Thursday, April 24, 2008

Oh, that Jim Elia!

The week of April 25, 1983 was quite memorable. Harold Washington was elected Chicago's first African-American mayor, yours truly celebrated his 11th birthday - and then- Cubs manager Lee Elia's went nuts on the team's fans!

In an article in today's Tribune, Teddy Greenstein talks about how Chicago news stations were jockeying to get a tape of a rant that would rank as perhaps the most memorable in Chicago sports history (check out what Mark Giangreco said about his cell phone... those things were huge back in the day.)

The story also reveals how then WMAQ-TV sports anchor Chet Coppock handled a rather rude request from former WBBM-TV sports anchor and Chicago Bear player Johnny Morris (Morris wasn't really remembered much for his charisma, or lack thereof.)

Yours truly remembers when this happened, and it cerainly generated an OMFG moment (before it was known as OMFG.) A Lee Elia like-rant certainly wouldn't air on TV today (even bleeped), as the Parents Television Council and the FCC would definitely have a stroke...

To hear the rant, click here. (WARNING: Contains strong language. Listener discretion is advised. But you already knew that, right?)

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