VL-IV (15) A Fairly Easy Level Of Play, pages 327/331

[Joe Allonby]

He also infamously once described his "color man" Bill Russell as
having a "watermelon-eating grin" on-air during an NBA playoff game.
Mr Russell was not pleased.

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 1:23 PM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
>
>>
>>       A teacher had told Prairie's class once to write a paragraph on
>>       what sports figure they wished they could be. Most girls said
>>       something like Chris Evert. Prairie said Brent Musberger.
>
> Here's Musburger's apparent claim to fame:
>>
> Educated at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Musburger began his career as a sportswriter for the now-defunct Chicago American newspaper. In his column in that paper, Musburger famously referred to Tommie Smith and John Carlos as "black-skinned storm troopers" for their protest of racial injustice in the United States with a Black Power salute on the medal stand during the 1968 Summer Olympics. Asked about his comments decades later, Musburger granted that his words, which likened Smith and Carlos to Nazis, were "a bit harsh," but he stood by the core of his criticism of the pair's action:
>
>  "Did [Smith and Carlos' action] improve anything?... Smith and Carlos aside, I object to using the Olympic awards stand to make a political statement."
> — Musburger, as quoted by The New York Times in 1999
>
> Prairie's naming of Musburger makes the point that athletics gets dissipated by TV coverage (I guess), but given the above, Musburger seems an odd choice of a sportscaster.
>
> Laura
>
>