Harry Wismer | |
|---|---|
 Hosting theSports-Ten show on theMutual Broadcasting System | |
| Born | (1913-06-30)June 30, 1913 Port Huron, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | December 4, 1967(1967-12-04) (aged 54) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Florida Michigan State College |
| Known for | Sports broadcaster, CharterAFL owner: New York Titans (1960–1962) |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 2 |
Harry Wismer (June 30, 1913 – December 4, 1967) was an American sportsbroadcaster and the founder of theNew York Titans franchise in theAmerican Football League (AFL).[1][2][3]
Harry Wismer was born on June 30, 1913, inPort Huron, Michigan, to Fred R. Wismer and his wife.[4] Wismer displayed great interest and prowess in sports at an early age. He was a multiple sport star atPort Huron High School, but bad grades temporarily derailed his college plans and he entered a private school, earning letters infootball,basketball, andbaseball atSt. John's Military Academy inDelafield, Wisconsin.[4]
Wismer playedcollege football at both theUniversity of Florida andMichigan State College, his playing career ending at the latter school when he damaged a knee severely during a game against theUniversity of Michigan. He then began broadcasting Michigan State sports on MSC's radio stationWKAR in a position arranged for him by Spartans head coachCharlie Bachman. In1934, he was hired as the public-address announcer for theDetroit Lions. The Lions were in their first season inDetroit and were owned byGeorge A. Richards, who also owned Detroit radio stationWJR. Wismer soon began doing a ten-minute daily radio show covering the Lions in addition to his PA duties, while continuing as a student at Michigan State.[5]
After the 1936 season, Wismer was encouraged by Richards to abandon his studies and come to work for WJR on a full-time basis as the station's sports director. Among Wismer's WJR duties was serving asplay-by-play announcer for the station's Lions broadcasts. In August 1940, he resigned to join the Maxon, Inc., advertising agency as an account executive, with the provision that he would continue to broadcast Lions' games.[6] In 1941, he was hired by theNBC Blue Network, the predecessor toABC. During the 1940s Wismer was named Sportscaster of the Year three years running bySporting News magazine.[7] In 1947, he was named one of 10 outstanding young Americans of the year by the U.S.Jaycees, along with congressmanJohn F. Kennedy, historianArthur Schlesinger, Jr., and physicistPhilip Morrison.[8] However, a subsequent management change at ABC led to a new regime that was hostile to sports, and Wismer became a free-lancer, selling his service to the highest bidder. Wismer became known for an enormousego and developed a reputation as a "namedropper", preferring to announce the names of celebrities of his acquaintance who were in the audience to the actual game action, and was alleged at times to include them in the crowd of games which he announced when they were in fact elsewhere.[citation needed]
In the late 1940s, he provided the voice talent to numerous 16 mmcollege football films. Wismer often added the sound commentary long after the games were over, and added a radio-style commentary with sound effects such as referee whistles to recreate an authentic sound. He was owner of HarFilms, a short-livedNew Orleans–based sports film production company. He appeared in the1948Hollywood productionTriple Threat as a football broadcaster.[9]
Wismer achieved the height of his fame as the voice of theWashington Redskins. His first game for the Redskins was a most inauspicious one in December1940, their 73–0 loss to theChicago Bears' great "Monsters of the Midway" team in the1940 championship game. At one point Wismer was a 25% owner of the club as well, with the majority of the stock being retained by the founding ownerGeorge Preston Marshall. However, the relationship between the two had greatly degenerated by the mid-1950s over several issues, not the least of which was Marshall's steadfast refusal to sign anyblack players. The relationship dissolved in claims, counterclaims, and litigation, and Marshall then set out to destroy Wismer's future as a broadcaster, with some success. Wismer was also involved for a time in the broadcasting ofNotre Damefootball.[citation needed]
In 1953, Wismer was involved in an early attempt to expand football intoprime timenetwork television, when ABC, now with a renewed interest in sports, broadcast an edited replay on Sunday nights of the previous day's Notre Dame games,[10] which were cut down to 75 minutes in length by removing the time between plays, halftime, and even some of the more uneventful plays. (While this format was not successful in prime time, a similar presentation of Notre Dame football later became a staple of Sunday mornings for many years onCBS withLindsey Nelson as the announcer.)
Also, that season was the first attempt at prime-time coverage of pro football, with Wismer at the microphone on the oldDuMont Network.[11] Unlike ABC's Notre Dame coverage, DuMont's NFL game was presented live on Saturday nights, but interest was not adequate to save the DuMont Network, which had by this point already entered what would be a terminal decline (although it did mount a subsequent 1954 season of NFL telecasts, minus Wismer, which proved to be one of its last regular programs).[citation needed]
Wismer was a charter owner in the AFL, which was announced in 1959 and began play in1960. He was one of two owners with experience in sports team ownership and in broadcasting. He had previously been a part owner of theDetroit Lions (alongside Buffalo'sRalph Wilson) and on the board of directors of theWashington Redskins.
Wismer devised a plan in which the proceeds from the broadcast rights to league games (initially withABC) would be shared equally by all teams and set the standard for all future professional football television broadcasting contracts.[citation needed]
Wismer owned a franchise in the nation's largestmedia market. However, he had realized that the fledgling league needed for all of the eight franchises to be successful in order to survive long-term.[citation needed]
Unfortunately for Wismer, his own team, despite being located in the nation's largest city, was probably the most problematic in the league in its initial years. For one thing, the team was relegated to playing its home games in the rundownPolo Grounds, which had been abandoned after theNew York Giants baseball team relocated toSan Francisco at the end of1957.
However, Wismer's biggest challenge was that, unlike the majority of AFL franchises, his team was in direct competition with an established NFL team. Since1956, the NFL footballGiants had been playing across theHarlem River in prestigiousYankee Stadium inThe Bronx, and the New York media for the most part was derisive and dismissive of the Titans, when it deigned to mention them at all. For most New York sports reporters of the era, professional football in New York City began and ended with the Giants.[citation needed]
Further, Wismer's volatile personality was of little help in terms of earning any sort of goodwill from either his then-current or former colleagues: he resented not only other media figures, but alsoDallas Texans ownerLamar Hunt, whom Wismer referred to as a rich boy whose father had bought him a football team as a toy. Wismer also had an ongoing feud with AFL commissionerJoe Foss, and had at times a far-less-than-warm relationship with the Titans' first head coach,Hall of FamequarterbackSammy Baugh, who had been the losing quarterback in the73-0 blowout in 1940 (which also marked Wismer's debut with the Redskins as noted above).[citation needed]
The other serious flaw in the Titans' business plan was that Wismer lacked the funding that some of the other early AFL owners, particularly Hunt and Oilers owner Bud Adams, possessed. For the most part, their wealth had come from sources outside the field of sports.[citation needed]
Although professional sports were already quite popular in the U.S., even the "established"major leagues were still far from the lucrative industry they were shortly to become, and teams in this era still generated most of their income from ticket sales. While Wismer's broadcasting rights plan would ultimately revolutionize professional sports, particularly football, the television contracts negotiated during Wismer's AFL tenure were nevertheless worth a pittance compared to subsequent contracts, and as such, broadcasting revenues were still little more than a relatively minor sideline compared to gate receipts.[citation needed]
During this era, even NFL teams (especially those whose owners lacked substantial business interests outside football) survived only by carefully managing their finances. In contrast, AFL founder Hunt, who was well aware of the challenges he faced, intended to use his own wealth to underwrite the inevitable early losses and expected his fellow AFL owners to do likewise, which was not a viable plan for Wismer since his wealth, such as it was, had come entirely from his sports involvement.[citation needed]
The blue-and-gold Titans drew 114,682 paying fans to the Polo Grounds in the initial season in1960, which ranked last in the AFL: this fell to 107,119 in 1961, and then collapsed to a mere 36,161 total for seven home games under new head coachClyde "Bulldog" Turner - after the season, Wismer was broke.[1][2] Only loans from other AFL owners, including Wilson andHouston Oilers ownerBud Adams, kept Wismer and the Titans (as well as several other teams including theOakland Raiders andBoston Patriots) afloat.[citation needed]
This was a necessity for the league to remain viable, as U.S. broadcasters have traditionally had a very limited level of interest in team sports leagues without a viable New York franchise, due to the size of that market area. Wismer, who had long tended to live "hard-and-fast", began to drink even more heavily, and eventually ruined his relationships with all of the other AFL owners, even Adams.[citation needed]
They arranged the March1963 sale of the team to a more financially stable group of investors headed bySonny Werblin,[12][13][14] who rebranded the team as the Jets in April and hiredWeeb Ewbank as head coach.[15] In an ironic twist, the Titans name would eventually be revived three decades after Wismer's death by the aforementioned Adams when he rebranded the Oilers as theTennessee Titans after moving his team toNashville.
The now green-and-white Jets were still at the Polo Grounds in 1963, with four of their home games on Saturday nights,[16] before they moved into the newShea Stadium in1964, where they played for two decades.[17][18] When Werblin signedUniversity of Alabama star quarterbackJoe Namath in January1965 for a package worth a then-unheard of value of roughly$430,000, the Jets, and the AFL, were made. The Namath signing, his subsequent stardom, and a new, more lucrative television contract withNBC, led more than any other single factor to theAFL–NFL merger.[citation needed]
When Werblin sold his share of the team in May1968, the franchise value had gone from $1 million to $15 million in those five years.[15] On the other hand, Wismer was left embittered, with debts totalling approximately $2.5 million, and eventually struggled to settle for 78 cents on the dollar.[citation needed]
Wismer wrote a book,The Public Calls It Sport, which was something of a combinationautobiography and explanation of hisphilosophy of life. Sales were not particularly brisk. He got involved in theMichigan Speedway project, which, to his great chagrin, was very slow to get under way. Wismer's health, far from brisk, broke completely fromdepression andalcoholism on top of his other problems after a trip overseas. In 1967, he sought treatment at theMayo Clinic forcancer before returning to his hometown of Port Huron, where he underwent more treatments, including the replacement of his cancerous hip.
Largely given up on, Wismer rallied, and soon fulfilled his desire to return to New York City. Once there, he found that he was no longer a celebrity or even much noticed, and of those who did notice, more held him in contempt than liked him. His drinking problem returned with a vengeance, and on December 3 he suffered a fall at arestaurant while drunk, falling down a flight of stairs. Still weakened from his earlier health problems, he died early the next morning on December 4.[19] Anautopsy gave a skull fracture as being the immediate cause of death. Wismer's brother John, a Port Huron radio station owner, claimed ever afterward Harry had been thrown down the stairs bymobsters, though for what reason wasn't clear. Today Wismer is remembered primarily as something of an eccentric rather than as a crucial founder of the AFL and one of the creators of professional football's modern era through shared broadcast revenues.
Wismer was married twice. His first wife, Mary Elizabeth Bryant, was related to theHenry Ford family. They divorced in 1959. His second marriage in 1962 was to Mary Zwillman, the widow ofNew Jersey mobsterAbner Zwillman. Mary Zwillman Wismer was appointed as the Titans' nominalchief executive officer.[20][21] He had two children: Wendy and Henry.[4]
In the documentary seriesFull Color Football: The Story of the American Football League, former New York Titans players speculated that Wismer's marriage to Mary Zwillman was partially based on Wismer believing that Mary had a substantial inheritance from Abner that Wismer was then going to use to finance the team.
"...no matter how good you think you are, how shrewd you are, there is always someone down the block, across the street, in the next town, who is a little better, shrewder, more ruthless."
FromThe Public Calls It Sport
In a song onCommentary! The Musical, a bonus feature on the DVD ofDr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog,Simon Helberg mentions his character Moist's fear of stairs, commenting "That's how Harry Wismer died."
While pulling the New York Titans and the AFL together, Wismer was approached by writerGeorge Plimpton, who asked to join the team's training camp for aSports Illustrated profile. Wismer agreed, later forgot about it, and Plimpton ended up playing with and writing about Wismer's old team, theDetroit Lions, for the magazine and in the bookPaper Lion. Plimpton on Wismer: "He was an odd man. He used to say 'Congratulations' to many people he met, on the grounds that they had probably done something they could be proud of."[22]
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