Dick Schaap | |
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| Born | Richard Jay Schaap (1934-09-27)September 27, 1934 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. |
| Died | December 21, 2001(2001-12-21) (aged 67) Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Cornell University Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism |
| Occupation(s) | Sportswriter, broadcaster, author |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 6; includingJeremy |
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| Awards | Red Smith Award (2002) NSSA Hall of Fame (2015) |
Richard Jay Schaap[1] (September 27, 1934 – December 21, 2001) was an Americansportswriter, broadcaster, and author.
Born to aJewish family inBrooklyn, and raised inFreeport, New York, onLong Island, Schaap began writing a sports column aged 14 for the weekly newspaperFreeport Leader, but the next year he obtained a job with the daily newspaperThe Nassau Daily Review-Star working forJimmy Breslin. He would later follow Breslin to theLong Island Press andNew York Herald Tribune.
He attendedCornell University, where he served as editor-in-chief ofThe Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper.[2] He obtained a letter in varsitylacrosse playing goaltender. During his last year at Cornell, Schaap was elected to theSphinx Head Society. After graduating in 1955, he received aGrantland Rice fellowship at theColumbia University Graduate School of Journalism and authored his thesis on the recruitment ofbasketball players.
Schaap began work as assistant sports editor ofNewsweek. In 1964, he began a thrice-weekly column concerning current events. He became editor ofSPORT magazine in 1973. It was then that he set in motion the inspiration for the eccentricities of Media Day at theSuper Bowl. Opposing the grandiose and self-important nature of theNational Football League's championship match, he hired twoLos Angeles Rams players,Fred Dryer andLance Rentzel, to coverSuper Bowl IX. Donning costumes inspired byThe Front Page, "Scoops Brannigan" (Dryer) and "Cubby O'Switzer" (Rentzel) peppered players and coaches from both the Minnesota Vikings andPittsburgh Steelers with questions that ranged from theclichéd to the downright absurd.[3][4] Schaap was also atheatrecritic, causing him to quip that he was the only person ever to vote for both theTony Awards and theHeisman Trophy. He interviewed non-sports people such asMatthew Broderick and produced cultural features for ABC's overnight news programWorld News Now.
After spending the 1970s withNBC as anNBC Nightly News andToday Show correspondent, he moved toABC World News Tonight and20/20 atABC in the 1980s. He earned fiveEmmy Awards, for profiles ofSid Caesar andTom Waddell, two for reporting, and for writing. In 1988 he began hostingThe Sports Reporters on ESPNcable television, which in later years often featured his son Jeremy as a correspondent. He also hostedSchaap One on One onESPN Classic and a syndicated ESPN Radio program calledThe Sporting Life with Dick Schaap, in which he discussed the week's developments in sports with Jeremy. He also occasionally served as a substitute anchor for ABC's late night newscast,World News Now.
He wrote the 1968 best-sellerInstant Replay, co-authored withJerry Kramer of theGreen Bay Packers, andI Can't Wait Until Tomorrow... 'Cause I Get Better-Looking Every Day, the 1969autobiography ofNew York JetJoe Namath. These resulted in a stint as co-host ofThe Joe Namath Show, which in turn led to his hiring as sports anchor forWNBC-TV. Other books included a biography ofRobert F. Kennedy;.44 (withJimmy Breslin), a fictionalized account of the hunt forSon of Sam killerDavid Berkowitz;Turned On, about upper middle-class drug abuse;An Illustrated History of the Olympics, a coffee-table book on the history of the modernOlympic Games;The Perfect Jump, on the world record-breaking long jump byBob Beamon in the1968 Summer Olympics;My Aces, My Faults withNick Bollettieri;Steinbrenner!, a biography of mercurialNew York Yankees ownerGeorge Steinbrenner; andBo Knows Bo withBo Jackson. His autobiography,Flashing Before My Eyes: 50 Years of Headlines, Deadlines & Punchlines, was reissued under Schaap's original title "Dick Schaap as Told to Dick Schaap: 50 years of Headlines, Deadlines and Punchlines."
Schaap died on December 21, 2001, atLenox Hill Hospital in New York City of complications fromhip replacement surgery that September. Schaap's final regular television appearance was on the September 16 broadcast ofThe Sports Reporters on the Sunday after theSeptember 11 attacks on New York City andWashington, D.C. That weekend, all major American college and professional sporting events had been cancelled, and Schaap and his panelists discussed the diminished role of sports since the tragedy.
After Schaap's death, his estate and members of his family filed a lawsuit against three physicians and Lenox Hill Hospital, alleging that his death had been caused bymedical malpractice. Specifically, they alleged that, for two years before his surgery, Schaap had been given a powerful medication calledamiodarone to treat an irregular heartbeat. Amiodarone can cause lung damage (known as "amiodaronepulmonary toxicity") and, according to the plaintiffs, an X-ray of Schaap's chest that had been taken before the surgery indicated that he had lung damage. Three days after the surgery, Schaap began having difficulty breathing, and he was subsequently diagnosed withacute respiratory distress syndrome. He died three months after the operation, never having left the hospital. Among other claims, the plaintiffs contended that Schaap's surgery should have been postponed, that he should have been taken off the amiodarone, and that his lungs should have been given time to heal before the performance of the surgery.
The court dismissed the claim against the hospital on the ground that the physicians were not employees of the hospital. The plaintiffs' claims against the three physicians went to trial in 2005 inManhattan. On July 1, 2005, after nine days of deliberations, a jury found that all three physicians had been negligent, but also found that the negligence of only one of the physicians had caused Schaap's death. That physician was a cardiologist who the plaintiffs had contended was negligent by not looking at the pre-operative chest X-ray. The jury awarded the plaintiffs a total of $1.95 million in damages.[5][6][7]
Schaap was married twice. His first wife was Madeline Gottlieb; their divorce was finalized in March 1981.[8] Schaap remarried to Trish McLeod shortly thereafter.[9] He was the father of six children—Renee, Michelle,Jeremy, Joanna, Kari and David—and had five grandchildren.[10][11][12] Schaap's younger brother was lawyerWilliam Schaap. The jazz historianPhil Schaap was his cousin.
Around 1955, Schaap befriendedBobby Fischer, who was at the time a 12-year-old chess prodigy, and would later become aworld chess champion. In 2005, prompted by questions posed by Schaap's son Jeremy, Fischer acknowledged that the relationship was significant and that the elder Schaap had been a "father figure" to him.[13] Fischer was still resentful that Dick Schaap had later written, among many other comments, that Fischer "did not have a sane bone left in his body".[14]
The Sports Emmy division of theNational Academy of Television Arts and Sciences renamed their writing category "The Dick Schaap Outstanding Writing Award."[15] The 2005 Emmy Awards in this category was won by Jeremy for aSportsCenter piece called "Finding Bobby Fischer."
In 2002, Schaap was honored posthumously by theAssociated Press Sports Editors (APSE) with theRed Smith Award. In the same year, he was also inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame, which created a Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism.
On June 8, 2015, Schaap was inducted posthumously in theNational Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association'sHall of Fame.
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