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Jimmy “The Greek” was both a tough guy and a teddy bear.
The Super Bowl pre-game began with a one-hour retrospective on the NFL Today on CBS, a look-back at the award-winning pre-game show with Brent Musburger, Phyllis George, Irv Cross and, of course, Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder. He was the one wearing gold chains and talking turkey.
I knew Jimmy when he first visited Durham and eventually moved here. I was a stringer for his syndicated column when he wanted to cover college football and basketball, two sports he knew little about and needed a so-called local expert to be his ghost writer.
The Greek died in 1996 but would be proud today that he was the ground breaker for giving favorites on the air as legal gambling has taken all sports by storm in this country. The Greek was not allowed to use point spreads or language that might help illegal bettors, but we knew who he liked.
He was controversial, for sure, from his feuds with Musburger and George to his unfortunate answer to a question on Martin Luther King Day in 1988, that was his opinion about racial superiority in sports. I knew him and he was as far from a racist anyone could be. He loved his family and the athletes and coaches he knew, and his list of loyalists numbered into the hundreds.
CBS fired him for what some people believed was the truth, and he lived out his life in regret for something he knew he shouldn’t have said to the press.
I like to remember the Greek for his huge persona and borderline obese body that drew him to the Duke diets where he lost 75 pounds in months.
Was the Greek a gambler, himself? Absolutely. He would always ask me who I thought would win the upcoming ACC games, as much for placing a bet as for what he would say on the local version of ACC Today on WTVD.
And when I told him something that turned out to be right, he gave me a hundred-dollar-bill handshake the next time I saw him.
I remember when he enrolled his son Anthony at Durham Academy, and the woman at the reception desk told him the tuition total. The Greek reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a roll of bills and began peeling off c-notes to cover the cost in full as the wide-eyed woman sat there stunned.
He missed a week of the NFL Today when he fell off the moped he was riding around his Croasdaile neighborhood, where he lived in a home with 12-foot ceilings so he could fit comfortably there.
I have dozens of stories about The Greek who was both a gruff man and fine friend. So glad he got an encore that was both true and touching.
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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