Local heroes and Washington’s characters of the sporting clan gathered last Thursday to bid farewell to George Michael, perhaps the character with the most character of them all.
Riggo showed. So did John Thompson Jr., and his son, JT III, current Georgetown basketball coach. Sonny Jurgenson, of course. Joe Gibbs and Jim Vance. Even Redskins owner Dan Snyder showed up with his lovely wife, Tanya.
They turned out on a cold, sunny day to pay tribute to Michael, the sports anchor who personalized reporting and paved the way for ESPN’s type of 24/7 coverage. He died on Christmas Eve after a long battle with leukemia.
“This is the end of an era,” Charlie Brotman told me. Brotman is Washington’s sports promoter of the ages. A local kid, he announced Senators games at Griffith Stadium and RFK. He’s announced every inaugural parade since 1957. He did Obama’s. At 82, he looks 52. He adored Michael. “We had three great sports anchors — George, Warner Wolf and Glenn Brenner. There are a lot of good sportscasters out there, but none on that plateau.”
Being a government town we tend toward the pallid and proper. Michael was neither. His hair was too orange, his face too tanned, his teeth so bright they could blind you through the TV screen, his voice booming the results of the latest Redskins debacle or a triumph on a local high school field.
“George and I would kid around before the camera went on,” Snyder told me, “then he would grill me and I would wonder, ‘What happened to the friendly George?'”
From what we heard at the National Cathedral Thursday — especially from his two children — the sweet George was always there. If a true testament to a life well lived is the warmth you create and leave with your family and friends, Michael lived close to perfection.
“To us he was a father, friend, mentor,” his son, Brad, wrote in a tribute that was read by a friend. “I keep hearing that he had impact. His impact on me was spending time on the Jersey Shore during his radio days in Philadelphia. We would ride the waves on blue rafts until both of our chests were raw.”
Now Brad’s children ride the waves.
“To you he was George,” his daughter, Michelle, said, “To us he was Dad. He celebrated our accomplishments and helped us through our disappointments. He loved us just the way we are.”
Michelle would show up for coffee with Michael and Pat Lackman — his wife and partner in work and play. She would wind up spending the day and apologize for taking so much time. Michael would say: “This is how we make a memory.”
The George we saw on TV loved riding horses on his spread in Comus, Md. He loved sitting on his favorite hill with Pat, his favorite woman, and looking at Sugar Loaf Mountain.
That’s character and love that will live on.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at [email protected].
