Levine’s ‘voice of reason’ was special

A pen and pad of paper in the front seat of Les Levine’s car will never be used again for their intended purpose, and that is unfortunate for all who grew to be so fond of him.

Les passed away on Feb. 3 after a lengthy battle with diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. He was 74.

Les had a long, long career as a play-by-play announcer on radio and then for nearly a quarter century on television. He named his show “More Sports and Les Levine.”

He always took his job seriously, but “the self-proclaimed voice of truth and reason” never took himself too seriously.

Competing for listeners with powerful WWWE (now WTAM) when Les was on WERE was difficult. WWWE, a 50,000 watt station, boasted its signal reached “38 states and half of Canada.”

Les countered by saying WERE’s signal reached “38 streets and half of Canton.”

During the WHK days, former Browns defensive lineman Bubba Smith and I were on a weekly radio show with Levine that Les dubbed “Ribs and Bones” to talk about the Browns. That grew into Tony Grossi from The Plain Dealer and Ed Meyer from the Akron Beacon Journal being “Gloom and Doom” after Bill Belichick cut Bernie Kosar in 1993.

“More Sports and Les Levine” evolved into an hour-long TV show for more than 23 years, first on Sports Channel and then on Cablevision/Adelphia/Time Warner/Spectrum. The show moved to Cleveland.com in 2019. He would have nightly guests, and several times over the years I had the honor of being on his show.

He would talk Browns, Indians, Cavaliers, Buckeyes — whatever subject his guest knew best and whatever viewers calling in wanted to discuss. But without fail, two segments of his show were his favorites — “How Come Quickies” and “Born on this date in 1947.”

The latter was always a play on words on a fictitious athlete, always born in 1947. “Ben Dover, former center for the Green Bay Packers, was born on

this date in 1947.” Or “Kareem Puff, center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, was born on this date in 1947.”

I remember asking him during a commercial break how he keeps coming up with new names. All those shows, all those nights, and he kept it fresh.

“I keep a pad and pen in my car,” he said. “Sometimes something will come to me at a red light or at a train crossing or when I’m in line at the bank or something like that. If I don’t write it down right away, I’ll forget it.”

He did the same with his “How Come Quickies,” such as “How come that thing you can touch with your tongue is called the roof of your mouth and not the ceiling?”

Les was a huge fan of the Cleveland sports teams, but he was never afraid to criticize. He never forgave Art Modell for moving the Browns to Baltimore in 1996.

If a Browns coach made a clock management mistake on a Sunday, Les was always in Berea the next day to question him about it. Most talk show hosts who criticize a coach or manager never confront their target, even when their on-air hours do not conflict with the news conference times. Not Les Levine. He never hid behind his microphone.

Les wrote a weekly Sunday column for The NewsHerald for several years and most recently wrote

for Cleveland Jewish News.

As the saying goes, if you love what you do for a living, you never have to work a day in your life. That describes Les Levine.

Les was born and raised in Cleveland. He graduated from Ohio State with a degree in political science, but his heart was always in sports broadcasting. He did play by play of Cleveland State and Akron basketball, some Crusaders hockey games and a handful of Cavaliers games early in his career.

His strength was dealing directly with fans, either on radio or television. He would sub on 92.3 The Fan on occasion in recent years and work smoothly with whoever he was paired with. That is talent not many subs possess.

Les’s final telecast was Dec. 30. He planned to march right on with his show into 2021, but health issues made it impossible for him to continue.

While in front of the camera, Les hid his health issues the best he could. True pro that he was throughout his career, he ended what turned out to be the final “More Sports and Les Levine” like he ended all his others: “Of all the shows I’ve ever done, this was the most recent.”

The Cleveland sports world has lost a friend.

Levine