R.I.P. Ted Turner

Former Braves and Hawks owner Ted Turner passed away today. He was 87.

After expanding his father's billboard business, Turner bought a small TV station in Atlanta. Needing programming, he bought the Braves and later the Hawks, and hosted professional wrestling matches in his studios in the old mansion on Techwood Drive, just down from Alexander Coliseum. 

Turner did whatever possible to promote attendance and viewership. He completed against announcers Pete Van Wieren and Skip Carey in a pregame ostrich race.

Today 680 had great interviews with two former executives from Ted's early days, Stan Kasten and Steve Koonin.

Turner famously challenged Phillies relief pitcher Tug McGraw to see who could roll a baseball from the base to home the fastest - using only their nose. McGraw quickly gave up but Ted, in full uniform, gave it his all. Turner finished, with a bloody nose to show for his efforts. 

After a nine game losing streak, Ted gave his manager time off - and took over managerial duties himself. After losing in Pittsburgh, commission Bowie Kuhn told Ted that owners couldn't also manage. 

After this particular road jersey became available for purchase in 2019, I ordered a replica TURNER 27 jersey. I'll be sure to wear it the the Braves game next week in tribute.

In 1980 Turner founded CNN, the first 24 hour news channel. CNN 's 11 pm sports show became must see TV, hosted by luminaries Dan Patrick, Van Earl Wright, Fred Hickman, Nick Charles, and Vince Cellini. The network moved its headquarters downtown to the Omni International building (later renamed CNN Center). Late one night I was walking though the building, perhaps after a Hawks game in the adjacent Omni arena. I looked across at another walkway and saw Turner, alone, walking back to his living quarters in the building. A few years later I was Turner's grandson's basketball coach, though Ted never attended a game.

Turner was a fixture on the sidelines of Hawks games, often sitting next to GM Mike Gearon, the father of Hannah Storm, then a student at the Lovett School. Gearon always wore the exact same thing: navy blazer, white dress shirt, no tie, kaiki slacks, no socks, and expensive loafers. Gearon refused to accept a salary from the team, instead working for a salary of one dollar per year.

Turner would often wear a Hawks or Braves tie, like in the top photo. It was Ted who got me interested in sports themed ties. Below he posted with Hawks forward Tom McMillen, who later served as a US Representative from the state of Maryland.

Ted, then wife Jane Fonda, and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were fixtures in the president's box at World Series games.

Below: Turner (right) celebrates with GM John Schuerholz (left) and Stan Kasten (middle).

Turner was active in environmental causes, and almost singlehandedly rescued the American buffalo from extinction. In later years Ted became one of the largest private landowners in the US. His efforts to lobby the United Nations for world popular reduction became the predecessor to the current climate change and new world order movements.

For many years I've thought a great Ted Turner tribute patch would be to take Ted's face from his Sports Illustrated America's Cup cover and use as the patch - as it bears a remarkable resemblance to the Braves old laughing Indian sleeve patch from the 1960's.

I asked Perplexity A I to make up this patch, but it refuses to have anything to do with the laughing Indian. Not exactly what I was looking for, but somewhat close.

Many suggest the Braves change the new City Connect sleeve patch from TBS to TED. Not a bad idea. Or just add a second TED patch.

Some may scoff, but in many ways Ted Turner is very much like an earlier Southern version of Donald Trump - an womanizing entrepreneur who loved his city and country. Certainly not a saint by any measure, yet still a force for good.