Photo by Jerry Plantz
In the early days of Stanford and Sons in Westport, as just a restaurant, I had the occasion to call Channel 9 to see about an interview with one of our employees…
We employed a young man who’d been in amateur boxing for several years and had worked his way into the Kansas City Golden Gloves finals. He wanted some help getting noticed, so I called several sports channels to see about getting him an interview.
Channel 9’s Craig Sager, the new guy, responded and came out to Stanford’s to meet him and do the story. I didn’t know Craig, but he told me it was one of his first interviews outside the station and he couldn’t have been nicer.
Our guy lost the title fight, but Craig became a regular visitor to Stanford’s and we talked often about sports.
Sager worked in Kansas City from 1979-1981 before leaving and eventually becoming a national figure in broadcasting. Even after he left KC, he often came back for visits and work. I remember him stopping by in those early years and what a nice guy he always was.
Like all of us, I was saddened by his fight with cancer that ended this week with his passing at the age of 65. Craig was one of many Kansas City area news people who went on to garner national attention at major news outlets.
Kind if like Jason Whitlock and with Fox Sports.
I remember Sager wearing all these wild sports coats and being an upbeat and animated guy off and on the tube. He sure liked Kansas City and over the years came back often.
It’s always nice to see area media personalities get a chance to become national faces and Craig was one who did just that. They have been talking about him on ESPN and many other news outlets about what a great guy Craig was and how hard he fought his battle.
He got to cover the NBA finals for the first time this past year.
He will be missed.
I remember watching Craig Sager on KMBC back in the late 70’s/early 80’s. He always seemed happy and cheerful. I remember when he left KC for bigger things and being a little upset about it, wishing such a great guy would stay and suffer in KC with the rest of us.