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Bob Costas Opens 2024-25 Drew Forum Series

Sports broadcaster discusses career highlights, current state of sports, passing of Pete Rose

October 2024 – Drew University’s 2024-25 Drew Forum series kicked off with Emmy Award-winning sports broadcaster Bob Costas at the Mayo Performing Arts Center.

The event was moderated by Drew President Hilary L. Link, PhD, and was generously sponsored by the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

Costas—a 29-time Emmy Award winner, eight-time National Sportscaster of the Year, and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame—touched on everything from the recent passing of Pete Rose, head injuries in the NFL, the state of college athletics, and that time Don King mistook him for Michael J. Fox.

A few quick hits:

On Pete Rose the player

“He played the game not just at a high level but with a spirit that could be felt so that the average fan said to him or herself, ‘If I could play baseball, I’d play that way, I’d play with heart and soul and get the most out of whatever ability God gave me.’ All those things were relatable and were admirable.”

On if Rose should be in the Hall of Fame despite having gambled on baseball

“Somebody got all those hits and I felt this way from the beginning: justice should have been tempered with mercy. You could have separated the two things. He could have been banned from any official connection to baseball from 1989 on, but he could have been eligible for the Hall of Fame…I think what they could have done was put him on the ballot—he likely would’ve been elected eventually if not on the first ballot—and then on the plaque in Cooperstown it’d list all his achievements and at the bottom it’d say ‘Banned from baseball for life in 1989 for gambling.’ To me that was the simple and fair and compassionate solution. And now he’s gone. And in a way, if somehow they relax that ruling and he was able to get in a year from now, two years from now, five years from now, I think it’s crueler still that way.”

On the new MLB rules to speed up the game

“I think, really, it’s a traditionalist move. I like it because it restores something closer to what was baseball’s natural pace. Baseball is supposed to have a pleasing, leisurely pace. It’s not supposed to have a plodding, lethargic pace, which it too often had.”

On if head injuries in football has changed his enjoyment of the game

“Football is inherently dangerous. The steps the NFL has taken has made it less dangerous, but you can never make it safe.”

On his favorite calls of his career

“Michael Jordan’s shot in ‘98. That was the perfect ending…. Here’s the NBA Championship on the line, they’re losing by one point, he turns it into a one-point victory, it’s a completely classic shot. He almost holds the pose like he’s posing for a statue, which they probably made several of him. Everything about that was completely classic.”

“Muhammad Ali lighting the torch in ‘96 at the Olympics was a deeply moving moment. The way they staged it, no one knew it was going to be him. They only rehearsed it one time at three o’clock in the morning…It was an incredible moment of reconciliation. You hear a lot of sounds in an arena or stadium, but you seldom hear an audible gasp.”

On what he wants his legacy to be

“I’d like to be remembered, professionally, as someone who enhanced people’s enjoyment of the events that I was presenting, did so with some journalistic integrity, but also with a sense of humor, and tried to be as honest as I could. And in some sense, if not explicitly than implicitly, projecting that I was happy to be there and I understood how fortunate I was.”

The Drew Forum speaker series will continue with two events in the spring 2025 semester:

Al Franken | Monday, February 3 | 7:30 p.m. | Mayo Performing Arts Center | Tickets & Info

Andy Borowitz | Monday, April 28 | 7:30 p.m. | Mayo Performing Arts Center | Tickets & Info

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