Happiest Memories of Chandler Come on Saddest of Occasions

There were nearly 2,000 people at Bob Chandler’s funeral Wednesday in Whittier, and just about everyone there probably considered him a close friend.

“Bob touched very many lives in many ways,” said Leo Hart, who delivered the eulogy.

The mourners, talking among themselves about the Raider broadcaster and former player, kept saying, “He was such a great guy.”

In this case, it wasn’t simply rhetoric.

“He was so kind, so good with people,” said Hart during his moving eulogy. “He was a true gentleman. . . . He was the perfect son, the perfect husband, the perfect father, the perfect friend.”

Hart and Chandler became friends when they played for the Buffalo Bills, Hart as a backup quarterback, Chandler as a wide receiver. They later were involved in business ventures together.

Hart, former head of sales and marketing for the Fairmont hotel chain and later the Ritz-Carlton chain, is CEO of the Connecticut-based Forschner Group, best known for making the Swiss Army knife.

Joel Meyers, the Raiders’ radio play-by-play announcer, said when he was approached about a contract extension last August, he told Scott Nederlander of Nederlander Sports Marketing, the team’s radio rights holder, “I’d sign a lifetime contract if you could guarantee me I’d always get to work with Bob.”

In September, a rare strain of cancer was found in Chandler’s lungs. Surgery revealed that the cancer was advanced, but Chandler remained upbeat and kept telling friends he was going to beat the disease.

He died last Friday, and it wasn’t until the night before that he finally conceded defeat.

Hart said Chandler met individually with members of his immediate family--including children Marisa, 17; Justin, 11; Emmalyn, 5; sisters Catherine George, 47, of Whittier, and Ellen Edington, 36, of Laguna Beach, and nieces and nephews--and although he had trouble breathing he told them what he expected of them in a future that he was going to miss.

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Add Chandler: In a memorable part of Wednesday’s service, Marisa sang “Think of Me,” from “Phantom of the Opera,” dedicating her effort to her father. Marisa, who sang the national anthem before a Raider game on Nov. 20, has an excellent voice.

The microphone malfunctioned, but Marisa didn’t miss a beat and her natural voice came through loud and clear.

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Award winners: The Southern California Sports Broadcasters Assn. has announced its award winners.

The Raiders’ Meyers won for radio play-by-play for the second consecutive year, beating out USC announcer Pete Arbogast and the Rams’ Steve Physioc, the other nominees.

Vin Scully won for television play-by-play for the fourth consecutive year, beating out Chick Hearn and Bob Miller.

The Angels’ Ken Brett won for television commentary, beating out the Mighty Ducks’ Brian Hayward and the Lakers’ Stu Lantz, and the Rams’ Jack Snow won for radio commentary, beating out USC commentator Fred Gallagher and UCLA commentator David Norrie.

XTRA’s Lee Hamilton was named best sports talk-show host. He beat out Joe McDonnell, formerly of KMPC, and KABC’s Steve Edwards.

Special awards went to Jerry West and Buzzie Bavasi, and former local sportscaster Bill Brundige was voted into the group’s Hall of Fame. Former President Reagan was also honored.

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They’re back: Just when you thought the dreaded sports-talk team of McDonnell and Doug Krikorian was gone for good, word has come that they will soon be back on the air together.

Beginning Feb. 27, they will do a daily weekday show, 2-6 p.m., on powerful KMAX-FM (107.1), a Pasadena station that currently carries foreign-language programming.

Chris Gibbs, the president of the group that owns the Long Beach Barracuda, one of eight teams in the new minor league Western Baseball League that is scheduled to make its debut in May, is the man responsible for again polluting the airwaves with McDonnell and Krikorian.

The Barracuda group bought a block of five hours of programming on KMAX and lined up McDonnell and Krikorian as well as their boxing expert, Johnny Ortiz, who will do a weekly Friday show.

Also, the group is close to a deal with Channel 9’s Tom Murray to do a half-hour interview and commentary program weeknights at 6, and KMAX station management also hopes to pick up some additional syndicated sports programming, such as ESPN radio’s Nanci Donnellon, known as “the Sports Babe.”

TV-Radio Notes

CBS begins its 1995 schedule of 21 golf tournaments this weekend with the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Today’s second round will be carried on the USA network. Calling the action will be Jim Nantz and Ken Venturi at the 18th tower, Ben Wright at the 17th hole, Gary McCord at 16, Verne Lundquist at 15 and Peter Kostis at 14. The coordinating producer is Frank Chirkinian, now in his 45th year with CBS. . . . Venturi had back surgery three weeks ago but hopes to be playing again by the end of the month. He will be honored at the Nissan (Los Angeles) Open at Riveria, which CBS will televise Feb. 25-26. . . . CBS will be back at Riviera for the PGA Championship in August.

Former Dodger relief pitcher Jim Gott will be featured on the “Sporting Life With Jim Huber” on CNN Saturday at 1 p.m. and again at 5:30 p.m. Gott talks about dealing with his son, C.J., 6, who suffers from a rare type of autism known as pervasive development delay. . . . Mike Piazza, Tony Gwynn, Bret Saberhagen, Kenny Lofton, Gregg Jefferies, John Kruk, Bret Boone and other major leaguers will be playing on television this weekend. The event is the 14th Pepsi All-Star softball game, which benefits the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. It was taped Jan. 8 in Palm Springs and will be on NBC Saturday at 2 p.m.

Tennis got some good news Thursday when the ATP and ESPN announced a major deal that gives the sport stability on the cable network. The deal, which goes into effect next year and runs through the end of the century, calls for nine tournaments plus the year-end singles and doubles championships to be televised. Included in the nine tournaments is the Newsweek Champions Cup at Hyatt Grand Champions in Indian Wells, held the first week in March.

Fox begins its five successive Sundays of NHL coverage on April 2. The Kings and Mighty Ducks will be on from Anaheim on April 9, the Kings will be on the next Sunday from San Jose and it will be the Ducks and Kings again on April 23 and 30. . . . The NHL, following the lead of the NFL and NBA, is offering a package of 200-300 games to owners of DirecTV and PrimeStar satellite dish systems. A free preview is being offered until Tuesday by DirecTV, and after that the package will be available on both systems for $69 for the rest of the season. The package is being distributed by Texas-based Liberty Satellite Sports, which also distributes the NBA package. The NHL package is also available to C-band dish owners.

Keeping track: A series of five Mobil indoor track meet telecasts, produced by TWI, begins this weekend when NBC carries New York’s Millrose Games on Saturday at 1 p.m., tape-delayed from the night before. . . . The Sunkist Invitational, which is not part of the TWI series, will be tape-delayed one day on ESPN. The meet, to be held at the Sports Arena on Feb. 11, will be televised the next morning, 9:30-11 a.m., on ESPN.

The final round of the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona Raceway will be televised live by the Nashville Network Sunday at 4:30 p.m. . . . Defensive back Deion Sanders of the Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers will serve as host of “Saturday Night Live” on Feb. 18. . . . Prime Ticket changed its name to Prime Sports on Jan. 1. Isn’t it about time the cable network change its logo, too?