RIP Bill Flemming

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070724/SPORTS06/707240343/1048

Michigander made mark all around 'Wide World'

July 24, 2007

BY MARK SNYDER
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

Bill Flemming was known for his trips around the world. Name an exotic locale, and he probably had been there for his job with ABC's "Wide World of Sports."

But Flemming, the well-known TV sportscaster who made his name on "Wide World" and worked in the business for nearly 60 years, was a Michigan man all the way. He grew up in Ann Arbor, graduated from the University of Michigan, raised his family in Bloomfield Hills and spent the last decade summering at his cottage in Good Hart, Mich., until he died Friday from prostate cancer at Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey at age 80.

 

Does anyone recall the name of the Sunday morning college football show Flemming hosted in which they showed highlights from Saturday's games?

I always wanted to skip church to watch it (seems like it came on at 11 a.m. Central). It was broadcast probably during the early '70s.

 

It was called College Football '77, '78, etc. There's a short piece about it on page 3 of this NCAA News archive (PDF link):

http://web1.ncaa.org/web_video/NCAANewsArchive/1977/19771215.pdf

That show was a nice treat before the NFL games started.

If you watched any college football in the 1970s -- because at that time, during the regular season, ABC was it -- you've lost an old friend.

RIP.

 

If memory serves me, he was also Art Flemming's brother... yeah, THAT Art Flemming

 

Big part of my childhood viewing.
The old Wide World of Sports was my favorite sports television of all time.

 

Bill Flemming was the Jim Simpson of ABC Sports. Solid, not flashy, handled the regional games with some national exposure. Never a star, always a pro.
That Sunday morning show started in the late 60s, I think, and went nearly to the end of the NCAA TV deal that the Supreme Court tossed out. Flemming went from his game to Chicago, where it was put together, to narrate it in the middle of the night.

 

I dug Bill Flemming. His enthusiasm always came through and helped make me a college football fan.

 

Always at his best on those "Wide World" reruns of NASCAR races.

 

Flemming was the man.

RIP.

 

I remember those highlights, with the marching band music in the background. Watched them every Sunday morning.

And didn't he also do the Prudential College Scoreboard, sometimes, too?

RIP, Bill.

 

Is Jim Simpson still alive?

 

He is if Wikipedia is correct. Did a basketball game or two on ESPN Classic in 2005.