Pau Hana Years, a new day for older Americans,  a time for living your host.

Bob Barker,  Bob Barker: Hi and welcome to the program  for and by the senior citizens of Hawaii   today on Pau Hana Years, our guest is the  dean of Hawaii sportscasters.

Chuck Leahey,   Chuck, how long have you been broadcasting sports?

Chuck Leahey: Oh, I'd say a little over 25 years,   actually.

I want to thank you very much for  Dean, that's about as high as I can get.

BB: Were you active in, as a participant  in sports when you were a youth?

CL: When I was, you know, in high  school, and then when I got in the Navy,   very active in baseball and basketball.

BB: Baseball and basketball.

You, know,   we have prominent sportscasters who are  active, were active participants in sports,   and then those who were just interested  spectators.

Do you think this makes a   difference in the quality of a sportscaster's work  as to whether he actually participated or not?

CL: No, I don't think so.

For example, many  of the national sportscasters, some of them   have been they're former professional football  players.

Some of them have not participated,   but the number one thing is, they wanted  to be sportscasters, so they learned the   game.

And many times, I have found out that the  spectator knows the rule better than the player,  BB: Yes, yes.

CL: And that has been shown many times   by when we do a ball game, that spectator will  come up right away with something that's wrong.

Where the referee is let it go by.

But all in all,  the dedication and the ability and being prepared   is the key to sportscasting.

BB: You were in the Navy for how long?

CL: 23 years.

BB: You, when did you retire?

CL: I retired 1959.

BB: Were you involved   in athletics all during your Navy career?

CL: Yes, I'd say, yeah, baseball and played   basketball and and, you know, a lot of golf, and  was in rowing where they had the whale boats.

BB: Oh, yes, uh huh.

CL: And I gave that up.

Man, that's tough.

BB: I bet.

CL: That’ll rip you.

But,   you know, real active all the time.

BB: But you were an athletic   director then too, weren't you?

CL: No, no, I became an athletic   director after I retired.

BB: Oh, after you retired.

CL: After I retired, I  retired as a chief journalist.

BB: Oh, I see.

CL: And I was working   for Max Winter out here, and we were doing Max  Winter enterprises, putting on sports shows.

And   we'd put on one sports show with Patti Page,  and we had it down at the Kapi'olani Park.

And it rained for a whole week, and Max says,  you know, I got to go back to Minneapolis,   where it freezes, this is kiling me out here.

After I had been working there for some time.

I got a call from a Rear Admiral Solomons, and  he wanted me to come out and talk to him about   being the athletic director for the naval  district in which I came out and talked to   him.

And yes, I did become athletic director.

BB: So you were, you’re athletic director as   a civilian?

CL: Right.

BB: You were instrumental in first bringing  college basketball to Hawaii, weren't you?

CL: Yeah, this was... BB: Mainland college basketball.

CL: This was back in about 1962 I found that you  could actually bring teams out here on MAC Air   transport, you know.

And they were... BB: By this, you mean, navy...  CL: Yeah it's a military air... BB: Military plane mm hm.

CL: And that they also could be put  up by the commandant as his guest.

BB: Oh.

CL: Now the object of it   was to bring out these teams that the people read  about but don't see.

Now, we had an opportunity   to see them.

So we used to bring out throughout  the year.

First year we brought just a couple,   the second year we brought about four.

And  then the third year we had about eight, but   we took three of them and put them in a Christmas  tournament.

So there were three big colleges out   here.

There was, at one time, Tennessee State,  Los Angeles State, and Utah.

Three of them   were out here for a Christmas tournament with  Sub-faculty Army and the Air Force.

And it we   then would turn one game over to the university.

We would play them twice and turn one game over   the university.

And Red Rocha used to coach in  the Armed Forces League.

He had a Naval Station.

BB: Oh, did he?

CL: Right.

BB: I didn't know that.

CL: And then right after that, he became the head   coach at the University of Hawaii.

So he saw this,  I think, and and Red's mind works in devious ways,   and he got the idea for the classic.

Like a lot  of people say, gee, you started the classic.

I did   not start the classic.

I worked with people that  started it; Red Rocha, Jack Bonham, God rest his   soul, and Young Sako and President Tom Hamilton  at the time.

Then there was Vince Esposito and a   lot of other people.

But the object of it was  that we could in the in the service, help the   university create this program in which they did.

BB: Now, I suppose, since you were able to bring   these mainland teams out here on military  transport and so forth and put them up,   did you have any trouble getting  teams to come out to Hawaiʻi?

CL: No, this is where it became a real recruiting  angle for some of these ball clubs.

And you   give me an example, a lot of people say,  Gee, they spent government money.

Yeah,   we didn't spend government money for this.

We put it out on non-appropriated fund money,   and then they we charged, and we  usually made more than what we needed.

BB: Why don't you explain for the  viewers, the non-appropriated money   the difference between that and navy funds.

CL: Well, appropriated money is money that is   appropriated by Congress for the military.

Non-appropriated money is a money that is   from Navy exchanges.

And from Navy exchanges, a  certain percentage of the money goes to morale   and welfare, which is special services.

In other words, money that the   men have earned rather than.

BB: And they spend in the store   and they get it back in their morale and welfare.

A lot of people take that, don't realize that that   situation prevails, and now non-appropriated  fund money has become a very important factor,   very important factor because of the cut down of  appropriated money.

So when you look at special   services, you don't put it down at the bottom.

You  kind of bring it up and take a good look at it,   because it is a very important factor.

CL: How many military teams were   there back in those days when you were  doing this early?

BB: Was it enough...  CL: Oh, about eight or nine.

There was Barbers  Point Naval Station, SUBPAC.

The Army had two   teams.

Sometimes they wanted three, because they  had so many people, you know.

And Hickam Air   Force, and the Coast Guard had one COMM SURFPAC,  SUBPAC.

So it is close to nine or 10 teams.

BB: What all sports did you get involved in?

CL: Well we got involved in two sports,   baseball and basketball.

Basketball became  like a number one, and then in baseball,   there were about the same amount of teams, less  maybe two, three.

And we played intercollegiate   teams Southern California, Santa Clara Brigham  Young, they came out here, and many of them came   out on their own from a recruiting angle, but they  had a place to stay and had somebody to play.

Oh   yes.

And then we got into what we call the Hawaiʻi  Major League, which were teams from downtown.

And   this was one of the concepts that I was trying  to and working with the commandant and the other   service commanders, no program can go unless there  is a mutual meeting of the minds and they agree.

And the commanders were very cooperative to the  point where we played the teams in the community.

BB: Local teams and that so to speak., CL: Right?

And in doing so, we brought the   people closer to the military.

The military don't  live behind a fence, and this was a concept that   we wanted to bring to them.

And this day, Bob many  of the military.

They're in the churches, they're   in the programs, they're in the retarded children  programs.

So you see there, they're just a part of   the community.

Yeah, they're out here for a couple  three years, but there is a real endeavor on their   part to become a part of the community.

BB: Then this participation in a common   athletic program was somewhat a start of  mixing them into the community, then, huh?

CL: Right, right.

BB: With all your   involvement in military athletics, how did  you first get into broadcasting sports?

CL: I first got into broadcasting sports when  I was on recruiting duty in Portland, Oregon,   at radio station KVAN in Vancouver, Washington  and KXL in Portland; Rocky Mountain Network,   Bozeman, Montana, Helena, Montana and I  had a 15 minute sports show on Saturday   for Navy recruiting.

BB: Oh, you were   stationed there in recruiting at the time?

CL: Right.

I was there for about three years,   and I did at KVAN, I broadcasted football for the  Southwestern High School conference.

And that was   Vancouver, Chehalis, Battle Creek, Washougal,  Camas, and you go up a tree and do a game.

They didn't have any food.

But I got started  there.

Then, as I say, the 15 minute roogram   KXL in Portland, Oregon.

I had a guy by name  of Fred Eichorn III was the program director,   fabulous young man.

And one Saturday, there was an  argument that the cadets of army should go to the   Rose Bowl instead of Illinois.

You remember that  argument back in 1947 or 48 something like that.

And there was an argument that the cadets of West  Point should go to the Rose Bowl instead of the   University of Illinois.

And so I said that that,  yes, that should be done.

And this guy called up   on a phone.

He says, Yeah, dummy, the cadets can't  go because the Army won't let them, and neither   will the Secretary of the Army or the President,  and that's why they can't go.

So I get you.

So   I felt kind of bad.

I went in.

I said, Hey, Fred,  gee, I got a call.

A guy was really whiffed.

Says,   don't worry about it, you got a listener.

Yeah,  you know what I mean.

So I said, all right, but I   didn't want him to call again, because he was kind  of up in the air, you know.

But when you're just   starting little things like that... BB: They bother you, mm hm.

CL: Yeah, they bother you.

BB: But then, of course,   as you go along through the years, you begin to  realize a little controversy is a good thing.

It's called building an audience.

CL: Right, now they come up in   groves and say, "you dummy!"

BB: Did you then, that was your   start.

But then, of course, you went on to a lot  more of it, as far as especially the play by play   and everything.

Did you go through any kind of a  training or apprenticeship or anything like that?

Or did you just pick it all up by yourself?

CL: No, actually, I picked up most of it by   myself.

But there were actually, there  was actually one man in this town that   helped me an awful lot, and that's Frank Valenti.

BB: Oh yeah, good old Frank.

CL: And Frank helped me get the   show and helped me on many of the sports.

I used  to sit with him when he did his recreation.

He   probably one of the finest recreators in  the business.

When it came to baseball.

BB: That’s an art in itself, recreating.

CL: Right, and Carlos Rivas, who was over in the   other island, you know, the Spanish bullfighter,  and they helped me out tremendously.

And then as   you go along, you pick things up from the  sportscasters that you hear.

Les Keiter,   I used to listen to Les, you know.

And he's a  real old pro, yeah.

And lot of people say, Well,   I like him.

I don't like him.

Well, that's you  don't like a certain kind of automobile either,   but the delivery of these sportscasters were  something you listened to and see if it fit your   type of sportscasting.

Mine was, well, I like to  get the people excited.

I'd like to bring the game   to them as I'm their eyes.

BB: Yes.

CL: And I think one of the greatest things  that ever happened to me, and and awards that   I received and everything else is I was doing  a Santa Clara, University of Hawaiʻi game many   years while I was the voice of Hawaiʻi for  basketball and football they were playing out   here and they were broadcasting.

They carried  the game back in the mainland, in Santa Clara,   and there was a blind man, and his name was Oscar  Travins, and he heard this see, so next year,   that team came out here, and the first person  he wanted to see when he got here was me.

So I   saw him when I came into the stadium.

I think it  was the fellow that used to be the councilman,   great Santa Clara man.

He met me, and he had this  gentleman with him.

And he says, I want to thank   you very much.

He says, you were my eyes.

He said  I could see that game so plain, well, I wanted to   really, to be very frank with go over and let  a tear go, because he made me feel tremendous.

BB: Oh sure.

CL: And and to me, that's the greatest compliment   I ever got.

I don't care what the rest of them do.

BB: How do you feel about the business of the   local sportscaster favoring his own team in  his in his sportscasting, in other words,   as versus neutral, absolute neutrality.

CL: Well, if you're doing a baseball,   say professional baseball.

You know the New  York Giants are, I mean, the San Francisco   Giants or Los Angeles Dodgers, there's a  certain amount of loyalty.

You have to have.

BB: Well that's financial loyalty.

CL: That’s a financial.

Now you come   down to a university, and you're the voice of  that university.

Well, I went on a road with the   university for maybe five, six years, and I don't  think that once I ever showed a prejudice towards   the University of Hawaiʻi.

When we were down in  Mobile, Alabama, back in 1970 in a Senior Bowl   classic, the university couldn't get a basket.

They couldn't hit the basket.

It was down around   their knees, and I said it at that time.

The only  other comment that I've made is probably on the   crowd.

The crowds up in the mainland are not the  best in the world.

You get down into Texas, you're   lucky to get out of there alive, really.

You get  down into Mobile, Alabama, and you keep looking   to see what color you are all the time.

Know,  but I may, and I have, yes, I made comments on   officiating in Alabama, they had a guy by name of  Charlie McCarthy, and Red knew him.

He said, Gee,   don't tell me he's going to handle a ball game.

Red knew him from his pro days, see.

And I said,   What's wrong with him?

He says,boy, he's bad.

Well, it turned out he was bad.

And as he came   by the broadcasting booth, which was right next  to the bench, I said, well, here comes Charlie   McCarthy and boy, he's a dummy.

And the guy wanted  to snap a technical on the radio broadcast.

And   Red went up in the air and he said you canʻt do  that.

Yeah, you dummy, there's another one, but,   no, I think you want to lean with them, yeah.

But  again, you you want to be about as non-partisan as   possible, but you kind of lean Bobby, you know,  like Pau Hana Years, yeah, you bet your life.

BB: Yeah, yeah.

Now, when we were talking  a while ago about the what sports you were   involved in with the Navy.

You mentioned  basketball and baseball.

Why no football?

CL: Well, we didn't play football because BB: It’s not too,   not too rough for the servicemen?

CL: No, no.

It wasn't that.

It was.

Football is an extremely expensive sport and to  have an individual command play football.

Oh,   they did, you know, right after the war, up until  a period of about 1955, 56 it just got financially   too much for them to handle.

But actually, the  first television of football was the Marines   and Naval station.

And I think it was 1957 Frank  Valenti on an old scaffolding that we put on Ward   field.

And they did that game over KGMB.

Bob Baker: And by the way, you mentioned   climbing a tree to broadcast those games  back in the Northwest.

And of course,   this is, this is very true.

People may not  believe that.

I mean, I used to go out with the   sportscasters on jobs back in the old radio days.

And many times you'd climb a telephone pole and   hang on the telephone pole to describe the games.

Right down here at Castle.

You remember that old   station used to be in Kāneʻohe?

BB: Yeah.

CL: Pat…Patterson, BB: Yeah.

CL: I was working there at that time, and  we were doing a rural league, and they had   a platform on a pole, and you go up and sit there  with your board on your knee, you know, and they   run as a transmitter out of the back end of this  fellow Don's automobile.

And that was, I don't   know how far it carried, but it got far enough  to where the Federal Aviation Administration was   grumbling because we're cutting in on Pan.American  flight coming into the airport like, you know,   use runway 35 and then I'll come up and say, on  the 35 yard line Castle goes down to the Kahuku   12 you know.

Get him off of there.

But that was an  actual fact.

But up on his platform, and then when   it rained, you couldn't get down.

BB: Yeah.

CL: Because Patterson went to get a raincoat or  a cup of coffee.

And forget the sportscaster,  BB: Yeah, yeah.

CL: But that was.

BB: Which, which sports, sport do you  prefer covering as a sportscaster?

CL: Well, I think basketball.

BB: Why?

CL: Oh, I don't know the movement, the, you  can, I seem to be able to get into a game  BB: Baseball’s a little slow CL: Oh, baseball'd drive me up the wall.

Baseball, you've got, that is probably  the hardest sport there is to broadcast,   is baseball.

You have got to know the history  of that game and these players and their   backgrounds and everything else, really.

BB: Because you got to do a lot of   talking in between every move.

CL: And boxing.

I love boxing.

BB: You’ve done both radio and  TV.

Which of those do you prefer?

CL: I think I'd prefer radio.

Really.

I was  with Jim, and I did for about 15 months,   KITV, uh Family Leahy Sports, and there's an  awful lot of pressure in this.

And they say,   Okay, you got three minutes and 10 seconds.

You got a minute and five seconds for sports,   you know, there was no set time, so you had  to fit your whole program around that.

And   it's an awful lot of pressure.

And then the  doctor told me, get out of there, you know.

BB: You’ve been the voice of the  Hula Bowl since its beginning.

When   and how did that contest originate?

CL: Well, actually, the voices is,   is the pre-game and halftime shows, which I was  producing and it came through Mr. Yanagizawa.

I   became friends with Mackay, and I utilized  the stadium many times for international   baseball stuff like that.

So I became the the  downfield announcer and stuff like that.

So over,   over a period of years, I got on the committee  of the Hula Bowl and and we went all the way   to where last year we had 45,000 it was just a,  a beautiful setting.

But a lot of people do not   realize that Mackay had to actually mortgage his  house in the early days of the Hula Bowl twice   to keep it going.

BB: Is that so?

CL: That’s a fact, and he doesn't like anybody  to say that, but I'm going to say it anyhow,   because I think that should be brought out.

He  really did.

And then ABC picked up, and you know,   now it's a very successful post game.

BB: What do you think of the new stadium?

CL: I think it's beautiful.

I think it's  beautiful.

It needs a few more escalators.

It needs a couple of more dressing rooms and  probably a couple of more offices.

But all in all,   with this concept of movement that they have,  which they're moving right now, to put it in a   baseball configuration, it's fabulous.

And when  I took a look on the monitor of the television,   ABC, I was looking at the monitor, and I saw  the overall picture of this stadium with that   45,000 and the beauty of this of our islands, I  said, boy, what a beautiful thing.

And then when   that went back to the mainland, there has been an  awful lot of people say, Hey, look at that.

They   really got something out there, and they really  have but controversy will come with anything.

BB: Oh, sure.

CL: You wear green shoes   and you're going to get trouble about it.

BB: Now you've also been the voice of the   ILH and OIA for, leagues for many years.

Now, the ILH is the private and parochial   League and the OIA is public schools.

CL: The Oʻahu Interscholastic Association.

BB: Why are there two?

CL: Well, years ago, they used to   be together.

There was a private schools and the  public schools, and primarily the schools in the   city of the public schools were in it.

The outside  schools, Kailua, Castle, Radford, they were not in   the ILH.

But the ILH had set up certain rules  on recruiting of ball players, which the rural   leagues or the public schools could not do.

You  could not do that, see, so they broke away.

Well,   probably, in my estimation, it's a good thing  they broke away, because all of a sudden,   the public schools, they got 21 of them now, and  there's about six ILH schools that play football,   and there's six that play basketball and and they  have their own program.

But they all culminate   into a state tournament in basketball and in  tennis and in swimming and everything, I think,   a real fine thing.

And Clay Benham of the ILH  has done a fabulous job.

And and Bill Smythe of,   the Executive Secretary of the OIA, has done  a fine job with 21 high schools and run a big   program like that.

So they they broke apart, and  some people want to get them back together again.

And then, if you look at it, overall, you want to  achieve is that the thing to do to pull a 21 team   league into a six, or incorporate this six into 20  and one to make it 27 and a lot of thought has to   go into that, because it's a different money and  economical problem.

ILH is private schools, yeah,   and OIA is the public schools, DOE.

BB: Chuck, you've won several   awards.

What are those?

CL: Well, I won the sportscaster   award from Salisbury, North Carolina, that's  where they pick out sportscaster of the state a   couple times.

And I've won other awards that were  given to me by the sports writers of the city and   sportscasters testimonial, and the governor has  given me a couple awards for pushing handicap   things and optimist clubs.

And all of them are  just so appreciative of em.

I appreciate them.

BB: Earlier we talked about your start in  sportscasting.

Now you've helped a lot of young   fellows get started through your, working with  you, who are some of these guys that we know now?

CL: Well, I worked with Joe Moore.

Joe one day  came down and he'd never done basketball, so we   worked with him, and I worked with Al Michaels.

Of course, I didn't have to help Al too much,   except he was up pretty tight when we were doing  baseball, so he, I told him, forget it, let's have   a little fun.

You know, he became, he's probably  one of the finest sportscasters in the country.

I've worked with Jim continuously.

BB: Jim, your son.

CL: Yeah, Jim is just flying by himself.

Now, I'd like to have him help me now.

BB: He’s won some awards too, hasn't he?

CL: He’s won, uh, sportscaster of the   year four times in a row.

BB: Four times in a row,   How many children do you have?

CL: I have five, four boys and a girl.

BB: Four boys and a girl.

CL: Yeah, I got Mickey and   Chucky and Robbie and Jimmy as the boys  and Charlie, who's a nurse at Queens.

BB: Jimmy followed, Jim  followed in your footsteps.

Now,   any other boys getting into sportscasting?

CL: Well at KGU, we were going to do the high   school football for, out of the stadium.

And  then I got sick, my other two sons came in to   help Jim.

So they became a colormen and spotters  and analysts, and they loved it.

Now you can't   get them away from it.

BB: Chuck, you had a   bad sick spell last year, didn't you?

CL: Yeah, I about a year and a half ago,   I was warned by a doctor said, we see some shadows  of emphysema there, and you should take care of   yourself and stop smoking.

Well, I didn't pay  much attention to them.

And then about September,   it really hit me, and they brought me  out of the thing, okay?

And they said,   You got it.

So I had to curtail an awful lot of  activity and slow down and kind of a different   lifestyle if you want to continue on, you know.

BB: But you're still working at uh...  CL: Yeah, I said, Well, I cannot stop  working.

I don't think they want me to   stop working.

They just want me to slow  down.

Don't go up the steps so fast,   this kind of stuff.

But if I had listened to them  a year and a half ago, I wouldn't have been in   this shape.

So you're looking at a real dummy.

BB: You mean, in other words, if you had quit   smoking when they told you to.

CL: And if anybody listening in,   there are so many more worse than I am.

I can  be very thankful that it isn't as bad as some of   them.

But if anybody ever tells you something,  man, listen to them.

Really listen to them,   because they know.

They really know.

And I  know it's hard, but I think if you offered   me a cigarette today, I'd die if I took it  really but boy, what a lesson you have to learn.

BB: Yeah, hard lesson, Chuck.

Thanks very  much for visiting with us.

I enjoyed it.

CL: I enjoyed it too, Bob.

And good luck to you.

BB: Our guest, Chuck Leahey, Dean of Hawaiʻi   sportscasters.

And that's Pau Hana  Years for today, until our next program.

This is Bob Barker leaving you with this thought.

There is a need to feel our bodies have a skill   and energy of their own, apart from the man made  machines they may drive, there is the desire to   find in sport a companionship with kindred people.

Deep in December, it's nice to remember,   although you know the snow will follow.

Deepin  December, it's nice to remember you to remember   without a hurt, the heart is hollow.

Deep  in December, it's Nice to remember the fire   of September that made us mellow.

Deep in  December, our hearts should remember and follow.