Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [20]
BILL CREASY, Vice President of Programming:
Chet and I knew each other from the 1950s. He came to New York and went to work for a small company called Sports Programs, Inc., on 42nd Street. I came to New York at the same time and ended up working at a company called Sports Network, a production-oriented outfit. We did a lot of stuff together—Big 10 basketball, Southwest Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference. Chet and I liked and respected each other.
His path took him to ABC and then on to NBC, where he had a top job. My path took me to CBS, where I produced Super Bowls I and II. Super Bowl I came at a time when there was a lot of competitiveness between NBC and CBS—NBC doing the AFL, CBS doing the NFL. Pete Rozelle made a deal that Super Bowl I would be produced by CBS Sports people, and NBC would take the feed and have its own booth with its own people. Each network would have its own pregame show, and we would share the feed out of the winners’ and losers’ locker room.
As the producer of the show, I ran the first production meeting we had in Los Angeles, but there was a lot of tension in the room. Nobody was really talking to each other. Finally, Chet spoke up. “I want everybody in the room to understand that Crease is the boss. What he says goes.” That was a great thing for Chet to do. We then proceeded to make chicken salad out of chicken shit.
Chet and I stayed in touch over the years. I left CBS to become president of a hockey team in California. The owners of that went bust. Then I came back, formed a little company of my own, did some shows for Time-Life films, did a show with Dick Monroe, who was then publisher of Sports Illustrated—we put it on CBS. Chet was at NBC and offered me a job to take over weekend sports, and a show that was quite successful in England called Grandstand where you go off to different sports events. At that time, I was, and continue to be, a serious horse race fan, and I had produced half a dozen Derbys and Preaknesses and Belmonts and did all kinds of stuff.
So I got home one day and on my phone is a message from Jack Dreyfus of the Dreyfus Fund, who was chairman of the New York Racing Association and who for me was a god of horse racing. He said, “Bill, do you think you would find a moment to come out to the racetrack and talk to me about something?” Yes, sir, I’m on my way. He offered me the job to be senior vice president of radio, television marketing, and advertising, reporting directly to the chairman. So I got Chet and his great NBC offer here, and I got Dreyfus with that offer there. My God, what am I going to do? Three days later, I decided to go to work at the racetrack. It was a once-in-a-lifetime offer to work for someone so incredible like Dreyfus in a sport that I just fucking love. It was hard when I said no to Chet, and he was unhappy for a couple years. Then Chet called and wondered if I would be interested in coming up to Connecticut and help him start this cable network, so I went up to Bristol. What a shit hole. I mean, what were they thinking? But I liked challenges, and this was certainly a challenge.
GEORGE GRANDE, Anchor:
I worked in New Haven doing radio and television, then got a job working for the local CBS affiliate WCBS in New York. During the week I ran the sports news feed that went out to all the affiliates every day at five o’clock, and I’d compile the sports news and then little by little I worked my way into doing pre- and postgame interviews with CBS Sports. During my travels, especially at Giants Stadium, I’d run into Scotty Connal from time to time, and I think Scotty saw the way I worked, the way I operated. One of my strengths has always been in situations that are free-flowing, ad-lib, seat-of-the-pants kind of situations, and I think he saw that. When he and Chet left NBC to go to ESPN, Scotty called to ask if I’d be interested in doing the opening weekend. They were worried they weren’t going to be able to get Jim Simpson out of NBC in time. I went to my people at CBS and said, “Do you mind if I do this?”—because I had a contract with