{"id":1516,"date":"2021-11-24T12:04:43","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T17:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/?post_type=inductees&p=1516"},"modified":"2022-01-07T12:34:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T17:34:02","slug":"phyllis-george","status":"publish","type":"inductees","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/inductees\/phyllis-george\/","title":{"rendered":"Phyllis George"},"content":{"rendered":"

She was Miss America. She was a co-host on\u00a0Candid Camera<\/em>. But it wasn\u2019t until\u00a0Phyllis George<\/strong>\u00a0made the move to\u00a0The NFL Today<\/em>\u00a0in 1975 that her popularity became apparent: her presence on the show made it appointment viewing,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the East and Midwest,\u201d says Rich Podolsky in his book\u00a0You Are Looking Live!: The Story of <\/em>The NFL Today, \u201cchurchgoers rushed home in time to see it, and more attention meant more eyeballs watching and higher ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The road to\u00a0The NFL Today<\/em>\u00a0began in Denton, TX, a small town 42 miles north of Dallas. George\u2019s parents were hardworking Methodist people, and, as a young girl, she watched the Miss America pageant with her mom every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the day, it was the biggest thing on television,\u201d George told the University of Texas in 2018.<\/p>\n

She rose to fame as Miss America, winning the crown in 1970. But, the year before, she placed second in the Miss Texas pageant and almost swore off competing the following year. \u201cI came in second to a drummer from Longview,\u201d she told\u00a0Texas Monthly<\/em>. \u201cThe local papers had to retrieve their original headline of \u2018Miss Denton Becomes Miss Texas.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Miss Dallas organization kept asking her to run for their title. She kept saying no but relented with the possibility of scholarship money as the carrot. Little did she know she would be named not only Miss Texas but also Miss America and be destined for a career in sports TV that ultimately would give her a chance to change the industry forever.<\/p>\n

Being Miss America gave her a chance to be on arguably TV\u2019s biggest stage:\u00a0The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson<\/em>. When she told Carson, \u201cYou\u2019ll remember me. I\u2019m the klutzy Miss America\u201d (she dropped her crown while walking down the runway), viewers and the press were smitten, even though the concept of Miss America had its critics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018women\u2019s libbers\u2019\u2014 we didn\u2019t call them \u2018feminists\u2019\u2014would follow me around,\u201d she said. \u201cI was in DeKalb, IL. I kept saying, \u2018They\u2019re not picketing me; they\u2019re picketing what they think this program stands for.\u2019 So I went outside and said, \u2018It\u2019s really cold out here. Why don\u2019t you guys come in, and let\u2019s have some coffee and talk about this?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all came in,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Look, I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m exploited. I\u2019m from a small town in Texas. This is great for me. I won scholarship money. I\u2019ve done something with my life, and I can show my talent. I want to be in broadcasting. This is going to help me, so I want you to look at it that way.\u2019 Did I like being in a swimsuit? Absolutely not. I hated it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she arrived in New York after her year as Miss America, she hoped to land a job in broadcasting. Making the rounds, she ran into two young producers from CBS Sports,\u00a0Tommy O\u2019Neill<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Bob Stenner<\/strong>, and that meeting would soon prove important.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the Miss America pageant invited her back to cohost with Bert Parks, it gave her a chance to be seen on TV, and, in 1974, Allen Funt hired her as a cohost for his\u00a0Candid Camera<\/em>\u00a0show in New York. But working as the second banana to Funt wasn\u2019t exactly what George had in mind when she sought a job in broadcasting.<\/p>\n

Changes at CBS Sports at the end of the year offered an opportunity.\u00a0President Bill MacPhail<\/strong>\u00a0was quietly retired. and 38-year-old\u00a0Bob Wussler<\/strong>\u00a0was brought in.<\/p>\n

\u201cCasually, Bob Stenner and I went to Wussler,\u201d O\u2019Neill said, \u201cand we told him about Phyllis. Wussler liked her right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 13-week contract was drawn up with the promise that, if things worked out, it would become permanent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accepted Bob Wussler\u2019s offer,\u201d George said, \u201cpartly because I needed a job \u2014 always a good incentive \u2014 and partly because something inside told me I could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For one of her first assignments, she was sent to Boston to interview Celtics star Dave Cowens, who was never known for being glib. Cowens, who cherished his privacy and disliked interviews, had reluctantly agreed to the CBS request because the team management insisted it was good public relations. He also had no idea they were sending a woman. He took one look at her when she and her camera crew arrived at practice, according to George, and rolled his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, Dave, how are you?\u201d she called out to him, but he didn\u2019t respond. She tried again, and again he ignored her.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as practice was over, Cowens made a beeline for his Jeep,\u201d George wrote in her memoir,\u00a0Never Say Never<\/em>. \u201cI followed, and my producer urged me to hop in. I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy career was on the line, and I had no intention of going back to New York without talking with him. I\u2019m not going away, I thought to myself. I am getting this interview! So off we went to his log cabin on the outskirts of Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n

She kept peppering him with questions on the 45-minute drive to his cabin, getting very few answers. When they got there, he took a beer out of the fridge, offered her one, which she declined, and they settled into a couple of rocking chairs on the porch. By the time the CBS crew arrived, she had slowly started to draw him out, and the interview turned into more of a conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe rocked back and forth in his old chair,\u201d she wrote. \u201cAnd he talked and talked. As the camera rolled, I instinctively tossed aside my formal questions and talked to him like a regular human being, not like a superstar. Mostly, I asked him what I was interested to know as a curious fan, questions like What would you do if it were all over tomorrow? Are there some days you just don\u2019t want to suit up? What if you had an injury? Where would you go, what would you do? Do you ever want to settle down and get married?\u201d<\/p>\n

These weren\u2019t typical questions guys like Cowens were accustomed to hearing. Asking a player about his feelings was almost unheard of. When the piece got edited, it was obvious that George had captured a side of Dave Cowens that few people had ever seen. As she introduced the interview on the air, she said that Cowens had \u201ca little bit of Huck Finn lingering inside him.\u201d<\/p>\n

George said of the interview, \u201cI was astounded by the overwhelmingly positive response.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer and sportscaster\u00a0Lesley Visser<\/strong>\u00a0notes that Cowen didn\u2019t warm up to that many people and that was part of George\u2019s gift. \u201cShe was persistent and she was kind, so people wanted to embrace her and they rooted for her. She was someone that I think all of America fell in love with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports Illustrated<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0Melissa Ludtke<\/strong>\u00a0called it \u201cprobably the best national television piece ever done on [Cowen].\u201d Ludtke should know: she was one of the very first women permitted to report from a pro locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhyllis didn\u2019t do stories about the game,\u201d says Visser. \u201cShe did stories about the people, and she was as good as anybody who has ever done it. Players warmed up to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

George had a straightforward philosophy for an interview: \u201cI went for the heart, and the athletes gave heart back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wussler later told\u00a0USA Today<\/em>\u00a0that he knew all along she\u2019d be great. \u201cIn my gut, I thought Phyllis was pretty special. I thought there was a role for her, as somebody who could talk to guys who knew something about sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her 13-week tryout quickly turned into a three-year deal, and George was on her way. A month later, she was starring on the hottest sports show on TV and, within a year, adorned the cover of\u00a0People<\/em>\u00a0magazine.<\/p>\n

As the first season wore on, she became more and more confident in her role on the show, and the producers became more and more confident in her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all realized what we had [in Phyllis],\u201d says Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer\u00a0Mike Pearl<\/strong>, who produced the show. \u201cWhen we took the show on the road for the playoffs and Super Bowl, Phyllis was the main attraction. When we all walked through an airport or down a street together, the public would go to Phyllis. And when we went out for dinner, Phyllis was the one being asked for autographs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to Rich Podolsky for providing the majority of information in this bio from his book, “You Are Looking Live!” To order your copy today click here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1517,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[55],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductees\/1516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductees"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/inductees"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}