• Advertise
  • Donate
  • Subscribe
    • Become a print subscriber
    • Sign up for e-Newsletter
    • e-Editions
Friday, June 2, 2023
No Result
View All Result
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
  • News & Features
    • National
    • Local
    • Special Editions
      • MLK Legacy
      • Black History Month
      • The MSR Celebrates Women’s History Month
  • All Sections
    • Opinion
      • Mellaneous by Mel Reeves
      • Word on the Street
      • Reaching Out From Within
    • Health + Wellness
      • Minnesota Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Gaps Project
    • Sports
      • Timberwolves/NBA
      • Lynx/WNBA
        • 20 in 20
      • Twins/MLB
      • MN Wild/NHL
      • Vikings/NFL
    • Business
      • Small Business Month Celebration
      • Black Business Spotlight
      • Finances FYI
    • Arts + Culture
    • Photo Galleries
    • MSR Forefront Digital Roundtable Series
      • MSR Forefront Highlights
    • Go Green
    • Education
    • Bulletin
    • Jobs & Opportunities
      • Legals
  • Events
    • Submit an event!
  • Obits
  • Sister Spokesman
  • e-Editions
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
  • News & Features
    • National
    • Local
    • Special Editions
      • MLK Legacy
      • Black History Month
      • The MSR Celebrates Women’s History Month
  • All Sections
    • Opinion
      • Mellaneous by Mel Reeves
      • Word on the Street
      • Reaching Out From Within
    • Health + Wellness
      • Minnesota Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Gaps Project
    • Sports
      • Timberwolves/NBA
      • Lynx/WNBA
        • 20 in 20
      • Twins/MLB
      • MN Wild/NHL
      • Vikings/NFL
    • Business
      • Small Business Month Celebration
      • Black Business Spotlight
      • Finances FYI
    • Arts + Culture
    • Photo Galleries
    • MSR Forefront Digital Roundtable Series
      • MSR Forefront Highlights
    • Go Green
    • Education
    • Bulletin
    • Jobs & Opportunities
      • Legals
  • Events
    • Submit an event!
  • Obits
  • Sister Spokesman
  • e-Editions
No Result
View All Result
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
No Result
View All Result

‘Godfather of Sports Talk’ recalls career highlights

by
April 29, 2015
10
SHARES
202
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on LinkedIn

AnotherViewsquareConclusion of a two-part column

Sportswriter Wendell Smith covered baseball games sitting in the outfield stands because he was Jim Crowed from the press box. Such segregation, though not so overt, still is practiced today, especially locally.

Harold Bell (r) and ESPN's Michael Wilbon
Harold Bell (r) and ESPN’s Michael Wilbon

Those of us who are Black and not in the mainstream media in this town are relegated to the “Black row” at Wolves, Lynx and Gopher contests like spots on a white wall. Being disrespected “is the kind of stuff we go through” as members of non-mainstream Black media, who too often are seen and treated by teams and their lackeys as “second class,” states Harold Bell.

Sports media press boxes as a result remain today a “major media plantation” as a way of “keeping us in our place,” says Bell. What also bothers him is that too many non-mainstream Black media accept this separatist treatment because “they [are] scared of [losing] their little press pass.”

Bell is known as “The Godfather of Sports Talk,” a moniker given to him by a local D.C. reporter. “I am the only brother in sports media that got two people elected to the Hall of Fame — Willie Wood in 1989 and Earl Lloyd (in 2003) — because I know how to use media to put the pressure on,” he says.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

view.book cover.40He was the first Black to host and produce a prime-time sports special on Washington, D.C. television. He was a sports talk show pioneer who gave many their initial 15 minutes of fame on his groundbreaking Inside Sports show, including Sugar Ray Leonard, John Thompson, Michael Wilbon and others “before they became anybody,” notes Bell. “I may not have ESPN on my mic, but I got a microphone, and a lot of people pick up on what I am saying and what I stand for.”

Perhaps his greatest if generally unrecognized media footnote is his sit-down interview with Muhammad Ali shortly after Ali’s historic victory over George Foreman in Zaire in 1974.

“He wanted me to go to Zaire with him, but I was scared to go across all that water,” admits Bell. But after he turned down his request, Ali told Bell that he would later talk to him as soon as he returned from the African country.

“He called me late one night [saying,] ‘I’m back and I’m in New York City, and this is the hotel where I am staying. Bring your camera crew.’ I said, ‘OK, Champ,’ and called my boys.

“We had no money and no gas in the car. But one of my guys had a credit card, and we took that credit card, got gas, and drove [from Washington] up to New York in the wee hours of the morning,” says Bell. “He opened the door combing his hair. He told me, ‘Didn’t I tell you I was The Greatest?’ We had a fantastic time.”

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Ali waxed philosophically on various topics on film in a conversation between two friends rather than an interviewer and subject format that “scooped Howard Cosell, 60 Minutes and the entire sports media world,” says Bell, who is releasing the Ali interview as part of his Harold Bell’s Legends of Inside Sports DVD series.

“I’m a risk taker,” declares Bell, who years ago with a White reporter desegregated the Washington press row, which at the time had “Blacks on the left and Whites on the right.” The two men joined ranks and sat in each other’s assigned seat, a lunch-counter moment that moved things forward.

“I became a force because they couldn’t control me — I controlled everything that went on, and that’s unheard of today,” concludes Bell.

 

Related content: Read more on how Bell and Ali first met

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

Support Black local news

Help amplify Black voices by donating to the MSR. Your contribution enables critical coverage of issues affecting the community and empowers authentic storytelling.

Donate Now!

ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Harold Bell reflects on meeting Muhammad Ali

Next Post

Partying with Helen

You Might Also Like

So many firsts along the way for Coach Bev 
Sports

So many firsts along the way for Coach Bev 

Roof Depot secures win from legislature
Local

Roof Depot secures win from legislature

Know your operator: Lee Estis
Local

Know your operator: Lee Estis

Newly signed MN marijuana law to ‘wipe away’ minor offenses
Local

Newly signed MN marijuana law to ‘wipe away’ minor offenses

Bees can learn, remember, think and make decisions
Go Green

Bees can learn, remember, think and make decisions

Black woman shopping for produce
Health & Wellness

The impact of food insecurity on Black women’s mental health

Next Post
Keith meets Hank and Mari

Partying with Helen

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
ADVERTISEMENT

The Latest News

So many firsts along the way for Coach Bev 

So many firsts along the way for Coach Bev 

Roof Depot secures win from legislature

Roof Depot secures win from legislature

Know your operator: Lee Estis

Know your operator: Lee Estis

Newly signed MN marijuana law to ‘wipe away’ minor offenses

Newly signed MN marijuana law to ‘wipe away’ minor offenses

Bees can learn, remember, think and make decisions

Bees can learn, remember, think and make decisions

Black woman shopping for produce

The impact of food insecurity on Black women’s mental health

Minneapolis
◉
75°
Partly Cloudy
5:29 am8:52 pm CDT
FriSatSunMonTue
88/68°F
91/68°F
91/70°F
86/63°F
81/57°F
Weather forecast Minneapolis, Minnesota ▸
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Upcoming Events

Apr 6
April 6 @ 7:30 pm-June 3 @ 9:00 pm Recurring

Wit by Margaret Edson

Apr 14
April 14 @ 9:00 am-August 12 @ 5:00 pm

Paper Is People: Decolonizing Global Paper Cultures

Jun 2
10:00 am-4:00 pm Recurring

Preserving Nature Photos by Walter Griffin: REFLECTIONS

Jun 3
June 3-June 4

FANS Ultra Race

View Calendar

Read our latest e-Edition!

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Subscribe

  • Home/Office Delivery
  • Weekly e-newsletter
  • e-Editions

Support

  • Donate
  • Subscribe
  • MSR Newsstand Locations

Connect

  • About
    • MSR Staff
  • Contact
  • Send a news tip
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms

© 2023 Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

No Result
View All Result
  • News & Features
    • Local
    • National
  • All Sections
    • Arts & Culture
    • Health & Wellness
      • MN Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Gaps Project
    • Business
      • Black Business Spotlight
      • Finances FYI
      • Small Business Month Celebration
    • Opinion
    • Sports
  • Events
  • Obits
  • Sister Spokesman
  • Donate
  • Subscribe

© 2023 Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

 

Loading Comments...