RIP CNN/SI's Fred Hickman

Just received this Facebook post from the CNN/SI alumni group:

Hi Everyone. It is with a very heavy heart that I post this. Our dear friend Fred Hickman passed away today. It is hard to imagine that Fred is gone. I guess at 11:30 tonight the stalwarts of CNN Sports will be together again scripts in hand, ready to give the best sportscast from their new set. I am sure Nick was the first to welcome Fred home today. RIP Fred, Until we meet again.

 

I actually thought the CNN show was better than Sportscenter back in the day.

 

God. I used to flip between that and ESPN and Headline News just for constant sports highlights. This was pre-ESPNews and pre-me discovering girls.

 

It was an amazing era when you could flip back and forth and get two really quality presentations. I loved the pacing of CNN’s so much.

Edit: @Regan MacNeil beat me there.

 

Fred (and Nick) was a daily part of my sports-mad youth.

 

Fred and Nick were great. RIP, sir.

 

Damn. Loved that show back in the day. Play of the Day was always worth sticking around for.
Sometime in the past 10 years I remember taking a trip to New Orleans, turning on the TV in the hotel, and seeing Fred Hickman doing sports on one of the local stations. It was weird, considering he'd had such a high national profile, but he was still so damn good that any thoughts of "What the hell happened to him?" were washed away in an instant by the appreciation of having him back in my TV life for a fleeting moment.
RIP to one of the best.

 

RIP. He was so smooth and so understated. It was odd when he (understandably) ended up at ESPN.

 

I thought Hickman was a tremendous talent. But isn't he a guy who struggled with a drug problem and he saw his career deteriorate? I thought he was recently working at a station in Hagerstown, Maryland.

 

Dang it.
Absolutely better than SportsCenter back in the good ol days.
RIP
I hope Shaq is at the funeral.

 

It's not too unusual for national figures to move into local news. We've had quite a few national cable anchors audition in my newsroom over the past few years -- it typically offers much more dependable hours, frequently less travel, and in a lot of cases better pay.

Having said that... I know nothing of Fred's personal life, but going from networks like CNN and ESPN to New Orleans/Baton Rouge/Hagerstown does not suggest things were going great for him.

RIP. He was damn good at what he did.

 

As someone who lived in Hagerstown for 7 years, i can't imagine how much lower on the food chain a tv news person can get. RIP