Harry Teinowitz was a well-known figure on Chicago\u2019s sports talk-radio airwaves in the 1990s and early 2000s, at one point co-hosting a top-rated sports show on WMVP-AM ESPN 1000.<\/p>\n
A comedian by background, Teinowitz later turned a personal setback in the early 2010s \u2014 a drunken-driving arrest and a stint in rehab \u2014 into a stage comedy, \u201cWhen Harry Met Rehab\u201d that was loosely based on his life experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarry lived to make people laugh and to make people happy,\u201d said his longtime collaborator, Spike Manton, who also noted Teinowitz\u2019s love for sports. \u201cThere was just never a night he wasn\u2019t watching at least two different games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teinowitz, 64, died of complications from a liver transplant July 15 at his home, said his brother, Danny. He was an Evanston resident.<\/p>\n
Teinowitz was the son of Philip Teinowitz, who owned four horses that raced in the Kentucky Derby, and Lois Teinowitz. Raised in Glencoe, Teinowitz graduated from New Trier East High School and attended the University of Kansas for one year.<\/p>\n
Interested in acting, Teinowitz got a part playing a pyromaniac bed-wetter in the 1980 comedy film \u201cUp the Academy,\u201d which was shot in Salina, Kansas. He transferred to Columbia College Chicago, where he earned a bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n
Teinowitz dabbled in acting and had small role playing a teen at a party in the 1983 film \u201cRisky Business\u201d starring Tom Cruise, which was shot on the North Shore, before pursuing a career as a stand-up comedian. Teinowitz was a regular at comedy clubs all over the city and suburbs in the late 1980s. In the early 1990s, he and Manton started \u201cFunny Money,\u201d an annual comedy benefit for the Greater Chicago Council of the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very impressed with the charity, and I had a real sense of giving something back to the community,\u201d Teinowitz told the Tribune in 1993.<\/p>\n
In the mid-1990s, Teinowitz and Manton began co-hosting a sports comedy radio show on Saturday nights on WMVP-AM. The pair developed something of a cult following, and got to know many athletes.<\/p>\n
In March 1996, the duo were promoted to host middays on WMVP. That show lasted just nine weeks before the station changed formats. Teinowitz performed some fill-in work on WMVP \u2014 including taking part in a 1997 interview that Steve Cochran held with O.J. Simpson, in which he asked the disgraced former football star his first pick in a fantasy football draft \u2014 and in late 1997 co-hosted an hourlong fantasy football show on WMVP. Teinowitz also briefly co-hosted an evening program on WCKG-FM with Pete McMurray.<\/p>\n
Returning to WMVP in October 1998 amid a relaunch of the sports-talk format, Teinowitz signed a deal to co-host afternoon drive with Manton. The following year, the pair shifted to evenings, and they also picked up a weekend morning fantasy football show, starting in 2000. He also did some work for the ESPN network.<\/p>\n
Teinowitz returned briefly to his acting roots in 2000, with a role in \u201cReturn to Me,\u201d a popular film shot in Chicago.<\/p>\n
In 2001, Teinowitz began his longest and best-known run on the airwaves, co-hosting an afternoon drive-time show on WMVP with veteran radio personality Dan McNeil and former NFL lineman John Jurkovic. The show\u2019s mouthful of a name? \u201cMcNeil, Jurko and Harry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trio\u2019s time in the spotlight was marred by a variety of disputes, with McNeil drawing a suspension from the station in 2002 after a heated off-air exchange that involved McNeil shoving Teinowitz, and a two-day suspension for all three after a heated on-air discussion between McNeil and Teinowitz over Teinowitz\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n
Despite the rancor \u2014 the Tribune\u2019s Ed Sherman called McNeil \u201cthe cynical radio man\u201d and Teinowitz \u201cthe hopeful fan\u201d \u2014 the show was successful, edging ahead of rival WSCR-AM in the ratings later in 2002 and performing well against competitors for the rest of their run together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very laid back,\u201d Teinowitz told the Tribune in 2005. \u201cMac\u2019s very high-strung. I admire that he wants the show to be successful, and I admire the time and energy he puts into it. But I\u2019m not crazy about his bedside manner. To that he would say, \u2018Get over it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Teinowitz and McNeil continued to spar from time to time, with an ugly on-air exchange in 2006 over Teinowitz asking for help to get his car parked devolving into an uglier off-air scene and another suspension.<\/p>\n
Teinowitz remained at WMVP after McNeil exited the station in 2009. He continued in his role supplying one-liners and a seemingly unrealistic amounts of optimism for Chicago sports teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the outlook he had on life as well, even to his detriment,\u201d Manton said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t know how to hold a grudge. He was a hopeful fan, period.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2011, Skokie police caught Teinowitz driving with a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit. Teinowitz apologized on the air at the start of the next show he appeared on, and soon afterward he entered a rehabilitation program voluntarily. He returned to the airwaves about six weeks later.<\/p>\n
In 2013, WMVP parted ways with Teinowitz. The following year, he reunited with Manton to co-host an afternoon-drive show on the short-lived low-power radio station WGWG-LP 87.7 FM The Game.<\/p>\n
After The Game folded, Teinowitz was a fill-in host on WGN-AM for sports talk shows and non-sports shows. He worked frequently with Bill Leff, and also co-hosted WGN\u2019s weekend sports show, \u201cThe Beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor somebody who grew up listening to Harry, to get to work with him was an honor, and what I learned quickly was that however big Harry\u2019s personality was, his heart was bigger,\u201d said Mark Carman, a co-host. \u201cHe was incredibly supportive to numerous people, myself included, who were trying to make their way in the business.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2021, the Greenhouse Theater Center in Lincoln Park staged \u201cWhen Harry Met Rehab,\u201d a comedy about sobriety Teinowitz co-wrote with Manton. Loosely based on Teinowitz\u2019s life, the play starred Dan Butler of \u201cFrasier\u201d fame and Melissa Gilbert, who starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder on \u201cLittle House on the Prairie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe macho persona of the Chicago sports guy does not, of course, easily admit error nor vulnerability. It took some guts for Teinowitz to tell his story without any excuses,\u201d Tribune theater critic Chris Jones wrote in December 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Harry Met Rehab\u201d was staged in an off-Broadway theater in New York City last fall, under the title \u201cAnother Shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, Teinowitz had suffered heart and liver problems. He received a liver transplant in 2023.<\/p>\n
A marriage to Wendy Teinowitz ended in divorce. Other survivors include a sister, Nancy; another brother, Billy; and two children, Lucy and Reggie.<\/p>\n
A funeral service is set for 1 p.m. Monday at Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Blvd., Wilmette, followed by a reception at Maggiano\u2019s Little Italy, 4999 Old Orchard Shopping Center, Skokie.<\/p>\n
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 16, 2025 at 7:01 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Teinowitz was a well-known figure on Chicago\u2019s sports talk-radio airwaves in the 1990s and early 2000s, at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":68642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5404,11612,14687,5386,1818,1370,50,17260,62,23499,14719],"class_list":{"0":"post-68641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-cook-county","10":"tag-evanston","11":"tag-glencoe","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-news-obituaries","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-wilmette","19":"tag-winnetka"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114866010406498405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}