Dan Cook

[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 ." 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.

[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]

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 ins ution 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]

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.

[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.

[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/col...k.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 appe e, 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.

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.

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.