Craig Graham Sager ( ; June 29, 1951 – December 15, 2016) was an American sports reporter who covered an array of sports for CNN and its sister stations TBS and TNT, from 1981 until his death in late 2016.
Sager worked as a sideline reporter pacing the floors of the National Basketball Association, as he invariably sported one of his vast collection of garishly eccentric jackets and suits. He was a 2016 inductee of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. During the 2017 NBA All-Star Game, Sager was named the 2017 recipient of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy Media Award.
Early life and education
Sager was born June 29, 1951, in Batavia, Illinois. He attended Batavia High School, gaining recognition in 1966 by writing an essay entitled "How and Why I Should Show Respect to the American Flag" for a patriotism contest sponsored by the American Legion. Sager's essay was published in the Congressional Record. It drew editorial accolades from conservative newspapers around the country for his declaration that he was an "untypical teen" of the silent majority that was not part of any protest movement and "happy we were born in America and not in Havana, Moscow, or Peiping".
Growing up in Batavia, Sager was friends with his basketball teammates Ken Anderson and Dan Issel. Greg Issel, Dan's brother, was very close with Sager. Anderson became a quarterback in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals and was named the NFL Most Valuable Player in 1981. Issel became a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame basketball player with the Kentucky Colonels and Denver Nuggets. Later, Issel said of his Batavia teammates: "What Batavia instilled in all three of us—myself, Kenny and Craig—was a solid work ethic. I hope the people of Batavia appreciate how much Batavia meant to Craig and all of us, because we appreciate what Batavia did for us."
Sager was a 1973 graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Speech. He was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. After little success on the school's football and basketball teams, Sager found his calling by donning the garb of Willie the Wildcat, the school's mascot, for three years—a foreshadowing of his professional sports entertainment career.
Career
Local cable and MLB
Sager began his career as a reporter for WXLT (now WWSB-Channel 40) in Sarasota, Florida. He worked as a radio news director in 1974, making $95 a week for his efforts, a paltry sum which was supplemented by his access to sports events. Sager was in Atlanta and dodged security to be on the field on April 8, 1974, when slugger Hank Aaron hit his record-breaking 715th home run, brashly seeking to interview the superstar at home plate amidst mass fan pandemonium.
In the mid-1970s, Sager had a short stint as a weatherman at WLCY-TV (now WTSP-TV) in St. Petersburg where he was mentored by then Sports Director, Dick Crippen. He then went to WINK-TV in Ft. Myers as a sports reporter where he covered the Kansas City Royals in spring training at Terry Park.
In 1978, Sager joined KMBC-Channel 9 in Kansas City, Missouri, where he broadcast Kansas City Royals spring training games and Kansas City Chiefs preseason games during the 1970s. Sager would remain at the station until 1981. The young reporter was later remembered by Major League Baseball hall of famer George Brett from an encounter at spring training as a "tireless worker" who would set up and focus the camera before conducting his own interview, essentially becoming a "one-man crew".
CNN and Turner Sports
Sager handled the first live remote report by CNN from the 1980 baseball playoffs and joined the network full-time in 1981. While at CNN, he co-anchored CNN Sports Tonight shows, winning a CableAce award for his efforts in 1985. Sager also served as the anchor of College Football Scoreboard on CNN's sports-oriented sister network, TBS, from 1982 to 1985.
In 1987, Sager moved to work full-time at the TBS division, hosting a 30-minute Sunday night program called The Coors Sports Page as well as handling halftime reports of Atlanta Hawks games.
Sager was posted wherever the network needed him, working before the cameras at Ted Turner's Goodwill Games from 1986 through 2001. He also covered the Pan American Games and the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He called Nordic skiing and curling for sister network TNT's coverage of the 1992 Winter Olympics. He worked on telecasts of golf and tennis, and covered the National Football League on TNT's telecasts from 1990 to 1997.