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Geoff Sindelar dies - Northcoast sports personality

alnavmanalnavman Posts: 4,129 ✭✭✭
Those from the Cleveland area are familiar with Geoff Sindelar. He was a sports personality and years ago attended and participated in card shows and auctions in the Cleveland area, especially the yearly Strongsville show. The following was in the Cleveland Plain Dealer this morning.

Geoff Sindelar, salesman and sports buff turned top-rated radio host, died Thursday from a cerebral hemmorhage. "The Professor," nicknamed for his vast knowledge of sports, took ill at his business in Bay Village and was pronounced dead at St. John West Shore Hospital. He was 62. He took over for his father at G.F. Sindelar Co., which sells products by manafacturers to businesses. Both his children work there today. He always considered the company his real work and sports his hobby. On the side, Sindelar prowled the country for old baseball cards long before they grew trendy. He also made so many popular calls to local hosts that he ended up joining their ranks on WWWE, WTAM, WKNR and elsewhere.

He interviewed leaders of local teams and often disagreed with them. He was known for rasping "Good item!" when a caller described a promising collectible. He loved to expand WWWE's slogan as, for instance, "the big one, the giant, the monster." "He loved sports more than anybody I've ever known," said longtime rival and colleague, Greg Brinda. "He knew everything." "He was never overbearing about his knowledge, yet I found him to be more knowledgeable about the major sports than anyone I've ever encountered," said Bob Tayek, who was program director at WWWE, which became WTAM.

Sindelar was raised in Lakewood and Fairview Park and later lived in North Olmsted and Avon Lake. In 1987, he took turns filling for the departed Pete Franklin on WWWE, then won the job outright. He moved to his own show on WKNR. He later teamed with Dennis Goulden on North Coast Cable for "Sports 101," a weekly series aired nationally for four years in the 1990s. Sindelar also peddled sports memorabilia in the yearly auctions of WVIZ-TV.

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    keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
    he will be missed.image
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    lbcoach20lbcoach20 Posts: 868 ✭✭✭
    He was a huge part of Cleveland sports. Loved his enthusiasm. RIP!
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    AlanAllenAlanAllen Posts: 1,530 ✭✭✭
    Bummer. I went to school with his niece in North Olmsted. Never met him, but my brother said he was just as bombastic in person, like all the time.
    No such details will spoil my plans...
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