There was a Indy car announcer/presenter named Larry Nuber. I thought his
work was decent to fairly good. He has seemed to have fallen off the charts
with the emergence of Larry Jenkins, John Kernan and the other Indy based
reporter whose name escapes me for the moment while his face shines in my mind.
Is there just not enough room at the top or did he tick someone like Tony
George off?
What happen to Larry Nuber?
Started by
David M. Kane
, Jan 03 2003 21:41
8 replies to this topic
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#2
Buford
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Posted 03 January 2003 - 22:26
He ticked off somebody at ESPN and was banished to the hinderlands and he died last year.
#3
Flatin5th
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Posted 03 January 2003 - 22:30
Hi David...poor Larry passed away in the summer of 2000 at his home in Indianapolis. He did many an ESPN telecast with Bob Jenkins. I'll always remember Larry when ESPN did the whole 24 hours at LeMans in 1988. Larry was interviewing Hans Stuck and Kevin Cogan in the pits late at night and Hans did his usual thing of saying he was going to go "balls out" to catch up with the Jaguar. Larry got a big kick out of that! I think the other guy you're thinking of is Paul Page.
#4
David M. Kane
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Posted 04 January 2003 - 00:03
I was afraid that was what happened, what a shame, I really enjoyed his work.
If you remember, there was a big management change when ABC took over ESPN,
they even tried pushing "Boomer" out of the picture a bit and his fan base
went ballastic. So they backed down reluctantly. Keith Oberman also got into it big time with the new management.
The other gentleman whose name temporarily escaped me was Robin Miller. He's pretty damn good too.
If you remember, there was a big management change when ABC took over ESPN,
they even tried pushing "Boomer" out of the picture a bit and his fan base
went ballastic. So they backed down reluctantly. Keith Oberman also got into it big time with the new management.
The other gentleman whose name temporarily escaped me was Robin Miller. He's pretty damn good too.
#5
Jim Thurman
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Posted 04 January 2003 - 00:20
QUOTE]Originally posted by David M. Kane
There was a Indy car announcer/presenter named Larry Nuber. I thought his
work was decent to fairly good. He has seemed to have fallen off the charts
with the emergence of Larry Jenkins, John Kernan and the other Indy based
reporter whose name escapes me for the moment while his face shines in my mind.
Is there just not enough room at the top or did he tick someone like Tony
George off? [/QUOTE]
I'll try this again...I don't know what it is, but everytime I try to post the dirt on these guys...the post won't go through . It's almost eerie...
I know Larry Nuber certainly ticked me off toward the end of his on air career, but I didn't have anything to do with his firing.
Larry Nuber was from the Toledo, Ohio area and attended Ohio State University. His background included some writing (a season preview of a short track in Ohio appears in a 1968 issue of Cavalcade of Auto Racing) and announcing at short tracks.
Nuber and Bob Jenkins did ESPN's first racing telecast and the two of them did almost all of ESPN's racing telecasts for years afterwards. Nuber even did a few F1 telecasts.
During his time on ESPN's "Thunder" telecasts of USAC Midget and Sprint races, Nuber's announcing reflected extreme partiality towards Rich Vogler, and later, Jeff Gordon. His downfall at ESPN came shortly after a very memorable incident. During a telecast in 1989, following an incident involving Vogler...Nuber, as usual, stuck up for Vogler. His broadcast partner was driver Steve Chassey, who had some on track run ins with Vogler. Chassey made some negative comments about Vogler's driving style and the tension was noticable on air. There were several seconds of dead air (I was told shortly afterwards by someone who would know that the two nearly came to blows in the booth). Somehow they managed to finish the telecast, though very terse toward each other.
The next week's telecast and ESPN made Chassey appear on air to apologize for his "uncalled for" remarks the previous week...though they never made Nuber apologize for his pro-remarks. That was Chassey's last appearance on air. A few weeks later and Nuber was gone as well, typical of U.S. TV business, with nary a mention. I was told his contract was simply not renewed.
Nuber could not have been a bigger cheerleader and promoter of Jeff Gordon, so imagine when I found out he was Gordon's manager while doing this on air. How about that for conflict of interest? (a similar thing happened with a non-on air ESPN employee and Tony Stewart, but that's for another discussion). He apparently didn't make much, or hold on to much, off of Jeff, but good luck trying to get to the bottom of all of that.
After his ESPN time ended, Nuber did ASA telecasts and some independent open wheel telecasts (one with Jeff as commentator!). There were a couple of incidents on his ASA races that bothered me as well, one which showed extremely close ties to his former Lingner Group (ESPN) crew that manifested itself in an extremely negative manner. He had continued to hang out with his old buddies there.
But mainly, he worked for Wynn's. Even this has it's dubious ties. For a while on the "Thunder" telecasts, Wynn's offered a bonus if a heat race winner "chosen by a random draw" went on to win the main event. Strangely, this always was an ESPN favorite (almost always Stewart, despite the odds). I must not have been the only person to notice this because they finally conducted one of the drawings, on TV, on the front straight of Indianapolis Raceway Park, in full view of the stands...with someone else doing the draw. Nuber could often be seen around, in his Wynn's jacket. Once or twice the "Thunder" cameras would catch him watching the races.
He died in 2000 from either a stroke or brain hemorrhage. This was only a week or two before "Thunder" did their first telecast ever from Toledo. Again, no mention except to have the camera linger on a sticker on the Wynn's sponsored car of Ryan Newman that read: In Memory of Larry Nuber. ASA driver Gary St. Amant mentioned Nuber next time he won, but those were on ASA telecasts on TNN.
Sorry to seem so harsh. If the whole situation involving the ascendancy of Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were to ever come out, Nuber would figure. And personally, I feel he should still be here for that. I just like to see someone get their rewards and penalties while still on this Earth.
I will say that Larry Nuber brought a great enthusiasm to his work, and that is to his credit, unfortunately, later he let other things take precedent. He also was very personable.
He also was very interested in planes. If you took him for a ride, he was a friend for life.
Also, sorry for the length...there's a lot there though.
Jim Thurman
There was a Indy car announcer/presenter named Larry Nuber. I thought his
work was decent to fairly good. He has seemed to have fallen off the charts
with the emergence of Larry Jenkins, John Kernan and the other Indy based
reporter whose name escapes me for the moment while his face shines in my mind.
Is there just not enough room at the top or did he tick someone like Tony
George off? [/QUOTE]
I'll try this again...I don't know what it is, but everytime I try to post the dirt on these guys...the post won't go through . It's almost eerie...
I know Larry Nuber certainly ticked me off toward the end of his on air career, but I didn't have anything to do with his firing.
Larry Nuber was from the Toledo, Ohio area and attended Ohio State University. His background included some writing (a season preview of a short track in Ohio appears in a 1968 issue of Cavalcade of Auto Racing) and announcing at short tracks.
Nuber and Bob Jenkins did ESPN's first racing telecast and the two of them did almost all of ESPN's racing telecasts for years afterwards. Nuber even did a few F1 telecasts.
During his time on ESPN's "Thunder" telecasts of USAC Midget and Sprint races, Nuber's announcing reflected extreme partiality towards Rich Vogler, and later, Jeff Gordon. His downfall at ESPN came shortly after a very memorable incident. During a telecast in 1989, following an incident involving Vogler...Nuber, as usual, stuck up for Vogler. His broadcast partner was driver Steve Chassey, who had some on track run ins with Vogler. Chassey made some negative comments about Vogler's driving style and the tension was noticable on air. There were several seconds of dead air (I was told shortly afterwards by someone who would know that the two nearly came to blows in the booth). Somehow they managed to finish the telecast, though very terse toward each other.
The next week's telecast and ESPN made Chassey appear on air to apologize for his "uncalled for" remarks the previous week...though they never made Nuber apologize for his pro-remarks. That was Chassey's last appearance on air. A few weeks later and Nuber was gone as well, typical of U.S. TV business, with nary a mention. I was told his contract was simply not renewed.
Nuber could not have been a bigger cheerleader and promoter of Jeff Gordon, so imagine when I found out he was Gordon's manager while doing this on air. How about that for conflict of interest? (a similar thing happened with a non-on air ESPN employee and Tony Stewart, but that's for another discussion). He apparently didn't make much, or hold on to much, off of Jeff, but good luck trying to get to the bottom of all of that.
After his ESPN time ended, Nuber did ASA telecasts and some independent open wheel telecasts (one with Jeff as commentator!). There were a couple of incidents on his ASA races that bothered me as well, one which showed extremely close ties to his former Lingner Group (ESPN) crew that manifested itself in an extremely negative manner. He had continued to hang out with his old buddies there.
But mainly, he worked for Wynn's. Even this has it's dubious ties. For a while on the "Thunder" telecasts, Wynn's offered a bonus if a heat race winner "chosen by a random draw" went on to win the main event. Strangely, this always was an ESPN favorite (almost always Stewart, despite the odds). I must not have been the only person to notice this because they finally conducted one of the drawings, on TV, on the front straight of Indianapolis Raceway Park, in full view of the stands...with someone else doing the draw. Nuber could often be seen around, in his Wynn's jacket. Once or twice the "Thunder" cameras would catch him watching the races.
He died in 2000 from either a stroke or brain hemorrhage. This was only a week or two before "Thunder" did their first telecast ever from Toledo. Again, no mention except to have the camera linger on a sticker on the Wynn's sponsored car of Ryan Newman that read: In Memory of Larry Nuber. ASA driver Gary St. Amant mentioned Nuber next time he won, but those were on ASA telecasts on TNN.
Sorry to seem so harsh. If the whole situation involving the ascendancy of Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were to ever come out, Nuber would figure. And personally, I feel he should still be here for that. I just like to see someone get their rewards and penalties while still on this Earth.
I will say that Larry Nuber brought a great enthusiasm to his work, and that is to his credit, unfortunately, later he let other things take precedent. He also was very personable.
He also was very interested in planes. If you took him for a ride, he was a friend for life.
Also, sorry for the length...there's a lot there though.
Jim Thurman
#6
Jim Thurman
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Posted 04 January 2003 - 00:30
Originally posted by David M. Kane
I was afraid that was what happened, what a shame, I really enjoyed his work.
If you remember, there was a big management change when ABC took over ESPN,
they even tried pushing "Boomer" out of the picture a bit and his fan base
went ballastic. So they backed down reluctantly. Keith Oberman also got into it big time with the new management.
The other gentleman whose name temporarily escaped me was Robin Miller. He's pretty damn good too.
Keith Olbermann, despite easily being the brightest, most well read sportscaster I've ever seen (and perhaps in history)...is also the biggest ass**** around! It's truly a shame his name would even come up on a racing board!
He attacks racing constantly, with great prejudice and bias, little accuracy and no focus. I've had my share of problems with him over that. And I don't intend to stop until he corrects himself. I had the great misfortune of seeing him on local stations in Los Angeles. Funny how he followed a path to whoever had the TV rights to most racing.
Now, Robin Miller is also a guy who rubs many people the wrong way, but I like him!. A good guy. He tells it like it is and how he see its, whether you like it or not. Many would use the same term for him...but Robin is allright. There need to be more racing writers like him.
Jim Thurman
#7
Jim Thurman
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Posted 04 January 2003 - 00:32
Originally posted by Jim Thurman
Now, Robin Miller is also a guy who rubs many people the wrong way, but I like him!. A good guy. He tells it like it is and how he see its, whether you like it or not. Many would use the same term for him...but Robin is allright. There need to be more racing writers like him.
Or how he sees it even.
Sorry about that typo
Jim Thurman
#8
David M. Kane
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Posted 04 January 2003 - 13:19
Great stuff Jim, thank you for your candor and for taking the extra time to
clarify the WHOLE story. This is exactly what I was after. Too many times
we never get to hear the other side. I think you were fair in what you had
to say, particular the incident involving Steve, that's just NOT right.
clarify the WHOLE story. This is exactly what I was after. Too many times
we never get to hear the other side. I think you were fair in what you had
to say, particular the incident involving Steve, that's just NOT right.
#9
troyf1
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- Joined: July 01
Member
Posted 04 January 2003 - 13:39
Sad to hear about Larry Nuber. He and Bob Jenkins were a pretty good duo on ESPN racing broadcasts back in the 80's. One memory of Nuber that sticks in my mind is ESPN's live broadcast of LeMans 1988. Bob Varsha and Larry Nuber covered the race IIRC. Nuber had a pretty good pitside interview with Henri Pescarolo during the night.
