\n Harry Teinowitz, the former ESPN 1000 sports talk show host who wrote \u201cWhen Harry Met Rehab, died this week at 64.\n <\/p>\n
THEY WILL BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY for Harry Teinowitz in Wilmette Monday.<\/p>\n
The 64-year-old cross-quipper will be celebrated at a service scheduled for the Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home beginning at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n
The event promises to be standing-room only, which is exactly the sort of house Teinowitz preferred.<\/p>\n
He died Tuesday of complications from a liver transplant in 2023.<\/p>\n
Along his long and grinding road from New Trier East High, Teinowitz tested his wit and mettle in a series of roles including actor, stand-up comic and introspective autumnal playwright.<\/p>\n
HE ACHIEVED HIS HIGHEST RENOWN in Chicago working the tricky intersection of Comedy and Sports Talk. That crossroad reached its zenith during a 12-year run (2001-13) as a co-host \u2014 primarily alongside Dan McNeil and John Jurkovic \u2014 at WMVP-AM (1000).<\/p>\n
After his disconnect from AM-1000, he confronted his DUI arrest with focus and resolve. That reckoning resulted in his magnetically cathartic \u201cWhen Harry Met Rehab,\u201d a stage comedy cowritten with close chum \u2014 and past radio mate \u2014 Spike Manton.<\/p>\n
(The play debuted in 2021 at Chicago’s Greenhouse Theater Center. The production was well-resourced enough to star Dan Butler, the sports talk host on TV’s \u201cFraiser,\u201d and Melissa Gilbert, centerpiece Laura Ingalls Wilder of NBC’s \u201cLittle House on the Prairie.\u201d)<\/p>\n
AS A SPORTS TALKER, Teinowitz caught the hang-gliding middle era of the genre in Chicago. That span was bookended by its fast-breaking startup, primarily at WSCR 670-AM (then AM-820) beginning in 1992, and the current days of drones and dormancy, which just stagger on and on.<\/p>\n
On-air Teinowitz was an acquired taste, like Rainier cherries with kale.<\/p>\n
Some found him consistently funny. Others I.D.-ed the tension-laden trio of Teinowitz, McNeil and Jurkovic as three audio workers far too frequently creeping toward clock-out time.<\/p>\n
SAID JEFF SCHWARTZ, ONE OF THE MOST knowledgeable operatives in the 33 years of sports talk radio in Chicago, first as a contributing architect at \u201cThe Score\u201d and later a key creative stylist at WMVP-AM:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you’re asking where does Harry Teinowitz fit in the history of sports talk talent in Chicago, my response would begin with a question \u2014 would you call Steve Dahl a ‘star’ or a ‘superstar?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cMy answer is ‘superstar.’ So then where do you rate Kevin Matthews, when he was fresh to Chicago and sensational? My answer, with all due acknowledgment of Kevin’s enormous talent, is ‘star.’<\/p>\n
\u201cLike Kevin, Harry tried so hard to both be funny on air and appease people off the air. But that also leaves a star vulnerable to being used by people. In my opinion, in the end, both Kevin and Harry were used by some because they were such giving people.\u201d<\/p>\n
THE TEINOWITZ FAMILY HISTORY is colorful.<\/p>\n
Father Phil Teinowitz and two partners speculated in West Loop real estate during the Eisenhower-JFK era. They struck gold when parcels and aged buildings they owned were designated to be the site of the Sears Tower.<\/p>\n
There were three Teinowitz brothers: Harry, the fearless comedy range rover; Danny, an attorney and The Quiet Beatle; and Billy, the brash baby and very much His Father’s Son.<\/p>\n
(Sister Nancy was director of choreography at Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace.)<\/p>\n
PHIL TEINOWITZ LATER SEGUED into thoroughbred racing ownership. (Sun-Times paddock bird Dave Feldman was a pal.) He had four Kentucky Derby starters, employing trainers including George \u201cJuddy\u201d Getz and Scotty Schulhofer.<\/p>\n
Schulhofer trained Teinowitz’s \u201cbig hoss,\u201d Cryptoclearance. A grandson of Mr. Prospector, Cryptoclearance won the 1987 Florida Derby, was fourth in the Kentucky Derby behind Alysheba and later captured two Hawthorne Gold Cups (1988-89).<\/p>\n
The three Teinowitz brothers caught their father’s racing jones.<\/p>\n
ON BREEDERS’ CUP DAY 2002 AT ARLINGTON PARK, Harry and Billy were prominent in touting the hopeless long shot Volponi \u2014 a son of Cryptoclearance \u2014 in the $4M Classic.<\/p>\n
A few hours before the race, Harry told a hirsute Sun-Times racing columnist, \u201cThe day will be OK if Volponi wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly after, Billy said to the same scribe: \u201cVolponi wins the Classic. Get your bets in early.\u201d<\/p>\n
IN THE GLOAMIN’ AT AP \u2014 the longest shot on the board at 43-1 \u2014 Volponi won.<\/p>\n
The win mutuel was $89 and the upset shattered the BC Fix Six shenanigans of three former I.T. students from Drexel University.<\/p>\n
The Teinowitz boys went home happy and wealthier men that Saturday night.<\/p>\n
HAPPY \u2014 THAT’LL BE A KEY WORD when the drum sounds for the life and times of Harry Teinowitz Monday.<\/p>\n
He was an unabashed fan of Chicago sports and a determined jester forever in search of the next audience.<\/p>\n