Fort Worth’s Lance Barrow belongs with TV sports’ pioneers
The sports TV that you know today was built a small group of people, and Lance Barrow prefers that no one suggest he belongs in that tiny house.
Too bad.
Barrow is simply reluctant to accept a place among a group that includes Jim McKay, Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell, the late Phyllis George, Roone Arledge, Bob Stenner, Verne Lundquist, Lesley Visser, Sandy Grossman, Dick Enberg, Dick Ebersol, Pat Summerall and a few others.
“Those are people I worked with and to me those are legends,” said Barrow, the long-time CBS sports producer. “My resume might fit in, but I feel like I would be an embarrassment in that group.”
Barrow did nearly everything a person could in TV sports, with 12 Emmy Awards, and he built one of the most significant careers in the field.
To any young person who aspires to enter this field, the Lance Barrow method still works: Offer your services, never say no, be above nothing, and be good at what you do.
Barrow is from Fort Worth and a graduate of Abilene Christian.
Barrow is working his final CBS telecast of the Colonial PGA TOUR event, the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge.
Barrow, 65, is not retiring. He’s not a fan of the verb. He is, however, stepping back from his daily activities at CBS Sports.
I had met Barrow once before, and this is an interview I had pushed for a long time. He was kind enough to do this because he is a Fort Worth guy.
“I’ll be honest, when I made this decision I didn’t think we’d be having the year we’re having,” Barrow said in a phone interview. “I didn’t think I’d be at Colonial in the second week of June. I didn’t think the Masters would be in November.”
Barrow’s career began innocently when he was a college kid in 1976. A friend said he should offer his services to the CBS Sports’ production staff to work Colonial.
“Pat Summerall’s assistant was not there so I ended up working with Pat for the next six years,” Barrow said.
This how Barrow recalls meeting the now late legendary broadcaster:
“Don’t get excited,” Summerall told him. “Don’t call me Mr. Summerall. Hand me a beer out of that cooler.”
Barrow then would follow Summerall to any event he called, from the top NFL games to the Masters. After that, Barrow would return to his athletic dorm at ACU.
Forty-five years later, Barrow is still with CBS Sports. He traveled the world, and helped to build sports TV as we know it today.
He worked on the NFL Today on CBS with Brent Musberger, Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, Irv Cross and Phyllis George.
Barrow worked the NBA, college basketball, boxing, NASCAR, the Olympics, Super Bowls, and has been CBS Sports’ lead producer for its golf coverage for 23 years.
The only thing he missed was NHL hockey, and he did but one baseball game.
“My favorites?” Barrow said, “I have listed, and not in any order, the Masters in 1986 when Jack Nicklaus won. When Tiger [Woods] won the Masters in 1997. Last year when Tiger won at Augusta.
“Producing Super Bowl 50, and Peyton Manning’s last game. The Daytona 500 when Dale Earnhardt won. The Olympics in France.”
He also listed Saturday’s telecast of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial.
“For what this means around the world,” he said. “We haven’t had sports in three months, and with everything that is going on right now in this country.”
You likely would not know Lance Barrow’s face, and you may not even know his name.
But you certainly know his work, as it belongs with the rest of the pioneers who built sports television.
This story was originally published June 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
