Legends Behind the Lens: Ed Goren One of sports all-time great producers parlayed that into a career as one of its most impactful executives By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - 12:00 pm
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The story of American sports television is engrained in the history of this nation, rising on the achievements of countless incredible men and women who never once appeared on our screens. During this pause in live sports, SVG is proud to present a celebration of this great industry. Legends Behind the Lens is a look at how we got here seen through the people who willed it to be. Each weekday, we will share with you the story of a person whose impact on the sports-television industry is indelible.
Legends Behind the Lens is presented in association with the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund. In these trying times - with so many video-production professionals out of work - we hope that you will consider (if you are able) donating to the Sports Broadcasting Fund. Do so by visiting sportsbroadcastfund.org.
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By Jason Dachman
By now, we recall great games from the way we saw them on television, and, to a large extent, the way those sports events looked is because of the imagination of Ed Goren. The former vice chairman of Fox Sports Media Group assembled a sports life that is more like a highlight reel of great successes and great stories, most of which occurred on or near sports fields where he has spent so many weekends for most of the past six decades.
He was a top sports producer who became a top sports executive, and he wore both hats well.
Early on, Goren worked for CBS Sports, gaining fame within the business for producing NFL games. That lasted until 1993 when, in one of the most transformative broadcast transactions ever, Fox Broadcasting grabbed the TV rights to NFL games way from CBS. Not just NFL games, but NFL games featuring the National Football Conference, which comprised the best-known teams from the biggest TV markets.
Overnight, or so it seemed, the still wobbly Fox Broadcasting was for real.
While he was at CBS, Goren says now, he saw it coming, although nobody else did.
When you go to Black Rock [CBS headquarters], you show your pass and walk right through, or you have to go to a desk and sign in, he recalls. I had a tendency to lose my ID. During this stretch, there was a two-week period that, on the sign-in sheet, I put the word Fox. I got the idea that, if this guy Rupert Murdoch is the riverboat gambler everybody says he is, why would he overpay for the [weaker American Football Conference], which is the second-best package? He's coming after CBS. I was convinced he was coming after us.
Actually, Murdoch's Fox Broadcasting wanted the NFC and got it, and soon enough, Fox came after Goren. He was quickly hired by David Hill, the Australian that Rupert Murdoch had brought in from News Corp.'s British sports operation to become president of the sports division here. ( It was Fox Sport then, Hill jokes, emphasizing the singular. He became the chairman of Fox Sports Media Group, but now he's a senior executive VP for News Corp.)
It was as if Goren and Hill were twins, and that was the way it would stay. They built Fox Sports. There were arguments, but there was always resolution. He would always remind me he had more education, Hill says, jabbing his mate a little. Hill could remind Goren that he was the boss.
We had similar backgrounds, Goren says. We both started out in news. We both spent a little time on the air. Then we both went to sports to become producers. We spoke the same language. I was so fortunate to have a partner who had a passion for production. I wasn't working with a lawyer or an accountant. We spent 18 hours a day together, everyday throwing out ideas. It would start at breakfast and end up at a bar, and we'd come in the next morning with a wine-stained napkin with something on it and say, Whose idea was this?'
If it failed, we didn't spend weeks trying to find out who to blame, he continues. We just moved on: what's the next thing?
Fox succeeded, beyond all measure and largely because of the style Goren helped stamp onto the product. He's one of the great, great heroes and success stories of the sports business, says Dick Ebersol, former chairman of the NBC Sports Group.
This is a unique business. Monday through Friday, you're running the business, and, on weekends, you're a producer. Ed Goren
Starting Early
Goren's sports career began early. His dad, Herb, was a sports columnist for the New York Sun -Goren still devours daily newspapers, Hill confides - and, when Ed was just 3 years old, he went with his dad to Havana for the Brooklyn Dodgers' spring training, where he met Jackie Robinson. Through his father, he knew Frank Gifford in his football prime because Herb Goren produced Gifford's local television show.
But Goren has plenty of his own experiences, too. He swears this happened: he was producing a fight in San Juan, PR, between Muhammad Ali and a clearly overmatched European boxer, Jean Pierre Coopman. Everyone expected Ali to make quick work of Coopman - the fight was a laugher featuring The Greatest vs. a human punching bag. But Goren believes Ali kept the fight going just for Goren's sake.
It's fight night, Goren recalls, and I'm on the stairs of the television truck, and here comes Angelo Dundee [Ali's trainer] and the Ali entourage. I yell out, Hey, champ, how many rounds is this gonna go?' And he goes, How many do you need to get your commercials in?' I go Give me five.' He nods. I think he knocked him out in the first 30 seconds of the sixth round. (Actually, Ali knocked him out a
