RIP CNN/SI's Fred Hickman

[maumann]

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.

 

[poindexter]

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

 

[Regan MacNeil]

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.

 

[User 149557]

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.

 

[Songbird]

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

 

[SixToe]

Fred and Nick were great. RIP, sir.

 

[Batman]

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.

 

[wicked]

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

 

[LanceyHoward]

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.

 

[Chef2]

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

 

[PCLoadLetter]

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.

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.

 

[poindexter]

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

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Lou Scally just kicked his dog.

RIP to my appointment viewing during summer nights when I was off from school.

 

[User 149557]

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.

I know CBS’ Russ Mitchell is in Cleveland now.

 

[Tighthead]

We didn’t get ESPN north of the 49th, so Fred and Nick were the best option for those of us who wanted a US based national show. It was appointment viewing for me at the time.

 

[MileHigh]

Fred and Nick were tremendous and so far ahead of things at the time. Definitely made SportsCenter have to step up its game.

RIP.

 

[Huggy]

We didn’t get ESPN north of the 49th, so Fred and Nick were the best option for those of us who wanted a US based national show. It was appointment viewing for me at the time.

Spot on, it was light years ahead of what TSN was doing at the time.

 

[LanceyHoward]

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

I thought Hickman and Charles were the best team until Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann came along.

But what killed their show was the move to specialized channels. They were sports guys on a news channel. Viewers started to watch specialized channels and a sports show stopped working on a newschannel. The same thing happened in AM radio when all sports stations were created.

 

[Woody Long]

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.

About 10 years ago, I was covering an NFL game in New Orleans and literally bumped into Fred Hickman in the press box. He still had that big smile and we chatted for a few minutes, and I was grateful for the opportunity to tell him that I loved the CNN show.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

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.

It was when he was working in Detroit

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