Howard Cosell: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{Infobox Person

| name = Howard Cosell

| image = Howard Cosell.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date|1918|3|25|mf=y}}

| birth_place = [[Winston-Salem, North Carolina|Winston-Salem]], [[North Carolina]], [[United States|U.S.A.]]

| death_date = {{death date and age|1995|4|23|1918|3|25|mf=y}}

| death_place = [[New York City]], [[New York]], [[United States|U.S.A.]]

}}

'''Howard William Cosell''', born '''Howard William Cohen''' ([[March 25]], [[1918]] – [[April 23]], [[1995]]) was an [[United States|American]] sports journalist on American television.

==Early life==

Cosell was born in [[Winston-Salem, North Carolina]] and raised in [[Brooklyn]], [[New York]]. His parents had wanted him to become a lawyer. He graduated with a [[bachelor's degree]] in English from [[New York University]], where he was a member of [[Pi Lambda Phi]]. He then went to the [[New York University School of Law]] where he earned his [[Juris Doctor|JD]], and was a member of the NYU Law Review.

==Army==

Cosell was admitted to the New York state bar in [[1941]], but when the U.S. entered [[World War II]], Cosell entered the [[United States Army Transportation Corps]], where he was quickly promoted to the rank of major, becoming one of the youngest majors to serve at that time. During his time in the service, he married Mary Abrams in [[1944]], at Prospect Presbyterian Church in [[Maplewood, New Jersey]].

==Career==

After the war, Cosell began practicing law in [[Manhattan]], primarily in union law. Some of his clients were actors, and some were athletes, including [[Willie Mays]]. Cosell's own hero in athletics was [[Jackie Robinson]], who served as a personal and professional inspiration to him in his career.

Cosell also represented the [[Little League]] of New York, when in [[1953]] an [[ABC Radio]] manager asked him to host a show on New York flagship [[WABC (AM)|WABC]] featuring Little League participants. Cosell hosted the show for three years without pay, and then decided to leave the law field to become a full-time broadcaster. The show marked the beginning of a relationship with WABC and ABC Radio that would last Cosell his entire broadcasting career.

Cosell took his "tell-it-like-it-is" approach when he teamed with the ex-Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher "Big ''Numba'' Thirteen" Ralph Branca on WABC-77's pre- and post-game radio shows of the New York Mets in their nascent years beginning in 1962. He pulled no punches in taking members of the hapless expansion team to task.

Otherwise on radio, Cosell did his show, ''[[Speaking of Sports]]'', as well as sports reports and updates for affiliated radio stations around the country; he continued his radio duties even after he became prominent on television. Cosell then became a sports anchor at [[WABC-TV]] in New York, where he served in that role from [[1961 in television|1961]] to [[1974 in television|1974]]. He expanded his commentary beyond sports to a radio show entitled "Speaking of Everything".

Cosell rose to prominence covering boxer [[Muhammad Ali]], starting when he still fought under his birth name, Cassius Clay. The two seemed to be friends despite their very different personalities, and complimented each other in broadcasts. In a time when many sports broadcasters avoided touching social, racial, or other controversial issues, and kept a certain level of collegiality towards the sports figures they commented on, Cosell did not, and indeed built a reputation around his [[catchphrase]]: {{cquote|I'm just telling it like it is.}}

Cosell's style of reporting very much transformed sports broadcasting. Whereas previous sportscasters had mostly been known for [[color commentary]] and lively [[play-by-play]], Cosell had an intellectual approach. His use of analysis and context arguably brought television sports reporting very close to the kind of in-depth reporting one expected from "hard" news reporters. (More than once he was called "The [[Edward R. Murrow]] of sportscasting."{{Fact|date=June 2007}} At the same time, however, his distinctive staccato voice, accent, [[syntax]], and cadence were a form of color commentary all their own.

Cosell earned his greatest enmity from the public when he backed Ali after the boxer's championship title was stripped from him for refusing military service during the [[Vietnam War]]. Cosell found vindication several years later when he was the one able to inform Ali that the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] had unanimously ruled in favor of Ali.

In [[1970#February|February]] [[1970 in sports#Boxing|1970]], he was calling a world heavyweight title bout involving Joe Frazier and [[Jimmy Ellis]] for ''[[Wide World of Sports (US TV series)|ABC's Wide World of Sports]]'' when he made a call that would sound familiar to another boxer just three years later.

Perhaps his most famous call took place in the fight between [[Joe Frazier]] and [[George Foreman]] in [[Kingston, Jamaica]] in [[1973 in sports#Boxing|1973]]. When Foreman knocked Frazier to the mat, Cosell yelled out {{cquote|''Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!''}} This became one of the most famous lines in sports broadcasting history.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}

One of Cosell's earliest boxing calls, that seems to have become forgotten{{Fact|date=June 2007}}, came when he was on radio, calling the first Cassius Clay - Sonny Liston fight. When Liston sat on his stool refusing to answer the bell at the start of the seventh round, Cosell started screaming, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Sonny Liston's not coming out! Sonny Liston's not coming out! He's out! The winner and new heavyweight champion of the world is Cassius Clay!" At that point, he says{{Fact|date=June 2007}} that Les Keiter (his announcing partner) is heading up to the center of the ring.

During Cosell's tenure as a sportscaster, he maintained a feuding stance with legendary New York sports writer and columnist Dick Young, who rarely missed an opportunity to denigrate the broadcaster in print.

[[Image:Howard Cosell.jpg||right|thumb|Howard Cosell in a post-game recap for the first [[Monday Night Football]] game in the 1970s.]]

==''Monday Night Football''/Later career==

In [[1970 NFL season|1970]], [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] executive producer for sports [[Roone Arledge]] hired Cosell to be a [[commentator]] for ''[[Monday Night Football]]'', the first time that [[American football]] was broadcast weekly in [[prime time]]. Cosell was accompanied most of the time by ex-football players [[Frank Gifford]] and "Dandy" [[Don Meredith]].

Cosell was openly contemptuous of ex-athletes appointed to prominent sportscasting roles solely on account of their playing fame, coining the term "jockocracy" {{Fact|date=June 2007}} to describe the ever increasing practice. He regularly clashed on-air with Meredith, whose style was in sharp contrast to Cosell's.

The Cosell-Meredith dynamic helped make ''Monday Night Football'' a success; it frequently was the number one rated program in the [[Nielsen Ratings|Nielsen ratings]]. Cosell's inimitable style distinguished ''Monday Night Football'' from previous sports programming, and ushered in an era of more colorful broadcasters and 24/7 TV sports coverage.

===Olympics===

Along with ''Monday Night Football'', Cosell worked the Olympics for ABC. He played a key role on ABC's coverage of the Palestinian terror group [[Black September]]'s mass murder of Israeli athletes in [[Munich massacre|Munich]] at [[1972 Summer Olympics|1972]]; providing reportage directly from the Olympic Village (his image can be seen and voice heard in Steven Spielberg's [[Munich (film)|film]] about the terror attack). In [[1976 Summer Olympics|1976 Summer Games in Montreal]], Cosell was the main voice for [[Boxing at the 1976 Summer Olympics|boxing]]. He performed the sportscasting duties for [[Sugar Ray Leonard]]'s victorious gold medal winning bout.

==="The Bronx is Burning"===

Game 2 of the [[1977 World Series]] took place in blustery [[Yankee Stadium]] on [[October 12]], [[1977 in baseball|1977]]. An hour or so before game time, a fire started in Public School Number 3, an abandoned elementary school a few blocks from the ball park. By the time the game began at 8 p.m., the building was fully involved and the fire had gone to five alarms. A helicopter-mounted camera lingered on the scene for a few seconds and Cosell, who was calling the series for ABC, intoned in a weary voice, ''"There it is, ladies and gentlemen, [[The Bronx]] is burning."''

Cosell misidentified the building as a tenement, many of which had indeed burned down in recent years as landlords fled the borough and burned their buildings for the insurance money. Cosell's comment seemed to capture the widespread sensibility that New York was on the skids and in a permanent state of decline. Author [[Jonathan Mahler]] abridged the quote using it as the title for his [[2005 in literature|2005]] book on New York in 1977, ''[[Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning]]''. [[ESPN]] produced a 2007 mini-series based on the book called ''[[The Bronx is Burning]]''.

===Lennon's death===

At 9:30 p.m. on [[December 8]], [[1980]], during a game between the [[Miami Dolphins]] and the [[New England Patriots]], Cosell stunned millions by announcing the murder of [[John Lennon]] live while performing his regular commentating duties on ''Monday Night Football'':

{{cquote|''This, we have to say it, remember this is just a [[National Football League|football]] game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by [[ABC News]] in [[New York City]]: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all [[The Beatles]], shot twice in the back, rushed to the [[Roosevelt Hospital]], dead ... on ... arrival.''}}

Lennon had appeared on ''Monday Night Football'' during the [[December 9]], [[1974]] telecast and was interviewed for a short breakaway segment by Cosell.

==Non-sports related appearances==

Cosell's colorful personality and distinctive nasal voice were featured to fine comedic effect in a sports-themed episode of the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] TV series ''[[The Odd Couple (TV series)|The Odd Couple]]'', as well as in the [[Woody Allen]] films ''[[Bananas (film)|Bananas]]'' and (in a brief cameo) ''[[Sleeper]]''. Such was his celebrity that while he never appeared on the show, Cosell's name was frequently used as an all-purpose answer on the popular [[1970s]] [[game show]] ''[[Match Game]]''.

Cosell's national fame was further boosted in the fall of [[1975 in television|1975]] when ''[[Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell]]'' aired late Saturday nights on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]. The show was similar in many ways to a show [[NBC]] had launched, ''[[Saturday Night Live|NBC's Saturday Night]]'', which would later become the far more well-known ''Saturday Night Live''. Despite bringing a young comedian, [[Billy Crystal]], to national prominence, the show was canceled after three months. Cosell later hosted the 1984-1985 season finale of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.

Beginning in [[1976 in television|1976]], Cosell hosted the series of specials known as ''[[Battle of the Network Stars]]''. The two-hour specials pitted stars from each of the three broadcast networks against each other in various physical and mental competitions. Cosell hosted all but one of the nineteen specials, including the final one airing in [[1988 in television|1988]].

==Controversy==

===Criticism of Boxing===

Cosell denounced professional [[boxing]] in a November 26, [[1982 in sports#Boxing|1982]] bout between [[Larry Holmes]] and a clearly out-matched [[Randall "Tex" Cobb]]. The fight was held two weeks after the the fatal fight between [[Ray Mancini]] and [[Duk Koo Kim]], and Cosell famously asked the rhetorical question, {{cquote|''I wonder if that referee is [conducting] an advertisement for the abolition of the very sport that he is a part of?''}}

Major boxing reforms were implemented, the most important of which allows referees to stop clearly one-sided fights early in order to protect the health of the fighters, while in amateur boxing, one-sided fights automatically stopped when one fighter had a score considerably higher than his opponent. Hitherto, only the "ring" physician had had such authority. Another change was the reduction of championship bouts from 15 rounds (the fatal blows to Kim were in Rounds 13 and 14) to 12 rounds by the [[World Boxing Council|WBC]]. The [[World Boxing Association|WBA]] and [[WBO]] did the same quickly, and the [[International Boxing Federation|IBF]] doing so in 1988.

===The "little monkey" incident===

Cosell drew criticism during one ''Monday Night Football'' telecast in [[1983#September|September]] [[1983 NFL season|1983]], for stating ''"look at that little monkey go,"'' when he referred to a play by receiver [[Alvin Garrett]] of the [[Washington Redskins]] regarding a run after a reception. While some saw "little monkey" as a [[racial slur]], others who knew Cosell were quick to point out that he used this term routinely in an approving way to describe quicker, smaller players of all ethnicities. Among the evidence adduced to support this claim is video footage of a [[1972 NFL season|1972]] preseason game, between the [[New York Giants]] and the [[Kansas City Chiefs]], during which Cosell refers to [[Mike Adamle]], a 5-foot-9-inch, 197-pound caucasian male, as a "little monkey."

Perhaps due to the strain of this controversy, Cosell left ''Monday Night Football'' shortly before the start of the [[1984 NFL season]], claiming that the NFL had "become a stagnant bore."{{Fact|date=June 2007}} His duties were then reduced to only [[Major League Baseball on ABC|baseball]], horse racing, and a sports news program called ''[[Sportsbeat]]''. Howard Cosell never got a chance to commentate a Super Bowl, as by the time ABC finally got into the Super Bowl rotation with [[Super Bowl XIX]], Cosell was already gone from ''Monday Night Football''.

===''I Never Played the Game'' and reaction===

After writing the book ''I Never Played the Game'', which chronicled his disenchantment with fellow commentators on ''Monday Night Football'', among other things, he was taken off scheduled announcing duties for the [[1985 World Series]] ([[Tim McCarver]] subsequently took his spot) and was released by ABC television shortly thereafter. In ''I Never Played the Game'' Cosell coined the word "jockocracy" to describe how athletes were given announcing jobs that they had not earned.

In his later years, Cosell briefly hosted his own television talk show, ''[[Speaking of Everything]]'', authored his last book ''[[What's Wrong With Sports]]'', and continued to appear on radio and television, becoming more outspoken about his criticisms of sports in general.

==Later life==

Cosell was the 1995 recipient of the [[Arthur Ashe Courage Award]].

After his wife of 46 years, Mary Edith Abrams Cosell, known as "Emmy", died in the fall of [[1990]], Cosell appeared in public less and less until his passing away in [[1995]] from a [[heart embolism]] at [[Beth Israel Medical Center]] in New York City.

==Cultural references==

* Cosell appeared on [[the Carpenters' Very First TV Special]] in 1976 as a sports reporter reporting a car race that [[Richard Carpenter (musician)|Richard Carpenter]] participated in, and ultimately, won.

* In [[The Simpsons]] episode [[Mother Simpson]], Cosell is shown as the play-by-play announcer for [[Super Bowl III]]. Although in real life, the game was shown on [[NBC]] and Cosell never worked any Super Bowl broadcasts.

* [[The Muppets]] and the cartoon ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' featured characters who were based on Cosell.

* The video game ''[[Crash Tag Team Racing]]'' features two [[anthropomorphic]] [[chicken]] sports commentators named Chick and Stew Gizzard Lips, who serve as comic relief. Chick Gizzard Lips seems to have the voice and personality of Cosell.

* The song "Boxing" by [[Ben Folds Five]] from their [[Ben Folds Five (album)|eponymous]] first album is a tribute to Howard Cosell.

* In the [[1985 in film|1985]] movie ''[[Better Off Dead (film)|Better Off Dead]]'', protagonist Lane Meyer, played by [[John Cusack]], often races against two Asian brothers, one of whom speaks in the style of Cosell, having learned English from watching the sportscaster on television. Meyer remarks, {{cquote|Two brothers... One speaks no English, the other learned English from watching ''Wide World of Sports''. So you tell me... Which is better, speaking no English at all, or speaking Howard Cosell?}} Cosell's voice was provided by legendary impressionist [[Rich Little]]. Little would later appear as himself on the episode "[[Raging Bender]]" of the animated series ''[[Futurama]]'' as a wrestling announcer, modeling his speaking style on Cosell's.

* Cosell plays himself in two episodes of the television series ''[[The Odd Couple (TV series)|The Odd Couple]]'' starring [[Jack Klugman]] and [[Tony Randall]]. Always seen battling with Klugman's character Oscar Madison, he once referred to Felix Unger (Randall's character) as an "inane drone." Translation according to Felix: "a dull bee."

* Cosell was the butt of many jokes on mid-1970s game show hit, ''[[Match Game]]''.

* In an episode of the [[Warner Bros.]]/[[Fox Kids Network]] [[1991 in television|1991]] weekday ''[[Beetlejuice (TV series)|Beetlejuice]]'' cartoon, the pilot weekday episode featured a bodybuilding contest with "Howard Grossnell" as the commentator.

* The feature film ''[[Ali (film)|Ali]]'' features [[Jon Voight]] as Howard Cosell to a very close degree, enough to earn him an Academy Award nomination.

* Cosell appears as himself in the [[1971 in film|1971]] film ''[[Bananas (film)|Bananas]]'' with [[Woody Allen]]. He played a sportscaster covering the assassination of a foreign leader at the start of the film and the consummation of Allen's character's marriage at the end. (He was said to be uneasy about doing that role, fearing it would be distasteful, but Allen was persuasive).

* Cosell had a cameo of sorts in Allen's [[1973 in film|1973]] film ''[[Sleeper (film)|Sleeper]]''. Awakening 200 years in the future, Allen's character is shown a clip of a Cosell commentary, and asked to confirm whether watching clips like these were a form of punishment for wrongdoers. He confirms it.

* The [[Turner Network Television|TNT]] feature film ''[[Monday Night Mayhem (film)|Monday Night Mayhem]]'' is about Cosell and the genesis of ''[[Monday Night Football]]'' on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] in [[1970 NFL season|1970]]. Cosell is portrayed by [[John Turturro]].

* Through the use of body doubles and old sound clips Cosell was able to help "call" the three fictitious games produced by [[NFL Films]] for their 1999 ''[[Matchup of the Millennium]]'' series.

==Quotations==

"Sports is human life in microcosm."

"Look at that little monkey go" Howard Cosell

*[http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/howard_cosell.html Howard Cosell Quotations]

==External links==

* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/memories/1995/95pass12.htm Howard Cosell Dies at 77]

* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7960 Find-A-Grave profile for Howard Cosell]

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0181763 Internet Movie Database Profile for Howard Cosell]

{{Persondata

|NAME=Cosell, Howard William

|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Cohen, Howard William

|SHORT DESCRIPTION=American sportscaster

|DATE OF BIRTH=[[March 25]], [[1918]]

|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Winston-Salem, North Carolina]]

|DATE OF DEATH=[[April 23]], [[1995]]

|PLACE OF DEATH=[[New York City|New York, New York]]

}}

[[Category:1918 births|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:1995 deaths|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:American horseracing announcers|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:American sports announcers|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:American television personalities|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:American Jews]]

[[Category:American journalists|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:Major League Baseball announcers|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:National Basketball Association broadcasters|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:New York lawyers|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:New York television anchors|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:People from Brooklyn|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:People from Winston-Salem, North Carolina|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:Boxing commentators|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:American television talk show hosts|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:American military personnel of World War II|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:United States Army officers|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:New York University School of Law alumni|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:National Football League announcers|Cosell, Howard]]

[[Category:Deaths from cardiovascular disease|Cosell, Howard]]

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[[sv:Howard Cosell]]