Dan Cook

[Chris Duel]

I just received a text message from a legitimate source that Dan Cook has passed away tonight.

I have not confirmed this yet, but the source appears very solid.

If this is true, it is a very sad night in San Antonio.

[Chris Duel]

Sadly, MySA.com confirms...

Dan Cook, a San Antonio legend whose career as a sports columnist and broadcaster spanned more than a half-century, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 81.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Sad day for San Antonio. Godspeed, Dan.

[Chris Duel]

Thoughts and Prayers with Dan and his family.

Without question, there has been no broadcaster nor columnist more legendary in San Antonio than Dan Cook.

[braeden0613]

RIP Dan

[monosylab1k]

First time I read it, I thought it said Dane Cook and I literally leaped for joy.

But unfortunately, a human being who brought actual value & substance to the Earth died instead. RIP

[1369]

I grew up with Dan.

God speed sports man.

I guess the fat lady has sung....

[Chris Duel]

Local sports icon Dan Cook dies

Web Posted: 07/03/2008 11:05 PM CDT

San Antonio Express-News

Dan Cook, a San Antonio legend whose career as a sports columnist and broadcaster spanned more than a half-century, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 81.

Insightful, humorous, colorful and brutally honest, Cook spent 57 years in the newspaper business — 51 of those at the San Antonio Express-News — interviewing sports’ greatest legends, from Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey to Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Paul “Bear” Bryant and Tom Landry.

Cook joined the Express-News on Aug. 14, 1952, as a copy editor and writer, and became an award-winning columnist and sports editor for the Evening News.

He was executive sports editor of the Express-News from 1960-75, when he became a full-time columnist.

In addition to print journalism, Cook worked as a sportscaster at KENS-TV for 44 years, from 1956-2000. It was there in 1978 that Cook uttered the famous phrase, “The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings,” which is listed in Bartlett’s “Familiar Quotations.” He later said he first used the phrase in a column about two years before.


More coverage
• Dan Cook, a retrospective



The two jobs helped to create a macho, yet fatherly image that, coupled with his folksy, shoot-from-the-hip style, made him a South Texas institution.

“When they write the final history of San Antonio newspapering, his name will be up at the top,” said Frank A. Bennack Jr., CEO of the Hearst Corp., vice chairman of the board of directors and chairman of the executive committee.

Bennack was editor and publisher of the San Antonio Light from 1967-75, during an era when there were two daily newspapers in town. He said he made frequent efforts to recruit Cook from the Express-News because of the loyal following Cook enjoyed all across South Texas.

“I finally had to buy the (Express-News) to get him,” Bennack quipped. “Readers loved him. Audiences loved him. He was the genuine article.”

Former Express-News editor and publisher Charles Kilpatrick, who knew Cook for more than 50 years, said his good friend exuded authority.

“People believed that if Dan Cook said it, it must be true,” Kilpatrick said. “And he wrote in such a way that everyone understood what he was talking about.”

Cook’s pseudonymous Benjamin P. Broadhind character, a fast-talking, barroom bettor who served as Cook’s alter ego, became a reader favorite. Kilpatrick said Cook made Broadhind so lifelike, many people thought he was a real person.

Cook’s opinions often would get him into trouble. He didn’t always say or write what was politically correct. As a result, especially in his early years at the paper, he often received hate mail accusing him of being a racist.

Kilpatrick said he never tried to censor Cook, who came to represent the voice of the common man and average fan.

And Cook wasn’t afraid to criticize. In a column during Roger Maris’ quest to break Babe Ruth’s home-run record in 1961, he ripped the New York Yankees slugger as “a brooding, immature crybaby who would have been run out of baseball by the sharp-tongued bench jockeys of Ruth’s day.”

Cook had no explanation for his longevity.

“I’ve never figured it out,” he once said. “All I know is I outworked a lot of people. I thought they’d fire me after about three years, and probably should have.”

A book, “The Best of Dan Cook: Collected Columns from 1956 to 1990,” was published in 2001. The first printing of 5,280 copies sold out in less than a month.

Cook’s work habits still are the stuff of legend around the Express-News Sports Department. Former sports editor Barry Robinson, now the newsroom’s director of administration and recruitment, was hired by Cook in July 1969.

Then, Cook was writing six columns a week, delivering two sportscasts a day at KENS-TV (in those days the TV station was owned by the newspaper and KENS stood for Express-News Station) and doing two daily radio commentaries, in addition to his duties as sports editor.

Robinson marveled at Cook’s output, calling it “nearly super human.”

As for Cook’s popularity, Robinson had a simple explanation.

“He was going to be the same around Darrell Royal as he was the beer vendor at the ballpark,” Robinson said, referring to the legendary former football coach of the Texas Longhorns. “Everybody loved Dan.”

Cook had a chance to go to Chicago and be a syndicated columnist, Robinson recalls, but stayed because of the “love affair” he had with the public in San Antonio.

“I think Dan knew it was a special relationship,” Robinson said, “one that could never happen anywhere else.”

The stories about Cook — as well as Cook’s stories — are as legendary as the man himself.

Blackie Sherrod, who retired in 2003 as sports columnist at the Dallas Morning News after 60 years in journalism, was perhaps Cook’s best friend in the business. He and Cook were part of a breed of sportswriter that lived for the big game and big event, then went to their favorite watering hole afterward to relive it all.

They helped to form the “Geezers Club” that met once a year in Dallas and included such newspaper icons as Edwin Pope of the Miami Herald and Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Sherrod said Cook was always the life of the party and his keen wit never failed to make him laugh.

One of his favorite Cook stories came when the two were covering the Kentucky Derby one year. He said prior to the race, a friend of theirs approached Cook, an avid bettor, and asked him about one of his daughters. She wanted to know where he planned to send her to college.

“It all depends on who wins this race,” Cook said.

Cook is survived by his wife, Katy; daughter Marie Gian and her husband, Mike, of Rockport; son Danny Cook and his wife, Laura, of San Antonio; daughter Alice Ann Ashton and her fiancé, Doug Beauchamp, of San Antonio; and three grandchildren, Brad Gian, Dani Parker and Britney Ashton.

[1369]

For you "youngsters" who never had the privilege of a Dan Cook sportscast or a column (Always like the Derby columns), you missed out.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

My mom just came in and reminded me of a story I had no trouble remembering.

When his book came out, she wanted to get it for me as a gift for my birthday. She went to the E-N to purchase a copy and Dan came out to give it to her. She asked if he'd sign it, he agreed and asked who he should make it out to, she mentioned my name and he remembered who I was from years before when I worked with him as an intern at KENS Sports.

I still have that book on my shelf and I read it cover to cover the day I received it.

I remember getting into a shouting match with him my first HS football season in the newsroom when I tried to get him some updated scores. We both had it out on the set, but he came in after the show and we worked it out. The stories that man told, the lessons he taught... I'll always remember those.

[Chris Duel]

MySA.com has a very nice video retrospective on Dan Cook

Here it is...

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA.dancook.35e7cb48.html

[AlamoSpursFan]

RIP Dan. Thanks for the memories.

[duncan228]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/bharvey/stories/MYSA070408_BuckonCook.en.1f11350e.html

Buck Harvey: Dan Cook – snapshot of a full life
Buck Harvey

When someone dies, Dan Cook once wrote after the passing of his father, “You race back over rarely used memory lanes, crossing avenues long ago forgotten.”

When Cook died Thursday night, my memory lanes crossed into Arkansas.

There, 35 years ago, I remember seeing Cook for the first time. Leaning on the door of his Fayetteville motel room, sure of himself, he looked like John Wayne.

He looked like John Wayne wearing only boxers. And what I remember now isn’t his attire — but how he stood then, and how others reacted to him, and how he summed up who he was in one snapshot.

Cook, given a chance today, would tell this story on himself.

Input File ContentThe given include file is empty.

He would also tell it better than anyone else, because that’s what he was. A storyteller.

He did this from two media positions for more than 50 years. He did this with an understanding of human nature, and a confident view of right and wrong. He came at San Antonio this way in the newspaper, and at 5 and 10 every night, until no sports journalist in America was better known in his city than Cook was in his.

He wrote casually, and he didn’t care much for conventional on-air decorum, either. Maybe he had no choice; a vat of pancake makeup couldn’t have covered up those wrinkles.

Cook instead applied several layers of common sense, and his journalistic instincts were in play even when close to retirement. Then he reported Texas A&M would fire R.C. Slocum and replace him with Dennis Franchione.

Franchione called the story “idiotic,” when it was the coach who proved to be.

But Cook was far more than a reporter, and he was far more than the inventor of the fat-lady catchphrase. After decades in San Antonio he became a civic touchstone, as identifiable as any landmark.

Better yet, this landmark mixed with the crowd. Those readers and viewers who liked him would have liked him even more if they had known him.

“When you went to a sporting event and you found out Dan was going to be there,” the late, great sportswriter Jim Murray once said, “you felt good.”

You felt good for a lot of reasons. Cook came with a mix of chivalry and brass and humor, and he always came with stories.

Some were easy, since he once spent breakfast with Sam Snead, lunch with Joe Louis and a day with Babe Ruth. Some were funnier, such as the time Cook interviewed a pro wrestler on live television.

The two men sat next to each other on the set when the wrestler grabbed Cook’s forehead to demonstrate a hold. The wrestler squeezed tighter and tighter until Cook felt as if he might pass out. Cook reacted the best he could — by grabbing the wrestler where the camera couldn’t see. Cook squeezed, too.

With both men in pain but not giving up, the station cut away to commercial.

Cook didn’t concede then, and he didn’t later. Then a younger employee at his television station challenged him to a sprint. Since Cook had always stayed in shape, it was no surprise Cook won as co-workers cheered.

Cook later said he acknowledged the applause, tried to act as if he had held up just beautifully — and then ducked behind a car to vomit.

That’s Cook. He ran hard. But all of it was new to me in 1973. Then working for my college newspaper, I traveled with the veteran writers on the annual Southwest Conference football tour.

We were to visit each campus, interviewing coaches and players, and the first stop that year was Arkansas. We flew in the night before, stayed at a motel and boarded a bus early the next morning.

Someone noticed Cook was absent. They wouldn’t have waited for me, or perhaps for anyone else. But the bus pulled up to Cook’s room and gave a loud blast.

Out swaggered Cook, wearing only his boxers and a crooked smile. He was coming off a late night of poker, and his peers on the bus hollered and laughed. Even to an outsider, something was clear; Cook was the center of this world.

If he wasn’t John Wayne, he was a journalistic version. He knew who he was, and he showed it with seemingly every move. That’s how he connected to his peers, and that’s how he connected to readers and viewers.

Today, using memory lanes long forgotten, I can still see Cook through the window of the bus. And I can still see his gift.

He knew how to live.

[timvp]

:td He was a good one.

RIP

[marini martini]

[QUOTE=duncan228

He knew how to live.[/QUOTE]

[marini martini]

He did, indeed

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Son of a....

Sad sad news. Dan Cook was my favorite sports broadcaster of all time. In the age of nitwits like Stephen A. Smith and Tim Legler, Dan Cook was the consumate professional. As an added bonus, the guy knew what he was talking about, no matter the sport.

This is a sad sad day for the city of San Antonio, and maybe one day the national media will wake up and realize the loss they suffered today.

Greatest sports commentator in the history of sports. :depressed

God speed, God bless, and apparently the fat lady has sung. :(

We'll miss you, Dan.

[JoeChalupa]

Rip.

[Das Texan]

man this sucks.


godspeed dan, loved your sportscasts and columns.


RIP

[Biggems]

on a positive note, he and his family will now be at peace.....no more suffering over his illness. Mr. Cook has now left San Antonio, the Express News, and Kens 5 for that big newspaper in the sky. I bet St. Peter and Jesus will be laughing their tales off everytime they sit next to Mr. Cook.

When I think of San Antonio Sports Coverage, there are two names that I think of first....Dan Cook and Gary D. (I can't spell his last name, so I abbreviated it). I am thankful that I was born in the mid 70s. I was able to experience both of these outstanding personalities. I had Dan in the newspaper and on the Sports at 10. I never watched the 5 oclock news, I was always busy playing or doing homework. Gary D. had the HS football broadcasts. Both had legendary voices.

Just as I was sad the day the Tom Landry dies, Jacques Cousteau died, and Dale Earnhardt died.....I am also sad today cause Dan Cook died.....Just as the other 3, with Dan Cook I missed my opportunity to meet him in person.

Thank you Mr. Cook for all the wonderful memories. Thank you for your insight, your sports coverage, your alter ego, and your awesome stories. Tonight, San Antonio lost a hero and a friend.

May God Bless you and your family always.

[SpursFanFirst]

My mom just came in and reminded me of a story I had no trouble remembering.

When his book came out, she wanted to get it for me as a gift for my birthday. She went to the E-N to purchase a copy and Dan came out to give it to her. She asked if he'd sign it, he agreed and asked who he should make it out to, she mentioned my name and he remembered who I was from years before when I worked with him as an intern at KENS Sports.

I still have that book on my shelf and I read it cover to cover the day I received it.

I remember getting into a shouting match with him my first HS football season in the newsroom when I tried to get him some updated scores. We both had it out on the set, but he came in after the show and we worked it out. The stories that man told, the lessons he taught... I'll always remember those.

I'm really bummed now. :depressed
Thanks for sharing your story, JB! What a great memory.

I wanted to work with the old crew at KENS since I was a child.
Working with Chris Marrou would be my last chance, obviously, but it doesn't look like that will be happening.
Why doesn't anyone ever leave the directing positions in SA, dang it?! :bang

[N.Y. Johnny]

Damn, we was just talking about Dan Cook in another thread yesterday.

RIP Dan Cook, what a legend this guy was, and like I said in the other thread I"m not from here and this guy is a SA Icon. I absolutely loved watching him do the sports and I enjoyed how Marrou busted his balls and did the news reels with him.

Godspeed Dan Cook, there will never be another like you.

[angelbelow]

RIP dan.

[Mr. Peabody]

Wow. What a drag.

While, I enjoyed Dan Cook's sport segments, I most enjoyed his unscripted on-air commentary about the news that was being reported that day. When it was reported that San Antonio was #1 in obesity during a broadcast, Dan Cook made an off the cuff remark that if then-city councilman Juan Solis left town we would drop to #2. :lmao

Dan was truly a San Antonio icon.

[pooh]

Yeah we were just talking about Dan Cook - it's a sad day indeed. *head hanging low*

[curtismedellin]

I commented in the Spurs Forum but just had to give my condolences here as well.

RIP Dan Cook

[Twisted_Dawg]

I loved Dan's story about the time he was interviewing that wrestler Fritz Von Erich live on the 10 PM news. This guy's schitck was to act like he was from Germany with accent and all when in reality he was some former football player from North Texas. Anyway, Dan asked him what made him so famous, and Von Erich screamed out with a German accent, "The Iron Claw!" The he slapped his big hand on Dan's forehead and started "applying" The Iron Claw. Dan was standing behind a podium and later said he slugged Von Erich in the balls to escape the Iron Claw. The podium hid the punch.

RIP Dan. We appreciate all those wonderful years of your reporting.

P.S. A few years ago I spoke with Dan in a bank line in Castle Hills. He was all about telling me about this little squirrel he trained in his back yard that would run over to him and tak a peanut out of his hand. He was so proud of that squirrel. We talked a bit and be bemoaned the problems of getting older. I told him, "Dan, you know you are old when you out live your dick." He laughed so hard in that bank line I will never forget it.

[KEDA]

San Antonio has lost a legend.

One of the greatest of all time has passed, his work will always be remembered.

RIP and Godspeed Benjamin P Broadhind, you will be greatly missed.

[samikeyp]

I grew up with Dan.

God speed sports man.

I guess the fat lady has sung....

Amen.

I had a friend who worked at the E-N and Dan Klepper who used to write the outdoors column had a big barbeque every year and brought me once. I met a bunch of the E-N sports staff including Dan Cook. He was a great guy and fun to talk to. A lot of what was grilled was wild game. My friend was shorter and smaller than I am so I kinda towered over him. Mr. Cook shook my hand and told Klepper "Better put another hawk on the fire for this one!" What was even funnier was the game of croquet they all tried to play all being less than fully sober. Good stuff.

The world just got a little colder. :depressed

[Southwest Texas Fan]

RIP Dan the sports world will miss you.

[sa_butta]

A legend of Sportscasting in San Antonio, you will be missed.

Thanks for the memories, God be with him and his family.

R.I.P.

[Taco]

http://mikespeaksout.blogs.com/mikespeaksout/images/fat_lady_sings.jpg

R.I.P.

[spursfan09]

:(

Rip

[bigzak25]

Godspeed Mr. Cook...

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

I grew up spoiled by Dan Cook. KENS was pretty much the only newscast my parents ever watched, which meant that Dan Cook was pretty much the only sportscaster I ever saw. As a young kid I just grew up thinking that every sports caster was this good. It seemed reasonable enough because Cook made it look so easy every single night. Needless to say that idea was shattered pretty quickly when I'd try changing the channel. I can't think of another sportscaster I saw that was fit to carry Cook's luggage.

Without ever picking up a ball Dan Cook became an SA sports institution second perhaps only to the Spurs. That says it all.

[T Park]

Benjamin P Broadhind, one of the funniest characters I've ever read in print.

Dan Cook's columns were always well written and always fantastic.

[sUPER sOAKER]

how did johnny blaze keep his job after arguing with dan cook over high school foosball scores?

[Jimcs50]

:depressed


RIP

[Please_dont_ban_me]

R.i.p

[fatsack]

I don't have any insightful Dan Cook stories, but i do know when I'd call the Express-News sports desk to report various high school football/baseball scores, more times than not it was Dan Cook himself answering the phone. I was always impressed by that.

rip, dan.

[S_A_Longhorn]

Sorry to break up the over-praising of Dan Cook, but I read this in the Express News:

Sept. 19, 1961: In a column during Roger Maris' quest to break Babe Ruth's home run record, Cook rips the Yankees slugger as ‘a brooding, immature crybaby who would have been run out of baseball by the sharp-tongued bench jockeys of Ruth's day.'

Sorry but that is crap by Dan Cook. If anyone saw the movie '61', you'll understand the misconception the media had of Roger Maris. Cook should have written about things he knows about here in San Antonio.

That being said, best wishes to his family for his passing.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Sorry to break up the over-praising of Dan Cook, but I read this in the Express News:

Sept. 19, 1961: In a column during Roger Maris' quest to break Babe Ruth's home run record, Cook rips the Yankees slugger as ‘a brooding, immature crybaby who would have been run out of baseball by the sharp-tongued bench jockeys of Ruth's day.'

Sorry but that is crap by Dan Cook. If anyone saw the movie '61', you'll understand the misconception the media had of Roger Maris. Cook should have written about things he knows about here in San Antonio.

That being said, best wishes to his family for his passing.
you got that from a movie? i hope you didn't see E.T. or War of the Worlds. :rolleyes

[N.Y. Johnny]

Sorry to break up the over-praising of Dan Cook, but I read this in the Express News:

Sept. 19, 1961: In a column during Roger Maris' quest to break Babe Ruth's home run record, Cook rips the Yankees slugger as ‘a brooding, immature crybaby who would have been run out of baseball by the sharp-tongued bench jockeys of Ruth's day.'

Sorry but that is crap by Dan Cook. If anyone saw the movie '61', you'll understand the misconception the media had of Roger Maris. Cook should have written about things he knows about here in San Antonio.

That being said, best wishes to his family for his passing.


Maris was 'a brooding immature crybaby' during that chase, he let it get to him and couldn't handle it. YES I LOVE MARIS, got a 9 Yanks jersey, but he didn't exactly handle it well and Dan Cook was far from the only columnist writing that, in fact that was nothing compared to how the NY media crucified Maris as some backwards slackjawed Hick. Funny but Mickey Mantle was from Okllahoma and they embraced him. :lol

[Heath Ledger]

I guess he went to the big Su Fi in the sky. You will forever be remembered Dane, watch out for the chupacabra up there...

[tlongII]

Never heard of him. Interesting that he's the one that came up with the "Fat lady" saying though...

[AlamoSpursFan]

Never heard of him. Interesting that he's the one that came up with the "Fat lady" saying though...

He's also responsible for "Katy bar the door".

[Heath Ledger]

And don't forget the Chupacabra...

[FromWayDowntown]

Cary Clack with a poignant and well-done tribute:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/columnists/cclack/stories/MYSA070808.3C.Clack.2b5105d.html

Cary Clack: As always, Broadhind says it best
San Antonio Express-News

They call me Sleuth. C.C. Sleuth.

There are a million stories in the naked city, and the best storyteller of them all was Dan Cook.

The July heat was mixed with sadness on the day that the self-described “conductor of this tour” would be making his final stop at Sunset Memorial Park on Austin Highway.

A couple of hours before the services, I was driving down McCullough Avenue when I saw a 1985 green Plymouth in the parking lot of Audry's Mexican Restaurant. Knowing that it belonged to Benjamin P. Broadhind, I stopped to see how the big fellow was doing.

For several decades, Broadhind, a rotund former bookmaker with an insatiable appetite, had been Cook's confidante, betting guru and needler with an uncanny ability to leave Cook to pay his extravagant dining bills. Broadhind starred in several of Cook's Express-News sports columns, but since Cook's retirement in 2003, he'd disappeared, and inquiries about his whereabouts were as successful as finding nonalcoholic beer at Willie Nelson's Fourth of July bash.

In the back of the restaurant, Broadhind had squeezed into a booth. A stack of empty plates was to his right, but there were still five entrées before him that he'd yet to dig into, and he was only staring at them.

I ordered No. 11 1/2 on the menu, the one called “Dan Cook's Favorite,” which is the enchilada plate and half an order of bean nachos.

“You could have had one of mine,” said Broadhind.

Sure enough, all five of his untouched plates were the “Dan Cook's Favorite.” Broadhind had chili on his tie and his eyes were red as if he'd been crying.

“How you doing, Benny?” I asked.

“I'm all right,” he sighed. “But ... I'm going to miss that kid.”

“We all will. Have you been crying?”

“Me! Of course not!” he sniffled. “Allergies. And I lost a bundle on Big Brown in the Belmont Stakes. My grandfather's 25-year-old mule could have outrun him and he only had three legs, one eye and vertigo.”

“If you say so.”

“You know,” Broadhind continued, “me and Dan go back 50 years. I first met that boy before he had his first wrinkle, when Jim Brown and Johnny Unitas were tearing up the NFL and before Red McCombs got his first million.”

Looking out the window, he sighed and stuffed a fistful of chips into his mouth, not with his usual zest but as if out of habit.

“You sure gave him a hard time,” I said.

“Yeah, but he knew I was just teasing,” said Broadhind. “I hope he knew.”

“Of course he did, Benny. Everybody knew Dan was crazy about you.”

“And I was crazy about him,” Broadhind said, sniffling and turning away to wipe something from his eye.

“It's OK to cry, Benny,” I said.

“Who's crying?” he said, exhaling some chips my way. “It's these darn allergies. And the Spurs, I thought this was the year they'd finally get that even-numbered year championship.”

“Did you have a favorite column of his?”

“All of them, son,” Broadhind said. “Even when he wasn't on all cylinders he was still a couple of cylinders ahead of most scribblers.”

“Darrell Royal says that he ranks with the best sportswriters.”

“He does, but when it comes to practicing the trade of being a good human being, he was THE BEST,” said Broadhind as he banged his fist on the table, causing the stack of plates to shake and rattle. “You put together all the hearts that will be in the Cotton Bowl at the next Texas-Oklahoma football game and it wouldn't be as big as Dan's heart. He was the best man Benjamin P. Broadhind ever knew. It's time to go.”

He then did something rare for him and pushed away untouched plates of food and paid the bill with a generous tip.

As we stood in the parking lot, Broadhind stared in the direction of the Express-News building.

“This city isn't going to be the same,” he said.

“You going to the funeral?” I asked.

He shook his head and said, “No, kid, I don't think I can. I've already said goodbye to him.”

We both got into our cars. When I looked back, I saw Broadhind, sitting behind the wheel with his face buried in his hands, bawling. He stopped, and as he wiped his face and headed north on McCullough I knew it was the last time I or anyone else would ever see Benjamin P. Broadhind again.

There are a million stories in the naked city. No one knew more or could tell them better than the incomparable Dan Cook.

[samikeyp]

Nice.

[S_A_Longhorn]

you got that from a movie? i hope you didn't see E.T. or War of the Worlds. :rolleyes

Just because it was in a movie DOESN'T mean WASN'T true, idiot. Especially when the Maris family was involved with the movie and it was directed by longtime Yankee fan Billy Crystal. Why do you think McGuire related to the Maris family during his chase of Maris' record???



Maris was 'a brooding immature crybaby' during that chase, he let it get to him and couldn't handle it. YES I LOVE MARIS, got a 9 Yanks jersey, but he didn't exactly handle it well and Dan Cook was far from the only columnist writing that, in fact that was nothing compared to how the NY media crucified Maris as some backwards slackjawed Hick. Funny but Mickey Mantle was from Okllahoma and they embraced him. :lol

True, that is what that movie showed (to the complete surprise of Viva above). But it is also true that the media criticism only increased in New York throughout the year before Dan Cook even paid attention to the chase. The NY media and all of NYC wanted Micky Mantle to break that record, not the free agent from Kansas City. Mantle was a true-Yankee, brought up thru the Yankee farm system. Maris was a hired-gun and got treated as such.

That wasn't fair to Maris, and he was completely unprepared for it, especially coming from a small media market like Kansas City. His quiet demoner was seen as a 'brooding immature crybaby'. Imagine if Duncan had played for New York.

It makes Cook's comment that more stupid. Cook wrote his words about Maris in September, near the end of the season and only ate up the NY media coverage without looking at the situation.

Watch the movie, VIVA, and educate yourself about the subject next time.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

I'm not saying it's true or it isn't, but do you really think his family was going to say he struggled with the criticism?

[S_A_Longhorn]

Maris started losing his hair from the daily stress of the media, not the chase. Maris had passed away when the movie was made, so why wouldn't the family want to share his story?

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Maris started losing his hair from the daily stress of the media, not the chase. Maris had passed away when the movie was made, so why wouldn't the family want to share his story?

I didn't say they wouldn't talk about him, I said they likely wouldn't classify him as a "brooding crybaby," if he truly was. RIF.

[AlamoSpursFan]

You people should be banned for derailing a thread honoring the memory of Dan Cook with a stupid internet argument.

[duncan228]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA070808.1DdanCOOK.en.40c60ca.html

Dan Cook: Tales flow as admirers pay respects at visitation
By Dan McCarney

It was billed as a visitation and rosary for Dan Cook, the beloved San Antonio media icon who died last Thursday at 81.

But for his immediate family, Monday's gathering at Sunset Memorial Park and Funeral Home was more like a marathon with roughly 300 friends and fans filing past, each one anxious to express condolences and share their favorite Dan Cook tale.

“My dad would have been shocked,” said daughter Alice Ann Cook. “He would have been a bit embarrassed, too. All these people, just to see him.

“All the stories they have to tell. It took forever to get through the line.”

Neither rainy weather nor rush-hour traffic could deter Cook's many admirers. At one point, the line stretched nearly the length of the main hall, about 20 pews deep.

Many of the attendees knew Cook closely.

One, former St. Mary's basketball coach Ed Messbarger, still suspects Cook was responsible for the Texas College Coach of the Year award he won back in the 1970s.

Though Cook never admitted it, Messbarger figures there was no one else who could have garnered such an honor for a small-school hoops coach in a state infatuated with football.

“I couldn't believe it, to see Dan's picture in the paper,” Messbarger said. “My God. He really meant a lot to me.”

Unable to get time off work in Houston, former Brackenridge football star Warren McVea — whose signing with Houston in the early 1960s was first reported by Cook — sent his sister CharlesEtta McVea in his stead.

“My brother and Dan stayed in touch over all those years,” she said. “He thought Mr. Cook was a great man, a great man and a good person.”

McVea was one of the last to work her way through the line. Even after the rosary had ended and the well-wishers were nearly gone, the Cook clan was still catching its collective breath.

“It's overwhelming, to tell you the truth,” Cook's son Danny said.

Cook's funeral service will be held at 3 p.m. today at Sunset.

[Sunshine]

He's also responsible for "Katy bar the door".


I had heard that years ago, but in actuality, the phrase comes from a poem written in the 1800's by James Whitcomb Riley called 'When Lide Married Him'

When Lide married him - w'y, she had to jes dee-fy
The whole poppilation! - But she never bat' an eye!
Her parents begged, and threatened - she must give him up - that he
Wuz jes "a common drunkard!" - And he wuz, appearantly.
Swore they'd chase him off the place
Ef he ever showed his face
Long after she'd eloped with him and married him fer shore!
When Lide married him, it wuz "Katy, bar the door!"

I have many fond memories of listening to Dan Cook while my parents watched KENS news. We've indeed lost a legend.

[AlamoSpursFan]

Well then he's responsible for bringing it into the 20th Century.

:lol

[degenerate_gambler]

KENS had a really good hour long tribute to Cook last nite. The final video accompanied by the song "Danny Boy" was moving.

[Sunshine]

KENS had a really good hour long tribute to Cook last nite. The final video accompanied by the song "Danny Boy" was moving.

It was great! We recorded it last night and I watched it this morning and yes, the Danny Boy ending was a tear jerker.