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October 12, 2012

Thinking About Beano

Filed under: Football,Media — Chas @ 11:30 am

Here’s an ESPN piece on Beano Cook talking about football.

Ivan Maisel who did a weekly podcast with Beano, has his own thoughts. There are plenty of other ones out there. Lots of good ones. Touching ones. If you watch the tribute video above, the change in his body is startling. He looks so much older and smaller. Not at all the image from my memories.

For a lot of Pitt fans, though, it isn’t that simple. Over the last twenty years it has been a bit of a love-hate feeling towards Cook.

He was a Pittsburgh guy. He stayed tied to his hometown. He had no wife and kids. Could have easily lived anywhere else. Would have been much better for his career with ABC and ESPN if he had moved to New York or Connecticut. Had a bigger presence. More appearances. In studio much more frequently — especially in the last five to ten years.

Instead he stayed in Pittsburgh. When ESPN wanted to use him, he would presumably go to the Pittsburgh ABC affiliate (WTAE) where he would do his piece with the stock image of the Pittsburgh skyline in the background.

 

Beano Cook had a lot of traditionalist in him. He loved college football. He loved the traditional powers of Michigan, Alabama, USC, Penn State and Notre Dame.

The Pittsburgh native came up in a time of identifying a lot stronger with his ethnic roots, so as Irish-Catholic he had a strong affinity, affection and at times love for Notre Dame. This despite graduating from Pit and being the Sports Information Director for many years at Pitt. Which of course made this comment mind-boggling to most Pitt fans.

“He used to make me roll on the floor laughing with some of his one-liners,” said Roger Valdiserri, the former sports information director at Notre Dame. “He once said if Notre Dame was playing Russia, he’d root for Russia. He was anti-Notre Dame. I don’t know if it was genuine, but I didn’t care because we were friends.”

[Emphasis added.]

To which — well anyone — would say, “WHAT?”

Cook regularly predicted Notre Dame to win at least 9 or 10 games. If it was a bad year, he’d drop to 8. He spoke lovingly of the Irish, and the devotion to the traditional powers was a mark of time and era in which he lived.

Another team he would regularly predict big win totals was Penn State. If you really want to cite why many Pitt fans have a bit of conflict regarding Beano Cook, it really begins and ends with Penn State and Joe Paterno. Cook was a leading public cheerleader for Penn State and Paterno’s “grand experiment.”

To say it grated on Pitt fans to here him proclaim great things for Penn State and Notre Dame every year on ESPN is putting it mildly. When the Pete opened and the working media room was named for Beano Cook, there was no universal cheering for the move. There was a fair amount of teeth-gnashing and message board complaining.

Perhaps that split is because there was a difference between what he did in the media — what we and everyone else saw — and what he may have actually been doing for many years.

Mr. Cook did not work for Pitt in an official capacity after 1966, but he remained a champion of the university and has the working media room at the Petersen Events Center named in his honor.

A plaque with Mr. Cook’s picture and this inscription hangs in the workroom: “This media room is dedicated to Beano’s legendary contributions to the field of sports journalism and unyielding dedication to his profession. Beano brought the national spotlight to Pittsburgh as he became a college sports icon.”

“Beano left a legacy never to be matched,” Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson said in statement issued by the university Thursday. “Not matched in accomplishment, wit or loyalty to Pitt and his friends. … He loved the University of Pittsburgh and his name is synonymous with all good things at Pitt.”

“He was special,” said Mike Ditka, an All-American tight end at Pitt in 1960 who is enshrined in the college and pro football halls of fame. “We became really good friends the years I was in school at Pitt. I don’t know that anybody loved that job and loved Pitt more than he did.”

I would love to know some of those things. It’s obvious that he kept close ties to Pitt. Up until the end. The tribute video with Cook prominently has much of the recent discussion footage filmed at Pitt.

Ultimately, he was a Pitt guy. A well-respected figure in college football and amongst the media. Saturdays will be a little grayer for a while.

 





Didn’t he once say that Penn State would be better of if Paterno stayed home on Saturdays? And this was in the 80’s. I think you said it best, he liked the traditional powers, which makes sense because he is a college football historian. I don’t like ND either but I think college football is better when they are good. I have no idea why Pitt fans would be upset with his representation of the school.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 10.12.12 @ 11:57 am

Great guy who made me laugh.

Comment by Frank MD 10.12.12 @ 12:02 pm

Cook also sharply criticized Paterno for derailing the Pitt-PSU series, and argued that the failure of Paterno’s eastern football conference was largely Paterno’s fault for insisting on unequal revenue sharing. I guess he wasn’t an easy guy to pigeonhole, but that was part of what made him entertaining.

Comment by Pantherman13 10.12.12 @ 12:13 pm

From what I have been reading, he may have revolutionized the SID position and also contributed to getting collge football back in the mainstream in the 80s … since the late 60s and 70s became the period when the NFL replaced MLB as the national pastime, and become the dominant US sport.

However, like Chas, I feel his importance may be a bit overstated. Nonetheless, I did enjoy listening to him.

Comment by wbb 10.12.12 @ 12:25 pm

Apart from Notre Dame, he was as objective and as entertaining as anyone who covered college football.
Much like fellow Pitt alum Myron Cope, his vocabulary was better suited toward prose, not sport.
I liked the guy; he loved Pitt, and, he knew when to keep his mouth shut.
By the last I mean this Beano had sources and information he could not use directly. The secret info would mold his opinion, but not his message. You could trust the guy.
That is almost impossible to find today.
Now Beano, get your ass up to Heaven and ask the Big Guy upstairs for some help this weekend.
Say Hi to Mom & Dad while you’re at it.

Comment by sfpitt 10.12.12 @ 12:49 pm

i used to love his appearances on the stan and guy show on 1250… he made me laugh, even if he did love notre dame

Comment by usd121 10.12.12 @ 1:28 pm

My favorite Beano story is one he never pulled off .. he wanted to put Pitt All-American basketball player Don Hennon and Dr. Jonas Salk on a poster captioned “The Two Best Shot Makers in Pittsburgh” .. pure Beano .. may perpetual light shine upon him …

Comment by TheHoopZebra 10.12.12 @ 1:59 pm

Back in the 90s, Sports Illustrated wrote a scathing article about the Univ of Miami football program and all the issues and scandals of the Dennis Erickson era … and even suggested tha The U drop its FB program.

Beano responded “Miami will drop its football program when Sports Illustrated drops its swimsuit issue”

Comment by wbb 10.12.12 @ 2:09 pm

On a completely unrelated subject (or maybe not, given Beano’s role in redefining publicity for college sports), I just stopped by the “court” for tonight’s midnight madness event. It looks like it will be fun for those who can attend (although it will be a bit on the chilly side). A couple notes . . . The court itself is not actually hardwood (as at least one media outlet reported it would be), but rather something called “Flex Court” which appears to be a hard rubberized surface. Also, it is laid directly on the street asphalt. This is interesting because Bigelow has a slight ascent from Forbes to Fifth, meaning the court runs a bit uphill (or downhill depending on which way you are going).

The stands were being put up as I was watching. The weather, aside from being a bit cold, looks pretty good, so I’d expect a big crowd. I still can’t imagine the students showing up to this and then making it down to Heinz for kickoff tomorrow…we’ll see.

Comment by Pantherman13 10.12.12 @ 2:21 pm

Wow, all he wanted was to wait(til after season to die) and see who won the Championship! I m sure he will find out or know, he just wont be able to provide any commentary on it!!! He was amusing to listen to!

Comment by quipscript 10.12.12 @ 3:12 pm

The guy was an icon.

Anybody who really got bent out of shape by his comments about Notre Dame, Pitt, or PSU was just being petty, if you ask me.

RIP, Beano.

Comment by Jeff 10.12.12 @ 3:20 pm

Loved the intro when he was on DVE way back in the Jimmy and Steve era….’ one name strikes fear from Vegas to Reno, and that one name is simply Beano…’ Funny stuff.

RIP

Comment by waldo 10.12.12 @ 4:18 pm

On a side note since we are talking Pitt alum..did anyone else hear Tony Siragusa on Howard Stern a few weeks ago? Great interview lasted about an hour and he spoke of his days at Pitt with a great story about a bar brawl. He is one entertaining guy and I encourage you to catch the interview somewhere.

In case you didnt know Howard Stern’s wife Beth is from Pittsburgh and her father actually played at Pitt with Mike Ditka.

Comment by Coach Ditka 10.12.12 @ 6:46 pm

He may have annually predicted big things for ND (4 Heismans for Pawlus) or PSU, but he still rooted against them.

Predicting PSU would win 8,9 or 10 games was easy – they often did, feasting on weak competition (over-rated Big10, several service academies per year, william and Mary, etc.). It may hurt to hear it, but it was often true. That doesn’t make him a Paterno fan, or a bad Pitt guy. Just a curmudgeon from the 50s.

I liked Beano – If I’m in the minority, so what. He was funny, and he was actually one of the only national sports guys to call Paterno on his bullshit.

Comment by Patrick 10.12.12 @ 7:44 pm

Hail to Pitt! Hailt Beano! Let’s get this one tomorrow for him!!

And everyone should read this awesome Beano Cook story I just saw on Deadspin:

link to deadspin.com

Comment by Jimbo Covert's My Dad 10.12.12 @ 8:12 pm

I listened to a good 2 or 3 segments including phone calls on Beano on local LA radio the other day and made me realize just how much of an impact he had on the football landscape. His voice spread so far and wide. He was such a staple and his delightful wit and insight will be sorely missed. What a mensch he was.

Comment by Cool Hand Nuke 10.13.12 @ 3:53 am

Beano was great. Sad when I heard the news. Rest in peace Beano, you will be missed. Everyone up in heaven will be hearing some great stories from you shortly.

Comment by Wayne 10.13.12 @ 7:01 am

RIP Beano, I loved to listen to you even if I would disagree

Comment by Steve h 10.13.12 @ 8:38 am

Any of you old guys remember this from Beano being on morning radio (I THINK is was Paulson&Kren on WDVE)…????

Beano, Beano, Beano Cook
Beano help me beat that book
It’s not if you win or lose, instead
It’s whether or not you beat the spread

If you do, refresh me with some of the details – what show, what station and can you remember any more lyrics of the song?

ME

Comment by ME 2001 10.13.12 @ 8:47 am

Beano and Myron two renaissance men and Panther legends. May they rest in peace.

Hail to Pitt!

Comment by MariettaMike 10.13.12 @ 8:57 am

Game is on ESPN3 for those few without the U

Comment by TonyC 10.13.12 @ 11:02 am

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