Sports – Other

A Lifetime of Sports Memories: TVs Warner Wolf

Bill Thompson

TV sportscasters, just like the athletes they covered, come and go.

But a few established themselves as stars, remaining popular for years, even decades.

Meet televisions Warner Wolf. He actually started on the radio in 1961, before moving to TV in 1965 in his hometown Washington DC.

By 1976 he had moved on to New York City, were he further cemented his reputation as a sportscasting star.

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Get your copy of Warner wolf’s book

Along the way Warner Wolf popularized two catch phrases: “Gimme a break!” and “Let’s go to the videotape.”

Eventually Wolf wrote two books, each titled after one of those catchphrases. I met him in 2000 on publication of Let’s Go To The Videotape.

Be sure and stick around for his predictions, and see how many of them actually came true.

So here now, from 2000, Warner Wolf.

Warner wolf levt TV in 2016. He’s 87 now, and can be heard weekly on New York’s WOR radio.

His Secret To Success? Happiness. Sports Mogul Ted Leonsis

Bill Thompson
Courtesy Ted Leonsis

If you’re in business, entrepreneur or as the head of a major corporation, which comes first, business success, or happiness?

Actually, happiness has to come first if you want the success to follow, says a very successful and happy businessman and billionaire sports mogul.

Ted Leonsis was one of the early top executives at America online helping build that to the huge platform that it was.

Later he became owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the NHL’s Washington Capitals, and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, along with a huge regional sports network.

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But would any of that have been possible if he didn’t have an underlying foundation of personal happiness?

Not likely, Leonsis says. In his 2010 book The Business of Happiness he explains how happiness begets business success.

I met with him one February afternoon in his office in Washington, DC, where, by the way, he still maintains an AOL email address.

So here now, from 2010, Ted Leonsis.

Ted Leonsis turned 68 earlier this month.

Why Phyllis George Decided She Would Never Say Never

Bill Thompson
Photo by John Mathew Smith

To some young women, being crowned Miss America would be the pinnacle of their life, their peak accomplishment.

To others the Miss America title is just the first of many notable accomplishments

Phyllis George won the title in 1971, representing Texas in the pageant.

Just four years later, she was hired by CBS Sports, to co-host The NFL Today.

And four years after that, she became First Lady of Kentucky when her husband John Y. Brown was elected Governor.

Get your copy of Phyllis George’s book

Later she became a successful chicken entrepreneur

And all of these things happened, she said , because her attitude never allowed her to say never period

That inspired her to call her 2002 book Never Say Never. A somewhat autobiographical book, it laid out ten things we can all do to achieve what he dream of.

So here now, from 2002, Phyllis George.

Phyllis George died in 2020 from a rare form of cancer. She was 70.

How Marvin Miller Changed The Game of Baseball, And Then Some

Bill Thompson

Today is Labor Day, and I wanted to share with you an interview I did more than 30 years ago with one of the most influential labor leaders of our time

In 1966, Marvin Miller – an economist by training – was elected executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

By the time he retired 16 years later, Miller had helped transform not just the players association but the entire professional sports industry.

Curt Flood

Miller negotiated the players’ first-ever collective bargaining agreement with team owners in 1968.

And it was Miller’s leadership, and the courage of St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood, that brought an end to the longtime “reserve clause” that effectively let owners treat players as properties to be bought and sold.

Get your copy of Marvin Miller’s book

It’s largely because of Marvin Miller that the concept of free agency now exists in not just baseball, but across professional sports.

Red Barber once said Marvin Miller was one of the two or three most important people in all of baseball history.

Miller wrote a book in 1991, called A Whole Different Ballgame. That’s when I got a few minutes with this icon of labor.

So here now, from 1991, Marvin Miller.

Marin Miller died in 2012 at the age of 95. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame seven years later.

The Art of the Ethical Deal: How Bob Woolf Mastered Friendly Persuasion

Bill Thompson

When we hear about professional athletes or musicians actors who get those multi-million dollar contracts, do you ever think about who got them that deal?

Behind the scenes you will typically find an experienced and skilled negotiator.Someone like Bob Woolf, one of the pioneers of snagging big contracts for sports stars.

Woolf represented stars like Carl Yastrzemski, Larry Bird, and Julius Erving.

Get your copy of Bob woolf’s book

But he also negotiated deals for Larry King and New Kids On The Block.

And along the way Woolf developed a reputation that may run counter to your notion of what a powerful dealmaker has to be. Woolf was known for his amicable and strictly ethical approach to negotiating a deal.

He shared his knowledge in a 1990 book called Friendly Persuasion. And that’s when I met him.

So here now, from 1990, Bob Woolf.

Bob Woolf died in 1993. He was 65.

Behind the Scenes with Teresa Godwin Phelps: The Coach’s Wife

Bill Thompson

Teresa Godwin Phelps was a noted and respected law professor for several decades, at Notre Dame and American University

But to the public at large, she was better known as the wife of legendary Notre Dame basketball coach Digger Phelps.

She called her 1994 memoir The Coach’s Wife, a rumination on the joys and the frustrations of being in the shadow of such a public figure. And trying to navigate the sometimes-murky waters of college athletics.

Photo by J Rosenfeld

Ironically, it was 50 years ago today, January 19, 1974 that Digger Phelps’s Notre Dame team recorded perhaps its greatest victory. That was the day that the Fighting Irish upset John Wooden’s UCLA, ending the Bruins’ 88-game winning streak.

So here now, from 1994 Teresa Godwin Phelps.

In 2019 Professor Phelps retired from Washington College of Law and is currently Professor Emerita.

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Cyndy Garvey

Bill Thompson
Photo by Cal Montney, LA Times

Major League baseball fans will remember Steve Garvey, the charismatic All-Star first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1970s and 1980s.

On the field, Garvey was a superstar.

In his personal life, however, not so much, according to his ex-wife Cyndy Garvey.

There’s was a messy and public divorce in the late 1970s.

And, according to Cyndy, she took much of the blame from loyal Dodgers fan who couldn’t believe allegations accusing Steve of cheating and abuse.

Steve and Cyndy Garvey with their daughter, 1975. Photo: LA Times

She put it all in her 1989 book The Secret Life of Cyndy Garvey.

And that’s when I met her. So here now, from 1989, Cyndy Garvey.

Cyndy Garvey celebrated her 74th birthday this month.

More than 30 years after his retirement from baseball, Steve Garvey has not yet won election to the baseball Hall of Fame.

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Ron Luciano

Bill Thompson

They say baseball is a funny game. No, really, it’s a funny game full of funny characters.

In the 1980s, one of the best chroniclers of those characters was former Major League umpire Ron Luciano.

Luciano umpired in the American League from 1969 to 1979. And along the way, he collected hundreds of stories about some of the most colorful characters in Major League Baseball, past and present.

I met Ron Luciano in 1989, as we talked about his book Remembrance of Swings Past.

So here now, from 1989, Ron Luciano.

Ron Luciano died in 1995. He was 57 years old.