Although the late radio legend didn’t invent the genre of sports radio, Eddie and pals,Jim McCarthy and Mark Witkin were inspired by the pioneering quartet known as “The Voice of Sports” whose number included journalists Jake Liston, Tim Horgan, Eli Schliefer, and George Sullivanto create their own offbeat version called The Sports Huddle.
The Huddle was a mix of Firesign Theater, Mad Magazine, and the booth from the Fells Point Diner from Barry Levinson’s autobiographical masterpiece “Diner.”
Their Sunday night broadcasts were informed, subversive, and often hilarious.
Eventually Eddie moved on to have his own weekday program where he ruled sports talkin Boston for parts of two generations.
It was my privilege to have been his studio guest on several occasions, the last being a decade agofrom his roost at Boston Herald radio.
I’m tipping my Boston Braves cap and dicing a small Vidalia onion to sprinkle on my Fenway frankin honor of one of Boston’s true sports characters.
Please, give my best to Florence Wishmeyer.
Lest we forget……
*Eddie created the Sports Huddle Shuttle (taking kids to games)
*Held a contest (“Super Foot”) in England to land a place kicker for the Patriots. Who better than a soccer player?The winner, Mike Walker, eventually made the Pats roster and served as kicker for a brief period whilealso working on the stadium grounds crew.
*Created the Hot Dog Safari at Suffolk Downs, featuring his favorite chopped onions while raising hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for charity.
*The Huddle, Sundays from 7-11
*Can you name the Boston sports figure that he referred to as Chiang-Kai-Shek? (answer below)
*Who can forget the 2 glasses of prune juice ordered on air for a 6:45 AM delivery to Howard Cosell’s hotel room in Detroit room that went instead to Don Meridith….who joked with them on air about it….Eddie , for many years, referred to Cosell as the “Oasis of Truth.”
*He added custom flavors to their Seymour’s Ice cream ads..Banana Baloney, Patriot Crunch, Prune Bruin, Cherry Salami, Pigeon pecan,.*Famed questions..including, Who was Florence Wishmeyer? (we still don’t know)
*He challenged fans to sing “Take me out to the ballgame” in a foreign language…and elicited 30 entries for one show.
*Held a date Derek Sanderson contest..winner was 73 year old Mabel Hodgkins..Sanderson took her to Bachelors Three and then out to play pool.
*Legendary on-air phone calls…Astrodome to ask if they could promote hockey doubleheaders there…Grauman’s Chinese Theater for Yaz’s headprint….Buckingham Palace to exchange two Patriots guards for two of theirs….RCMP to ask them to find the Stanley Cup…
*Legendary callers…Giant hater #22…etc…
*He and the huddlers had no credentials or privileges..paid their own way
*Dorchester born Andelman one of the Brookline HS pantheon with Mike Wallace, Paul Pender, Bob Kraft, Theo Epstein, Sam Kennedy, etc.
*His wife, The Fabulous Judy…was annoyed at his screed against pioneering sportscaster Barbara Borin.
*Famed columnist George Frazier was a fan. When Globe fired Frazier The Sports Huddle trio hired a plane to fly over Schaefer Stadium with banner urging him to be re-hired.
(Red Sox manager, Don Zimmer)
