Les Levine: A man with a kind heart, a passion for sports and a love of puns – Terry Pluto - cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The name of the show said so much about the man.
More Sports & Les Levine. That was Les, the lover of sports and puns. That was Les, who never ceased to be grateful for having his own sports talk show.
Les. He’s always been just “Les” to his friends and the thousands who followed his various shows, including the MS&LL show he hosted the last few years on cleveland.com. He died Wednesday of complications from Parkinson’s and diabetes at the age of 74.
But in this story, he’s Les.
He’s one of those special people who welcomed me into the inner circle of the Cleveland sports media seemingly a million years ago. It was in the early 1980s, when I was a young baseball writer for The Plain Dealer.
It was when Hal Lebovitz was the voice of sports as The Plain Dealer’s columnist. It was when Pete Franklin (another wonderful friend) was the booming voice on old WWWE radio AM-1100, “heard in 38 states and half of Canada!”
And it’s when Les was the “Voice of Truth & Reason.”
AHEAD OF HIS TIME
It was 25 years ago when Les took his sports talk show on cable television. I wondered, “Would anyone want to watch someone talk sports? Listen, sure. But watch?”
Other than the Chicago Sportswriters on TV (1985-2000), I don’t recall anyone else doing it until Les. He made the move in 1996 from WHK radio. Certainly, he was the first to have a show like that in this market.
Les not only was the host, he also sold his own advertising and wrote the commercials, which he read with passion and panache. Les would have liked that word – panache. It means with a special flamboyance, not the same old story.
I did his show once in 2009 with former Browns coach Eric Mangini. Afterward, Mangini said, “I never heard anyone read ads like that!”
It was a compliment. I think of Sokolowski’s University Inn and Gallucci’s Italian Market as two of his favorites. He had McDonald’s for years. But when he lost that, he added Nature Stone, a key backer of his show.
“Les was always his own man,” said former Cavs broadcaster Joe Tait. “He didn’t try to be Pete Franklin or anyone else, I loved his show for that. His puns were usually funny. The Les you saw on the air was Les Levine. He was genuine.”
Then Tait told the story of meeting Les in the spring of 1970 in Indiana. Tait was covering an American Legion baseball game for a Terre Haute radio station. He met Les at the same game as he was starting his broadcasting career with a Jasper, Indiana, radio station.
“And a few years later, both of us small-town radio guys ended up in Cleveland,” said Tait.
RESPECTED THE CALLERS
I posted a note about the death of Les on my Facebook page. Within a few hours, there were close to 100 comments.
Robert Rodman wrote:
“Wow ... another Cleveland media legend is gone. He came across as a nice guy as well as very knowledgeable and I never heard him be abrupt or condescending to callers.”
Having done hundreds of shows with Les, I often marveled at his patience with callers. Some like “The Provoker” came at Les to annoy him. But Les and “The Provoker” both knew the game and had fun with it, no matter how outrageous the comment.
Cliff Kessler wrote:
“I will really miss him. A decent man who covered sports with a talk show in the right way. I’m sure it’s a generational thing, he didn’t have enough drama for most young people.”
But he also had a younger audience, too. Michael Shaffer wrote:
“Great show!”
“Tonight?”
“Every night I watched. Will really miss Les.”
That’s because Les would always ask “Tonight?” after someone complimented his show on the air.
Then there was this from Michael Hoover:
“Just learned of the passing of one of my all-time favorite sports show hosts, Les Levine. I drove over 200 miles round trip on several occasions to the eastern suburbs to catch his show live at hosting venues.”
MORE THAN JUST TALK
Les was a wonderful writer. Those “Truth & Reason” commentaries he used to open the show were not only well written, but written fast – in 20 minutes. I often saw him do it right before going on the air. He edited two books by Lebovitz, his close friend and the star of his show for many years during the sportswriter’s weekly appearance. Les also wrote a regular column for the Cleveland Jewish News.
He met the fans at so many places, from walking his dog to appearances for charities. He’d talk sports with anyone, any time.
I have been writing this column with a few tears in my eyes. Les was a man with a huge heart who cared about others. That’s what I remember best about him.
Finally, David Lasky wrote:
“How come with Les no more, we feel more less? Goodbye Mr. Levine. Thanks for all the laughs, may your memory be a blessing to all who loved you.”
The only thing “Mr. Levine” would say to that is, “Thanks so much ... and you can call me Les.”
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2021-02-04 20:51:00Z
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