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PACK 18 THE SOI THERN ISRAELITE Lehman 5. 1982
Howard Cosell tells it ‘Like It Is’
by Joseph PolakofT
Special lo The Southern luoeiut
WASHINGTON Television
sportscaster Howard Cosell, now
61, wealthy and renowned, still
feels personally “insecure” because
he was bom Jewish and poor in
Brooklyn He believes most Jews
feel Israel is “insecure," too.
hile "proud” of being Jew ish. his
religion is "caring about the
human race.” He has rejected
overtures to be a candidate for
US Senator from New York and
he has scorn for many
representatives of the very sports
he describes.
At age 24 he was the youngest
U S. Army major "stateside” in
World War II but in his book
"Like It Is," Cosell wrote "despite
all the vanity I’m supposed to have,
and 1 do have my share of it, I have
an inner insecurity about my
status.” Quoting this to him,
interviewer John Callaway asked
“What is this inner insecurity that
you—a forceful, famous, now
rich, powerful man possess 7 ”
After replying, “You overstate
magnificently,” Cosel) continued:
“My inner insecurity stems from
having grown up a Jewish boy in
Brooklyn during the age of
Hitler from social insecurities
that evolved out of that, and also
from being part of a poor familv.
and always fearing that 1 would
never have enough money. These
are the insecurities to which I
refer ”
Cosell went on to explain in the
interview, which was published in
the Jewish Daily Lor ward.
America’s only Yiddish daily, that
manifestations of being a kid who
was Jewish in Brooklyn in his time
included “being poor," inability to
join "Union Temple,” or live in a
better apartment building, or be in
a club because his father couldn’t
afford them "My father had to
work like a dog and borrow every
three months from the banks to
put me through college and
through law school And when it
came time to go to college and join
the fraternities, the good
fraternities in that period of time at
my campus were gentile
fraternities. And there was one I
would have liked to have been a
part of. But I couldn't be And
things like those."
Regarding money now, he said:
“I don't think I’ve ever parted
company with the notion that
there’s not enough money because
1 don’t know what life holds," he
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said "With regard to the others,
heck we had a stormy romance.
Emms (his wife) and I My father-
in-law. a titan of American
industry, didn’t want his daughter
to marry a Jew Good Lord, he was
the club champion at Baltusrol.
Cosell
w here Jews weren't allowed And it
wasn't comfortable for him to have
me there, and I didn’t go there."
Questioned about his marriage.
Cosell said he believed that “what
was not a good marriage between
my father and mother helped make
my marriage to Emmy- and we’re
married 36 years now (and
grandparents)—about as strong a
marriage as you can see in the
contemporary society."
“What is it about your
relationship that is so strong?"
Callaway asked “When I read
your books and 1 read your
references to Emmy, 1 feel like I'm
being let in on a great love story .”
Cosell replied: “Moral
standards, values, ethics, integrity,
cultures wrought in each of us; me
in a lower-middle-class Jewish
home, she with her father, who is
Welsh, her mother, who is
Pennsylvania Dutch He is a man,
who in the old-time American
tradition, really worked his way
up.”
Told in connection with
"insecurity” that he “sounds like
a man who maybe reads Job and
knows the bottom can fall out any
hour.” Cosell replied with
references to Israel, the Holocaust
and his coverage of the PLO
slaughter of 11 Israeli athletes at
the 1972 Olympics in Munich near
the Dachau death camp
“I’m not afraid of losing my job.
not anymore.” Cosell said " I hat
was one great fear 1 always had
But now. if I left the industry
tomorrow , no. That's an insecurity
I haven’t had for years That much
I can say But an insecurity about
never hav ing enough, 1 think, is still
with me. And there will always be
an insecurity in me that stems from
being Jewish And I think most
people of the Jewish faith feel that,
and always will 1 think it's
inherent in them It’s your life on
that slope of a hill in there next to
Olympic Building 31. seven miles
from Dachau, and you know, if
you never went to a synagogue in
your life, baby, you’re Jewish. And
lam And I’m proud of it. But does
insecurity result?Yes, 1 think most
of us are insecure now about the
future of Israel And we identify
with Israel And it’s natural that we
should in the light of genocide, in
the light of the Holocaust, in the
light of what society has done over
two thousand years. Good Lord ”
Callaway then asked: “Howard,
if you know you’re a Jew, and
you’ve spoken so eloquently about
what it means to be a Jew, why
don’t you practice your faith 7
What is faith to you? Where are
you, religiously?”
“In terms of formal religion,”
Cosell replied. “I don’t think my
wife and I have ever been
anywhere. In terms of caring about
the human race, 1 think we’ve been
everywhere I don’t think religion
has to do with formality in a
church or synagogue."
“In his first two decades of
broadcasting," Callaway noted,
“Uosell has covered football,
baseball, basketball, boxing, you
name it But none of it was
preparation for what he faced in
Munich, West Germany, on Sept
5, 1972. On that day, Palestinian
terrorists murdered two Israeli
Olympic athletes, kidnapped nine
others who were to die later Lor
more than 14 hours. Cosell
covered that day’s major news
not a sports story. And it was to
have a wrenching personal impact
on him "
In this phase of the interview.
after Cosell was asked about
depoliticizing the Olympics and
holding them at one place, such as
Athens, he said that would help, be
a step "But unfortunately," he
said, “you’ve got to get a fix on
sports I he very men w ho
screamed that sports and politics
don't mix they're separate and
apart the very men who (said)
'our athletes deserve their rights.’
these are the people who have seen
to it thai they never fought foi
athletes’ rights at the Olympic
games. Now, I know I was there.
And I reported it "
What happened in Munich,
West Germany?’’ Cosell
continued. " I hev came m and
confiscated, in the darkness ol
night in the American building.
Bob Seagren’s poles. Rick
DeMont was given wrongfully, by
an American doctor, a darn drug
for his asthma that had nothing to
do with his winning the gold
medal And the 16-year-old kid
had to give it back What about the
track coach who got the two
greatest American sprinters (o the
starting barrier too late? Where
were they 7 What happened when
the Russians were given not one,
but three chances, to win a game
they had already lost in basketball?
Who was there to fight for
American rights? And then the
president rightly called for a
boycott and it worked And he was
right to answer politics with
politics. Instead, what did we
have? Screaming about athletes’
rights.
“And suddenly — I’m tired of
falsity about the Olympics Get
that neutral site Give it another
try I lay on my belly on the slope
of a little hill. JOfeetfrom Building
31 (where the II Israeli athletes
were murdered) I watched the
West German police slap their
guns over their shoulders, snap
their belts, and go up on the roof
And I saw those Arab faces come
out of the windows. And 1 saw all
of them die before it was all over.
So I say, either you find a wav to
depolitici/e it, beginning with a
neutral site, or else mark it dow n as
a noble idea that didn't work Put
it away like the sports
syndrome."
Brumos
ATLANTA