Howard Cosell

Wow. Didn't know he was pounding the vodka. That's a reason to start liking him lol.

 

I tend to not like the yakkers too much, who can go on & on for hours about nothing, but Cossell was alright I guess, I'm more of a Don Dunphy guy.

 

Ali and Cossell had perfect chemistry in their interviews.

 

Howard Cosell was the KING.

When I started watching boxing in 1975, Cosell was probably at his absolute peak. He was a huge star in his own right. A household name. Kids would do impressions of him. He was very unique.

Today, every sports broadcaster seems to give their personal opinions. Cosell was basically the first sports broadcaster to do that. It made him stand out. The old guard hated him for doing it. But the American public found it refreshing and it fit in with the times.

Prior to Cosell, announcers just called the fight. Cosell would describe the atmosphere. He'd tell you when he was bored. When he was excited. When the network screwed up in making a mismatch. He was sort of a renegade.

He came to broacasting late. After his military service, he became a lawyer. Then he dumped a lucrative practice because his first love was sports. His family (and his wife's family) thought he was crazy. He started earning a couple bucks calling Youth Baseball games on the radio. He got jobs reading baseball box scores on the radio. Instead of just saying Red Sox beat the Yankee 3 to 1 ... the pitcher (whomever) struck out seven ... he'd try to paint a picture with words to make it more exciting.

He was the radio version of Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hammil, who were considered leaders in the new journalism, where stories were written more like novels using very descriptive words.

When he hosted Monday Night Football, at halftime he'd do the highlights of Sunday's games. And he'd improvise the whole thing. His halftime highlights were often the best part of the show, especially when the Monday Night game was boring. Everyone stayed up long enough to watch the halftime highlight show.

People think he and Ali had a close relationship. They didn't, really. It was more of a mutually beneficial professional relationship. Cosell really had a close personal friendship with Floyd Patterson. He called a lot of Patterson's fights on ABC radio before he (Cosell) made it to television. The Patterson family and Cosell's family were very close. Cosell's young daughters cried when Patterson lost to Johansson.

Cosell and Patterson sort of had a falling out after the Patterson-Ellis fight. Howard was angry at the decision. He knew Floyd was angry with the decision. But when Cosell got Floyd on the air a week later, Floyd was very deferential to the lone judge. It bothered Howard. He thought Floyd was being fake because he knew his true feelings. It was an era where black people were marching and protesting, and Floyd could've been a real spokesperson because he was very popular. But Floyd just wouldn't speak up even about a bad decision in one of his own fights. The families saw less of each other and drifted apart.

I marvel at Cosell's ability to call fights alone. I've said this many times, today Showtime, ESPN, DAZN may have four guys calling the fight, another doing profiles of the boxers, another doing in-the-ring post-fight interviews. Cosell did it all alone.

He was a professional broadcaster. Straight up. I don't even think Al Bernstein could call a fight alone and do all the prefight and postfight interviews. It's difficult to do blow-by-blow and also color commentary at the same time.

Cosell's falling out with ABC had to do with the fact that he was one of their biggest stars, and he wanted to make the transition from sports to the news division. He'd gotten a taste of it during the 1972 Olympic attack. Other sports announcers on other networks were making the transition to news, Cosell wanted to as well. But ABC didn't want to do that. They tried to appease him by giving him his own Network Variety Show (called Saturday Night Live - before NBC's Saturday Night Live) and also his own sports program where he could cover hard-hitting sports issues. But he wanted to do the news.

As the years passed and he got older and older (he started late anyway), and he realized it would never happen, he became very bitter. Gradually, the network phased him out.

In 1969, when Cosell was huge, Woody Allen asked him to do a couple of scenes in his movie Bananas.

The first scene he wanted Cosell to do was to cover a political assasination like a sporting event. Allen asked Don Dunphy to do it. Dunphy was commentating on fights by himself long before Cosell. But Dunphy needed a script and he couldn't improvise and Don came off very stiff (he probably should've been cut from the film). So Dunphy "threw it to Howard Cosell" and Cosell improvised his entire commentary like he would a fight. Allen loved it.

And when Cosell appeared on the screen during the premiere of Bananas, the preview audience went insane with laughter, because Cosell was so well known and such a controversial character already.

Howard did what he did. He tried to describe the scene and likened it to Clay-Liston 1, after the shooting, he fought his way through the crowd like he often did on TV when the ring would fill up with people celebrating (get out of my way, this is American television.)

Allen liked it so much he invited Howard to do a second scene, also called like a fight, where Allen and his then wife consummate their marriage on their wedding night. At one point, Howard says, "There's a cut." And a doctor comes in to check the cut. Cosell only broke character twice when Allen said he "thought he was leading" when he got cut and his wife would try it again "in the Spring," because even back then fighters didn't fight too often. Cosell laughed.

Cosell even knew how people made fun of his style and how excited he'd get calling fights. So when Allen enters the bedroom, Cosell yells "HERE COMES MELISH"

One of a kind.

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Great summary Dubblechin, most everyone loved Cosell, myself included.

maybe one day, I'll watch Banana's again, I remember howling at it one late night in my teens in the 70s, I used to love the Neurosis portrayed by of Woody Allen.

 

HBO did a great documentary on Howard around 1999 or so it used to be on YouTube.
Most people don’t know that during the 70’s ABC had Alex Wallau in the production truck on a headset relaying information and telling Howard what to say during boxing broadcasts as Howard knew very little about actual boxing. He was close with Patterson and after he fell out with Patterson he latched onto Ken Norton and was close with him. It’s why during the ring walk or right before a big fight Howard would always say “I talked to Kenny Norton last night and he said……”
Cosell was a very paranoid guy he thought everyone was out to get him. He apparently did have a drinking problem and would often completely empty the alcohol in the fridge in his hotel rooms leaving ABC to have to pick up the tab. He also liked to get drunk and dial his coworkers late at night and ramble on much like Richard Nixon used to do

 

Cosell had a certain swag to him, and it made big time fights interesting. Near the end, it was bad, but what a ride.

 

It sure was, it attracted a lot of all time greats during the late 1970's and 1980's. Alexis Arguello was working out in my hometown, one morning while doing roadwork, he was pulled over by law enforcement, the officer stated that it looked suspicious to see someone running early in the morning. Arguello was let go and left our city, it was in our local sports page, the local fans including myself were outraged by the incident. Amilcar Brusa, trainer of 14 World Champions including the great Carlos Monzon, brought his stable to my hometown to work out, he was also recruiting new talent.

 

Did anyone know that Howard Cosell was an attorney also, he offered to defend Muhammad Ali in his Draft Evasion case in 1967, Ali instead hired Hayden Covington as his attorney.

 

Who can forget on Jan 22 1973, Down Goes Frazier, Down Goes Frazier. George Foreman vs Joe Frazier I.

 

He ruins everything he narrates. He knows less then the average about what’s actually happening in the ring, man literally just says what’s happening as it’s happening. “He’s jabbing a lot, he’s got a good jab” nice contribution windbag. He’s a disingenuous, slimy looking, little rat who would be a genius if he knew a tenth of what he thinks he does. I’d pay for quality fights with him removed.

 

Would you dress up like him on Halloween buddy? You might get a lot of candy, Ha, Ha.

 

I’d give it a go!

 

Cool, I might too.

 

I have that documentary. Every boxing broadcast has a director talking to the broadcasters. All of them. Alex Wallau didn't tell Cosell what to say. They would have conversations during fights about when they were going to commercials. When they were staying between rounds. When they were going show a replay. You can hear what they are discussing in a lot of fight films that are the straight network feed.

Cosell called fights on radio and TV from ringside for nearly 30 years all over the globe, amateur and pro bouts, under sometimes ridiculous conditions. He had different directors all the time. To say he didn't know anything about boxing is ridiculous. He was calling fights before Alex Wallau ever got into boxing.

Alex Wallau and the football player Dan Dierdorf tried to succeed Cosell at ABC. Dierdorf was usually embarrassing. Wallau couldn't get a word out when a big punch landed. He'd just yell OH and Dierdorf would talk over him.

They didn't last very long in comparison.

Cosell wasn't close to Norton. He knew Ken Norton. He liked him. He knew nearly all the major fighters personally and socialized with them. Cosell at the time was a bigger star than practically all of them. He called Norton's shocking upset over Ali in 1973. He also liked Foreman and worked with him during the 76 Olympics. He liked Sugar Ray Leonard. In his books, Cosell says Patterson was the fighter he actually became close friends with.