Hearn Missed Grand Farewell

How perfect would it have been for Chick Hearn to have announced that last season was going to be his last behind a microphone?

It would have been a grand farewell.

“It would have been ideal,� said longtime broadcast partner Stu Lantz. “But we do not live in an idealistic world. Unfortunately, we live in a realistic world.�

The outpouring Hearn received last season, when his consecutive-games streak was ended by heart surgery, was tremendous. So was the reception he got when he returned after a 56-game absence, an absence extended by a fall in which he suffered a broken hip.

Still, Hearn’s career as the Lakers’ voice for 42 years did not have the kind of closure one would have hoped for. There was no farewell tour, no last time for Laker fans at Staples Center to let Chick know how much he was loved, no final tribute for him to absorb.

There would have been all that had he announced that last season was his last, and he came close to doing that.

I sat with Marge, his wife, at a game during the 2001 NBA playoffs. The seat next to her was empty and as I walked by she invited me to sit with her for a while. I did, and Chick picked right up on it.

“I saw you sitting with Marge,� he said a couple of days later on the phone. “I tried to wave but you never turned around.�

He never knew, though, what Marge and I were talking about. We were plotting.

She wanted Chick to announce that he was going to retire after one more season. I wanted the story.

We agreed that a farewell tour would be to his liking.

During the NBA Finals that season, Chick and Marge invited me to their home in Encino for an interview.

After some small talk, I asked, “Have you thought about announcing next season as your last?�

Hearn glanced over at Marge.

“That’s what she wants me to do,� he said. “But that’s off the record. Don’t write that.�

So, our plan went up in smoke. There was not going to be any retirement announcement.

Marge didn’t get what she wanted--an announced retirement--and I didn’t get my story.

Going On Forever

I asked Hearn about retirement a number of times over the years. For a while, he said he’d retire when Magic Johnson did. But that didn’t happen.

It was impossible to pin him down, even after his heart and subsequent hip surgery. He acknowledged not long ago that he’d probably never actually announce his retirement. He always wanted to leave the door open.

“What if I were to say next season is going to be my last, then at the end of the season I decided I wanted to come back?� he asked. “What would I do next?�

He had Lantz convinced.

“I thought he’d go on forever,� Lantz said. “I always thought he’d still be announcing long after I was gone.�

Mystery Solved

Besides retirement, Hearn’s age was taboo. He kept it a secret for years, then did an about-face after returning to work in April, when he acknowledged he was 85.

“I’m proud of my age,� he said at the time. “You put it in the paper, so I might as well admit to it.�

The Memories

I began going to Laker games at the Forum when I first came to Los Angeles as a sportswriter for the old Herald Examiner in 1969.

At the Forum, writers would gather in the Press Lounge after their work was done. In those days, the Press Lounge really was a press lounge. No Hollywood types, no hangers-on. And the press corps was a small one, an intimate group. This was before cable television and sports-talk radio.

Chick and Marge were always there, and usually until the wee hours. Chick would often step behind the bar and help the late Bill Grainger pour drinks. Grainger really didn’t need help, since there were never that many people there.

But behind the bar was the perfect spot for Chick to regale the group. You might be the target of a jibe, the butt of a joke, but you always laughed.

Chick, icon that he was, really was just one of the guys. And he loved it.

Chick to the Rescue

I didn’t travel often with the Lakers, but I was with the team for a playoff game in Chicago in 1973.

After the game, I was getting on the team bus when a huge leg shot out in front of the door, blocking my path.

“Where do you think you’re going, my man?� bellowed Wilt Chamberlain, who as usual was sitting in the front row.

“He’s OK, Wilt,� Chick said. “He’s one of us.�

That was Chick, always making one feel he belonged.

The Ultimate Team

I probably interviewed Hearn at least 100 times, and chatted with him informally hundreds more.

I’m sure he didn’t like everything I wrote. I was particularly hard on him when he announced a Raider preseason game for local television, an assignment he’d had only a day or two to prepare for. But not once can I remember him complaining.

I remember only all the nice cards and notes from Chick and Marge, thanking me for something I had written.

The cards and notes were always signed by both. They did everything together.

Chick and Marge were a team--a great team.

Tributes

There will be a one-hour tribute, “Chick Hearn: a Life Behind the Mic,� on Fox Sports Net tonight at 7, with an encore showing on Fox Sports Net 2 at 8 p.m.

Lantz and Paul Sunderland will serve as co-hosts. They’ll be joined in separate segments by Elgin Baylor and Tommy Hawkins, followed by interviews with two of Hearn’s former broadcast partners, Lynn Shackelford and Keith Erickson.

The special also includes interviews with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Ann Meyers and many others.

Channel 9 will have a one-hour tribute Sunday at 8 p.m.

The commercial-free special will be co-hosted by Alan Massengale and Channel 9 pregame show commentator James Worthy. Guests will include Jack Nicholson and other Laker fans from the entertainment world.

Another Tribute

Bill Sharman, for one, points out that, besides being a top-of-the-line broadcaster, Hearn also had a brilliant basketball mind. In 1971-72, Sharman’s first season as Laker coach, the team won 33 consecutive games, still an NBA record, and won its first championship in Los Angeles.

“Chick had a lot to do with our success that season,� Sharman said. “I picked his brain a lot about players on other teams and how they matched up with us. He was very helpful.�

Short Waves

The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals is back on NBC for the first time since 1997. The men’s finals of the Michelob Light Manhattan Beach Open will be televised live Sunday at 1 p.m. The second hour of NBC’s coverage will be taped coverage of the women’s final Saturday.... Mary Joe Fernandez and Pam Shriver, a recent inductee into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, are the announcers for ESPN’s coverage of this weekend’s JPMorgan Chase Open at Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach. ESPN2 will televise the first semifinal match Saturday, delayed, at 7 p.m. Sunday’s final will be televised live on ESPN at 11:30 a.m.

In Closing

This week’s Hall of Fame game, ABC’s first “Monday Night Football� telecast with Al Michaels and John Madden, got a 7.0 national Nielsen rating. That’s better than the 6.3 last year but below the 7.3 for Dennis Miller’s ABC debut two years ago.

Michaels, a guest of Chris Myers and Bob Golic on KMPC (1540), was asked about the ratings.

“TV ratings are like financial books of major corporations these days,� he said. “You don’t know what is real and what you can believe.�