought maybe we could do something with him.

Back then, whenever there was a big sporting event, two people always called The Greek. One was Dave Anderson of The New York Times. And the other was my father, Herb Goren. He wrote Phil Rizzuto’s radio show on CBS. And if it involved politics, Jack Anderson would call him.

We went down to meet him at the Super Bowl. He had a 24-hour suite going at his hotel. There was an open bar, and everyone was there. Politicians, major executives, you name it. If you asked what his business was, he’d say he was a corporate PR guy. He really was a ‘hang guy.’ He’d go with executives to the race track. They’d say, ‘I was with The Greek.’ There are entertainment groupies, sports groupies. Those executives were Greek groupies.

What I had in mind is that Greek would do a two-minute segment that we could sell to the local stations. We couldn’t get one station to sign up. I mean, we couldn’t sell fish to hungry seals.

Months go by, and he calls us and says, ‘I’ve got a show for you.’ We tried a radio show. Pearl would go on the road with him. He’d beg him: ‘Could you find 15 minutes to do the show?’ He always was doing something else.

Take three with the Greek. He calls me and says, ‘I’ve got a great deal for us. We’re going to do a movie about a casino in Vegas.’ We’re shooting the 2nd World Series of Poker. There may have been one table. Those guys wouldn’t even let us film them. They’re thinking the IRS is going to get hold of this.

We make the film and Pearl goes to Vegas with the Greek to get the 10 grand (their fee), which was a lot of money back then. Pearl calls me and says, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news. They paid us 10 grand in cash.’ I said, ‘What’s the bad news?’ Pearl said, ‘Greek just bet it on the Gator Bowl.’ Sure enough, he loses the bet. The brilliance of Pearl and Goren, we never asked him for the money. He went to his grave owing us 10 grand.

On NFL Today: Because there’s no betting on football in this country according to the NFL, he wasn’t allowed to pick games against the spread. He had a big board and he would do check marks. He would pick who was going to win, which is a lot easier than picking against the spread.

If he had to pick against the spread, he probably would have been right 40 percent of the time. It would have blown the credibility of the segment. All in all, it was a wonderful scam we were forced into.

The people loved Greek. When I’d walk through an airport with him, I’d always fall back to see what the reaction was. He was bigger than life.

On the ending following his statements about black athletes: He didn’t have a racist bone in his body. It was played out like he was a racist bigot, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. He rounded up all these people to try to defend him. He even had Jesse Jackson. It didn’t matter. They fired him. I’m convinced he went to his grave not knowing what he did wrong.

A last word: He was something out of Guys & Dolls. He even dressed the part with that gold chain. If central casting was going to audition somebody to play a Vegas bookmaker, he would have gotten the role immediately. There never will be another like him.