After 15 years, Al McGuire has found out ”true happiness” isn`t all it`s cut out to be.
McGuire, who brought his street-wise, New York-accented vocabulary to the broadcast booth after coaching Marquette to an NCAA title in 1977, begins what is likely his final college basketball season for NBC on Saturday.
For McGuire, who talked of ”sea shells and balloons” and ”aircraft carriers” and ”French pastry” while others dwelt on ”Xs” and ”Os,” it`s a bittersweet farewell tour.
”Because of all the dollars I get paid ($500,000 a year at last report), it seems like the best of all possible worlds,” McGuire said earlier this week. ”But in TV, it`s the exposure that counts, because you can make the dollars in supplementary ways.”
McGuire, who didn`t divulge his salary but joked NBC gives him ”more than five or six times what I`m worth,” has always supplemented his network salary with speaking engagements. And he would have liked to do other TV work this season. But even though NBC has no college basketball inventory to speak of, ”they won`t let me go,” he said.
The Great Midwest had contacted McGuire about doing some of the new conference`s telecasts, but ”I want to sit back a little bit,” he said. And he didn`t want to knock NBC. ”They`ve been good to me,” he added.
Underneath the calm exterior, however, is a fierce competitor who, despite turning 60 last Sept. 7, still wants to mix it up with all those
”too-proper” analysts out there (kindred spirits Dick Vitale, Jim Valvano and old pal Billy Packer excepted, of course).
”The problem is that I have no agent,” said McGuire, who tried to work out his own deal only to find out ”networks can`t talk to each other. It`s a little bit of one-upsmanship. I`m not hurt, but I`d rather do something than nothing. Right now, I feel I`m better off waiting.”
McGuire`s last three-year contract, which he signed in 1989 before the network opted for a $600 million deal with the NBA (thereby shutting out college games), technically doesn`t end until after the 1992 Summer Olympics. But he hasn`t heard from the network. An NBC staffer said no decision has been made yet on Olympic basketball analysts for either the over-the-air or its pay-per-view telecasts.
”What happens with me is a fear: `Ohmigod, he`s going to say this or that,` ” McGuire said. ”Even at this stage, (network) people have a fear of me. A fear of what I`ll say. I`m really just a loner. But in public, I speak up.”
And speak out, which sometime has gotten McGuire into trouble.
More Top Picks Best 75 Inch Tvs
”I know I can make a game better,” he said, ”but I`ll never step on the person I`m working with. Never. If anyone puts a clock on analysts, I guarantee the amount of time I talk is half of anybody else.
”My college work is done Feb. 22,” said McGuire, adding wistfully, ”I know I`ve got moss on me, but I`ve got a lot of legs.”
In other words, McGuire would like to do more games after this season,
”but if it`s not there, I`ve had a good run. And I don`t think it`s there anymore. The networks are all tightening up. They`re all having other problems, and it`s not worth the aggravation to take on someone who`s freewheeling, a flower child of yesteryear.”
So it`s goodbye to McGuire ”unless something comes up that would quiver. I`m still having great times, but you know what? True happiness is always a little bit more. A liiitle bit more.”
And then he laughed. For the fun and enjoyment he`s given the past 14 years, he deserves a liiitle bit more.
– ABC has changed its golf lineup for this year, starting with Sunday`s final round of the Tournament of Champions. Gone are Roger Twibell and Dave Marr as host and analyst, respectively. They are replaced by Brent Musburger, once criticized by Tom Weiskopf for his lack of expertise at the Masters, and Steve Melnyk, like Musburger a former CBS employee. Also joining ABC is Mark Rolfing, an NBC golf analyst for four years.
– Ripple effect: Steve Olken, former sports reporter and weekend sports anchor, replaces Ron Gleason as afternoon sports anchor at WMAQ Radio. Gleason is the first sports director at WSCR Radio. . . . At ”The Score,” former WIND and WBBM talk-show host Dave Baum has been hired to host ”selective”
Saturday mornings starting Jan. 18. ”He`ll do four consecutive Saturdays and then take time off for his business,” said Gleason.
– WGBO-Ch. 66 is carrying 13 games of the Raycom Big 10 weekend package (in addition to assorted Northwestern and Indiana contests), with WLS-Ch. 7 taking eight (starting with Saturday`s Michigan-Minnesota contest) and WPWR-Ch. 50 one (Iowa-Illinois Feb. 23). Illinois, whose weeknight games are carried on WPWR-Ch. 50, will appear twice on WGBO (Jan. 18 vs. Michigan and Jan. 25 vs. Minnesota), while one Northwestern game (Feb. 22 vs. Michigan) is on WLS.
– Darren Pang, who weighed just 135 pounds while playing for the Blackhawks, takes viewers through the trials of putting on 40 pounds of goaltending equipment on ”Centre Ice” at 7 p.m. Saturday on SportsChannel.
– Turner Sports has named Fred Hickman and Nick Charles to anchor TNT`s Winter Olympics coverage, with John Naber as on-site interviewer and reporter based in Albertville. . . . Bob Ley, who has been at ESPN since its inception in 1979, moves into the anchor role of the 6 p.m. ”SportsCenter” show from his usual 10:30 p.m. spot to spearhead the cable network`s coverage of breaking news stories. ”Bob is one of the best newsmen in sports
television,” said ESPN managing editor Steve Anderson, ”and his role will help discount the theory that sports is just the toy department of life.”