Fastest Kid on the Block: The Marty Glickman Story

No recollection of sports broadcasting in the United States is complete without a nod to workhorse Marty Glickman, and thankfully Marty has done this work for us himself in his spirited autobiography, "The Fastest Kid on the Block." It is fitting that Glickman devoted his career to radio and television work, because in 1936 Glickman himself was the center of one of the great sports stories of his day, the 1936 Munich Olympics and his exclusion from competition in Hitler's Germany because of his Jewish descent. Glickman was generally a man of considerable enthusiasms, and in this 1996 work his enjoyment and zeal for his life and career took considerable precedent over such things as logical order and structuring. Thus the work begins in the middle of things, an 18 year-old world record sprinter from the University of Syracuse sailing from his native New York into the teeth of international controversies. Glickman takes us all over the lot in his unfolding of his life script--rather surprising for a sportscaster renowned for discipline and focus behind the mike--but in truth this is one of the book's charms, and at the end of the day we probably wouldn't want it any other way. Glickman is candid that his treatment by many parties at the Munich Olympics left him angry and hurt. The story is complex, and while the figure of Hitler and his anti-Semitism looms large, there were other administrators who did not bring glory upon themselves, either. Olympics President Avery Brundage [no surprise there] and Lawson Robertson, US track coach who angled for his own USC runners, did not bring credit to themselves in this saga. Only the remarkable showing of Glickman's replacement, the classy Jesse Owens, saved the US from further embarrassment in the press. Thus, one of the world's fastest sprinters watched his events in street clothes. But Glickman was a self-starter, not a brooder, and to his credit, after a brief stint in professional football, he crafted a colorful and creative career in sports broadcasting. In style he had something of Howard Cosell about him--a unique sort of Gotham regional delivery that made him revered in the tri-state metro market but a bit too brash for Omaha. In later years networks came to appreciate his mastery of the broadcast science, and he would tutor many of today's best known announcers, including the likes of Bob Costas and Marv Albert. One of his favorite and most memorable tutorials was preparing young Gayle Sierens--a woman reporter--to call a nationwide NFL game involving the New York Jets in 1988, the only time a woman has ever called a pro football game. Glickman enjoyed his own share of national exposure, and even close to his death in 2001 he would still do an occasional New Year's Bowl Game. But his forte was the New York sports scene--he was one of the early announcer for [and cheerleaders of] the new post-war NBA. We forget what a rag-tag organization the NBA was in the 1940's and 1950's. Glickman travele