Steve Sullivan
KATV Sports Director
With forty years of experience as a sports broadcaster, Steve Sullivan is one of the most well-known faces and voices in Arkansas news. Born in Massachusetts as one of six children, Sully moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas for his education and made the state his home.
Steve is currently the Sports Director at KATV, where he has covered sports for over two decades. Among his accolades are a distinguished media member award from the Arkansas Activities Association, Arkansas Sportscaster of the year (five times!), and an induction into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. His most famous accomplishment is Friday Night Touchdowns, where Sullivan has delivered highlights from football games nearly every Friday evening since 1999.
Despite having such a robust legacy, Sully is as humble as they come. He credits much of his success to luck, and freely insists that he is never the most talented person in the room - an observation which he finds energizing and inspiring.
Listen to Learn:
- Why Sully got into broadcasting
- How Greyhound racing brought him to Arkansas
- About the incredible people Steve has worked alongside, and more...
Podcast Links
TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE 468
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:08] GM: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Through storytelling, conversational interviews, and Kerry’s natural curiosity, this weekly radio show and podcast offers listeners an insider's view into the commonalities of entrepreneurs, athletes, medical professionals, politicians, and other successful people, all sharing their stories of success and the ups and downs of risk-taking. Connect with Kerry through her candid, funny, informative, and always encouraging weekly blog. Now it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
[EPISODE]
[0:00:41] KM: Thank you, son Gray. This show began in 2016 as a way for me and other successful people to pay forward our experiential knowledge in a conversational way. It wasn't long before my team and I realized that we were the ones learning. Listening to our guests has been both educational and inspiring. To quote the Dalai Lama, “When you talk, you're only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.”
After listening to hundreds of successful people share their stories, I've noticed some reoccurring traits. Most of my guests believe in a higher power, have the heart of a teacher, and they all work hard. Before I introduce today's guest, I want to let you know, if you miss any part of today's show, want to hear it again, or share it, there's a way and son Gray will tell you what to have.
[0:01:26] GM: All UIYB past and present interviews are available at Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy's YouTube channel, Facebook page, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's digital version, flagandbanner.com's website, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Just ask your smart speaker to play Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. By subscribing to our YouTube channel, or flagandbanner.com's email list, you will receive prior notification of that week's guest. Back to you, Kerry.
[0:01:52] KM: Thanks again, Gray. Today, just in time for Razorback Football, we've got a guest who's not only a legend in Arkansas sports broadcasting, but also one of the most genuine people you'll ever meet, Mr. Steve Sullivan.
[0:02:06] SS: Well, thank you. That was so nice. What a great intro.
[0:02:10] KM: For more than three decades, Steve Sullivan, lovingly called Sully has been a trusted voice, a familiar face, and a true storyteller for athletes and fans across the state of Arkansas. As part of the KATV family, he's guided us through the highs and the heartbreaks of Razorback Sports, the thrill of March Madness, and the grit of Friday night high school football. Sully's story is more than just scores and highlights. Raised in Massachusetts, he first came to Arkansas in the early 1980s and quickly fell in love with the people and the passion for sports here. Fans know him for his chemistry on-air with The Baz, David Bazzel, and the late Paul Eells.
His award-winning Friday night touchdowns and Friday night flights coverage has become a staple for families across the state, and his storytelling goes beyond the field, always finding the heart of the game. More recently, with his sports in 62nd segment, he continues another groundbreaking legacy. It is a great pleasure to welcome to the table the Arkansas Sports Hall of Famer and five-time Arkansas Sportscaster of the year, Mr. Steve Sullivan.
[0:03:23] SS: Thank you. That's a lot to live up to there.
[0:03:24] GM: Yeah, you didn't know there was more to that intro, did you?
[0:03:27] KM: It's probably more than five times that you've become the –
[0:03:31] SS: I don't know. I mean, that's all just a popularity deal, awards and –
[0:03:35] KM: Which name do you prefer? Sully?
[0:03:36] SS: Yeah.
[0:03:37] KM: How'd you get that name, Sully?
[0:03:39] SS: Just growing up, and I think it's natural for most people who name Sullivan to get that –
[0:03:44] KM: Oh, I don't know that.
[0:03:45] SS: Yeah, I think so. If you play sports, or do anything like that, people naturally gravitate toward that.
[0:03:52] KM: You are one of many people I've interviewed that came to Little Rock, fell in love with it and stayed. Tell us how you came to be in Arkansas.
[0:04:03] SS: Okay. My parents are actually from Ireland.
[0:04:06] KM: But you grew up in Massachusetts.
[0:04:07] SS: Yeah. Well, think about this. When they were 19 or 20, it was so bad in Ireland that they got on a boat and hoping it was going to be better on the other side. They met in Boston. My dad worked in a factory for 40 years and my mom worked as a nurse's aide for the six of us and we had people from Ireland staying with us here and there. It'd be eight in the house at probably one time. The one thing I noticed about my parents, I can't remember one time they bought something for themselves.
[0:04:38] KM: Isn't that that generation?
[0:04:39] SS: Yeah. I think they came over seeking better lives themselves, and their idea was to make our lives better. My dad, I worked in the factory with him and he hated his job. I mean, I mean, it was a job. He made the best out of it. He said –
[0:04:54] KM: What factory you said?
[0:04:55] SS: It was a paper factory.
[0:04:57] KM: Paper mail.
[0:04:57] SS: He said, “Yeah. You'd enjoy your life a lot better if you could find a job you like.” That was the impetus for going to sports, because out of six kids, you never know. You're on the same environment, but you never know what the six are going to do. They could all be have different interests. I was the only one out of the six and I'm in the middle eating up with sports. It wasn't influence of the parents, because sports weren't big in Ireland. Maybe it was my friends and that, but you – I was all in.
[0:05:28] KM: Do you play sports?
[0:05:28] SS: Yeah. Almost too much so. That was my only focus in high school and –
[0:05:33] KM: Baseball? Is that what they played in Massachusetts?
[0:05:34] SS: Baseball. Football. Played everything. I was all right. I was okay, but not good enough to go college and play. We got to go to college and figure out what you're going to do. Then, I'd always had an interest in sports. He saw a sportscaster and said, “Man, I think you could do that.” The only trouble at that point was I had made a bad investment in high school. I didn't have a whole lot of college money, but a buddy of mine was a assistant trainer at a dog track. A dog got its muzzle off and beat up one of his pet dogs and they were going to kill the dog. He said, “No, I'll buy the dog.” He called me and said, “We can buy a racing dog.” We each paid – named Keen Twister, and we each paid $400 for that dog.
[0:06:18] KM: That's a lot of money.
[0:06:19] SS: Yeah, back then. Then we had to find a school that was close to a racetrack and had cheap radio TV.
[0:06:28] KM: Dog racetrack.
[0:06:29] SS: Yeah. Wes Memphis had a dog track and Jonesboro had radio TV. Sight unseen, I went to Jonesboro. If I didn't have, and it was 100 degrees in the middle of August, and I'm a big believer in fate and faith. If I didn't have a good roommate my first year and hook up with a bunch of great guys for intramurals, I wouldn't have survived four years there. Then, you start looking for a job and you think your tape is good and you get one offer and it's doing news updates from 4 to noon on a music of your live station in Fort Smith. That's where I started out.
[0:07:09] KM: You get one tape. You thought your tape was good. You made a demo tape?
[0:07:12] SS: Yeah. Then you send it out. You send it out where – I hadn't married my wife there, but yet, but she was in Michigan, so I sent tapes to Michigan and Massachusetts and Arkansas and just –
[0:07:24] KM: Have you graduated yet?
[0:07:25] SS: Oh, yeah.
[0:07:27] KM: You fell in love with broadcasting in high school. You called games when you were, I mean, in college. You called games when you're in college, right?
[0:07:32] SS: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We called, and ironically, and I had a – You'd never thank the people. That's one thing I hate is regrets, and teachers passed that was the greatest play-by-play teacher. The guy that was my partner in the class was, he's now the voice of Texas Christian Sports. He does any teaches at TCU. We were partnered up together. We'd go up against girls who knew nothing about sports and we see our grades and we're fourth in the mix. We were going to say, “What the heck happened in there?” He would grade on potential and he taught us –
[0:08:10] KM: Grade on potential.
[0:08:11] SS: Then he said, he gave us the greatest lessons of how to call games. If you're listening on the radio, you got to create a visual picture, but you got to give the score ad nauseam, because someone could be driving along and turning on the radio and they want the score of the game. You give that score over and over, until you're sick of it. I get frustrated listening to sports play-by-play guys now who don't give the score.
[0:08:39] KM: I'm going to notice from now on.
[0:08:40] SS: That was something that I always taught. When you have a free second, give the score, and give it until you’re sick of giving the score.
[0:08:47] GM: Well, I guess now the technology is different too, right? If I want the score, I could probably just pick up my phone and Google it and it comes up with that.
[0:08:53] KM: But not while you're driving.
[0:08:55] SS: That's right.
[0:08:55] KM: But not while you’re driving.
[0:08:56] GM: But now I can ask my assistant. “Hey, Google, what's the –”
[0:08:59] SS: Technology has changed everything.
[0:09:01] GM: - score right now, and that’ll pull it up, because it comes up like a flight tracker. It is happening in real-time on the top of your Google search.
[0:09:07] SS: It is crazy.
[0:09:08] KM: Stevie is making us feel old.
[0:09:09] SS: Oh, I know. Technology has changed so dramatically. That's one thing when even in the business for 40 years. I mean, we started out without computers. We had typewriters, and no internet.
[0:09:25] KM: You're in college, you're in Fort Smith, you're announcing in radio, a game, a Fort Smith game. I guess, it's a high school game. You're in college and you have this aha moment about sports.
[0:09:35] SS: Yeah. Well, I had a bad moment, I'll tell you, that created – I was doing those updates, and they were on old eight-track tapes. We could put five or six newscasts for the rest of the day on that eight-track tape. I don't swear very often. I got through five of them and I messed up on my sixth one and I was going to tape it, and the guy who was following me that day said, “I'll play the five of them and then I'll do the sixth one live.” But he didn't do that. I was making $800 a month and I was the last one on the totem pole. At 4 in the afternoon on a music of your live station, it was big band and that kind of stuff, I did a news update and I messed up on a word and I repeated it 12, 13 times and then said, “Oh, the worst possible word you could say.” I said, “Where did you ended?” He said, “I let it all go.”
I got called in the next day to see the owner. I was fortunate that he was a – and I didn't know at the time, he was a multi-millionaire. His name's Bob Hernreich. He was a little nuts anyway, but good guy.
[0:10:42] KM: He is a good guy.
[0:10:43] SS: He saved my career.
[0:10:45] KM: What did he do?
[0:10:46] SS: He said, “First of all, you can't say that word on air.” Then he said, “That out of the 40 people that called, none of them mentioned your name, because all you are is a voice during that afternoon. You think it's important, but a voice in the afternoon. But I can't put you back on that station.” They own a TV station, “So, I'm going to put you on weekend sports.” I wouldn't advise that for a career move, but it worked out, that's the – If I didn't have that guy as the boss, I probably wouldn't have ended up in TV.
[0:11:15] KM: That was your first job after college.
[0:11:17] SS: Yeah.
[0:11:18] KM: Then, how did you end up at KARK before you ended up at KATV?
[0:11:21] SS: Okay. Here's the good story, too, is one of the guys I did play by play in Fort Smith Northside was Gus Malzahn, who went on to coach Auburn and he's at Central Florida. Basically, I wasn't much older than him. I was 22, he was 18. But I'd see him time and time again now, future as he goes off in is coaching. The great thing about TV and any media is it takes one person to like you. The same guy that hired me at Channel 4 hired me at Channel 7, Bob Steele.
[0:11:53] KM: Oh, really?
[0:11:54] SS: Yeah, great guy. He got fired at both places, but that's another story. He was the same guy who hired me at Channel 4 and Channel 7. I spent 14 years at Channel 4 and 16, or 25 or 26, at 7.
[0:12:09] KM: Did you found Friday night flights?
[0:12:12] SS: Yeah. We started that with Bob. He'd see my interest, and we just started doing that with the helicopter and it happened to be a great time for high school football. That's about the only real contribution I've made to sports really is we, and we did, we upped high school football for everyone.
[0:12:30] KM: Absolutely. Because it was cool. You'd be in a helicopter, like you're going to a war zone.
[0:12:35] SS: The guy we had in the helicopter taking the video was – he was a big wrestling personality, Leonard Chamblee, about 300 pounds, or 280, or whatever. He was just big personality. He'd break all kinds of rules. He'd be taking people to Sonic in the helicopter. I can tell all the stories now, but he would just – he'd find people and they'd go all sorts of places and they broke all sorts of rules during Friday night.
[0:12:59] KM: Oh, the good old days.
[0:13:00] SS: Yeah. Now, Friday nights is maybe a drone, but you can't get too close to the field.
[0:13:06] KM: Is that right?
[0:13:08] SS: Yeah. Because you can't get close to people, really. You got to stay away.
[0:13:11] KM: Because you got guys like Bob and they’re driving the airplane, or the helicopter around.
[0:13:15] SS: That’s right. I miss those days. Fridays now are still a big adrenaline rush, because maybe the only time – It's not as big a deal to be on TV, but it's still a big deal for some people.
[0:13:28] KM: It was a big deal back then. It really was exciting. All right.
[0:13:31] SS: Now everybody's got a camera.
[0:13:33] KM: Yeah, that's right. In their hip pocket. All right, great place to take a break. When we come back, we’ll continue our conversation with Mr. Steve Sullivan, longtime sports caster for KATV and Founder of Friday Night Flights. We've only just gotten started. Still to come, celebrities he's worked with, athletes he's loved, the 2020 pandemic and how it affected sports. Of course, we can't let him go without a one-word naming game for Razorback coaches and players past and present. We’ll be right back.
[BREAK]
[0:14:03] GM: You’re listening to up in your business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. In 1975, with only $400, Kerry founded Arkansas Flag and Banner. Since then, the business has grown and changed, along with Kerry’s experience and leadership knowledge. In 1995, she embraced the Internet and rebranded her company as simply flagandbanner.com. In 2004, she became an early blogger. Since then, she has founded the nonprofit Friends of Dreamland Ballroom, began publishing her magazine, Brave. And in 2016 branched out into this very radio show, YouTube channel and podcast. In 2020, Kerry McCoy Enterprises acquired ourcornermarket.com, an online company specializing in American-made plaques, signage, and memorials. In 2021, Flag and Banner expanded to a satellite office in Miami, Florida, where first generation immigrants keep the art of sewing alive and flags made in America. Telling American-made stories, selling American-made flags, the flagandbanner.com. Back to you, Kerry.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:15:09] KM: Thanks again. We're speaking today with Mr. Steve Sullivan, known by fans during his decades-long career as simply Sully, a legendary sportscaster in Arkansas TV. Before the break, we talked about how Steve came here, and you consider yourself an Arkansan now, don’t you?
[0:15:24] SS: Oh, yeah. Definitely. Yeah.
[0:15:26] KM: I took this off your bio page.
[0:15:27] SS: Okay.
[0:15:28] KM: Let me read it. When Sully started working in TV in Arkansas, Lou Holtz was the football coach at the University of Arkansas. Former NFL great Keith Jackson was playing tight end for Little Rock Park View, and coach Gus Malzahn was catching passes from David Little at Fort Smith Christian High School. Talk about those times. Do you see those guys all the time?
[0:15:54] SS: I see them. It's fun seeing guys that you covered, like Coral Swings. I saw them in eighth grade shatter a backboard at his junior high. He was like a man in eighth grade.
[0:16:04] KM: Man child.
[0:16:05] SS: He was 6’4”. He looked like two men were working out, but this was before Twitter.
[0:16:09] KM: What nickname did you give him?
[0:16:10] SS: Well, I didn't really have one for him, because that's the first time I saw him. We didn't cover Russell Villas intently, but it changed his life, because people had heard about him, but no one had really seen him, because no TV stations had really done anything on him. The first vision they get of him is a guy at eighth grade shattering a backboard.
[0:16:32] KM: Did you have your cameraman there?
[0:16:33] SS: Oh, yeah. That was when he had a cameraman. He got it, too. It was a mixed feelings, because junior highs don't like to replace backboards. Then you see –
[0:16:43] KM: Then you're talking about junior high. Not even high school.
[0:16:46] SS: Then you see all the kids running out there that are his classmates and you see how unusual his size is, because those are like little kids running up to you. They were his classmates. But then I saw, you fast forward, I was there when he won a national championship in Charlotte. Then, I was there when he donated a million dollars to build a boys and girls club in Russellville, which he named after his granddad, which I thought was great.
[0:17:08] KM: It is nice.
[0:17:08] SS: L.W. Williamson.
[0:17:11] KM: He's a good guy.
[0:17:12] SS: Yeah. You get to see them come full circle. I saw Isaiah Joe the other day, and I remember him as just a seventh and eighth grade player, and now he's an NBA champ. What a great guy. You can tell early on, his family, they have all these basketball banquets, and all of them are in Little Rock. He's the one athlete throughout all the years that showed up for every one of them, with his brothers and sisters, and they just sit there for those banquets. I was thinking, you're driving three hours and I've asked his mom and dad and they said, “Well, they were going to take the time to honor us. We're going to show up.” But you could see now the family influence for him now that he's in these. This guy's four years, 48 million. He's got generational money and he's just still a good guy, and comes and does a camp, benefit camp.
It's good to see the guys. I remember Bobby Portis when he was in ninth grade, he could hardly say two words. I don't know if any of you, and I said, “If you're going to be a good player, you got to learn just to talk to people.” I mean, you get to the point where – now, he's just incredible, when they go through that whole process, when they go through college and mature, and he's so much better right now, and he won't shut up. But that's the plus of being somewhere, a function of being a long time, where you see someone at this stage of the life and then bang, 30 years later.
[0:18:37] KM: That's good home training.
[0:18:38] SS: Yeah. You see sons of people you covered. That's exciting, too.
[0:18:47] KM: You were friends with the late Paul Eells.
[0:18:49] SS: Yeah, the best. I worked at Channel 4. I remember, he'd end every sports cast with, “Have a great rest of the night.” I’d think, does he really mean it, or is he just saying it? Then, I got to work with him. What separates him from probably everyone I've worked with is TV is a deadline business. Want to get something done and get onto the next thing. He would end no conversation and no interview, until that person quit, to the point where it got uncomfortable time-wise. Just a real different guy.
Not he didn't do anything special when he came to work, but just he coming to work, he made the station better. I mean, stuff happened to him. Technically, there was some disasters around him, but he would never verbally, or visibly ever get upset over anything.
[0:19:55] KM: Where were you when you found out that he'd had a car wreck and died?
[0:19:58] SS: Well, I had talked to him. He was on his way back, and I talked to him in Alma.
[0:20:02] KM: He was coming from Fayetteville, Little Rock.
[0:20:04] SS: Yeah. I thought, Alma, he was fine. I just wonder. He'd be horrified that the person he hit died.
[0:20:12] KM: Oh, I didn't remember that.
[0:20:13] SS: Yeah. And if he had ever lived, I don't know if he would ever able to been function right knowing that.
[0:20:20] KM: Where were you when you found out?
[0:20:22] SS: I don't even remember. I think I was at the station. I found out that night. He had had blood clots. I don't think he was fatigued, because he had always made that drive.
[0:20:36] KM: Yeah. Aneurism, probably.
[0:20:38] SS: Yeah. He had had a blood clot earlier, and something happened, but he'd been just – Just the fact that he cost someone else their life would have just destroyed him.
[0:20:49] KM: David Bazzel. What a guy.
[0:20:50] SS: Yeah. He's the best.
[0:20:52] KM: He's the best. Unbelievably good looking. There's been three people in my life that I've been unable to speak around, because they've been so good looking. One of them was David Bazzel. He came in here to buy a flag for Osbourne.
[0:21:04] GM: I think you did okay with our interview.
[0:21:06] SS: His work ethic is just – He's put 80 years into 60. He's changed a little as far as – I remember when he was playing, when he first came out, he had the short shorts and I'm thinking, “I don't know if this guy's going to make it in TV.” Because dressed differently, or something. But he's been so good since day one.
[0:21:28] KM: You opened up his Frank Broyle’s award, that he makes no money on, y'all. That's huge across the country. You've opened up for that every year, I think.
[0:21:36] SS: Yeah. We used to interview coach Broyle’s, and he was starting to have issues to the all-timers later in his life, but it was really wild. Even when he was having issues later in life, he could sit down and do that pre-interview and bang, just for two minutes, he'd be spectacular.
[0:21:53] KM: David. Keith Jackson.
[0:21:55] SS: Yeah. I’m a big fan of Keith Jackson. He's living a legacy with his park program. You don't see many athletes these days do that.
[0:22:03] KM: He didn't get the money that everybody else got.
[0:22:05] SS: No.
[0:22:06] KM: He's doing it by hook and crook. He played when they were not big.
[0:22:11] SS: No. Just what he's done, he and his wife with that park program is just amazing.
[0:22:17] KM: Then, Joe Klein?
[0:22:18] SS: Yeah. I'm a big Joe Klein fan, too. So many great guys.
[0:22:22] KM: You hang out with Pat Bradley?
[0:22:22] SS: Oh, yeah. Pat Brad. We did Shoot Out with the Shooter. But Pat came when he was working at The Baz. We'd take him to local high schools on Mondays and shoot against high school stars. When I first did it, the first week I did it, I feared that maybe Pat's not the great shooter he was years ago, but he came in there and bang, bang, bang. None of those kids knew him, because it was an era gone by. But he earned their respect when he started shooting. I don't think in three years, I think he lost maybe twice. One was after St. Patrick's Day, when he went out that previous night and wasn't in great shape.
[0:23:01] KM: Who puts a pep in your step when you know you're going to soon be working with them on TV? Who do you get most excited about? Like, “Oh, I'm fixing to work with.”
[0:23:09] SS: Well, Baz is probably the – Everything he does is going to be good and he brings a certain energy, like he does in the morning. I mean, he does an incredible job on that show. But if you notice when he's not on there, there's not the same energy. I think, it's not just – it's somewhat manufactured, but he knows what he's got to do for each show. He's been so good doing, and anything I've thrown at him, he's up for. I mean, now we do a podcast.
[0:23:37] KM: He's self-trained. He did not go to broadcasting school.
[0:23:40] SS: Oh, no, no. He actually –
[0:23:41] KM: He’s an athlete.
[0:23:42] SS: He actually came over, he started out –
[0:23:45] KM: Somewhere in Florida.
[0:23:46] SS: No. He started TV in here.
[0:23:48] KM: Oh, yeah. But he's from Florida.
[0:23:49] SS: Yeah, he’s from Florida. But he's another guy who came here and stayed.
[0:23:53] KM: I cannot believe how many people I’ve interviewed, had come to Little Rock and fallen in love with it and stayed. Son Gray's nodding his head.
[0:24:00] GM: We've been compilations of those people. There are so many.
[0:24:03] KM: I mean, Little Rock's a great place. Shh. Y'all don't tell everybody. Don't ruin it for us.
[0:24:06] SS: Think about Joe Klein. He played in how many NBA cities. He played some good ones, Phoenix, Boston. I mean –
[0:24:13] KM: Chicago.
[0:24:14] SS: Yeah. Some great places he could have lived, and he chose Arkansas. I mean, that's just something. He's from Missouri.
[0:24:21] KM: It's fall. Sports are ramping up with the new roster of names. This is the part that gets me. I don't know how you guys do it. Describe your methodology for learning the season's statistics, the players' names and your work day as a sportscaster.
[0:24:33] SS: Well, one thing there is, there's so much more information available to you now. I mean, just –
[0:24:42] KM: Yeah, you got to learn it more.
[0:24:43] SS: You can be walking and ask Grok, “How's Ole Miss's pre-season gone?” Then, I don't know how they form all that information. They'll spit something out, which is scary in a way. They had the quarterback wrong, and I corrected Grok, and then, bang, they hit the right guy and hit his background then.
[0:25:04] KM: Are you talking about AI?
[0:25:05] SS: Yeah.
[0:25:06] GM: Grok is the Twitter, X.
[0:25:09] KM: Yeah. There's so many now. I can't keep up with all of them.
[0:25:11] SS: Yeah. It’s a passion, so you want to know everything about.
[0:25:15] KM: How do you remember it all?
[0:25:17] SS: If you keep studying it, if it's your passion, you're going to know it.
[0:25:20] KM: You're going to know it. You're known for naming people and giving them names, and it's an honor if you give them names, like you did Lightning, Friday Night, the Great Shabazz, the Magnificent Hill, Madre Hill. Give me one of your favorites you've given.
[0:25:35] SS: We did Larry Great Walls of Fire. Jason Peterson helped me with that one. He was in White Hall. Philip Bread and Butter Butterfield.
[0:25:46] GM: Oh, that’s good. I like that.
[0:25:49] KM: Oh, I have one for our baseball coach, Heartbreak Van Horn.
[0:25:53] SS: Yeah. Well, that's a tough deal.
[0:25:57] KM: Oh, I know. We'll talk about that.
[0:26:01] SS: You remember the bloopers. I remember, it was one game between Pine Bluff and White Hall. The guy who sent me the highlights, I'm going to blame it on him, got the rosters twisted around when he sent them to me. I had the wrong kids scoring a touchdown for Pine Bluff. The coach called me and he said, “You got to talk to this kid.” He said, “Everyone's calling him that name.” This was not too long ago. When I went down there, I saw him and I said, “Hey.” I said, “I want to apologize for that, but we've got an issue.” I said, “I've been working here for 30 years. If I correct myself, I'm going to take a lot of grief. You just tell your mother, we'll use that other name this year, and we'll go use your real name next year.” The kid looked at me, he thought I was serious. That's the one thing on Fridays, you –
[0:26:47] KM: Yeah. They want credit.
[0:26:49] SS: You hate to get the names wrong. Now some of them, you'll see them for the first time and the pronouncing. I mean, sometimes when you – I take a survey of the newsroom. Some of the young people and some of the older people. Barry Brant's a good – my sounding board on what they think the name might be the best.
[0:27:12] KM: You're going to surf and asking Grok how to say it.
[0:27:14] SS: Yeah. Something was really bothering me one day. I just said, his last name spells touchdown, whatever. You come up with something right away. We had one kid return two kickoffs for touchdowns, and we had no idea how to pronounce his name. Barry came up with a nickname real quick. I can't remember it now. That's the one thing. These names just – it'll pop up with me later and I'll put it there. That was my go-to guy is probably Barry, is the one who can come up with –
[0:27:48] KM: By the end of the show, I want a nickname, because it's an honor to be given a nickname. Talk about COVID and the lack of sports during that time, and then we'll go to a break.
[0:27:56] SS: Yeah. COVID was interesting. I tried to find like, Mike Neighbors used to be the basketball coach at Arkansas.
[0:28:02] KM: Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.
[0:28:03] SS: Yeah. He's the most interesting guy. I mean, he had a heart attack at age 29, and another heart attack at age 50. He's going through his second family. He's just a different guy. I interviewed him every Monday during the pandemic. He was so good about everything. Then, how it has changed TV is we used to never do Zoom. Now, everyone uses Zoom. I mean, I get irritated of some of our news people, they'll be Zooming someone at Baptist hospital that they could go talk to. They've got them on Zoom.
[0:28:39] KM: Yeah. It's right down the road. Just go down there.
[0:28:41] SS: Yes. But that's changed, and it's changing for the better, because you can reach out to people. Like, if I want to talk to Clint Stoerner, he's in Houston, I can get him on Zoom.
[0:28:50] KM: That’s good.
[0:28:51] SS: Zoom is going to get better. I mean, it's going to be like phones. Phones now, it's all about cameras. Computers with Zoom are going to get better. They're going to start advertising. We've got better microphones, better – computers are going to go the way the phones.
[0:29:05] KM: During COVID when nobody could get together, didn't you have a bunch of athletes come and you sat around in a rain on?
[0:29:11] SS: Yeah, we did. We did.
[0:29:12] KM: What did you on talking team?
[0:29:12] SS: We did Corliss and Scotty Thurman, and we replayed the 1994 championship game with them doing commentary.
[0:29:19] KM: Oh, that was fun.
[0:29:20] SS: We spaced out. We spaced out in the arena.
[0:29:22] KM: Oh, but that was fun.
[0:29:23] SS: That was fun. We spent two hours where in normal TV land, if it wasn't the pandemic, you wouldn't have been able to do that. That's where we were able to get a little creative, and props to our general manager and president that we –
[0:29:40] KM: Put together.
[0:29:41] SS: - were able to do those things.
[0:29:42] KM: Yeah. All right, this is a great place to take a break. We've been speaking today with Sully. Mr. Steve Sullivan, KATV's longtime sportscaster. Next up, this year's football roster with some predictions from Sully, questions from our listeners, and our signature one-word naming game for Razorback coaches and players past and present. We’ll be right back.
[BREAK]
[0:30:03] ANNOUNCER: The Dreamland Ballroom is looking for dancers who want to be a part of history by participating in next year's Dancing into Dreamland 2026. It's a Valentine's Day dance competition fundraiser and you could win $500. Dancers of all styles are wanted; ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, ballroom, swing. Perform for a packed house and celebrity judges, too. The date for next year's competition, Saturday the 14th of February. Apply today by going to dreamlandballroom.org and click on events.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:30:36] KM: We've been speaking today with the award-winning sportscaster and Hall of Famer, Mr. Steve Sullivan, Sully, known by his fans during his decades long career as simply, Sully, a Friday night legend on Arkansas TV. If you're just tuning in, we talked about him coming from Massachusetts. We talked about all the greats he's worked with. We talked about COVID. We talked about Paul Eells. My Lord, we talked about a lot. Let's talk about current sports, because that's what everybody wants to talk about. It's time for some football predictions. How many games are we going to win?
[0:31:08] SS: I just talked yesterday to Coach Pittman and Travis Williams, our defensive coordinator. He is too nice to be a football coach.
[0:31:15] KM: Oh, really?
[0:31:16] SS: A man of tremendous faith, energy.
[0:31:19] KM: Who are you talking about?
[0:31:20] SS: The Arkansas's defensive coordinator. He is the best man ever.
[0:31:23] KM: Really? What's his name?
[0:31:24] SS: Travis Williams. He's got four girls, from 14 to 11 months, and he is a –
[0:31:30] KM: Lucky dog.
[0:31:30] SS: Football can beat you down, but that guy's got a spirit. I mean, I don't think – It's hard to play good defense, and I feel bad for him sometimes, but he is a – They've hired a great mentor for those kids.
[0:31:42] KM: Is it going to be a defensive team, or an offensive team this year?
[0:31:45] SS: We're never a defensive team.
[0:31:47] KM: We had, when Nutt was there, we were defense all the way.
[0:31:49] SS: Yeah. We've had one top five defense.
[0:31:52] KM: I thought Bill was defense, didn't you?
[0:31:53] SS: One year, when he had Barry Odom. But in 15 years, we've had one or two years where we've been in the top five defensively, where you can have a good offense. I think we can have a good offense this year.
[0:32:04] KM: That's because we've got Petrino.
[0:32:06] SS: Yeah, and we got Taylen Green. The only thing I question about Taylen Green, he seems like the nicest kid. I want a quarterback with a little edge, too. I want a Clint Stoerner, and I know Quinn Grovey is a guy that had a little edge. I question if he's too nice. But if he's been around Bobby Petrino for two years, he's probably worn the nice off him.
[0:32:26] KM: Was Clint Stoerner that one that had seven over times?
[0:32:28] SS: No, that was Matt Jones.
[0:32:30] KM: Oh, my God. Was that –
[0:32:33] SS: Matt Jones was purely – he is the nicest. He's just so aloof, and really a nice guy, but he's the last guy you pick as being the big-time athlete who wins these pressure games, because I don't think pressure affects that cat at all.
[0:32:47] KM: At all.
[0:32:48] SS: Yeah.
[0:32:49] KM: That goes down in history.
[0:32:50] SS: He's one of the more intriguing athletes. I remember seeing him for the first time in high school and thinking, that's not fair. I mean, he ran so fast for a guy that tall.
[0:32:57] KM: He doesn't even look like he's running fast. He looks he's lumbering down –
[0:33:00] SS: Huge strides.
[0:33:01] KM: - and then you're like, “Oh, he's really fast.” Who's going to be the player to watch?
[0:33:06] SS: Well, it's going to be Taylen Green.
[0:33:07] KM: Okay.
[0:33:07] SS: I mean, we've got to go. But here's a stat to watch for you. Here is –
[0:33:11] KM: Okay. Okay, okay.
[0:33:12] SS: When Arkansas has 150 yards rushing, they usually win in the SEC. Last year, they were under 150 in five games in the SEC and they lost all five.
[0:33:23] KM: Oh, I love that stat.
[0:33:24] SS: People think people think Bobby Petrino is all about passing.
[0:33:28] KM: He's got 150 yards and rushing.
[0:33:30] SS: If you get over 150, there's a good chance we're going to win. Here's the deal. We spent all our money on two offensive linemen, our best money. We're banking on our offense being really good.
[0:33:40] KM: You like that money business?
[0:33:42] SS: I hate it.
[0:33:43] KM: So does Bazzel.
[0:33:44] SS: Yeah. Well, think about it. The one thing I know is a lot of former players, and not one has ever asked, or ever mentioned that I wish I would have been paid. What's going to happen is you're going to look 10 years from now and then they're going to have these case studies on what happened to these guys.
[0:34:00] KM: They're going to spend it all and become –
[0:34:02] SS: Well, the reality is that most of the kids who come from meager background are going to be like lottery winners. They're going to be spending the money. Their families are going to be wanting their money. KJ Jefferson is a great example of former Razorback quarterback. He bought the Louis Vuitton stuff. He bought a nice car. His family was wanting money. He's probably got nothing left. Then, do they better their situation by going to another school. When you spent one year at a university, are you going to build up the capital that a Bazzel, or Joe Klein, or those guys built up –
[0:34:38] KM: For all the ones we're talking about. The legacy.
[0:34:42] SS: Yeah. Those people. You don't even have to be a great player to earn some love from Razorbacks. It's just sad, Texas Tech paid a million dollars for a softball pitcher and made it to the College World Series final. It's sad that you can have money and you can buy your way in. Kansas just got a 300-million-dollar donation. Arkansas was all in, because they figured Walmart would just dump money. Find one of those wallets and just dump money.
[0:35:11] KM: Well, you got to pay to play these days.
[0:35:13] SS: You got Tyson and you got JB Hunt that, all those people would just line up and throw money in a pot and they did not. We devalue in education. It's probably over $100,000 for four years and all the amenities they get, far north of a 100,000. They’re still getting cost of attendance, because they can't work during the season. They get a stipend each semester. Then if you're needing money, the Pell Grant will give you $6,000 a semester. They were getting enough money.
[0:35:47] KM: They were.
[0:35:48] SS: People just wash that.
[0:35:51] KM: All right, is Pittman, is this his last year? Will Petrino will be the next head coach?
[0:35:56] SS: Yeah. I don't think Petrino will be the next head coach.
[0:35:57] KM: You don't?
[0:35:58] SS: No. I really don't know if it's going to be Pittman's last year. The problem he has is, I think, the majority of the fan base has pretty much passed on him. They've decided, he's not the guy. It's a function of just so many games, where we – like Oklahoma State last year, we outgained them 638 yards to 358. We were so happy. Bazzel and I were so happy at halftime. We thought, this was it. This is going to be the year. And they lost the game. I'm thinking, that's the kind of –
[0:36:32] KM: So, how many games are we going to win this year? Did you answer that question?
[0:36:35] SS: I would think upside, I think six or seven. I think we're going to be really good offensively. The sad thing is, I think this may be – I mean, we are old this year. I mean –
[0:36:49] KM: Oh, that's good.
[0:36:50] SS: Yeah. We got a bunch of guys that are 23.
[0:36:52] KM: How many games do we play? 12?
[0:36:54] SS: Yeah, 12 in the regular season.
[0:36:56] KM: We got guys who are 23-years-old?
[0:36:57] SS: We got a 30-year-old.
[0:36:59] KM: What?
[0:36:59] SS: Yeah.
[0:37:00] KM: They make that out in college?
[0:37:02] SS: No. He played baseball first. Your clock doesn't start, you start college. He's going to play some. He's a wide receiver. I think seven. I'd say, seven. I think they're going to do better than people think.
[0:37:13] KM: Oh, I love that. Let's talk about basketball for a second, and then we're going to go on to some other stuff. How long do you think Calipari will stay? I want everybody to know that I knew Calipari was coming before Calipari did. I told everybody. Everybody at church told me I was crazy. That's the stupidest thing you've ever heard. Then the next week he announced he's coming, and I got to go gloat at church.
[0:37:32] SS: You should have called us then.
[0:37:32] KM: You knew?
[0:37:33] SS: No, I didn't know.
[0:37:35] KM: I could just tell, he wasn't happy. I was watching him.
[0:37:37] SS: Well, I think he's having too much fun to quit.
[0:37:40] KM: I was going to ask my next question. He likes Fayetteville?
[0:37:43] SS: I think he loves the Razorback fans. I think he's a little bothered by the fact that when he shows up for these early season games that there's not many fans there. I mean, yeah. That wasn't the case of Kentucky. They showed up for all the games.
[0:37:57] KM: Oh, really?
[0:37:58] SS: Yeah. Where Arkansas, you're getting, you're pricing the normal fan out of the game. It's a lot of corporate bias, and they show up for the big games.
[0:38:06] KM: Dave Van Horn, Heartbreak Van Horn.
[0:38:08] SS: Yeah, that's tough. I mean, we're the similar age. We're on the back end of our careers.
[0:38:13] KM: Man, he’s had a good career.
[0:38:14] SS: This was his best year, his best chance.
[0:38:16] KM: And last year, too.
[0:38:18] SS: I talked to someone yesterday, one of the baseball coaches and he said, by far, this last year, we had our best team. We all thought we were going to win it.
[0:38:28] KM: I don't know if I feel worse for him, or for the baby boy that dropped the ball.
[0:38:32] SS: Yeah. Well, to be so close that year and it's almost like baseball gods are against them. I mean, the last year was a line drive. This year was a line drive to left right at the guy and it just locked him up. We pride ourselves on being great defensive team and that you'd never think Arkansas would lose on a defensive error.
[0:38:53] KM: We were just like, “Move on.” All right, this I learned. This is shocking. The late John McDonald, Razorback Field and Track coach is the most successful coach in NCAA history of any sport. He has won 40 championships.
[0:39:10] SS: Yeah. He was from Ireland. He came over from Ireland.
[0:39:13] KM: Oh.
[0:39:13] SS: Yeah.
[0:39:14] KM: There you go.
[0:39:15] SS: Yeah. He couldn't say like, my parents, he couldn't say the number after 32 was 30 tree. I asked –
[0:39:22] KM: He would say it like that?
[0:39:24] SS: Oh, yeah. I asked him. I said, what was it one after 32? He said, 30 tree.
[0:39:30] KM: You love golf. You like our golf. What about our golf? We're going to do good in golf this year?
[0:39:34] SS: We’ll, I’ll tell you who we have. We have John Daley's son, so it makes –
[0:39:36] KM: No.
[0:39:37] SS: - so it makes golf viable.
[0:39:38] KM: Fun. Makes it fun for sure.
[0:39:41] SS: Yeah. He's good, too. He just played in the US amateur.
[0:39:43] KM: Is he as fun to watch as Daley?
[0:39:45] SS: Hey, I just credit him for turning out to be a functional kid growing up with John Daley. He’s probably taking care of dad.
[0:39:53] KM: I love John Daley. All right, here comes the game. This is called, give me one word for each of these people. It's called #truth.
[0:40:01] SS: Okay.
[0:40:01] KM: The famous Frank Broyles.
[0:40:04] SS: Frank Broyle’s. I guess, leader.
[0:40:07] KM: Well, that's the damn truth. God, he's something else, isn't he? Paul Eells.
[0:40:11] SS: The best.
[0:40:13] KM: Nolan Richardson.
[0:40:15] SS: Boy. Trailblazer. Love Nolan.
[0:40:19] KM: God, these are good. How about Eric Musselman?
[0:40:22] SS: Eric Musselman. He's just a wild man. I love Muss.
[0:40:28] KM: He is.
[0:40:28] SS: He's missing Arkansas now.
[0:40:29] KM: Is he?
[0:40:30] SS: Yeah, they don't love basketball at UCLA, at USC. He loved the love here.
[0:40:38] KM: He took a shirt on, got naked on this court. I guess, he did love it.
[0:40:42] SS: He was ours though. He took the basketball program to places it hadn't been in years. I really like Muss.
[0:40:48] KM: Me too. And his wife. John Calipari.
[0:40:50] SS: John Calipari. He's the boss. He has his own team. He doesn't deal with the university people. He had his team at Kentucky and he has his team at Arkansas.
[0:41:03] KM: I like the way he draws up plays and brings people around. I like the way the kids look at him, like he's the boss. Now that you say that, they look at him like, “Okay, boss. What are we doing?”
[0:41:12] SS: I like that all his former players like him. A lot of coaches produce players, but he produces generational guys.
[0:41:20] KM: I can't believe we got so lucky. Lou Holtz.
[0:41:23] SS: Lou Holtz. He was a magician, because he actually did some little magic on the side.
[0:41:30] KM: Did he, really?
[0:41:30] SS: Yeah.
[0:41:32] KM: Well, he sure is a motivational speaker. Yes. Bobby Petrino.
[0:41:35] SS: Bobby Petrino. Let me think about it.
[0:41:39] KM: This is called #truth.
[0:41:40] SS: #truth. I don't know what I'd say about him.
[0:41:47] KM: You don't get to take a pass.
[0:41:48] SS: He could be the savior right now. If people don't care. I mean, think about Sam Pittman. If he doesn't get Bobby Petrino, he's probably gone.
[0:41:56] KM: That's right. Ken Hatfield.
[0:41:58] SS: Ken Hatfield. He is my favorite. If you had more than one word, if you have a logo guy for the Razorbacks, it’d be Ken Hatfield.
[0:42:07] KM: Oh, really?
[0:42:07] SS: Because he coached and he played. He's just a good human being. Ken Hatfield.
[0:42:12] KM: Ken Hatfield. He was a winning coach, too. David Bazzel.
[0:42:15] SS: Bazzel's amazing.
[0:42:16] KM: Yeah. How about this? Sam Pittman.
[0:42:18] SS: Sam Pittman. I have a lot of respect to Sam Pittman, because he came from being a line coach. Never in the spotlight. Just that he survived six years. He’s a survivor. That's what he is.
[0:42:33] KM: Oh, he really is. Brett Bielama.
[0:42:36] SS: Brett Bielama. I love coach there.
[0:42:38] KM: You like Brett Bielama?
[0:42:40] SS: Mm-hmm.
[0:42:41] KM: I did not like the way he coached. I didn't like the way he dressed.
[0:42:44] SS: He's doing good. Brett Bielama’s just big. I keep watching him.
[0:42:46] KM: He is big.
[0:42:47] SS: He could go big and shrink a little and go big.
[0:42:51] KM: Okay. Last one. Houston Nutt.
[0:42:53] SS: Houston Nutt. Energy. I mean, his first speech to – And the one thing about Houston Nutt as a head coach, we had the pleasure of putting cameras in the locker room for his first two years when it was going good and going bad. He was never negative to his players. He coached like, you can do better.
[0:43:13] KM: That's the way you are.
[0:43:16] SS: I don't know about that. Too, you think you think being around Paul Eells would help you in certain ways. You can be more like him. But I found people, you are what you are.
[0:43:30] KM: You can’t change.
[0:43:31] SS: I try to be an encourager in the newsroom, because it's – I had something in my life. When I did my first show at Channel 4, I was really nervous and I did weekends and I was – and Tom Bonner was the long-time when. He called me up after the show, and I don't know if it was good or bad, but he told me it was really good. That stuck with me for years. He was the only one who called and said it was good. I mean, that stuck with me. Now I think of, and we got really good people I work with. I'm a big fan of Chris May as a person. I'll tell you what Beth Hunt did for one of our young employees, and I'm not going to tell if it was recently, but they don't pay young reporters very much. This girl had a tattoo that was showing a little. She didn't really have enough money to buy enough clothes, whatever. Beth gave her six coats.
We've got good people working there. Barry, too. I mean, that's the plus of channel seven, where Melinda, I mean, that you have people that have worked there 20, 30 years, or whatever. I mean, and you get to know all them and their families and everything, where – not that you don't see it at the other stations, but not as much a Channel 7.
[0:44:46] KM: You’re family. You could tell you all are family. You’re all family.
[0:44:48] SS: They're all good people. Beth has a tough life. I mean, as far as work life, because she'll come in, now she doesn't do late show, but she's got all boys, and they don't help you do anything. Let's face it.
[0:45:01] KM: I'd rather have all boys than all girls. Let me just tell you that.
[0:45:04] SS: I'm a girlfriend. Girls think about –
[0:45:05] KM: Oh, I forgot.
[0:45:06] SS: Girls think about other people.
[0:45:08] KM: Yeah. Too much. What do you they’re going to – What are they going to think of me? What are they going to do?
[0:45:13] SS: Yeah. My daughters will ask me, “What am I going to get my wife for a birthday?” It'll be two weeks earlier. I said, call me in a week, or days.
[0:45:21] KM: You look like a girl dad.
[0:45:23] SS: No. I finally got a boy, though. His name's Sully, too.
[0:45:26] KM: Oh, really?
[0:45:27] SS: Yeah.
[0:45:29] KM: I wish my son – I wish somebody named a grand kid after me.
[0:45:33] GM: Yeah. Yeah. We know.
[0:45:34] KM: You all know.
[0:45:35] SS: Let's keep the name going. Thanks.
[0:45:37] KM: Yes. Thank you. All right, last break. We've been visiting today with Mr. Steve Sullivan, longtime sportscaster at KATV, known for his smile, blue eyes, Friday night flights, and his nicknaming of high school athletes. When we come back, we'll wrap up the show with some last-minute questions from our listeners. We'll be right back.
[BREAK]
[0:45:55] ANNOUNCER: The Dreamland Ballroom is looking for dancers who want to be a part of history by participating in next year's Dancing into Dreamland 2026. It's a Valentine's Day dance competition fundraiser and you could win $500. Dancers of all styles are wanted; ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, ballroom, swing. Perform for a packed house and celebrity judges, too. The date for next year's competition, Saturday the 14th of February. Apply today by going to dreamlandballroom.org and click on events.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:46:28] KM: If you're just tuning in, we've been speaking today with Mr. Steve Sullivan, known by fans during his decades-long career as simply Sully, a legendary sportscast on Arkansas's TV. It's the end of the segment and I've got questions from our listener. It's a new segment we've started. You're only the second time that we've done it.
[0:46:44] SS: All right.
[0:46:45] KM: We may have already talked about this. Is there a favorite memory in your sports casting career?
[0:46:50] SS: Seeing Arkansas win national championship. I'm a big Nolan Richardson fan. He got branded when he had that last speech. He should have used a pistol, instead of a shotgun. He went just –
[0:47:09] KM: Well, he is a football coach, or basketball coach. I mean, that's the way they roll.
[0:47:12] SS: To see the way, he was a true trailblazer. He was the first black coach at Tulsa. First black coach at Arkansas.
[0:47:17] KM: He was mad, because he wasn't made the athletic director, or something.
[0:47:20] SS: Yeah. I think, he just wanted his due. He wanted –
[0:47:24] KM: I think he should have been.
[0:47:25] SS: I mean, he won his respect. He didn't want to be – He brought Arkansas's first national championship and he didn't want the athletic director messing with them. Frank Broyles could be really bad, I mean, as far as firing people. I mean, just really bad. But I really believe every move he made was to get better the university. He ran Ken Hatfield off when Ken Hatfield, he went into fire assistance. That's the only thing at the time I questioned Broyles. But I think he got it right with Holtz. I think Holtz got too big for his shoes and he got rid of him. He made that decision to move us to the SEC, when –
[0:48:05] KM: That was a good one.
[0:48:06] SS: When he was a guy that – It was all the Southwest Conference. It’s all he was out. He saw the future of what was better for the university.
[0:48:15] KM: You can't get everything right.
[0:48:16] SS: Who would be the thing to – I was friends with the guy, Ken Rank and Fort Smith, and he was friends with Nolan. Who would think that Frank Broyles would be the guy to hire a black coach, with what you've heard of him. Black coach who wore dotted shirts.
[0:48:33] KM: And cowboy boots.
[0:48:34] SS: Yeah. I mean, who would have thought that that would have been the guy who brought the first black coach to Arkansas. I think he knew that he could win and win big. The fact that he hooks up with Bazzel, I mean, that's just a great barrage of – He saw, he even called me one time on the Broyles Award. Bazzel's working Channel 7, and Broyles called the office. He was so worried about that show. I said, “Don't worry. Baz is going to have it. You're going to be surprised.” If that show wasn't good, he would have told Bazzel. That's the way Broyles was. Yeah, just an amazing man. He had that vision, what was best for the state, and he didn't care what was best for you, or your family.
[0:49:16] KM: He had his eye on the ball. The state.
[0:49:17] SS: Yeah. That's hard to do when you take feelings out of it.
[0:49:22] KM: He's your favorite Razorback coach, too, then probably.
[0:49:25] SS: Oh, Nolan is my favorite.
[0:49:26] KM: Oh, there you go. Will you tell me who your least favorite is?
[0:49:30] SS: Least favorite. I wasn't a huge fan of Stan Heath, the basketball coach.
[0:49:35] KM: Oh, I forgot about him. Yeah, talk about. Unmemorable. He was a nice dresser, though.
[0:49:39] SS: Yeah, he was. I think he was just hired because we fired Nolan, and we wanted to hire a nice black coach.
[0:49:48] KM: Forgot about that.
[0:49:49] SS: That's not the reason to hire a coach.
[0:49:51] KM: Frank didn't do good on that. All right, here is the last. This is a good question that some based in any. In the 5 p.m. Channel 7 newscast, you do sports in 60 seconds. It's literally one story that lasts one minute. How hard is that to do every day and how does Steve pick the story to do?
[0:50:12] SS: Well, that's hard. You try to think ahead. It's really hard, because your goal is to try to make everything the most interesting three minutes or a minute that you can find. Ideally, I'd like to have two or three stories and have one that was pretty funny at the end. But then, there's other things that seep into your job, other stuff you've got to do. Do videos for the touchdown club, do different stuff, do a podcast, do, you know that. You got about eight jobs here. I don't know. We'll see. That's the hardest thing though is in a minute. You're trying to appeal to an audience, you want a general sound bite. You don't want a real sports sport sound bite. That's hard.
[0:50:54] KM: You just be glad you don't put makeup on, like us girls do.
[0:50:58] SS: They want you to wear makeup. I just slap it on there, I figured. The camera's not close enough.
[0:51:01] KM: You don't need any makeup.
[0:51:03] GM: Probably under the light. Wash out.
[0:51:04] SS: They say, you shine or something. I think it's changed with TV now. There's robotic cameras. There's no one behind the camera.
[0:51:09] KM: We're running out of time. But, but with all the changes in media, it's so different. You have to carry your own camera. You have to powder your own nose. You have to do everything yourself, because they're just cutting corners. They don't pay well anymore. Would you recommend broadcasting to your children?
[0:51:24] SS: Unless, you want to do it for the love of the game.
[0:51:26] KM: That's the only reason.
[0:51:26] SS: If you really love it. But otherwise, no. I mean, especially a female, because –
[0:51:31] KM: They got to wear high heels and carry cameras.
[0:51:34] SS: Yeah. And expensive. I mean, it's –
[0:51:36] KM: Clothes.
[0:51:36] SS: Yeah. I mean, no one ever calls in and says, “I don't like that guy's tie.”
[0:51:41] KM: Oh, yeah. They'll say anything about our clothes.
[0:51:43] SS: About hair, about anything. That's the most difficult thing.
[0:51:48] KM: Double standards.
[0:51:49] SS: That's the one you look around the newsroom and you don't see many that are there for the money. They're there for the love of the game. Money is not going to get any better in TV.
[0:52:01] KM: Investigative reporting is gone.
[0:52:02] SS: Yeah. It is. That's the one thing that's changed when I look back at 20 years ago, how good the reporters were, and they were older, more seasoned people, Bill Forbes.
[0:52:14] KM: I think Arkansas Times is the only place that has investigated reporters in Little Rock, just about anymore. They work hard at it.
[0:52:21] SS: Yeah. We used to have Jason Peterson was really good.
[0:52:23] KM: Oh, yeah.
[0:52:24] SS: Before him, Dwayne Graham.
[0:52:27] KM: We've been speaking today with a man that the fans call Sully, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Famer and five-time Arkansas Sportscaster of the Year, KATV's on-air personality and all sports cheerleader, Mr. Steve Sullivan. Here's your gift. It's a desk set.
[0:52:45] SS: Oh, thank you.
[0:52:46] KM: Do you know what that is? It’s a US flag. That's an Arkansas flag. What's that one?
[0:52:50] SS: I'm not sure about that one.
[0:52:51] KM: That's your Massachusetts flag.
[0:52:53] SS: Oh, is it, really?
[0:52:54] KM: Yeah. That's where you were born.
[0:52:55] SS: I did not know that.
[0:52:56] KM: Well, now you do. See, I taught you something today.
[0:52:59] GM: The New Englanders aren't as into their flags as the rest of us.
[0:53:01] SS: No. Probably not.
[0:53:02] KM: I don't know. All flag manufacturers are up there. There’s no England states.
[0:53:05] GM: I know. But then, all of the people that actually are in those states, I did like.
[0:53:08] SS: I did not know that was a Massachusetts flag.
[0:53:09] GM: See?
[0:53:10] KM: All right. This show was recorded in the historical Taborian Hall in Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas and made possible about the good works of flagandbanner.com, Mr. Tom Wood, our audio engineer, Mr. Jonathan Hankins, our videographer, Ms. Delore Devore, our production manager, and my co-host, Mr. Grady McCoy IV, AKA son Gray.
To our listeners, we'd like to thank you for spending time with us, and we hope you've heard or learned something that's been inspiring, or enlightening, and that it will help you up your business, your independence, or your life. I'm Kerry McCoy, and I'll see you next time on Up in Your Business. Until then, be brave and keep it up.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:53:47] GM: You've been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. For links to resources you heard discussed on today's show, go to flagandbanner.com, select radio show, and choose today's guest. If you'd like to sponsor this show, or any show, contact me, Gray. That’s G-R-A-Y@flagandbanner.com. All interviews are recorded and posted the following week. Stay informed of exciting upcoming guests by subscribing to our YouTube channel, or podcast, wherever you like to listen. Kerry's goal is simple, to help you live the American dream.
[END]
