Phyllis George
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| Phyllis Ann George | |
 Phyllis George signing autographs at the Miss America 2008 pageant
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| Born | June 25, 1949 Denton, Texas |
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| Other names | Phyllis George Brown |
| Occupation | Sportscaster |
| Spouse | Robert Evans (1977-1978) John Y. Brown, Jr. (1979-1998) |
Phyllis Ann George Brown (b. 25 June 1949 in Denton, Texas) is an American businesswoman. She is a former Miss Texas and Miss America of 1971. George attended the University of North Texas for three years until crowned Miss Texas in 1971. At that time, Texas Christian University awarded scholarships to Miss Texas honorees. As a result, Phyllis left UNT and enrolled at TCU for several weeks until winning the Miss America crown later that fall. She is a member of Zeta Tau Alpha women's fraternity. She has worked as a television host and sportscaster (most notably, CBS' The NFL Today). She hosted a 1979 documentary called, Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown.
George was previously married to Robert Evans and to former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown, Jr., with whom she had two children, including television reporter Pamela Ashley Brown, and served as Kentucky's First Lady. She is also the author of several books. George was the founder of the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft and is an avid folk and traditional arts collector.
George hosted The NFL Today pregame show on CBS in the 70's and early 80's with Brent Musburger, Irv Cross and later Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder. She was one of the first females to have a nationally prominent role in television sports coverage.
In the mid-1970's, While a host on The NFL Today, George conducted an infamous interview with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach. When quizzing Staubach in his home (and with his wife) about his "square" image compared with other quarterbacks, Staubach said he "enjoys sex as much as Joe Namath, only I do it with one girl." Staubach's wife immediately left the interview.
George resurfaced in 2000 when she played a minor character in the 2000 hit movie, Meet the Parents. It was one of the rare (if not the only) film roles she ever played.
On January 28, 2007, reporter Howard Fineman said on The Chris Matthews Show that George had moved back to Kentucky and was considering entering politics with either a run for governor in 2007 or a Senate race against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2008. She is a founding board member of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship.
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[edit] CBS Morning News
In 1985, CBS settled on Phyllis George to serve as a permanent anchor for their morning news program. George was given a three-year contract following a two-week trial run. Unfortunately, like Sally Quinn before her, George turned out to be a disastrous choice. There was no chemistry between her and co-host Bill Kurtis onscreen (in fact, they reportedly never got along off-camera either), and it was obvious that despite (or due to, depending on one's point-of-view at the time) her long career as a sportscaster and co-host of Candid Camera that she had no news experience at all. The nadir of her very-brief career came on May 14, 1985, when she interviewed rape victim Cathleen Crowell Webb and the man she had falsely accused, Gary Dotson. In an effort to get the two to make amends to each other, George made a simple suggestion: "How about a hug?" Both Webb and Dotson refused with more grace than expected. Many media analysts say that this is what was the defining moment that put an unpleasant close to George's television career at that point. Subsequently, a very unhappy Bill Kurtis resigned from CBS News in July and returned to Chicago and his old anchor spot at WBBM-TV. Phyllis George eventually left CBS that fall.
[edit] Business Interests
George has founded two companies in her business career. The first of which was Chicken By George which revolutionized the retail chicken industry in the 1980s. In the mid 1990s George sold the company to consumer giant Hormel Foods. In 2003 George created Phyllis George Beauty which markets a line of cosmetics and skincare through television shopping network HSN.
[edit] References
- Profile of Phyllis George on the Miss America website (accessed 7 March 2008)
[edit] See also
| Preceded by Pamela Anne Eldred |
Miss America 1971 |
Succeeded by Laurie Lea Schaefer |
| Preceded by Gary Collins & Mary Ann Mobley |
Miss America host 1989-1990 (co-host with Gary Collins) |
Succeeded by Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford |
