Talk:Howard Cosell

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[edit] catch phrase

No mention here of the catch phrase so closely associated with Howard Cosell, "telling it like it is."

I've added it. Wasted Time R 13:15, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

The myth of the name being changed by immigration is oft-repeated but false. INS Immigration officials were not in the business of handing out names; they merely checked them off a list. And at that time a person could use any name they wanted in the new country. Questors 21:14, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Who wrote this?

The writing here is a disgrace. First, HC called Charlie Brown of the Redskins a monkey. Second, the writing here is so poor, I refuse to edit. Sad, because HC is due more.

  • I wrote the section you are criticizing. Off the top of my Google, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/memories/1995/95pass13.htm lists, in the quotations, about Howard Cosell referring to Garrett. There are countless other sources which state that it was Alvin Garrett, and googling ["Alvin Garrett" Cosell monkey] outhits ["Charlie Brown" Cosell monkey] by 1560 to 23. In other words, I very much appreciate your refusal to edit, since you apparently have no clue what you are talking about.

[edit] Jewish American

All other biographies don't mention Jewishness(is this a word) in first sentence. From a review of other Jewish folks, this doesn't seem standard. I saw Maury Povich also did this but not many others. There are so many others, however, I didn't check them all. Any thoughts on appropriateness of mentioning this in FIRST line. Is this really the most defining characteristic of Howard??? What is the "norm" when it comes to this "labelling"??68.99.154.144 01:10, 17 April 2006 (UTC)


Cosell did change his name from Cohen (a uniquely Jewish name indicating descent, allegedly, from the priests of the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem). This would seem to be in keeping with the practice of celebrities Anglicizing/Americanizing ethnic names. It still goes on today.
Even today, aspiring Jewish performers have done this; e.g. Natalie Portman was born Natalie Hershlag.
Imo, at least, when someone's ethnic or national background can shed light not only on their personality and career choices but give insight into why they did it? To disguise their origin in order to "fit" in with the dominant linguistic/cultural millieu? Or maybe the person just didn't like their name.
Cosell was born during a time (1918) when large numbers of Jews were immigrating to the US (many fleeing from persecution in Czarist Russia. Hostility to the influx--and not the anti-Semitism endemic to France, Russia and, most importantly of all, Germany--was due to the academic and professional success of many Jews leading to the age old fear (or excuse) that "they" would take "our" jobs, university slots, etc. The Great Depression gave Nativism a particularly (but none-the-less indefensible) strong resonance.
However, it hasn't just been Jews who have changed their names because of discrimination, one of my own great-great grandfather's changed the family name from Schmidt to Smith in order to avoid the strong anti-German sentiment during World War I.
Many deeds to older houses still contain (now unenforceable) convenants that banned Jews from buying such homes in order to keep "them" out of "our" neighborhoods. Jews responded by building their own neighborhoods. Banned from vacation spots, Jewish entrepreneurs built ones for Jews (the movie Dirty Dancing shows the effect of precisely this kind of discrimination).
Sadly, this led some universities, in the 20s, 30s & 40s, especially Ivy League schools to institute "quotas" limiting the number of Jews attending their schools. Quotas (under the absurd term "affirmative action") very similar to ones imposed on Jews , have been imposed by some universities upon Asian-American candidates (mostly Chinese/Japanese/Korean ethnicity) and upon European-Americans (so-called "white" people).
It was not unknown for Jews (as with other groups) to Americanize their names in order to appear more "American" (i.e. WASP-y).
Of course, it isn't just Americans who are more accepting of modified names. The French, for example, call Johann Sebastian Bach, Jean Sebastien Bach; whereas in the US and UK the original German is used. The names of foreign monarchs are often Anglicized (e.g. in the Showtime series The Tudors the French King Francois I is called "Francis"--which is standard use by historians--and the Spanish King/Holy Roman Emperor Charles I & V is not called Carlos (or the German variant Karl).
It seems to me that an immigrant or native-born American is more likely to change their last name to something more "American" if they have aspirations to be an actor, singer, dancer or even reporter. Sometimes names are changed for euphonious or aesthetic reasons, e.g.: Frances Gumm was changed into Judy Garland. An example from today is that of Tom Cruise, the highest paid actor in the world; he dropped his birth surname Mopather for the more "marketable" Cruise.
PainMan 03:18, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Ronald Reagan and Howard Cosell.JPG

Image:Ronald Reagan and Howard Cosell.JPG is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 11:50, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Abrams facts

Cosell's wife went to Columbia High School in Maplewood NJ, and she and Cosell were married at Prospect Presbyterian Church in Maplewood. Note that CHS is shared between two towns, so Abrams may in fact have been a South Orange resident. Source of this info is a discussion on the alumni mailing list (alumni_chsultimate on yahoogroups) for the CHS Ultimate (sport) team; in the early 1970s, Ed Summers and other folks from the team spoke to Cosell in an elevator in an attempt to get him to promote the sport. -- Akb4 (talk) 06:54, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Down Goes Frazier

I think it's important to note which of the six knockdowns Cosell yelled "Down Goes Frazier" on. --Kitch (Talk : Contrib) 13:39, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citations & References

See Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags Nhl4hamilton (talk) 09:33, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Military

Do we really need to spend so much time and space talking about his brief military career? It was a brief and unimportant part of his life, and frankly I doubt that anyone cares. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.166.136.120 (talk) 19:28, 7 June 2008 (UTC)