The Sports Answer Man
With the last week of the Olympic games under way, we're currently placed 2nd in the medal table. There have been some incredible performances from our athletes so far! Have you been watching or listening to the coverage?
Sports are an enjoyable part of life, and so were always an important part of old time radio too.
These days we have TV coverage on everything from obscure amateur sports through to massive national and international events, but in many ways sports coverage was as big back in the 'golden years' as it is now, with people crowding around the radio to enjoy everything from baseball to boxing, providing a magical connection to events that sparked the imagination, got the adrenalin pumping, and brought people together.
And should you find yourself with a sporting conundrum, the old time radio series, The Sports Answer Man was there to answer your questions!
It may have just been to check up on an old or odd record to settle a friendly wager; it may have involved the proper interpretation of a football rule; the specific round that ended a title fight; covenants covering the sanctioning of a bowling league; or even who won the All American Soccer Title.
Whatever your sports stickler may have been, if you wanted the answer, wanted the facts, then you simply needed to mail it to France Laux, The Sports Answer Man!
"These and other questions have come in the daily mail of The Sports Answer Man! Now, gazing into his crystal ball of sports facts and figures, and ready to transcribe the answers to your questions about sports, their rules and interpretations, is France Laux, dean of baseball announcers and sports commentators."
The idea for the series came on the eve of the 1927 World Series when the station manager at KVOO, Tulsa, realized that he had made all of the arrangements to broadcast the games, except that he was missing an On Air voice!
His attention fell on France Laux, a real estate broker who was a part-time referee of college football games.
In the late 1940s Sherman Productions brought France Laux into the studio to record The Sports Answer Man with announcer Bob Ingraham. Listeners were encouraged to write in questions about sports records, personalities, trivia, and rules questions.
Then in the 1950s, the Armed Forces Radio and Television Services reformulated the program with new stars and announcers, featuring questions exclusively from servicemen. The new format included Dick Shaap, who was beginning his career after receiving a Grantland Rice fellowship at Columbia.
You have probably noticed that I've added several new shows to the series already, and there are a few more to add over the next week.
Happy listening my friends,