Black History Month: Charlie Neal

If this is the first of these you have read, search for ‘Black History Month’ on my blog for some other interesting stories. I don’t particularly care for Black History Month–because black history is part of American history and to reduce it to something you teach/discuss for one month each year is historical segregation. That’s uncool. History belongs to everyone–and there are thousands of stories, millions, which can be shared for the betterment of all.

If you teach–consider how you can use all these stories outside the month of February…and come March, how can you incorporate more stories about women. …and you don’t have to be a teacher to do this–learning new stuff is a blessing available to everybody.

If I got details wrong on this, by all means add your comments below!!

I read a cool story at New Year’s about a sports announcer. His name is Charlie Neal and he’s been doing sports commentary in six different decades. I pay attention to sports, I love competition and yet…I was never exposed to Neal until I read his story in The Ringer. It’s a great read–I recommend checking it out right now. The blog here will wait, I promise.

Back? Great. Isn’t that an awesome story?

I thought it worthy of a write-up this year and I wanted to add to the story so I did what you do in 2021 and searched the internet. Did Neal come up? Nope. I got information on Charlie Deal, a white baseball player of long ago, and then Charlie Neal, a black shortstop who helped the Dodgers to a World Series title (he played MLB 1956-63). Neal the announcer–nada. It was ONLY if I added ‘sportscaster’ to my search that he came up.

Neal is in the HBCU Football Hall of Fame for his contributions (read that Ringer article to understand his cultural impact). He’s in a couple conference HOF for his contributions, too. So–why not go and find a bunch of his old work, put it here for others to appreciate?

The problem? They are hard to find! Marv Albert–easy. Bob Costas–easy. John Madden–could be found by a 5-yr old. To find this one, I actually had to search for ‘Jackson State football’ instead:

I found an interview he did as well…

But good luck finding him without being forced into creative, back-door methods.

Why? I don’t get it.

Why did Charlie Neal not get a Sunday NFL gig, work the NBA, or I bet he’d be great doing a MLB team’s broadcasts. Can you REALLY argue Thom Brennaman or Joe Buck are more deserving of opportunities to call high-profile games? (No.) The catch, of course, Brennaman and Buck had dads get them their jobs (you can add the Caray kids/grandkids in there, too). It wasn’t about skill–there were other factors which kept Neal from being a household name. Neal got screwed.

But…people who come first often deal with that. It’s like the issue of women baseball umpires. Someone has to pound on the wall, do the dirty work, so that the next generation breaks through. That’s how you get Curt Menefee hosting the Fox NFL studio. It’s how you get guys like Wilbon as part of a show airing daily on ESPN. Starting next winter, Everett Fitzhugh will become the first black sportscaster for the NHL. A guy like Neal is what lets LZ Granderson succeed as a journalist–as a gay black man….wait, I didn’t mention Gus Johnson and the joy he shares through a TV screen. Need to mention him. I love that Jemele Hill does not hide her convictions–ditto for Jason Whitlock.

Those are ALL names people who read about, listen to, or watch sports recognize…and every one of them is there because of guys like Charlie Neal.

And if you happen to have more Charlie Neal videos–feel free to put links to them in the comments section.

EDIT: So today (8/27/23), I got an incredible surprise–an email from a former BET executive who worked with Mr. Neal. A couple of their former employees have an effort going on at – https://hbcugo.tv that has a ton of stuff on Mr. Neal–and is an effort to get more HBCU sports out there for everyone to watch.

EDIT #2: I’ve added a post on the first black sports announcer, Jocko Maxwell