The weekend I spent in North Dakota with the boisterous "Big Ed" Schultz of MSNBC fame
The weekend I spent in North Dakota with the boisterous "Big Ed" Schultz of MSNBC fame
Among a number of experiences, I learned the proper pronunciation of "bison"
Longtime fans of MSNBC might remember the name of talk show host Ed Schultz.
"Big Ed," as he was known by his friends. And probably his enemies.
He fancied himself as a sort of Limbaugh of the Left and hosted "The Ed Show" on MSNBC from 2009-2015.
In his 2004 book, "Straight Talk From the Heartland," Schultz wrote "How did a prairie-dwelling, red-meat-eating, gun-toting former conservative become the hope of the liberal left? It all started with this annoying habit I have of speaking my mind. Sometimes, when I open my mouth, all hell breaks loose. Other times, I feel like a voice in the wilderness and I wonder, does anybody get this?"
Among his famous colleagues when he was hired at MSNBC were Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann.
He was suspended by MSNBC for a week without pay in 2011 after calling Laura Ingraham a "right-wing slut."
His national show eventually ended in 2015.
I don't know why I was thinking of Ed Shultz the other day, but it could be that the sudden onset of winter-like temperatures in the early morning reminded me of the time that an odd set of circumstances brought me to Fargo, North Dakota and a meeting with Big Ed in early December of 1988.
MSNBC had not been invented at that point, and few people had heard of Ed Schultz outside of Fargo and its sister city across the Red River of the North, Moorhead, Minnesota.
Ed was, however, a larger-than-life local legend, a well-known sportscaster in Fargo who played quarterback so well at nearby Moorhead State that he led the nation in passing yardage in 1977.
In 1988, Sacramento State's football team defeated my alma mater, UC Davis, 35-14, in an NCAA Division II playoff game and earned the right to travel to Fargo to face the Mighty Bison of North Dakota State.
As someone who had covered UC Davis football for the local newspaper during that season, my duties were over. Or so I thought.
As I recalled in the paper a number of years ago, on Monday morning of game week for Sac State and North Dakota State, my phone rang and a television producer I didn't know asked if I'd be willing to travel to Fargo to provide color commentary for a rare national telecast of a Division II college football game. I told him my face was really better suited for radio, but I was thrilled at the opportunity and pleased to be asked.
Besides, my mom was a North Dakota native and I'd often wondered what the winters must have been like for her when she was growing up. Now I had the chance to feel the cold in a way I'd never experienced it before.
The game would be carried in California and North Dakota and Minnesota and Maryland and Michigan and maybe even Manitoba.
It would be my national television debut. Live. If I messed up, which was likely, the whole world would know it.
Because the game was in Fargo, Ed Schultz was the logical - and only - choice to do the play-by-play. He was the Lone Ranger. I was Tonto.
I'd like to think I was selected because of my vast knowledge of college football, but it's more likely they couldn't find anyone in California willing to spend a winter weekend in North Dakota.
I arrived in Fargo on a Friday afternoon and had a delightful home-cooked dinner and a wonderfully engaging evening with a Fargo family I'd come to know when they used to live in Davis.
And that's when I learned a few details of the man I'd be broadcasting with the next day, details that made me wonder what on earth I'd gotten myself into.