First off – what are you up to now?
I pray a lot! I keep in shape – I walk 12 miles a day. When I was in television my schedule was so different – I’d get home at one am. Now, I’m up at four a.m. shoveling snow!
I have two sons who are pro baseball players. Their offseasons are crazy as they gear up for Spring Training. Christian got messed up with the Covid draft which was insane – it was only five rounds. The following season was the deepest draft in years and he got drafted in the 12th round. He now plays for the Shaumburg Boomers in the Frontier League. They have a great management team and stadium – it’s a replica of Wrigley Field!
My other son Kyler is with the Minnesota Twins Triple A team. He hit 28 homers and had 38 steals last year! We thought he’d get called up last year – we were really surprised when he didn’t – but they are a really deep team. They didn’t protect him on the 40-man roster so he could have been drafted as a Rule 5 prospect. Who couldn’t use a 28 homer run-38 steal guy! He’s confident he can make the Twins though. He’s ready to go!
When/how did it begin for you to make sportscasting entertaining versus “just the news”?
I was fortunate to come from a great family. My dad was in the military – he’s buried at Arlington Cemetary. After the military he worked for Hughes Aircraft in California and we all moved out there. He went to school through the military for Engineering at USC. Back then if you were a vet and went to USC your kids could get in too. It was a great place to go to get exposed to LA TV and sports!
I graduated in 1982 – I was a virgin – never even dated! I was a nerd I guess – I loved sports and was driven to be a sportscaster. Cable was in its infancy then – every market just had the CBS, ABC and NBC affiliate. There were no jobs to get in sportscasting – it was like being a professional athlete. But USC taught me that it would be rough – I knew I’d need an unbelievable resume.
I interned at CBS and MetroMedia at the same time and did play-by-play for radio stations for Pepperdine Basketball. I got to go to the NCAA tournament as a college student to cover when they played UCLA!
I covered baseball and the Dallas Cowboys who had training camp close by then in Thousand Oaks. I got to interview Tom Landry which was insane as a kid! I didn’t get paid a dime but got to go to games and did the post-games and fed them back.
In 1978-1982 I started covered the Lakers with Magic and Kareem, the Dodgers won the World Series and I covered them, and the Rams went to the Super Bowl against the Steelers I covered them at the Rose Bowl. The Kings were playing as well and I got to cover them. The best game I ever covered was the Kings comeback victory over Edmonton in the playoffs. They were down 5-0 in the third period and scored the tying goal with one second left and won in overtime. Edmonton never recovered from that!
So to your question… Fred Rogan was all about the story back then – he covered the Dodgers and would do skits and ask offbeat questions. He was in the locker room every day – he needed to be creative to come up with stories. I knew I had to do something different too. I got a job in Odessa, Texas – home of Permean Football – of Friday Night Lights fame! It was absolute insanity how big it was. They led with high school football on the news on Fridays – it was huge.
How did that influence your approach – and were you concerned about being taken seriously when you did offbeat stuff and on how others viewed it?
I had a lot of concern early on. I knew what I was getting into though. In ’84 I got a job in Amarillo and started doing crazy stuff there. I’d have a sports challenge segment where I’d go up against the best high school athletes. I was 24 and would play the best high school basketball players – sometimes I’d even beat them! They were 17 – but still!
I sent my tapes out to other stations. Some people loved me – Lexington, KY wanted to hire me but I couldn’t get out of my contract then. I sent my tape to the top 90 markets – that was 270 tapes. Some told me I was a total joke and would never hire me. But I got 25 job offers!
From there I went to Milwaukee – Tom Pippets was so great there. He was such a good guy. They made me the number one guy there – at 26. I did more crazy stuff there – played the top rated beach volleyball players on a Milwaukee beach when they came to town! But the new news director hated me. The Packers were terrible under Forrest Gregg, the Bucks were just ok, and after a good start the Brewers faded. I just wanted out at that point. I wanted to go to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.
Why?
I went to high school in Camp Hill, PA. I fell in love with the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh sports teams then. The Flyers and Steelers… Living in Harrisburg you got to see games from both sides of the state.
In 1987 WPXI got a new management team from New York. They were the dog station at the time – third in the market. John Howell was the guy in charge of the management team and he was a brilliant executive – not because he hired me! They were fortunate to get him. I told him there wasn’t enough coverage of high school football then in Pittsburgh. I told him I could put the station on the map covering high school football – like it was covered in Odessa. I told him if I didn’t he could fire me. I told him I just needed 10 photographers to cover all the games and five minutes of air time.
Well, the ratings went up. After I was given offers elsewhere they couldn’t match, they gave me a seven year guaranteed contract! I was in my 30s and swore that if I couldn’t retire after those seven years then it was a mistake. But I did and didn’t regret it. I stayed on to do some extra high school coverage – I knew what it meant to football in the area.
What do you think of the sports coverage in the area today?
I don’t want to take shots at people, but it’s not very good. My daughter is an anchor in Savannah – they have great local TV coverage there.
Look – when I got to Pittsburgh this is what I was up against: Bill Hillgrove and Myron Cope and Stan Savran at one station. Hillgrove was a legend, Cope was hysterical and Savran had an incredible knowledge of every team.
At the other station were John Steigerwald – who was so acerbic and entertaining, John Sanders, Bob Pompeani – who is still so good – and Rich Walsh who is also very talented. We had Sam Nover who was one of the best of all time – he broke stories and just knew everyone. We also had Derrick Gunn who went on to Philadelphia for 25 years. I was like the fourth man in our sports department. But we covered everything – it was a magical time. We knew how integral sports was to the community.
I was in Phoenix for two weeks leading up to the Steelers Super Bowl – that’s how we did it then. We did 30 minute shows every night from Phoenix for the people of Pittsburgh. None of that kind of thing is done anymore. Now it’s all bare-bones. It’s not the same. There are no big names either except Pompeani and Walsh. I think someone will wake up sometime and do it right. I knew who all the sportscasters were and those before me – now I bet none would even know who I was. But there’s an opening for high school sports coverage. They just need a local, creative person to do it. It’s a colloquial city – a good local person would do well. It’s wide open.
Lastly, what have been the best experiences and people you covered in Pittsburgh sports?
Barry Bonds – I loved him. I loved baseball even though I made my living off of high school football. My dad and I went to see baseball games all over the country – I knew baseball. Bonds was young and I think he knew I understood the sport. We had a good relationship. I never had a problem with him – I know some did. He was the greatest player I had ever seen. I loved covering him. The steroids stuff … all the guys took it then. Pitchers too. It didn’t just help with hitting. Put them all in the Hall of Fame!
Other guys – Cowher was entertaining – I knew he’d be a good coach early on. Getting to interview Chuck Noll and The Chief – those were honors.
The best experience was seeing the Penguins win their two Stanley Cups after so many rough seasons. Being in those locker rooms in Minnesota and Chicago – I appreciated the time guys like Tom Borrasso gave me in interviews. It’s a difficult thing to be a professional athlete – I understand the pressure they are always under. I’m just a media guy – I’m a visitor. They are human beings and feel the pressure every day – I appreciated the time they gave me. And seeing them win – they were good guys too – that was fun to see.