GARY PARK: Coolest of them allI get asked all the time who was my favorite all-time Bay Area anchor: easy call. Gary Park from the old days at KTVU.
Hard to believe it's been ten years since Park's death.
Park did both news and sports at KTVU but he was best known as a sports anchor and TV play-by-play broadcaster for the Giants.
When I think cool, I think Gary Park. Some people were put off by Park's standoffish image but it was just that, an image. Gary was as nice and gracious as possible. If you knew him, he made his way to be engaging and personable. Sure, there were always moments where if he sensed you to be a phony, he would stay clear.
I still regard Park as one of the best writers in Bay Area TV News and Sports broadcast lore. His sports reports on the "10 O'clock News" were tight and crisp. He could make a simple baseball game interesting and unique, his writing was so good. And an oldie but good: Park's signature ending on the anchor desk each night: the feature race at Golden Gate Fields.
Cool was Gary Park. The man could dress well. He was quiet and polite. In the 70's growing up in Oakland, I got to meet Gary at a place he frequented many times --always by himself dining in Chinatown at the Lantern restaurant. He would leave the restaurant and then head down the street to KTVU's studios in Jack London Square to prepare for his 10 PM sportscast.
We will probably never see a Gary Park-type broadcaster again here in the Bay Area. Sign of the times. A different era. A different blend. Brash and loud, I don't cherish. Gary Park: classy and cool.
Coolest ever.
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His locker room interview of Will Clark after the Giants won the NL West in 1987 is a classic.
ReplyDeleteRich: My friend & I attended the Oakland Art & Wines Festival(now known as Art & Soul Oakland) back in 2006. We both recognized Gary Park. Such a Cool, Gracious, Laid-Back Man. He thanked us both for watching Channel 2 & then strolled away with a Glass of White Wine in one hand & a Pretty African-American Woman in the other hand. I still remember to this day when Gary unfortunately passed away in 2009 Mark Ibanez, who worked alongside Gary for many years, NEVER once mentioned his passing on the air. I called my friend that night to let him know about this glaring omission & he like me was appalled that Mark nor Channel 2 10 pm news never acknowledged Gary's passing. Thank you Rich for your beautiful post on the "Coolest of Them All" the legendary Gary Park.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever consider that the station may have directed Ibanez (and maybe also the executive producer of the newscast) to not mention Park's death? I don't know why they would have wanted to keep the news under wraps, but it makes more sense than an intentional slight by former colleagues.
DeleteThat immediately came to my mind as well.
ReplyDeletePark was the best. When he was doing Giants games, he would always mention the jazz clubs and restaurants he went to in Montreal. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteYes he was a riot. I miss those days.
DeleteWhen I think of him I think of too much time under a sunlamp and he was a very bad sports play-by-play guy. Better as a sports anchor.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rich for bringing up such a wonderful memory. I was fortunate to travel for the Giants front office for 16 years beginning in 1976. Our TV booth that first year was Gary Park and Al Michaels. Think about that! Gary was one of the most well-read, well-rounded people I had met at that time in my life (I was 21 and traveling to new cities for the first time). So proud to have called him a truly close friend and one of my mentors.
ReplyDelete"Nice guy, talked about restaurants, cool as a cucumber, etc."
ReplyDeleteProbably all true.
But, as a TV PBP guy? zzzzzzzzzzz
Seriously, wasn't Gary Park the originator of the "Comb Over?"
ReplyDeleteActually, the Patron Saint of Combover is Dick Van Patten...
DeleteImpressed that Ralph Nelson (March 24, 6:57 pm) responded to this post. He was the traveling secretary back then. How many Giants fans remember him? He was also a college basketball official. How many people remember Gary Park telling Will Clark that he was "overmodulating" when he was screaming into Gary's microphone during the postgame interview? Clark didn't care. He even dropped an F-bomb on local TV. If he did that now...
ReplyDeleteThe Giants were so bad in the 70's that Gary Park would fill time on the TV broadcasts by talking about red wine. It was like listening to Niles Crane.
ReplyDelete