KC broadcasting icon Grigsby dies at 89
http://bleacherreport.com/tb/b8hJk
By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star
FRED BLOCHER
| The Kansas City Star
Bill Grigsby was a civic treasure.
An ambassador for Kansas City, a master of ceremonies for all occasions, and a broadcasting icon for six decades, including 46 years with the Chiefs, Grigsby died on Saturday morning. He was 89.
Services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Therese Church in Parkville, according to the family. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the church.
Grigsby handled the play-by-play for the Chiefs’ appearances in Super Bowls I and IV and called the first nationally televised Final Four in 1957 when Kansas lost in triple overtime to North Carolina at Municipal Auditorium.
He became part of the Chiefs radio team when the franchise moved to Kansas City from Dallas in 1963, missing only eight games until stepping away after the 2009 season. That ended the longest-running tenure in the NFL.
The Chiefs honored him with an on-field pregame ceremony during the 2010 season with a replay of some of his most memorable play-by-play calls.
Grigsby, who battled prostate cancer in recent months, suffered a fractured hip in a fall last week. His death comes a month after the passing of longtime Chiefs bandleader Tony DiPardo.
“Like all Chiefs fans, our thoughts and prayers are with Fran and the entire Grigsby family at this difficult time,” Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said. “Bill’s voice brought some of the most memorable action and exciting plays in Chiefs history to our fans.”
Whether it was raining, snowing, freezing or sweltering, Grigsby opened his broadcasts with his signature phrase:
“It’s a bee-u-ti-ful day for football.”
In an interview with The Star before his 30th year with the Chiefs, Grigsby said, “I don’t know how I started saying that, but I’m an optimist, and life has been ‘bee-u-ti-ful.’ It’s not phony; it’s the way I say the word.
“You have to have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is my key word for life. If you’re enthusiastic, it reflects in your work. If it’s just drudgery, that also reflects.”
Perhaps no one knew Grigsby better than Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson. Grigsby described Dawson’s exploits on the field for 12 years, including both Super Bowls, and teamed with him in the broadcast booth starting in 1984, dubbing Dawson, his ‘Ol’ Pardner.’ ”
“He’s one of the first persons I met when I came to Kansas City,” Dawson said. “He had a love for sports, but mostly, he loved people.”
• • •
Grigsby began his broadcasting career in the late 1940s handling the play-by-play for the Class C Joplin Miners, a farm club of the New York Yankees who had a young shortstop named Mickey Mantle. Grigsby moved to Kansas City in 1952 and was involved in several business and public-relations ventures.
He soon began calling football and basketball on the University of Kansas network, and in 1957, Grigsby joined Merle Harmon as radio voices for the Kansas City Athletics. Grigsby said his greatest thrill was announcing his first Athletics game, against the Yankees.
Eventually he parted ways with tempestuous Athletics’ owner Charlie Finley, but then the Chiefs came along, and Grigsby and Harmon were hired as the broadcast team for the newly christened team.
“We didn’t know what we were getting into with this football team,” Grigsby said. “When the first home exhibition game drew only 5,800 people, you wondered how long that would last.”
Grigsby handled the color commentary for most of the Chiefs’ first 22 years until 1984, when Dawson was hired. Grigsby then served as a pregame, halftime and postgame host.
Chiefs play-by-play voice Mitch Holthus shared the booth with Grigsby for 15 years as well as the dais at annual Chiefs kickoff luncheons.
“He was one of a kind,” Holthus said. “There’s not a person I know in my life I can compare him to. He was like no other. His energy was remarkable. The fact that he was ageless is an example to us all. He still wanted to contribute any way he could, no matter what birthday he was celebrating.
“There are times we put an age on a person, and we think, ‘Well, they’re done, what can they do?’ and whether it was him being involved with sponsors, or the team, or speaking, or emceeing, he didn’t want someone to stereotype him because of his age. Age wasn’t a factor with him.”
Carl Peterson, who served as Chiefs’ president during 1989-2008, said Grigsby was instrumental not only in helping Lamar Hunt get the Chiefs off the ground in the mid-1960s, but played a big part in the club’s renaissance of the 1990s.
“I know how much Lamar loved him and respected him and revered him,” Peterson said, “and how much they worked together to get the Chiefs started.”
When Peterson took over, season-ticket sales had plummeted to fewer than 25,000. In just a couple of years, the Chiefs sold more than 70,000 season tickets and had a waiting list.
“That first year, we did caravans with coaches … former players … and Bill would go with us,” Peterson said. “We’d go to Salina, Kan., to Topeka, to Iowa, Nebraska … because we needed to get out and touch the people, and he touched the people better than anybody I know.
“I didn’t ask him to, but he set up a bunch of board meetings with people in Kansas City … and he’d introduce me to all of these people, and tell them we need to sell tickets and sponsorships. He wasn’t just a man of words, he really made a difference. He was the best-connected guy I’ve ever met in a city, and everyone seemed to love him.”
Grigsby never hid his unabashed affection for the Chiefs during his many public appearances or apologized for his eternal optimism each season and each week the team played.
“Bill was a very important part of Chiefs history, going back to the very beginning in Municipal Stadium,” said Jack Steadman, who was Lamar Hunt’s right-hand man from the franchise’s inception in 1960 until his retirement in 2007. “He created a lot of enthusiasm. He was that kind of guy.
“He had a great career, he had a great life, he fought hard the last few years and kept hanging in there and kept hanging in there, and finally the Lord decided, ‘I need somebody to come up here and tell me, ‘It’s a bee-u-ti-ful day.’ ”
• • •
Grigsby was born in Wellsville, Kan., and grew up in Lawrence. He was a graduate of the University of Kansas, spent three years in the Air Force as a cryptographer and joined the Joplin Globe as a copy boy and sports reporter before moving on to broadcasting. He was also a small-college referee.
Grigsby’s contributions to the community were endless. He spent 30 years with the Greater Kansas City Convention and Visitors Bureau, was chairman of the organization in 1989 and a longtime member of the executive board.
He was a spokesman for the Platte County Committee for Economic Development and became known as the “Prince of Parkville.” Grigsby was selected Northlander of the Year by the Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce in 2005. He was a spokesman for the annual Kansas City Boat Show and other annual events that came to town.
And he represented several local businesses, doing memorable commercials for grocery stores, heating/air conditioning firms, and a restaurant in which he punctuated the end of each spot with his signature, “Jaaazzz!”
“Bill Grigsby stands out as one of our most colorful voices in Kansas City sports ever,” said Kevin Gray, president of the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission, “but he did an equally stellar job when it came to business and tourism.
“He made marvelous contributions from so many different facets, from economic development and quality of life. As a Kansas City pitchman, he was hard to top, whether he was pitching corporate execs or Chiefs’ fans, it was always a bee-u-ti-ful day.
“I don’t think anybody made me smile more than Bill Grigsby.”
Parkville dedicated a baseball field in honor of Grigsby and his wife, Fran, in 2002; and The National Golf Club in Parkville, where Grigsby maintained an office, erected a life-sized statue of Grigsby in 2007 that, martini glass in hand, greets visitors in front of the main building.
Grigsby wrote two books, his autography, Grigs! A Beautiful Life, in 2004, and followed that up a year later with Don’t Spit in the Wastebasket, which was advice he received as a young reporter in Joplin.
He also was involved in pro hockey in Kansas City, serving as assistant to the president of the Scouts, the city’s NHL franchise, during 1974-75.
Grigsby was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame for meritorious service as a broadcaster during the NAIA basketball tournament at Municipal Auditorium.
“I did just under 500 games,” said Grigsby, whose broadcasts aired in the towns of the teams competing in the tournament.
“Once I did seven games in one day. That has to be a world’s record. I did the broadcasts by myself and for $25 a game.”
To reach Randy Covitz, call 816-234-4796 or send e-mail to rcovitz@kcstar.com
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/26...#ixzz1FNmknNjW
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