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The Official Web Site of the WVU Varsity Club |
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Profile: Jack Fleming
That was Jack Fleming’s description of one of the most famous plays in NFL history: the “Immaculate Reception.” That fourth-down miracle play enabled the Pittsburgh Steelers to defeat the Oakland Raiders, 13-7 in a 1972 AFC playoff game. It was the second-most memorable play in NFL history according to one Internet poll in 2000, and Fleming’s call is the most replayed of all-time if NFL Films is to be believed. Jack’s call of the play was used by NFL Films because NBC broadcaster Curt Gowdy, like most of the 50,350 at Three Rivers Stadium that day, wasn’t able to accurately decipher what transpired down below. It was Jack Fleming at his very best, and there were few play-by-play announcers better. Leo “Jack” Fleming’s career in broadcasting came about as the result of injuries sustained while parachuting from the B-17 bomber he was navigating over the Chateau Thierry of France in September, 1944. It was the 23rd and final bombing mission for the young second lieutenant from his bomber group’s base in England. Both engines on the B-17 were knocked out by German anti-aircraft fire and Fleming and the rest of the crew had to bail out, barely making it back to friendly lines. As he landed in a vineyard overlooking the famous French village, Fleming hit the ground hard, driving a stake into his mouth that broke his jaw and knocked out his front teeth. He was whisked away by a group of rescuers. After a short stay in a hospital in England, Fleming was transferred back to the United States where he wound up at White Sulphur Springs Resort in West Virginia – which was converted into a temporary military hospital. Long-time friend and prominent West Virginia journalist Mickey Furfari says Fleming’s misfortune on the battlefield actually helped his broadcasting career. Fleming once possessed a high-pitched voice, according to his 1941 Morgantown High School classmate. Furfari believes Fleming’s damaged vocal cords during his crash landing helping him acquire the distinctive deeper, fuller voice sports fans came to appreciate. Fleming’s descriptive style came from his background as a writer; he earned a journalism degree from WVU and he wasn’t particularly interested in the technical aspects of the game. “Jack painted pictures with words,” Mike Parsons, executive director of the Mountaineers Sports Network, once said. “He may not have been able to take apart the Xs and Os, but he’d see a guy peeking strangely over from the Georgetown bench,” marveled Dale Miller, general manager of WAJR. It was during Fleming’s convalescence in 1945 that he began announcing quiz shows over the public address system to entertain patients. From that start, he returned to Morgantown where he landed a job with WAJR. In the fall of 1945, Fleming joined Sid Goldberg, who was subbing for regular Charlie Snowden, for the football season as “color commentator.” Fleming also helped Snowden when he returned in 1946 and then was given a trial on his own to broadcast a Morgantown-Elkins high school basketball game in the winter of 1947. That summer the WVU graduate also announced American Legion games and was soon awarded the job of announcing West Virginia football and basketball games beginning in the fall of 1947. Fleming did everything from college football to little league games from the top of his car. “I was a Little League star,” recalled prominent Morgantown businessman John Raese. “(Jack) would be out there broadcasting the Sanitary Milk-Horton Ford little league game, then the next day drive to Pittsburgh and do the Steelers game.”
Fleming earned a legion of fans as far East as Milwaukee for his spirited play-by-play descriptions and his pointed criticism of officiating. Once when Boston Celtics General Manager Red Auerbach was getting on an official during a Bulls game, Fleming stood up from his broadcast position and exclaimed on air that Auerbach was getting away with murder. Years later, Fleming said he still received mail from fans thanking him for standing up to Boston’s bullying basketball boss. Jack returned to WVU in 1974 and announced games until 1996. In the meantime, Fleming joined the Pittsburgh Steelers broadcast team in 1958 with Joe Tucker and Red Donley for WWSW. Fleming also worked with Tom Bender when KDKA had the Steelers rights, then joined Myron Cope when WTAE took over the broadcasts in 1970. Fleming worked a total of 36 years for the Steelers and provided a professional touch that complimented the peculiar and excitable Cope. Fleming’s popularity never reached the level of Cope or baseball’s Bob Prince in Pittsburgh, primarily because he made no bones about his love of West Virginia University and his hatred of the Pitt Panthers. But his willingness to let Cope do his thing helped the two co-exist for 24 seasons. “Jack exercised some tremendous patience,” said Steelers owner Dan Rooney. “It took three years before they could work together.” Sometimes Cope would jump in over Fleming’s call. Once when Steelers running back John “Frenchy” Fuqua was running for a long touchdown, Cope screamed at the top of his voice, “Frenchmen, what are you doing looking back?!” “Jack would turn purple and during a commercial break, he’d get up and go behind the booth to get control of himself, then he’d come back and start broadcasting again,” said Cope. Perhaps the thing that irritated Fleming most was Myron’s creation of the Terrible Towel. Cope’s fondest memory of Fleming came during the 1979 AFC championship against the Houston Oilers. Before the game, fans had lowered a Terrible Towel hanging on a rope from the facade of Three Rivers Stadium so that it partially obstructed his view. “Jack keeps yelling for someone to get rid of the towel so he can see, and then all of the sudden the ceiling burst and water is pouring all over him,” laughed Cope, noting he remained dry. The tall, blond, broad-shouldered Fleming also had a legion of Pitt Panther fans to contend with at West Virginia-Pitt games. Although there was never a specific security plan set out for Fleming when he announced games at Fitzgerald Field House or Pitt Stadium, Mike Parsons admitted that he was never left alone at either venue. Once during an ECAC tournament basketball game in Morgantown, a misguided Pitt supporter was paid to dump a cup of urine on Fleming’s head while he was on the air. Another time when he was recovering in a Pittsburgh hospital, a Panther fan found out what room he was staying in and telephoned him, saying he wished his blood pressure would rise above 200. “I thought that was odd,” Fleming understated. Long-time football coach Don Nehlen called Fleming “Mr. Mountaineer.” “He was a great, great announcer for us in both football and basketball,” said Nehlen. “Everybody in the state identified with Jack Fleming.” One of those West Virginia residents was basketball coach Gale Catlett. The two developed a life-long friendship when Catlett returned to coach his alma mater in 1978. “He’s been a guy that has meant a lot to West Virginia University athletics through the years and was a very important person for our generation,” he said. Jack often would finish a West Virginia football broadcast on Saturday afternoon and then race to the airport to catch a flight for a Pittsburgh Steelers road game the next day. Fleming’s resume also included a brief stint as sports director for WTAE television, host of the popular Pittsburgh game shows “Bowling for Dollars” and “Let’s Go to the Races,” and a brief tenure as a fill-in announcer for Bob Prince during the Pirates’ championship run in 1971 when Prince was recovering from a heart attack. “I never got a World Series ring for that,” he laughed. Fleming announced four Super Bowls with the Steelers, the 1960 Rome Olympics, the 1959 Final Four, the 1973 NBA all-star game, and several bowl games. “I truly believe he was put here to broadcast football and basketball,” said former Steelers publicist Joe Gordon. Dale Miller believes Fleming could have been in a league with Keith Jackson and Brent Musberger had he wished to do so. “If he had the major type of representation that those guys had, I think he would have been one of the chief announcers on the NFL on CBS or NBC, he said. “He could have made millions and millions.” The closest Fleming came to the big time happened in the early 1970s when KMOX general manager Bob Hyland offered Jack the opportunity to become the play-by-play man for the St. Louis Spirits of the ABA. Hyland offered him $20,000 a year with the proviso that if he made it to three years, the salary would jump to $100,000. Fleming couldn’t afford to start at $20,000 and the job instead went to a young broadcaster named Bob Costas. Hyland wound up promoting Costas nationally as he did Jack Buck, Joe Buck and Dan Kelly. Fleming, who grew up in the Sunnyside section of town where he was just a short walk from Mountaineer Field, was a seven-time West Virginia broadcast of the year. In 1995 he was inducted into WVU’s Order of Vandalia for outstanding service to the state and University, and he was the recipient of the Gene Morehouse Award from the West Virginia sportswriters in 1996. Perhaps the crowning achievement of his broadcasting career came in 1999 when he received the Chris Schenkel Award from the College Football Hall of Fame for his lifetime contributions to the profession and the sport. He was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.
At Fleming's memorial service in Morgantown, Cope once and for all came clean about Jack's most famous call. Myron had already left the announcers booth and was on the field to do his postgame interview show when Franco Harris miraculously pulled in Terry Bradshaw's wayward pass and raced toward the end zone for the winning touchdown. Cope says it was probably for the best that he was down on the field. “I would have just screwed it up for him,” he laughed. “Don’t think I wouldn’t have had a few words to say about it.” During the bedlam and excitement that followed, the game officials were down in the stadium tunnel on the telephones deciding what to do. If they ruled that the ball went off of Frenchy Fuqua’s helmet the play would have been overturned due to NFL rules of the time. Instead, they determined that it touched Oakland defensive back Jack Tatum and the play stood. No camera at the stadium that day could offer a clear view of what happened. All that fans could go on was Jack Fleming’s description. Carefully choosing his words, Fleming ended his characterization of that day’s events this way: “Out of nowhere came Franco Harris, riding a white stallion down the field, heading up Franco’s Italian Army, charging under the football, and galloping off into the sunset.” Very, very few, if any, were better. |
Hang
on to your hats. Bradshaw is back and looking again … Bradshaw
running out of the pocket, looking for someone to throw to. He fires
it downfield and there’s a collision. It’s caught out of the air!
The ball is pulled in by Franco Harris. Harris is going for a
touchdown for Pittsburgh.
Fleming
soon took on the title of the “Voice of the Mountaineers” until 1960
when his station lost the broadcasting rights for the 1960-61
seasons. WAJR regained the rights in 1962 and Fleming called WVU
games until 1969 when he left to become the Chicago Bulls
play-by-play announcer at radio station WIND.
Once
he completed his on-air duties for MSN, Fleming remained with the
network providing daily commentaries and writing Internet columns
until his sudden death of a stroke on Jan. 3, 2001. |
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Mountaineer Sports Network, 2003 |
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