Finebaum dishes the bad with the good in new book
Paul Finebaum may be rich beyond his wildest dreams, praised for his writing skills and has appeared on national television programs, but he isn’t taking anything for granted.
Not after Shreveport, Louisiana.
That’s where he hit rock bottom and probably wondered if he could scrape together enough for a bus ticket back home to Memphis, Tennessee.
At the time, he was working in the sports department of the Shreveport Journal, making the grand sum of $145 a week.
Covering LSU and the New Orleans Saints was a great learning experience for the rookie sportswriter but, as he put it, “my checking account was on life support.”
So was his love life, and the final straw appeared to be the day his girlfriend told him to take a hike via a “Dear Paul” letter.
“So I sat in my tiny duplex apartment living room — alone, broke, desperate,” he writes in his new book. “My girlfriend had dumped me. My phone didn’t work. I had no water. The electricity had been shut off and, as an added bonus, I was working in Shreveport.”
Suicidal thoughts? Not on your life. His self-confidence never wavered during those difficult days. Call it chutzpah of a dreamer, but he knew it was only a matter of time before things got better.
An Alabama newspaper provided the platform he needed in 1980 and he was on his way to the top — a new direction in life was just two states to the east.
The Birmingham Post-Herald would be his springboard to success and it led him to the apex of his chosen profession, one which has him firmly ensconced as the “face and voice” of ESPN’s new SEC Network.
At 58, he’s certainly no overnight sensation. He paid his dues and then some at the little paper in Shreveport and, later, at the Post-Herald, a newspaper that eventually folded, a victim of changing times and tastes.
By then, he was well on his way to bigger, better things after chalking up more than 250 state and national awards as a sports columnist and investigative reporter.
In 1984, he was ready for another change and it evolved from a phone call letting him know that he’d be great as a part-time sports talk show host on a Birmingham station. His salary was $100 to start.
He had no way of knowing, of course, but that phone call opened the door to fame and fortune. It’s been a steady 30-year ride to the top since that time, highlighted by a professional portfolio filled with successes.
Ask him about his amazing accomplishments and he’s at a loss to explain his good fortune. He isn’t reluctant to admit it, either.
“How did I ascend to such heights, you may be asking?” he writes in his book. “How does a kid who never played a down of intramural football become the Mouth of the football South?
“The answer is simple: I don’t know. It’s like asking who thought a comb-over was a good idea (an appropriate comment since he has little hair to comb anywhere.) Some things defy logic I guess my career is one of them.”
He’ll be signing copies of his new book: “My Conference Can Beat Your Conference: Why the SEC Still Rules College Football” in Montgomery at 7 p.m. Aug. 8 at Books-A-Million’s store at 7074 Eastchase Parkway.
HarperCollins, a major U.S. book publisher, has ordered a first run of 150,000 copies. Reports indicate Paul got an advance of about $650,000 — not bad for a guy who couldn’t pay his light bill three decades ago.
In recent years he’s been profiled in New Yorker magazine--a 5,000 word piece titled: “King of the South” and in the Wall Street Journal in another profile that described him as “The Oprah Winfrey of college football.”
“My Conference,” written with conjunctive support from ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski, is as much a Finebaum autobiography as an insider’s look at America’s most successful college football program.
Paul’s radio voice has been favorably compared with the retired Keith Jackson, who once was one of the best in the business. He also has an unshakable demeanor, rarely allowing himself to be rattled by his loyal band of radio reactionaries.
Paul describes his sports talk show as “caller driven” and lauds a supporting cast of characters who use names such as “Tammy,” “Charles from Reeltown,” “Phyllis from Mulga,” “I-man,” “Legend,” “Robert from Iowa” and many others around the country who have built their own fan following.
They’ve been given opportunities to vent their frustrations and displeasures about all things sports, especially when it involves Alabama and Auburn football.
The fan who raised the biggest fuss was Harvey Updyke who was so upset over Alabama blowing a 24-point lead and losing to Auburn in the 2010 Iron Bowl game that he poisoned the trees at Toomer’s Corner.
He didn’t keep it to himself, either. He called Paul’s show and bragged about what he did. That admission put Updyke behind bars for several months and now he faces a fine he’ll never have time to pay off. It also made Paul a household name within the television and radio talk show business.
Becoming a star on ESPN has led Paul and his wife, Linda, a Birmingham doctor with a successful practice, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where the network is located.
Paul’s success in the wide world of sports might just date back to the day before the birth of his older sister, Pam, in New York.
Gloria Finebaum, whose husband died when Paul was 15, raised her two children with a firm hand. A huge baseball fan, in the maternity ward expecting Pam, she listened to a game that would go down in baseball history.
Suddenly, she began screaming. Others in the ward turned wondered if she was in pain, perhaps signaling an early delivery. No such thing. She was so happy when Bobby Thomson hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers that she couldn’t contain herself.
“The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant,” she yelled, repeating the words of the excited radio broadcaster.
Paul’s debut was still five years away, but his mother’s joy and genes must have been reserved for him.
It’s a shame she died before she could savor the unparalleled success of her little boy who would become a big star in his own right.