Phyllis George, who reached 1 standard of fame as Miss out on The usa 1971 and One more one particular 4 a long time later, when CBS hired her to affix the normally all-male cast of “The NFL Nowadays,” died on Thursday in Lexington, Ky. She was 70.
Her family stated the lead to was polycythemia vera, a rare blood most cancers that were diagnosed 35 yrs back.
Hired as a co-host of CBS Sports’s weekly pregame soccer present — which featured the large-profile hosts Brent Musburger and Irv Cross and the gambling commentator Jimmy Snyder, or Jimmy the Greek, as he was regarded — Ms. George immediately became one of the most well known female in sportscasting.
But along with her magnificence-queen background and her modest tv résumé, she was criticized for lacking the standard sportscaster credentials. She wasn't a previous sportswriter, like Mr. Musburger, and she or he was obviously not a retired football player, like Mr. Cross.
She responded to her critics by stating that she realized sufficient about athletics, Specifically soccer, to have by.
“I’m from Texas,” she instructed Men and women journal in 1976, “and down there you follow the Texas Longhorns and also the Dallas Cowboys otherwise you don’t belong.”
She was unquestionably a pioneer. To many youthful Gals who hoped to own Occupations in sportscasting, viewing her sharing the studio desk with Mr. Musburger, Mr. Cross and Mr. Snyder and discussing the day’s online games was inspiring.
“In some cases you have to see it for being it; you have to know one thing is often a profession choice as a Homepage way to aspire to it,” Hannah Storm, an anchor at ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” wrote in an e-mail. “Which means anyone has to be 1st. That was Phyllis George — a real trailblazer.”
Ms. George was finest noted for her interviews with athletes. A noteworthy moment happened in 1975, when Roger Staubach, the Dallas Cowboys’ stoic quarterback, unexpectedly confessed to her: “I like sex as much as Joe Namath. I much like it with just one individual, my wife.”
Late that season, her very first with “The NFL These days,” she recalled staying worried that she were picked out by CBS to play a token function.
“I informed Brent I was no skilled,” she explained to The Orlando Sentinel. “But every single week, what you’ve acquired to be familiar with is always that I get more and more to try and do because my confidence is rising as well as their confidence in me is expanding.”
Nevertheless, it absolutely was tough being a woman in a male bastion several years before raising numbers of girls acquired wide respect at numerous networks.
“We talked not too long ago about the ‘me way too’ movement,” her daughter, Pamela Brown, senior White House correspondent for CNN, mentioned within an interview. “She explained, ‘Pam, I went by means of all of it’ — all of the sexist feedback And the way during industrial breaks she’d have an notion and one of the fellas would steal it like it have been his.”
She remained with “The NFL These days” for three seasons prior to remaining replaced throughout the 1978 period by Jayne Kennedy, A different previous magnificence queen. The subsequent yr, Ms. George married John Y. Brown Jr., who experienced developed the Kentucky Fried Hen chain and was elected governor of Kentucky in 1979. She was the main lady in the point out for 4 yrs.
Phyllis Ann George was born on June twenty five, 1949, in Denton, Texas. Her father, Robert, owned an oil distributorship. Her mother, Diantha Louise (Cogdell) George, was a homemaker. Ms. George attended the College of North Texas but did not graduate.
She took piano classes for more than a decade, aspiring to some job being a classical pianist. That did not come about, but she performed piano within the local and point out pageants that culminated in her currently being crowned Miss out on The us. With the talent portion of the Levels of competition, she performed “Raindrops Retain Falling on My Head.”
When Ms. George was declared because the pageant winner and commenced her runway stroll, she nodded to your judges and her crown fell from her head.
“I assumed, ‘You may’t go away it there,’ so I bent down and carried it,” she advised The Press of Atlantic Town in 2013. “I'd bouquets and a scepter in one hand as well as a crown in the other.”
Her initial significant position in television was like a co-host of “The brand new Candid Camera” in 1974, teaming up with the initial “Candid Digital camera” creator, Allen Funt. CBS Sports employed her shortly immediately after and commenced to offer her assignments, probably the most well known becoming “The NFL Currently.”
Bob Wussler, the president of CBS Sporting activities, mentioned he planned to employ a girl who would supply a human fascination angle that male commentators did not.
“She’s a warm, beautiful, very pleasant specific,” Mr. Wussler instructed The Sentinel. “She provides the normal twenty five-calendar year-old-Woman-supporter type of part, which I think is crucial.”
Just after being changed by Ms. Kennedy for 2 seasons, Ms. George returned to “The NFL Today” in 1980 and stayed right up until 1984. Early the following calendar year, she changed Diane Sawyer as an anchor of “The CBS Early morning News” with Monthly bill Kurtis. She was again criticized, this time for not possessing a journalism history. Soon after 8 months, she resigned.
She went on to host a chat demonstrate around the Nashville Network, generate guides and begin two businesses: Rooster by George, a maker of marinated fresh hen-breast entrees, which she sold to Hormel, plus a line of cosmetics and pores and skin-treatment items, Phyllis George Magnificence, promoted by HSN.
As well as her daughter, she is survived by her son, Lincoln Tyler George Brown, and two grandchildren. Her marriages to Mr. Brown and Robert Evans, the Hollywood producer, ended in divorce. (Mr. Evans died in Oct.)
Interviewed via the Kansas Town Star in 1995, Ms. George recalled that despite the challenges she faced at CBS Athletics, she would've done it once again. But, she reported, she mustn't have done “The CBS Early morning Information.”
“They didn’t Enjoy to my strengths,” she said. “They didn’t Participate in to nearly anything I'd. They just left me sitting there. To indicate up for 8 months, as I did, was the hardest detail I’ve at any time completed.”