Heart Failure Claims Jimmy ‘the Greek’

Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder, the blustery oddsmaker and sports commentator whose career came to an end because of controversial comments he made about black athletes, died Sunday in Las Vegas. He was 77.

Snyder, who had been in poor health for some time, died of heart failure after being hospitalized for the last month and a half in Las Vegas, according to a long-time friend, Tommy Manakides.

He was arguably the most famous oddsmaker in the betting world, much of that notoriety coming from his uncanny knack at self-promotion. And that reputation was enhanced in 1976 when he became a regular on CBS’ “NFL Today” pregame show.

All that ended, however, after an off-hand television interview in 1988, given while he was eating lunch in Washington. Snyder said that black athletes were superior to whites because of breeding and that the only thing whites continue to control are coaching jobs.

The comments ignited a major protest from black leaders and Snyder was fired from his CBS job the next day. Part of the problem was the timing of the remark, coming only a short time after Dodger executive Al Campanis said blacks lacked the “necessities” to be major league managers and front-office executives.

“The black is a better athlete to begin with because he has been bred to be that way,” Snyder said in the interview. “This goes all the way back to the Civil War, when the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid, see.”

And on the prospects of more blacks in coaching, he said, “There is not going to be anything left for the white people.”

Manakides, Snyder’s friend who was acting as the family spokesman Sunday, said “the Greek” was haunted by the possibility that he would only be remembered only for those remarks.

After Snyder was fired, his health almost immediately began to fail him. Less than a week after he was dismissed by CBS, he was admitted to Duke Medical Center with complaints of chest pains.

In the years after his firing, Snyder lived in semi-isolation at his home in Durham, N.C. Manakides said he convinced Snyder to return to Las Vegas--”where the action is”--last year.

Snyder, born Emetrios Synodinos in Steubenville, Ohio, never made it past the ninth grade. But he became a part of the Las Vegas scene as the town grew into the gambling capital of the world. At one point, his syndicated column ran in more than 240 newspapers around the nation.

Services will be in Steubenville. Snyder is survived by his wife, Joan; daughters Vicki and Stephanie Snyder; son Anthony; a brother, sister and grandson. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be sent to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the disease that claimed three of his children.