Weeks after Bob Norman perhaps fatally exposed Broward School Board Chair Jennifer Gottlieb's very poor judgment in devastating detail in his must-read Daily Pulp blog at the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes, the reporters, columnists and editors of the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, as well as the various so-called "Business Journals" and TV news operations in Miami are STILL consciously ignoring that unflattering story about a powerful person because... well, they can.
BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
Daily Pulp blog
Emails Reveal School Board Chairwoman Romanced Schools' Banker
By Bob Norman, Fri., Jul. 2 2010 @ 8:48AM -
She was a second-year elected school board member at a political conference in Tampa, getting quite literally wined and dined by high-rolling bankers at Citigroup, enjoying the "luxury" of a night out in a town that didn't know who she was.
He was one of those bankers, working the deals behind what has become $2 billion in Broward School Board debt. Both were married with young children.
And after meeting and flirting at an all-you-can-eat lobster and steak dinner put on by Citigroup for elected officials at The Palm restaurant in Tampa, romance blossomed between current Broward County School Board Chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb and Citigroup finance manager Rick Patterson.
Read the rest of the post at: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/07/school_board_chairwoman_jennifer_gottlieb.php
That post from July 2nd currently has 499 comments as of 4 p.m. today, which shows that despite the local MSM's attempt to bury this story, people who actually pay attention to what's going on in the community, regardless of their opinion, are talking about it, anyway.
This foolish attempt to bury the story only makes the old traditional media in South Florida seem more irrelevant and ridiculous than ever, and it's not like they are that relevant anymore to begin with, since there are clearly many reporters on local Miami TV who ought to be in smaller TV markets, but are here, warts and all.
(That will be a topic of future posts.)
And seriously, when was the last time you read a lengthy and well-written story in the Herald about the goings-on at local Miami TV news operations the way that once was fairly common in the 1970's and '80's?
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and things are exactly what they seem, and in this case, there clearly seems to be a conspiracy of silence among the South Florida news media and chattering class about the personal and professional behavior of Jennifer Gottlieb.
But then as we are constantly at pains to remind ourselves, this is South Florida, an outlier more often than not in the best of times when journalism is either hard-hitting or popular, and this is hardly the first time since my family moved here in 1968 that a perfectly valid and compelling news story was ignored by the then-extant MSM on account of... well, whatever the popular excuse offered up at the time at One Herald Plaza or over at the old Channel 4 studio in downtown Miami was.
Usually, when pressed, the answer was always "lack of column inches" in the newspaper or available time on a newscast.
Try to imagine a current local TV anchor publicly going after a local pol like Demetrio Perez Jr. the way that anchor/news director Ralph Renick does here in 1982?
It's inconceivable in the current era of sycophancy, and our great loss.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyuJGHrjbRY
1982 Ralph Renick editorial on WTVJ on political efforts in Miami to prevent Scarface from being filmed in Miami due to concerns of negative portrayal of Miami and its Cuban-American population.
The local TV and print reporters whom we've grown accustomed to seeing report regularly on the latest education funding/scandal/crisis/antics involving School Board Superintendents Alberto Carvalho in Miami-Dade and James Notter in Broward, overwhelmingly female reporters, are quite simply, NOT doing their job by ignoring this story.
They've collectively taken a pass on mentioning something embarrassing about an elected official in Broward County that should be of great concern to every Broward County taxpayer, especially those with children in the public school system.
Why?
And is part of the reason that there is such great reluctance among South Florida's news media to face this issue head-on precisely because the person involved is female? As I've stated previously in writing about other neglected education issues, I personally think the answer is YES.
There is a palpable dis-connect and obvious sense of hypocrisy among South Florida's news media in how they report on the foibles and legal problems of male and female elected officials, so it should hardly be surprising that once again, they just swallow their hypocrisy whole because this case involves a female.
If this had involved a male School Board chair, though, we all know that this same story would've made the front page of the Miami Herald, albeit, with lots of quotes from supportive friends
and work colleagues.
My own experience in corporate life from working with large nationally-known law firms on big cases, as well as from being involved at a high level in presidential political campaigns, plus my own personal relationships with people in South Florida, Chicago and Washington, D.C., is that people who have particularly bad habits tend to have those traits throughout the day, regardless of whether they are at home or not.
There's no OFF switch they hit.
People who are consistently NOT punctual, NOT properly prepared and who are generally untrustworthy, who can't keep a confidential secret about a client from others, tend NOT to be able to do the exact opposite when they are away from the office.
I've personally gotten lots of very smart and talented people re-assigned or fired from firms or political campaigns because of the above issues, and I had no qualms in doing so because I've found that personal recklessness almost always reveals itself at the worst possible time.
Just like a film director, I need to know that people around me on a project or campaign are on top of things and focused on the matter at hand, not worrying about extraneous matters, esp. involving romance.
If you see people consistently making poor decisions and exhibit carelessness in their job, are you really supposed to believe that their judgment is any sounder and grounded when you don't see them?
That said, this personal issue Bob Norman writes about so thoroughly doesn't make Jennifer Gottlieb a bad person, just human.
But it does indicate to me that she should be somewhere else, and NOT making important decisions.
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=Jennifer+Gottlieb&x=0&y=0
Because Jennifer Gottlieb is running for re-election as an At-Large Broward School Board candidate, every registered voter in Broward County can and should vote against her and give her the time she clearly needs to get her personal life together, however that shakes out.
Having said that, on Saturday afternoon at the Hallandale Beach Parks Master Plan meeting, while I was setting up my camera tripod in the back of the A1A Community Center, I saw her husband Ken, the former State Rep. who's running for Circuit Court Judge.
I felt both sorry for him but also very uncomfortable, since he doesn't know whether or not people he runs into have read the story Norman wrote, which in my opinion was extremely fair.
Two years ago, I voted for Tim Ryan for State Senate to succeed Steve Geller when Ryan, Gottlieb and Eleanor Sobel ran for the seat that Sobel eventually won after a VERY NASTY primary race that left a very bad taste in Southeast Broward voters mouths, due to the influence of secretive groups affiliated with Sobel that ran untruthful TV attack ads and mail that savaged both Gottlieb and Ryan.
(Ryan later took Sobel to court about the groups' efforts, but after an initial flurry of stories about the trial, the press coverage completely disappeared. Shocker!
That's the current state of South Florida journalism in a nutshell: here one minute, gone another! Just like the summer rain!)
Unlike some people I know in the Broward political/citizen activist community who swear by the guy, I'm lukewarm to Ken Gottlieb, but I will acknowledge that he does seem like a genuinely earnest and hard-working guy who puts everything into his efforts, which makes him somewhat unusual in these parts, where coasting on the job and letting staff do all the work is the norm.
Personally, though, I'm just not crazy about the idea of enthusiastic activist pols becoming judges because I don't think people can fight that part of their nature.
I believe that the personal qualities that people clearly liked and admired about him in one job, State Rep., are not the same ones required to be a fair-minded judge that all parties can have full confidence in.
Frankly, if his wife Jennifer wasn't already on the Broward School Board, though I haven't put too much time into thinking this through to its logical conclusion, I'd much prefer him or Tim Ryan as Broward State's Attorney in two years against incumbent Michael Satz, who seems energy-deficient in the extreme.
Natural enthusiasm in a D.A. is much better than in a judge, especially in such a target-rich environment like corrupt Broward County.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query ralph renick. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query ralph renick. Sort by date Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Adrienne Roark from CBS4 to KTVT-TV in Dallas, Cesar Aldama from KYW-TV to CBS4 as News Director
| |||||||
|
| ||||||
Friday, February 4, 2011
1977 interview with Miami R&B legend Betty Wright; Clean up Woman; Miami Groove
1977 WCIX-TV interview with Miami R&B singing legend Betty Wright on her recollections of the Miami music scene, and the artists who performed at the Sir John Hotel in Miami.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-thfb6BFwo
The long-since destroyed Sir John Hotel discussed in the clip was located in downtown Miami on N.W. 6th Street & N.W. 3rd Avenue, and was only a few blocks from the old Channel 4 WTVJ-TV studio that was at 316 N. Miami Avenue.
C.T. Taylor, mentioned in the clip by Betty Wright as a music DJ at WMBM-AM, was hired in 1968 by Channel 4 news director and anchor Ralph Renick to become the first African-American on-air news reporter in Miami.
That fateful year was the year of the Liberty City riots in Miami during the Republican National Convention over on Miami Beach at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
(In 1972, it hosted both national party conventions.)
Taylor's extensive knowledge of the area and its personalities, people's trust of him, and his nightly fact-filled, context-heavy reporting from the scene during the riots, gave WTVJ a huge reporting advantage over their local news competitors and the three TV networks of the time.
His insightful reports sometimes appeared on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
For most of my childhood growing-up in Miami, Taylor and Renick were each among the best-known and most widely-respected men in all of South Florida.
They had credibility earned thru merit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Wright
http://www.youtube.com/user/wolfsonarchive
Betty Wright Clean up Woman (LIVE)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ssMVL9I1Q
Betty Wright - Miami Groove
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azb8MtVzCO4
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Shallow end of Miami TV News pool: Will it ever swim in the deep-end for one entire newscast and resist the siren song of dopey chick stories? No!
Shallow end of Miami TV News pool: Will it ever swim in the deep-end for one entire newscast and resist the siren song of dopey chick stories?
No!
News stories on TV about important public policy issues, in this case, votes on the future of red-light cameras in Broward County, who needs it?!
So seems the message from the hard-to-figure folks at Miami's Channel 4 News, WFOR-TV.
One week after News4 aired nothing about the vote on red-light cameras at the Broward County Commission last Tuesday morning on that night's 11 o'clock newscast...
Which, itself, came one week to the day after only WSVN-TV/Channel 7 News, in the form of Reed Cowan and his cameraman, bothered to send someone to cover the hugely embarrassing PR fiasco of a whitewash in Hollywood that Jennifer Gottlieb and Ann Murray of the Broward School Board attempted to perpetrate on the public...
...Channel 4 News did TWO separate stories on breast milk in one newscast.
Tuesday night, we once again saw the news judgment of the guy who replaced blog favorite Adrienne Roark as News4 News Director after she moved up and on to WFAA-TV in Dallas a year ago this month.
Message received!
Yes, we got the "Are you wearing the right size bra?"
Really.
Yes, that chick chestnut that all East Coast TV markets get at least once a year..
Yes, of course, it was a Lisa Petrillo story, how did you ever guess?
Oh right -past experience!
So, do you think a female Ralph Renick could get a job now in Miami TV if she wasn't willing to do the kind of tripe that is so commonplace in Miami TV?
Not any time soon from the looks of things.
Oh well, lest you completely give up hope completely, somebody from the world of Miami TV actually bothered to show-up last Tuesday morning to play grown-up reporter and report the news and that was WPLG-TV/Local10's Roger Lohse.
Here's his thorough story:
Red Light Camera Expansion Hits Roadblock -A plan to expand the number of red light cameras in Broward County has been put on hold
http://www.justnews.com/news/27046307/detail.html
Here's the video: http://www.justnews.com/video/27049351/index.html
I will have a LOT more to say soon about what transpired at that Broward County Commission meeting last Tuesday, perhaps even some video clips highlighting some particularly embarrassing low-lights that some people in the audience felt the need to email and text me about as it was happening.
My favorite excerpt was this one from someone whose identity will have to remain a secret:
THAT will definitely get the overdue scrutiny it deserves that it DIDN'T get in the Miami Herald last Wednesday.
Oh, did you miss that?
One week later, the Herald has STILL NOT managed to put together an original story or column about what happened that day and what the future holds for roughly 45% of its readers.
Here it is, excerpted from the Sun-Sentinel's story by Brittany Wallman, since the Herald didn't bother to send their own reporter.
I've highlighted below in blue what the Herald actually printed.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-redlight-decision-20110301,0,1201570.story
Red-light camera expansion on hold
By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel
6:30 PM EST, March 1, 2011
If red-light cameras are going to pop up all over Broward County, the cities would have to put up red-light countdown clocks and enforcement warning signs, and all would have to enforce the same way.
That's what Broward County commissioners said they would want before they'd give the go-ahead to a major expansion in the controversial program.
Drivers in Broward routinely run late yellow lights or fresh reds, camera advocates say. They think red lights mean "STOPtional,'' one officer complained Tuesday.
A vote that would have allowed red-light cameras to proliferate was postponed at least 30 days so Broward's cities, the county and the camera vendor can hash out a standardized, cross-county way to treat drivers.
Commissioners also indicated they would want to collect a fee. They'd want cities to agree not to ticket drivers making right turns on red, as well.
While those details are worked out, the county's staff will explore an alternative: making drivers sit an extra two seconds at the red light to clear the intersection before the signal turns green.
Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-redlight-decision-20110301/10
No!
News stories on TV about important public policy issues, in this case, votes on the future of red-light cameras in Broward County, who needs it?!
So seems the message from the hard-to-figure folks at Miami's Channel 4 News, WFOR-TV.
One week after News4 aired nothing about the vote on red-light cameras at the Broward County Commission last Tuesday morning on that night's 11 o'clock newscast...
Which, itself, came one week to the day after only WSVN-TV/Channel 7 News, in the form of Reed Cowan and his cameraman, bothered to send someone to cover the hugely embarrassing PR fiasco of a whitewash in Hollywood that Jennifer Gottlieb and Ann Murray of the Broward School Board attempted to perpetrate on the public...
...Channel 4 News did TWO separate stories on breast milk in one newscast.
Tuesday night, we once again saw the news judgment of the guy who replaced blog favorite Adrienne Roark as News4 News Director after she moved up and on to WFAA-TV in Dallas a year ago this month.
Message received!
Yes, we got the "Are you wearing the right size bra?"
Really.
Yes, that chick chestnut that all East Coast TV markets get at least once a year..
Yes, of course, it was a Lisa Petrillo story, how did you ever guess?
Oh right -past experience!
So, do you think a female Ralph Renick could get a job now in Miami TV if she wasn't willing to do the kind of tripe that is so commonplace in Miami TV?
Not any time soon from the looks of things.
Oh well, lest you completely give up hope completely, somebody from the world of Miami TV actually bothered to show-up last Tuesday morning to play grown-up reporter and report the news and that was WPLG-TV/Local10's Roger Lohse.
Here's his thorough story:
Red Light Camera Expansion Hits Roadblock -A plan to expand the number of red light cameras in Broward County has been put on hold
http://www.justnews.com/news/27046307/detail.html
Here's the video: http://www.justnews.com/video/27049351/index.html
I will have a LOT more to say soon about what transpired at that Broward County Commission meeting last Tuesday, perhaps even some video clips highlighting some particularly embarrassing low-lights that some people in the audience felt the need to email and text me about as it was happening.
My favorite excerpt was this one from someone whose identity will have to remain a secret:
Oh yes, Mayor Cooper's curious performance and equally curious choice of words, where her words at times seemed like "perjury" in the words of some HB and Broward residents viewing the show in person and at home told me later.You're missing quite the show.Joy Cooper is in rare form.
THAT will definitely get the overdue scrutiny it deserves that it DIDN'T get in the Miami Herald last Wednesday.
Oh, did you miss that?
One week later, the Herald has STILL NOT managed to put together an original story or column about what happened that day and what the future holds for roughly 45% of its readers.
Here it is, excerpted from the Sun-Sentinel's story by Brittany Wallman, since the Herald didn't bother to send their own reporter.
I've highlighted below in blue what the Herald actually printed.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-redlight-decision-20110301,0,1201570.story
Red-light camera expansion on hold
By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel
6:30 PM EST, March 1, 2011
If red-light cameras are going to pop up all over Broward County, the cities would have to put up red-light countdown clocks and enforcement warning signs, and all would have to enforce the same way.
That's what Broward County commissioners said they would want before they'd give the go-ahead to a major expansion in the controversial program.
Drivers in Broward routinely run late yellow lights or fresh reds, camera advocates say. They think red lights mean "STOPtional,'' one officer complained Tuesday.
A vote that would have allowed red-light cameras to proliferate was postponed at least 30 days so Broward's cities, the county and the camera vendor can hash out a standardized, cross-county way to treat drivers.
Commissioners also indicated they would want to collect a fee. They'd want cities to agree not to ticket drivers making right turns on red, as well.
While those details are worked out, the county's staff will explore an alternative: making drivers sit an extra two seconds at the red light to clear the intersection before the signal turns green.
Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-redlight-decision-20110301/10
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Important questions are NOT being asked in South Florida: With President Obama coming to South Florida today re his immigration/amnesty plan, when was last time you heard an honest public discussion in South Florida about African-American unemployment rates in Miami? I think Obama's amnesty plan makes that worse. Much worse!
Important questions are NOT being asked in South Florida: With President Obama coming to South Florida today re his immigration/amnesty plan, when was last time you heard an honest public discussion in South Florida about African-American unemployment rates in Miami? I think Obama's amnesty plan makes that long-term problem worse. Much worse!
How many times are we supposed to believe politicians' assurances that amnesty will fix immigration "once & for all"? http://t.co/ftELo7QkQB
— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) February 25, 2015
Hi @MSNBC @Telemundo: Isn't a townhall supposed to be open to the area's residents? Or are you just picking-and-choosing the "questions"?
— AJ Delgado (@AJDelgado13) February 25, 2015
Interesting. Obama in Miami tmrw for a "townhall" by @MSNBC and @Telemundo - yet tix were never made publicly available.
— AJ Delgado (@AJDelgado13) February 25, 2015
Nat'l Assoc of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO): "Where are the Barbara Jordans of our times?" https://t.co/6JGWh4vRy7
— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) February 24, 2015
"why is Mr. Obama more concerned about the welfare of illegal immigrants than the welfare of black Americans?" http://t.co/i8dw3zQeTu
— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) February 24, 2015
Top domestic priority for WH during Black History month has been work permits for non-citizens in U.S. illegally http://t.co/Siif3bbsEV
— NumbersUSA (@NumbersUSA) February 24, 2015
Every time struggling US workers turn around, POTUS adds more foreign workers to compete w/ them for new jobs http://t.co/5eM40EXx6B
— Roy Beck (@RoyBeck_NUSA) February 24, 2015
They don't even bother with "experts say" anymore/"Funding Fight Over Homeland Security Poses Dangers for the G.O.P." http://t.co/LTZLgQ9Dkr
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) February 24, 2015
AMAZING: Long @NBCNightlyNews report tonight on DHS funding battle NEVER MENTIONS WHAT FIGHT IS ABOUT (immigration) http://t.co/68GxlvvnBu
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) February 24, 2015
NBC Trapped in Kafkaesque Nightmare! http://t.co/6cfW0bIVMw via @dailycaller
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) February 24, 2015
The news that President Obama was coming into South Florida today got me to wondering and musing over the weekend, and not surprisngly, some of this sentiment clearly echoes things I've asked and answered in this very space many times over the past 8 years.
Simply put, have any of you attended a public meeting anywhere in South Florida in the last two years where, either together or individually, Representatives Lois Frankel, Debbie Wasserman
Schultz or Frederica Wilson have spoken about immigration issues and attempted to make the case that President Obama's immigration plan for amnesty for up to 5 Million people would NOT
negatively hurt long-term unemployed workers in South Florida, esp. African-Americans?
Or seen a similar public discussion in your area?
Why do you suppose that is?
And why fdo you suppose that the local news media ignores that obvious question, just as supposed South Florida-based public policy groups do as well?
Why do you suppose that is?
And why fdo you suppose that the local news media ignores that obvious question, just as supposed South Florida-based public policy groups do as well?
When I was a kid growing-up as a news and politics junkie in 1970's South Florida, on the day that unemployment rates came out of the Dept. of Labor Statistics in Washington -i.e. the BLS- I seem to recall that it was usually the case that then-WTVJ anchor Ralph Renick -when he was the dominant media voice in all of South Florida- would make a point of mentioning not only the national and state numbers, but the ones for Dade and Broward, too, along with the local unemployment rate for Blacks.
And those numbers would usually appear on screen, along with a very simple graph that would be embarrassing to put up these days.
The idea being that accuracy mattered, of course, but also that it's important to have useful context and nuance to draw upon before making any reasonable conclusions about what was happening with unemployment and the economy.
The idea being that accuracy mattered, of course, but also that it's important to have useful context and nuance to draw upon before making any reasonable conclusions about what was happening with unemployment and the economy.
That seems like such a simple thing, but before I left the area last June for an extended period of time, I can't think of the last time I actually heard the long-term unemployment levels for African-Americans in Miami getting either mentioned in print or on TV or brought into the larger discussion about their relative economic standing only getting worse if that action took place.
Especially since I think it's fair to say that based on my living in South Florida again for the past 11 years, there are many less Black adults or children in South Florida who can speak even passable Spanish, compared to when I was a kid growing-up taking Spanish for 6 years and French for 4.
Those Latin American entrepreneurs coming to Miami that seemingly everyone in South Florida's incurious media horde likes to make a fuss over in often over-the-top sycophancy, with some TV stations being especially egregious about making no pretense of being anything but Chamber of Commece cheerleaders, are NOT going to be hiring people who are NOT bilingual, except for low wage jobs.
So what group is that going to be in Miami-Dade County?
Precisely, but instead, everyone just pretends they don't know what the logical result of this will be.
#Despair
I guess we'll all have to just wait until after the next riot and have yet more foreign and out-of-state reporters fly into the area to comment again on the self-evident short-term attention span of reporters that is actually much worse than South Florida residents as a whole.
Which is why those out-of-towners will again be speaking about South Florida reporters continuing to ignore the legitimate concerns of Black Miami, preferring to do ponintless stories about breast surgery, food fads and fashion and crime lowlights among visiting celebs and rappers on South Beach.
But then isn't that lack of energy and foresight the same reason why local news media don't exert any energy at all in pressing local South Florida Congressional representatives on policies that are harmful to such a large share of the populace?
Their own constituents!
Recently, Rasmussen Reports released a national poll on the Obama Amnesty plan.
Guess what it said
Guess what it said
| |
| Voters still view President Obama's order exempting up to five million illegal immigrants from deportation as illegal and tend to think Congress should try to stop it. But they're evenly divided over whether a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is the way to do it. http://www.rasmussenreports. |
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
College football news and memories; National Football Foundation honoring Wilber Marshall
I'm watching this now!
-----------------------------------
Some college football news worth reading about from some emails I received over the weekend straight from the National Football Foundation.
You'll note that former Gator great Wilber Marshall is among the new class,whom I watched and followed closely with the great Super Bowl-winning Bears and Redskins teams while I was living in Chicago/Evanston in the mid-'80's, and then later in Washington, D.C.
He was such a joy to watch!
Just the sheer anticipation of the hits he was about to deliver used to get my friends literally jumping out of their chairs when we'd watch them on TV.
I'd love to see a game b/w that '85 Bears team and the '91 Redskins team that was so methodical and powerful. Having seen both in person, at Soldier Field and RFK Stadium, it'd be a hell of a game to watch.
Now that I think about it, that's one of those match ups that ESPN should've thought of a few years ago when they had that series that incorporated contemporaneous film footage to have teams of different eras play one another to determine who was better.
I usually avoided watching those qhen they were on TV, mostly because I disagreed with the selection of the teams, since it always seemed to have the bias that because the great Pittsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowls, they'd win the fantasy games.
But the problem is, as we know, that the best team doesn't always win, which is why having the 1968-69 Baltimore Colts team that lost to the Jets in Super Bowl III play the Len Dawson-led Chiefs team that won the Super Bowl a year later against the Vikings, would've been a great match. Don Shula and Unitas/Morrall against Hank Stram and Len Dawson?
Or what about the the great high-powered Vikings team with Randy Moss that choked against the Giants in the NFC championship, actually play the Ravens team that won that year?
Hell, I'd watch those games now!
See Jon Saraceno's great USAT column on Wilber Marshall before the Bears-Colts Super Bowl downpour down here: Marshall's torments not likely to fade
I'm someone who from an early age, while growing up in San Antonio, then Memphis and finally Miami, followed college football more closely than just about anyone I ever met, reading Sports Illustrated and SPORT magazine from cover-to-cover, devouring all the books, films and videos on the subject and its history, while also meeting lots of people involved in it from the 1970's on.
That also included someone who played for one of the best teams of the era, the University of Michigan Wolverines, who was also football family royalty of a sort.
The person in question is Dave Elliott, a Wolverine defensive back from the early 1970's and the son of former Illinois and later U-M head football coach Pete Elliott, who himself later became the Executive Director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, who was one of my counselors when I attended the Bob Griese-Karl Noonan sports camp up in Boca Raton, three summers in a row from 1971-'74.
His personality and mine were somewhat similar, so we spent a lot of time talking about what it was like to play at a prominent big name school like Michigan, where there were always big expectations, plus, having a family name that was as well known as his was in the Midwest.
Plus, of course, his name was Dave, also.
He was also a key witness to my making an interception of Bob Griese in a flag football game and running about 80 yards for a touchdown, using my speed and moves to twice fake out a lunging Griese, who was my then-idol.
This was back in a time and place when I and all the fellow campers there in pre-cable, pre-ESPN America also knew where every single pro athlete who was at camp had gone to school, with Big Ten schools Purdue and Iowa being most prominent because that's where Griese and Noonan had gone and starred.
(This is the same camp where I first met future Emmy-winning sportscaster Roy Firestone, who I'd stay friends with for years -and who recommended I go to Syracuse- back when he was a U-M student who also toiled at Ralph Renick's WTVJ-Channel 4, back when they had the best sports talent in town under Bernie Rosen.
Roy and I kept in touch for many, many years, even after he left Miami and was doing very well out in LA. When it came time to consider schools, after the financial aid situation made it clear that USC was untenable, much to my disappointment, Roy recommended Syracuse to me over IU because of the growing pub of the Newhouse School of Communication, and the possible synergy b/w my own personality and career interests.
I stuck with IU and dropped him a line every so often of what was going on in Hoosierville as Coach Knight made college basketball relevant to someone who grew-up when the U-M didn't have a team.
I stuck with IU and dropped him a line every so often of what was going on in Hoosierville as Coach Knight made college basketball relevant to someone who grew-up when the U-M didn't have a team.
Years later, when Roy came back for a family visit to Miami, and I was home from Bloomington for either the summer or Christmas, I showed up unexpectedly with my mother at WKAT over on Miami Beach -which had been the Braves weekend affiliate- when Chris Myers -now of FOX-TV- had a radio show, and had announced the night before that Roy would be a guest.
I figured I'd just say hi and talk for a few minutes before he had to go inside.
To Roy's surprise and mine, because Chris and I and the producers had chatted for a bit before the show, Chris surprised me by inviting me -and my mother- to go on the air with Roy for about an hour, as he recalled one great Roy anecdote after another, and I threw in a few when I could.
It was quite a blast.
Even now, I still recall a younger Roy up in Boca Raton going back and forth with Earl Morral's son, Matt, also a counselor, about whether the rock group Deep Purple would remain a studio band, or would tour. Odd the things your brain remembers!)
My conversations with Dave Elliott and his descriptions of what it was like to live in a real Midwestern college town like Ann Arbor, plus all the other stuff I had observed and absorbed by osmosis, are one of the reasons that I always knew from junior high school on, that I'd leave South Florida in the rear view mirror when it came time to go to college.
I wanted a college experience that was more like the ones I saw broadcast every Saturday on ABC's college football broadcasts with Keith Jackson and Chris Schenkel, than the all-too apathetic and blase reality of late '70's South Florida.
Bloomington offered me all the things I wanted -and much more.
I was totally captivated by the college experience that ABC presented in their three hours and knew that was exactly what I wanted, and that while Gainesville or Tallahassee might be fine for some of my friends, I and most of my smarter friends were getting the hell out of Florida, toute-de-suite!
That's why we headed to Princeton, Charlottesville and Boulder...I recall having game programs of the Liberty Bowl games when I was six, asking my father's friend to get the game program for me for the 1968 Alabama at U-M game at the Orange Bowl, the first night college football game ever televised in color, and years later, when I was at North Miami Beach, seeing the photos of the NMB head football coach and an assistant coach who had played for that Hurricane team.
At my South Beach Hoosier blog, http://www.southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/ I mention the following under the split-U logo and Sebastian the Ibis:
South Beach Hoosier's first U-M football game at the Orange Bowl was in 1972, age 11, against Tulane in the infamous "Fifth Down" game.
In order to drum up support and attendance for the U-M at the Orange Bowl, that game had a promotion whereby South Florida kids who were school safety patrols could get in for free IF they wore their sash. I did.
Clearly they knew that it was better to let kids in for free, knowing their parents would give them money to buy food and souvenirs, perhaps become a fan and want to return for future games.
The ballgame made an interesting impression on The New York Times, resulting in this gem from the "View of Sport" column of Oct, 14, 1990, labeled 'Fifth Down or Not, It's Over When It's Over.'
"In 1972, aided by a fifth-down officiating gift in the last moments of the game, Miami of Florida defeated Tulane, 24-21. The country and the world was a much different place that fall because The New York Times took time and space to editorialize on the subject.
''Is it right for sportsmen, particularly young athletes, to be penalized or deprived of the goals for which they earnestly competed because responsible officials make mistakes? The ideal of true sportsmanship would be better served if Miami forfeited last week's game.'
South Beach Hoosier hardly needs to tell you that this was YET another New York Times editorial that was completely ignored!
Before going to my first U-M game at the Orange Bowl in 1972, a friend's father often would bring me home an extra 'Canes game program. That's how I came to have the Alabama at U-M game program from Nov. 16, 1968, which was the first nationally-televised college football night game in color. (A 14-6 loss to the Crimson Tide.)
After that first ballgame against Tulane, as I often did for Dolphin games if my father wasn't going, I'd get dropped off at the Levitz parking lot near the 836 & I-95 Cloverleaf in NMB, and catch a Dade County Park & Ride bus, going straight to the Orange Bowl.
Once onboard, I'd get next to the window and listen to WIOD's pre-game show on my Radio Shack transistor radio.A few times, I was just about the only person onboard besides the bus driver, which was alright by me. Once at the Orange Bowl, if I didn't already have a ticket, I'd buy a game program for myself and one or two for friends or teachers before heading to the ticket window, since you usually couldn't find a program vendor once inside.
I probably had a friend or my father with me for just under 40% of the U-M games I ever went to, but you have to remember that the team, though blessed with several talented players, like Chuck Foreman and Burgess Owens, was just so-so to average at best, and the games were usually played on Friday nights, so it wasn't exactly high on every one's list of things to do.
Depending upon the opponent, if I was alone, I'd often have entire areas of the Orange Bowl to myself. (Wish I had photos of that now!)
For instance, I had a good portion of the East (open) End Zone to myself against Oklahoma in the mid-70's, when the Boomer Schooner and the Schooner Crew went out on the field after an Oklahoma TD, and the Schooner received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from the refs, as would happen years later in an Orangle Bowl Classic game. (Against FSU?)
I was there for the wins and losses under Pete Elliott, Carl Selmer & Lou Saban, and the huge on-field fight in '73 when under eventual national champion Notre Dame (then under Ara Parseghian), they called a time-out with less than a minute to go, and already up 37-0.
Their rationale? To score another TD and impress the AP football writers; final score 44-0.
Well, they got their wish and beat Alabama 24-23 for the title at the Sugar Bowl.
A year later, thanks to my Mom's boss, who had tickets he couldn't use, she and I saw Ara's last game as head coach of the Irish in the Orange Bowl Game from the East End Zone -in front of the Alabama cheerleaders!!!- in an exciting 13-11 Notre Dame win over Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide, and a rematch of the '73 national title game.
I was also present for the U-M's huge 20-15 win under Pete Elliott against Darrel Royal's Texas Longhorns, the week Sports Illustrated's College Football preview issue came out with Texas on the cover, above.
I was also present for lots of wins against schools called College of the Pacific, UNLV and Cal-Poly San Luis Obsispo, which I'd then never heard of before.
__________________
excerpt
from Philip Marwill Dec 5
MEDIA ADVISORY
MEDIA ADVISORY
Contacts: Phil Marwill, the National Football Foundation
Email: pmarwill@footballfoundation.com
Dan Sabreen, CBS College Sports Network Email: dsabreen@cbs.com
Dan Sabreen, CBS College Sports Network Email: dsabreen@cbs.com
THIS JUST IN...... from CBS College Sports Network
CBS College Sports Network announced today that the network will broadcast live the National Football Foundation's press conference for the 2008 NFF Annual Awards Dinner, including the induction of this year's College Football Hall of Fame Bowl Subdivision Class.
CBS College Sports Network announced today that the network will broadcast live the National Football Foundation's press conference for the 2008 NFF Annual Awards Dinner, including the induction of this year's College Football Hall of Fame Bowl Subdivision Class.
The press conference will air live from the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York on Tuesday, Dec. 9 from 9:30 - 11:30 AM, ET.
CBS College Sports Network will also provide live streaming video of the press conference available for free to all fans.
The press conference features National Football Foundation Chairman Archie Manning, 2008 Distinguished American Award recipient T. Boone Pickens, NFF Gold Medal recipient John Glenn, NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell and the 2008 College Football Hall of Fame Class, which includes Troy Aikman (UCLA), Billy Cannon (LSU), Jim Dombrowski (Virginia), Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Wilber Marshall (Florida), Rueben Mayes (Washington State), Randall McDaniel (Arizona State), Don McPherson (Syracuse), Jay Novacek (Wyoming), Dave Parks (Texas Tech), Ron Simmons (Florida State), Thurman Thomas (Oklahoma State), Arnold Tucker (Army) and coaches John Cooper and Lou Holtz.
CBS College Sports Network is available through local cable operators and nationally via satellite on DIRECTV Channel 613 and Dish Network Channel 152.
For more information on how to watch or subscribe to CBS College Sports Network, log on to http://www.sportsline.com/cbscollegesports/ _________________________________________
MEDIA ADVISORY
CBS College Sports Network will also provide live streaming video of the press conference available for free to all fans.
The press conference features National Football Foundation Chairman Archie Manning, 2008 Distinguished American Award recipient T. Boone Pickens, NFF Gold Medal recipient John Glenn, NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell and the 2008 College Football Hall of Fame Class, which includes Troy Aikman (UCLA), Billy Cannon (LSU), Jim Dombrowski (Virginia), Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Wilber Marshall (Florida), Rueben Mayes (Washington State), Randall McDaniel (Arizona State), Don McPherson (Syracuse), Jay Novacek (Wyoming), Dave Parks (Texas Tech), Ron Simmons (Florida State), Thurman Thomas (Oklahoma State), Arnold Tucker (Army) and coaches John Cooper and Lou Holtz.
CBS College Sports Network is available through local cable operators and nationally via satellite on DIRECTV Channel 613 and Dish Network Channel 152.
For more information on how to watch or subscribe to CBS College Sports Network, log on to http://www.sportsline.com/cbscollegesports/ _________________________________________
MEDIA ADVISORY
Dec. 9 Press Conference for NFF Annual Awards Dinner & College Football Hall of Fame Bowl Subdivision Inductees
WHO: Former U.S. Senator John Glenn, 2008 NFF Gold Medal recipient
T. Boone Pickens, 2008 NFF Distinguished American Award recipient
2008 College Football Hall of Fame Class - Football Bowl Subdivision (See list below)
2008 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class (See list below)
Archie Manning, NFF Chairman Steve Hatchell, NFF President & CEO
WHAT: Press Conference with access to John Glenn, T. Boone Pickens, the members of the 2008 hall of fame and scholar-athlete classes and the announcement of the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Finalists.
WHERE: The Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria, 301 Park Ave., New York, NY, 10022
WHEN: December 9, 2008 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST
HOW: * In person * Conference call by clicking here to register.* Live satellite feed from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (See below for coordinates) or clean feed via a Vvxy line at Circuit #1847 at the Waterfront (Ascent Media) in NYC. You may also contact your news service (ABC NewsOne; NBC NewsChannel; CBS Newspath; Sports News Service, CNN Newsource, Fox Feed, etc.) for specific footage. Permission is granted for use for news purposes only.
NOTE 1: Live satellite and clean feed available of dinner ceremonies starting at 7:30 p.m. (See below for coordinates) or clean feed via a Vvxy line at Circuit #1847 at the Waterfront (Ascent Media) in NYC. You may also contact your news service to request specific footage. Permission is granted for use for news purposes only. The Draddy Trophy winner will be announced live between 8:30 and 9 p.m. during this feed.
NOTE 2: Limited media opportunities at a 4:30 p.m. photo session in the Empire Room and the 6:30 p.m. Awards Dinner (Black Tie Required) in the Grand Ballroom. Previous notification required to Phil Marwill to cover all events.
PHOTOS
NOTE 1: Live satellite and clean feed available of dinner ceremonies starting at 7:30 p.m. (See below for coordinates) or clean feed via a Vvxy line at Circuit #1847 at the Waterfront (Ascent Media) in NYC. You may also contact your news service to request specific footage. Permission is granted for use for news purposes only. The Draddy Trophy winner will be announced live between 8:30 and 9 p.m. during this feed.
NOTE 2: Limited media opportunities at a 4:30 p.m. photo session in the Empire Room and the 6:30 p.m. Awards Dinner (Black Tie Required) in the Grand Ballroom. Previous notification required to Phil Marwill to cover all events.
PHOTOS
For Media Only: The National Football Foundation has established a Web site to distribute photos taken by its photographers during the NFF Annual Awards Dinner and surrounding events on Dec. 9 in New York City. Photos will be provided at no cost for one-time use and for news purposes only with a proper photo credit to: "The National Football Foundation." All other rights will be reserved. High resolution photos will continuously be posted throughout the day. To obtain access and/or to be placed on the email list for alerts when particular photos are available, please contact NFF Photographer Gene Boyers
Dec. 9 Press Conference Coordinates(Waldorf-Astoria Empire Room, New York)
9:30-11:30 a.m. ESTG 16 Transponder 6 Slot ADownlink 11804 VSymbol 3.978723Data 5.5FEC 3/4
Dec. 9 Dinner Coordinates (Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom, New York)
19:30-23:30 p.m. ESTG 16 Transponder 6 Slot ADownlink 11804 VSymbol 3.978723Data 5.5FEC 3/4
Note: The morning press conference will provide sound bites from each member of the 2008 College Football Hall of Fame Class, U.S. Senator John Glenn, and T. Boone Pickens. Time permitting several interviews with the NFF National Scholar-Athletes may occur during the morning feed. The dinner feed will feature all of the honorees accepting their awards.
The 2008 Hall of Fame Class: Troy Aikman (UCLA), Billy Cannon (LSU), Jim Dombrowski (Virginia), Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Wilber Marshall (Florida), Rueben Mayes (Washington State), Randall McDaniel (Arizona State), Don McPherson (Syracuse), Jay Novacek (Wyoming), Dave Parks (Texas Tech), Ron Simmons (Florida State), Thurman Thomas (Oklahoma State), Arnold Tucker (Army). Coaches: John Cooper and Lou Holtz.
The 2008 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class: (Football Bowl Subdivision) Chase Daniel (Missouri); Graham Harrell (Texas Tech); Quin Harris (Louisiana Tech); Jeff Horinek (Colorado State); Alex Mack (California); Ryan McDonald (Illinois); Darryl Richard (Georgia Tech); Brian Robiskie (Ohio State); and Louie Sakoda (Utah). Football Championship Subvision: Andrew Berry (Harvard); Ryan Berry (South Dakota State); and Casey Gerald (Yale). Division II: Ryan Kees (St. Cloud State, Minn.). Division III: Brian Freeman (Carnegie Mellon, Pa.); and Greg Micheli (Mount Union, Ohio).
The 2008 Major Award Winners: Former U.S. Senator John Glenn (Gold Medal Recipient); T. Boone Pickens (Distinguished American Award) ; Bill Battle (Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award); Gene Smith, Ohio State (John L. Toner Award); Thomas Robinson, long-time WAC/Mountain West official (Outstanding Football Official Award); and Bob Curtis of Idaho and posthumously Dick Galiette of Yale (Co-recipients of the Chris Schenkel Award).
ABOUT THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION & COLLEGE HALL OF FAME
Founded in 1947 with leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 121 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, Play It Smart, the NFF-FWAA Football Forum, the NFF Gridiron Clubs of New York City, Dallas and Los Angeles, and scholarships of over $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes.
The NFF awards the MacArthur Trophy, the Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings.
Learn more at www.footballfoundation.org
______________________________
Orange Bowl Stadium, 1501 N.W. 3rd Street, Miami, FL 33125
See also: http://www.orangebowlstadium.com/
Memorial Stadium, Indiana University, 1001 East 17th Street, Bloomington, IN 47408
Liberty Bowl Stadium, 335 South Hollywood Street, Memphis, TN 38104
Friday, December 27, 2013
For a whole generation of Oriole fans like me, Paul Blair was the living embodiment of The Oriole Way. So very, very sad at the news that my all-time favorite Oriole, the baseball player I most patterned myself on as a CF, died Thursday night. THE player I studied so intensely so many days and nights at O's exhibition games at Miami Stadium in the 1970's, looking for any hint of how to do things the right way -The Oriole Way. He was always smiling, always friendly to fans, always hustling and always a great teammate. R.I.P. # 6 #Class; Roy Firestone
For a whole generation of Oriole fans like me, from South Florida up I-95 to Maryland/southern PA, and knowledgeable baseball fans from coast-to-coast who appreciated players who paid attention to detail and did the small things in a game that make the difference between winning and losing, Paul Blair was the living embodiment of The Oriole Way.
So very, very sad at the news Thursday night that the former Oriole legend and masterful centerfielder died Thursday night while bowling in suburban Pikesville.
Paul Blair was my all-time favorite Oriole, the baseball player I most patterned myself on as a Centerfielder in Little League and Pony League in North Miami Beach's Optimist League, just as it often seemed to me years later that Ken Griffey Jr. would pattern himself on years later -playing shallow in CF- after watching Paul while his Dad and Paul were teammates on the Yankees of the late '70's, which earned paul two more World Series rings for a total of four.
One year, when one of my Pony League teams got new uniforms but all the numbers started in the fifties -like we were all minor league pitchers who'd only be at spring training for a few weeks before going back to our minor league teams- I quickly grabbed #51 out of the box and ripped-off the shrink wrap because 5 + 1 = 6, Paul Blair's jersey number.
My last two years of playing NMB Optimist Football in the mid-1970's, for the 115-pound team, though I was primarily a defensive end and special teams player, I also wore #6 because...
Plus, like him, I was the fastest player on my team.
Photo of Paul Blair at Orioles spring training HQ at Miami Stadium, Miami, FL.
Paul Blair was the one player I studied intensely on so many days and nights at O's exhibition games at Miami Stadium in the 1970's -with family and friends- when they were in their glory days, and I was looking for any hint of how to do things the right way -The Oriole Way, because that's how I wanted to do it, too.
Paul Blair was always smiling, always friendly to fans, always hustling and always a great teammate.
R.I.P. #6 #Class
-----
Photo of Paul Blair and son at Memorial Stadium, Baltimore, MD.
Got the awful news tonight that Paul Blair, my all-time favorite Oriole, my baseball role model as CF, died tonight at age 69. RIP #6 #Class
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 27, 2013
So very, very sad at the news Thursday night that the former Oriole legend and masterful centerfielder died Thursday night while bowling in suburban Pikesville.
Paul Blair was my all-time favorite Oriole, the baseball player I most patterned myself on as a Centerfielder in Little League and Pony League in North Miami Beach's Optimist League, just as it often seemed to me years later that Ken Griffey Jr. would pattern himself on years later -playing shallow in CF- after watching Paul while his Dad and Paul were teammates on the Yankees of the late '70's, which earned paul two more World Series rings for a total of four.
One year, when one of my Pony League teams got new uniforms but all the numbers started in the fifties -like we were all minor league pitchers who'd only be at spring training for a few weeks before going back to our minor league teams- I quickly grabbed #51 out of the box and ripped-off the shrink wrap because 5 + 1 = 6, Paul Blair's jersey number.
My last two years of playing NMB Optimist Football in the mid-1970's, for the 115-pound team, though I was primarily a defensive end and special teams player, I also wore #6 because...
Plus, like him, I was the fastest player on my team.
The Hall of Fame remembers former #Orioles, #Yankees and #Reds center fielder Paul Blair, who passed… http://t.co/SaGlfDqD9Y
— Baseball Hall (@BaseballHall) December 27, 2013
Photo of Paul Blair at Orioles spring training HQ at Miami Stadium, Miami, FL.
Paul Blair was the one player I studied intensely on so many days and nights at O's exhibition games at Miami Stadium in the 1970's -with family and friends- when they were in their glory days, and I was looking for any hint of how to do things the right way -The Oriole Way, because that's how I wanted to do it, too.
Once they closed camp and left for baltimore, I listened to the team and his personal exploits via Chuck Thompson and Bill O'Donnell's expert play-by-play and color commentary, back when the O's affiliate in Miami at the time, WGBS-AM, carried ALL their games.
I'd listen to those games no matter where I was -which my parents didn't always appreciate- and l'd fall asleep at night with my small brightly-colored Radio Shack transistor radio under my pillow listening to West Coast road trips, back when the A's really were the Amazing A's.
(If they'd won that ALCS series with the A's in 1973 and '74, they'd have played in the World Series 5 out of 6 years and I definitely think they'd have beaten the Mets in '73 and the Reds in '74.)
Asd I have written here on the blog before, I was such a big Orioles fan that I not only had every Orioles yearbook from 1970 until I left for college in 1979, agonizing when they lost to Pirates in the World series, but in February and March, at least once a week, I'd catch buses at the 163rd Street Shopping Center out to Biscayne College where the Orioles' minor league teams trained, always hoping to see the new/next Don Baylor or Bobby Grich in-person.
In those pre-Internet days, I'd always hope to run into a Baltimore area media type who could point out who was who, esp. someone like John Steadman.
Every family car we had in the 1970's I made certain had the circular bumper sticker of the cartoon Oriole at bat, so everyone would know, esp. on vacations, like up to Asheville in the summer of 1972, when they were part of the O's minor league system, that I/we were real Oriole fans.
R.I.P. #6 #Class
-----
Very sad to hear about tonights passing of @Orioles Hall of Famer Paul Blair.
#RIPPaulBlair pic.twitter.com/uCz9c9HwyZ
— Dugout Legends (@DugoutLegends) December 27, 2013
Here's a quick blog post on the grasp Paul Blair and his tremendous CF play had on Baltimore during the glory days: http://t.co/KDqPQmjYuT
— Dan Connolly (@danconnollysun) December 27, 2013
And here is the updated news story on the death of Paul Blair: http://t.co/IBqh0rPwON
— Dan Connolly (@danconnollysun) 151151177728">December 27, 2013
Just how good a CF was Paul Blair? His 18.6 career defensive WAR ranks 2nd all-time among fulltime CFs (Andruw Jones, 24.1). #Orioles
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) December 27, 2013
Rip my friend for 42 years..the GREAT and I mean great Paul Blair. pic.twitter.com/jCrOSnj2fn
— Roy Firestone (@RoyFirestone) December 27, 2013
Above, former Baltimore Colt RB/Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinee Lenny Moore, broadcaster Roy Firestone and former Orioles center fielder Paul Blair on Brooks Robinson Day, for the unveiling of the larger-than-life bronze sculpture of the Oriole Hall of Fame third baseman outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Sept. 29, 2012, Baltimore, MD.Few would know how true this was more than Roy, whom I first met 41 years ago.
As I've written here before, at the time, Roy was a University of Miami student and was also working for Channel 4 Sports back when it was still Ralph Renick's WTVJ-TV, and their Sports Dept. was the class and envy of the state.
I was an 11-year old camper at the Bob Griese-Karl Noonan boys sports camp up in Boca Raton, where Roy was a counselor who soon became a friend because of his sense of humor, common sense and amazing knowledge of the same things I was most-interested in: sports, journalism and films.
When I was a senior at North Miami Beach High School and he was already working out in Los Angeles at KNX-TV, Roy was also one of the many people I spoke to and respected who recommended that I attend Syracuse and the S.I. Newhouse School of Communication, the home of so much of ESPN and the sports television and marketing establishment of the past thirty years.
But after things didn't work out financial aid-wise for my longtime first choice, The University of Southern California (USC) -who offered me a great deal of financial aid , but still not enough for me to swing it financially from Miami to Los Angeles, especially given how expensive it was to fly back and forth from LA to Miami back then- I went to IU, knowing only one person in the whole state of indiana, and they weren't in Bloomington.
Syracuse just seemed too cold and isolated for me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)