Les Grobstein was the keeper of “the tape,” and if you had to ask “What tape?,” you didn’t know Les.
For the uninitiated, “the tape” was the profanity-laden postgame interview with former Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia, which Grobstein recorded for his radio station and helped turn into one of the most famous stories in local sports lore.
Grobstein, an overnight host for WSCR-AM670, died Sunday at the age of 69.
According to a report from Chicago media reporter Robert Feder, Grobstein was discovered dead in his Elk Grove Village home. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Grobstein spent over 50 years reporting and commenting on the Chicago sports scene and was in press boxes in his final days. Just last month at a Loyola-DePaul basketball game, I asked Grobstein the last time the two schools had met in a really “big” game.
“When Ray Meyer was coach,” he said, referring to the late DePaul legend, before going into a long story about the era.
If it was a Chicago sports fact and Grobstein confirmed it, you didn’t have to go to the internet to fact-check. He was that good.
The Score began a day of tributes to Grobstein Monday after news of his death was shared by David Haugh on “The Mully and Haugh Show.”
“Les Grobstein was a good friend, not just to me but millions of people he never met,” Haugh said. “People liked to imitate Les, but the irony is he had a personality that was one of a kind. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago sports and unmatched passion for talking about them.
“In 50 years on the air, the industry changed but Les never did. We’ll miss ‘The Grobber,’ whose voice helped my daily commute every morning around 3:30.”
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Grobstein, nicknamed “The Grobber,” grew up in Chicago and started his career as a stringer, phoning in scores and quotes to various media outlets, including The Associated Press and local TV stations. His first full-time job in 1977 was at Sportsphone, a phone number fans called for the latest scores and news before the internet.
WLS-AM 890 hired Grobstein as a sportscaster in 1979, where he provided reports for popular radio personality Larry Lujack. Grobstein frequently became the foil for Lujack’s constant ribbing, and his ability to absorb the abuse directed at him from the likes of Lujack, Steve Dahl and others over the years made him even more endearing to listeners.
“You have to understand, in this kind of radio some people have to play the role I played,” Grobstein once told The Reader. “That was part of my shtick at WLS.”
The Elia rant in 1983 was Grobstein’s piece de resistance. While other reporters were in Elia’s office on the infamous day he ripped into Cubs fans and labeled them as unemployed “bleeps,” Grobstein was the one who preserved it for history and replayed it every year to rekindle memories of one of the funniest moments in Cubs history.
Grobstein eventually was hired by WSCR as an overnight host, a job he was particularly suited for because of its caller-dependent approach. He opened the phone lines and listened to or argued with hard core sports fans who listed their grievances. Without having to worry about ratings, Grobstein could be himself and have lengthy discussions with fans who wanted to vent. His knowledge of obscure games from “back in the day” was amazing, even to his peers who talk or write about sports for a living.
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“When I arrived in Chicago 39 years ago, he showed me around,” longtime radio broadcaster Tom Shaer said. “Les was extremely knowledgeable and hardworking. He was everywhere. Behind the scenes, he fought hard for rights to access at sports venues of radio sports reporters in an era when they were stepchildren among media.
“More recently, few stations in the country have live, local overnight shows, so Les’ presence was very important. He was underappreciated. Personally, Les was like everybody’s unique brother or cousin. He had his eccentricities, as do we all, but he was very likable. No one didn’t like Les Grobstein. Heck, he became friends with Lee Elia, and that has lasted for decades.”
Before the internet, Grobstein was the one to go to regarding any bit of Chicago sports trivia. But he downplayed his encyclopedic memory and told “The Reader:” “I don’t think it’s such a big deal about my memory. I don’t think I’m different than anyone else.”
But Grobstein definitely was different than anyone else.
That’s why he was able to outlast so many others in the dog-eat-dog radio business, and why he will be impossible to replace.
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