Ed Phelps can recall vividly his first week on the job as sports director at WJRT-TV (ABC-12).
It was October 1972, and the new guy from out of town interviewed Northern basketball coach Bill Frieder on Monday, Detroit Lions quarterback Greg Landry later in the week, then covered Rick Leach throwing touchdown passes at Atwood Stadium on Friday night.
“I knew then I was in a great city to work in and do sports,” said Phelps, who grew up in Birmingham and worked a few years in West Michigan before coming to Flint. “I was thrilled to get the opportunity to go there.”
The thrill lasted 32 years as Phelps became the familiar face and voice of Flint-area sports on local TV. His career expanded to include 28 years of Central Michigan football radio broadcasts, award-winning coverage of the Buick Open and more than two decades as master of ceremonies for the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame banquets.
Now it’s Phelps’ turn to be recognized by the Hall, which will present him with its Special Service Award at this year’s induction banquet Dec. 5 at Genesys Banquet Center.
“Flint was a wonderful community for sports,” said Phelps, who retired in 2004 and now lives in Hilton Head, S.C., with his wife, Pat. “It probably goes back to C.S. Mott and the people that arranged to keep schools open so kids could play.”
“The opportunity was there, so all the high school sports were excellent. It helped create an athletic atmosphere in Flint, and that was the glue that kind of united the town, I felt.”
High school sports was a large part of the job, and Phelps immediately saw the need to expand that coverage, getting more area schools in the reports and more air time for those Friday night broadcasts.
But he also observed how the town opened its arms to the Flint Generals and the Buick Open. One of his favorite teams was the 1984 Generals, who doused him with champagne the night they won the IHL championship.
His coverage of the Buick Open, including the ‘Road to the Buick” show, earned five Michigan Associated Press Awards, and he broke new ground by televising the tournament regionally when the networks didn’t want it.
“Some of the electric moments I remember had to do with the Buick Open,” Phelps said. “The first time Greg Norman played there, the first time Tiger Woods played there. There was an electricity in the air. You could feel it.”
Phelps came close to leaving Flint just once, when a potential job at a Detroit station fell through at the last minute.
But he has no regrets.
“I was happy with where I was,” he said. “I liked the fact I was nine minutes away from my house. I could be home with the boys and see my wife.
“I felt that was important. This job can stretch you out.”
But Phelps always had an extra minute for coaches, athletes and local sports fans.
“I could go anywhere in Flint and people knew me as a sportscaster,” he said. “They’d ask, ‘How are the Colts going to do?’ or ‘How’s Northern going to be?’
“I loved that wonderful atmosphere.”
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