I've been lucky to work with a number of talented people in my 30 plus years in television. One of the greats that I had the good fortune to spend more than half a dozen years with passed away Saturday. Dan Henry was 89.
Dan stands out to me because he was the last of a breed in television news. He was quite simply, a weatherman. He didn't have a meteorology degree, a must in this day and age. The only other non-meteorologist that I worked with that's still doing his think is KSAZ's amazing Dave Munsey in Phoenix, another heavyweight I had the pleasure of producing.
I had been told that in a previous life, before television, Dan had been a science teacher. Even without the meteorology degree, Dan was by far and away the most popular weatherman in Kansas City television and was one of the most popular television talents in the city, period. The guys at Kansas City's National Weather Service loved him.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Dan was polarizing for the audience. You either loved him and his quirky sense of humor, or you hated him. But the biggest thing was, everyone knew Dan Henry. I loved Dan because he embraced the changing technology that came to his weather office. First it was the weather computer. Dan, charmingly, tossed his magnet board aside and worked that computer into his shtick, complete with appropriate cartoons.
Dan loved wrapping himself in green in front of the chroma key wall, appearing before the viewers on Halloween as a floating head over a skeleton or some other bit of handywork drawn on the computer. But when severe weather came around, Dan was all business. And the addition of doppler radar, the first in the market by many years, cemented his role as the go to weather guy in Kansas City.
I loved Dan because he knew how to keep me in my place. I produced hundreds of his weathercasts and he knew to the second how much time he should get. If I gypped him one night he'd teach me a lesson by going 30 seconds long, just to remind me who helped pay my salary. And on the night's I needed him to bail me out because of some sort of technical mishap, Dan would always cheerfully come to my rescue.
Dan Henry was an integral part of WDAF's ratings resurrection in the 1980's. He had been with the long suffering, ratings dormant station for more than a dozen years when News Director Mike McDonald executed ratings gold. It was a combination of a great anchor team, Stacy Smith and Cynthia Smith, sports director Frank Boal along with the unflappable Dan, that helped steamroll the competition. When Stacy departed for Pittsburgh, Phil Witt filled his shoes and we never skipped a beat.
Dan is a Kansas City television legend. I'll never forget that smile, his love of all things Irish and his barbershop quartet. He made life in the tough business of television news bearable for dozens of up and coming young journalists, including me. Good bless you Dan Henry.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
The Son-In-Law
Prime racing season came to Southwest Florida Saturday night with the best 5K you can find in the area. It was a family affair at the Edison Festival of Lights 5K. My son-in-law Vlad, step-daughter Natasha and granddaughter Masha all toed the line with me for the big race. This marked the fourth or fifth time I've run this twilight affair that follows a crowd filled parade route through the streets of Fort Myers.
The only problem with this gem of a 5K is a crowded start and you better be able to withstand the smell of barbeque along the entire race course. A Kenyan won the men's race barely dipping under 14 minutes, which gives you an idea of the swift nature of this out and back race. When I first moved her I could run it under 21 minutes. Last night I ran just a few ticks over 24 minutes, a real disappointment.
Much to my surprise I finished 4th in my age group, good enough to take home a trophy. In all the years when I could still run relatively fast I usually finished right outside the top 5. Another surprise came from the son-in-law, who ran a personal best of 20:59. It was a PR by about 90 seconds.
I asked Vlad, who just turned 40, two months ago, when he was running, because I never see him run. He confessed that he was sneaking out after I leave for work and packing on the miles since the beginning of the year. He managed to finished 2nd in his age group. He was incredibly happy as we all were.
Just a couple of weeks before I had run another 5K where I somehow managed to win my age group running under 24 minutes. I'm beginning to get some longer runs in which should help my endurance. Now, I've just got to convince myself to do some "safe" speedwork. I've gone more than a year without getting injured. I want to keep it that way.
The only problem with this gem of a 5K is a crowded start and you better be able to withstand the smell of barbeque along the entire race course. A Kenyan won the men's race barely dipping under 14 minutes, which gives you an idea of the swift nature of this out and back race. When I first moved her I could run it under 21 minutes. Last night I ran just a few ticks over 24 minutes, a real disappointment.
Much to my surprise I finished 4th in my age group, good enough to take home a trophy. In all the years when I could still run relatively fast I usually finished right outside the top 5. Another surprise came from the son-in-law, who ran a personal best of 20:59. It was a PR by about 90 seconds.
I asked Vlad, who just turned 40, two months ago, when he was running, because I never see him run. He confessed that he was sneaking out after I leave for work and packing on the miles since the beginning of the year. He managed to finished 2nd in his age group. He was incredibly happy as we all were.
Just a couple of weeks before I had run another 5K where I somehow managed to win my age group running under 24 minutes. I'm beginning to get some longer runs in which should help my endurance. Now, I've just got to convince myself to do some "safe" speedwork. I've gone more than a year without getting injured. I want to keep it that way.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Dean
News of Dean Smith's passing gave me pause to consider the weight of his contributions to college basketball. John Wooden may have been the game's greatest coach but Dean Smith must certainly rank second. He didn't as many national championships as he probably should have, but his teams were always in the hunt.
I take pride in the fact that Smith came from Kansas. He played basketball at the University of Kansas under the great Phog Allen. He was offered the Kansas job a couple of times in the 1980's and said no both times, resulting in two in hires of Larry Brown, a North Carolina grad and Roy Williams, who coached as an assistant under Smith.
The two schools, Kansas and North Carolina, owe much to each other. The coaching legacy between the schools is so intertwined between head coaches and assistants that only the hardcore fans see the links. What is important to remember is that Dean Smith but Kansas basketball back on the map. Larry Brown brought a luster back to the program that had slowly faded away under Ted Owens.
Larry escaped Lawrence after winning a miracle national championship in 1988 and after Dean said no to the job a second time, he recommended Roy Williams. As hard as it is to believe, Williams took Kansas basketball to even greater heights, even though he didn't win a national championship. Roy elevated K.U. back into the holy trinity of college basketball. He put it there with Kentucky and North Carolina and for that Jayhawk fans should always be grateful.
I only saw Dean Smith coach once in person. He brought a team that would go on to win his first national championship to Kemper Arena in Kansas City to play K.U. Much to my surprise the Jayhawks upset the Tarheels. Nothing about Smith or the game really stands out except for getting to see Michael Jordan play as a freshman.
I'm sad in a way that I didn't get to see Dean implement his famous 4-corners offensive scheme. It's a fixture of a bygone era, rendered almost useless by the shot clock. It still stings when I recall how a top-ranked Notre Dame used that same offense to hold off an upset minded Kansas in double overtime back in 1974. I don't know whether to blame Smith, Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps, or Irish freshman sensation Adrian Dantley for that difficult loss.
It shows how Smith's influence stretched across basketball, not only through his great players and the outstanding coaches like Brown, Williams and George Karl that stem from his tree, but what he brought to other schools and the game as a whole.
I take pride in the fact that Smith came from Kansas. He played basketball at the University of Kansas under the great Phog Allen. He was offered the Kansas job a couple of times in the 1980's and said no both times, resulting in two in hires of Larry Brown, a North Carolina grad and Roy Williams, who coached as an assistant under Smith.
The two schools, Kansas and North Carolina, owe much to each other. The coaching legacy between the schools is so intertwined between head coaches and assistants that only the hardcore fans see the links. What is important to remember is that Dean Smith but Kansas basketball back on the map. Larry Brown brought a luster back to the program that had slowly faded away under Ted Owens.
Larry escaped Lawrence after winning a miracle national championship in 1988 and after Dean said no to the job a second time, he recommended Roy Williams. As hard as it is to believe, Williams took Kansas basketball to even greater heights, even though he didn't win a national championship. Roy elevated K.U. back into the holy trinity of college basketball. He put it there with Kentucky and North Carolina and for that Jayhawk fans should always be grateful.
I only saw Dean Smith coach once in person. He brought a team that would go on to win his first national championship to Kemper Arena in Kansas City to play K.U. Much to my surprise the Jayhawks upset the Tarheels. Nothing about Smith or the game really stands out except for getting to see Michael Jordan play as a freshman.
I'm sad in a way that I didn't get to see Dean implement his famous 4-corners offensive scheme. It's a fixture of a bygone era, rendered almost useless by the shot clock. It still stings when I recall how a top-ranked Notre Dame used that same offense to hold off an upset minded Kansas in double overtime back in 1974. I don't know whether to blame Smith, Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps, or Irish freshman sensation Adrian Dantley for that difficult loss.
It shows how Smith's influence stretched across basketball, not only through his great players and the outstanding coaches like Brown, Williams and George Karl that stem from his tree, but what he brought to other schools and the game as a whole.
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