Remembering Fred

The news of Fred McLeod’s sudden death shocked us all yesterday. I don’t know about you, but I got teary reading through all the tributes to a man whose simple ethos by all accounts seemed to be: work hard; be a good person. There are too few people like that in the world, and now there is one less. I thought it would be appropriate to get a few perspectives from our staff on Mr. McLeod’s passing and what he meant to each of us and the community.

Tom Pestak:

If I had to describe Fred McLeod to someone who didn’t know who he was, I would say Fred exuded gratitude in his work.  When you’ve done something for a long time it’s tempting to get lazy or develop a sense of entitlement.  If you’re a local TV announcer maybe you start lusting after a national role.  If you’re: watching Larry Hughes clang off-balance 22.5 footers, watching 40 point losses to the freaking Kings, watching Flypaper Kyrie dog it on defense for all but 3 playoff games, watching Anthony Bennett flail about, watching Isaiah Thomas single-handedly sink a championship contender in real time, watching The Decision as a Clevelander, watching Kenny Mauer screw over your title hopes, watching JR Smith and Delonte West and Dion and any of the other scratch-your-head players over the last 13 years…..well – at some point, as a die-hard fan, you’re just annoyed and struggling to remain positive.

And yet, Fred McLeod, who saw a lot of stuff and didn’t have the luxury of shutting off the TV in disgust during garbage time, never wavered in his optimistic demeanor.  All of us rode an enormous roller coaster of emotions during this LeBron James era of the NBA.  Yet Fred’s professionalism and genuine gratitude bordered on giddiness that his job was to sit next to a Cleveland legend and share the experience of Cavaliers basketball with all of his Northeast Ohio brethren. He firewalled off any negativity in a way that the rest of us amateurs could never do.

Fred wasn’t a care bear or a Mister Rogers – you could tell when he was disappointed.  Losses hurt, but that endeared him to us just as much as his exuberance at everything good and exciting that has happened since he first sat in front of the mic.  Fred just always seemed like he felt he truly had the best job in the world and it was his duty to make sure he did the best darned job possible to honor the franchise that bestowed upon him this dream opportunity, and give happiness back to the city he loved.

As a basketball announcer, he really appealed to all age groups, which is quite difficult to do for NBA fans who are often divided on analytics, aesthetics, language, and technology.  I love Joe Tait, but you could tell he fell in love with the pre-Space Jam version of the NBA and was a bit out of place trying to describe the legendary bench mob antics of the 66 win 2009 squad (goosies and family photos and elaborate handshakes and such)

McLeod could effortlessly converse with (and elevate) an old school basketball mind like Austin Carr while seamlessly riling up all us millennials with screams of “OHHHH Jay Jay SICKSON!”  and “The Mo Flow!!” My favorite Cavaliers sequence of all time was a random away game in Milwaukee.  I never tire of watching this, and listening to Fred and AC is just sublime.

He learned about advanced analytics yet described them in an appropriate and humble way, never acting like he was Moses coming down from the mountain to dictate the new rules, but rather to gradually ease everyone at home into some new ways of measuring the game. He showed us how the stats often provided some rigor to that which could be observed by us at home (i.e. Delly’s plus/minus numbers indicated he made the team better, which was clear to see.)

Fred embraced the fun and light-hearted aspects of social media, and he never used his role as a member of the sports media to ask overly critical questions. He understood that at the end of the day this is supposed to be family entertainment, not the white house press corps.  While you weren’t likely to get super hard hitting and revealing quotes, none of us minded that Fred was just trying to stay positive and make everyone happier (judging by the reactions today, NBA players really liked Fred.)

Fred was an NBA junkie and a Cavaliers historian.  He never missed an opportunity to tie the past to the present, and this made him the perfect complement to all the former legends that the Cavs have embraced as analysts and ambassadors (AC, Campy, Jim Chones).

Above all, Fred McLeod was a gentleman and a professional who always worked exceptionally hard to make everyone else look good.  Today the stories are pouring out from media members about how Fred has been supportive in their careers and in some cases acted as a mentor. Let us hope many young sports broadcasters aspire to be like Fred McLeod.  And let us keep his wife, family, and friends (he has so many) in our hearts and prayers.

Elijah Kim:

So very well said Tom.

Fred McLeod is the voice of the Cavs broadcast that I’ll always remember. I moved to Ohio in 2004 and he was the voice I remember for essentially all of my fandom of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Fred never wavered and you just felt his genuineness, especially after LeBron left the first time. Fred understood that the fans of Cleveland were hurt but never mocked or stooped to talk bad about another player, even when emotions were extremely high. He was class personified.

During the dark years, I had a chance to meet Fred and his wife. They were so kind and spent time with me and my brother when they didn’t have to. Heck, I still have a picture with Austin Carr (above) that Beth McLeod took for me while Fred ran off for final preparations for the Lakers game that night (when Kyrie had a monster game and the Cavs beat the Kobe-led Lakers).

The Cavs broadcast won’t be the same without him but in a weird way, I’m just glad he got to witness the epic championship of the team he loved and cared so much for. He always had faith the Cavs would win it at least once in his lifetime. Rest in peace and you’re gone too soon. “GOOD NIGHT OAKLAND.”

Mike Schreiner:

This has been an emotional day for all Cavalier fans, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the McLeod family and the many people who were blessed to know Fred. I know that whenever I think of Fred McLeod, I’ll think of a great play-by-play announcer who did a wonderful job of balancing the many things fans look for in that role. He rooted for the Cavaliers while still being willing to call them out for poor play. He respected the old school views of his partner, Cavalier legend Austin Carr, while being up to date on how and why NBA basketball is played the way it is today.

Fred combined great enthusiasm with tremendous knowledge and the ability to explain it in great detail. Perhaps most importantly, in an era of sports media where people seem content trying to out-yell one another, Fred McLeod came off as a gentleman. You could see that he truly cared about doing the best job he could for those who were listening to him and never tried to put himself above the game or its players. We were truly lucky to have had him narrate the ongoing story of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Nate Smith:

If you didn’t get the chance to read this interview between McLeod and Joe Gabriele from 2014, I suggest you do so. So many things stood out about McLeod, but what strikes me most about him was the way he personified the ideal of the American work ethic.

At the PGA Championship at Firestone [in the late 70s]. I was wearing a yellow polyester suit and lugging these heavy camera pieces and shooting my own interviews. And he [Cleveland Channel 8 Boss, Jim Mueller] thought: ‘If this guy’s crazy enough to show up in a yellow suit and interview all the best players in the world, he must have an intense work ethic.’

Fred started as a Cleveland Sports anchor, and then got pulled in by Ted Stepien for one year to Cavs before the contract changed. McLeod was pivotal to so many quintessential sports moments: 22 years of Pistons basketball and two championship runs, the greatest championship in NBA history (2016), football, baseball, golf… Fred is even the reason we have footage of John Elway leading Stanford to a comeback against Cal when they ran the band off the field.

We will miss you Fred McLeod #RIP my friend @nba @cavs @BethHMcLeod pic.twitter.com/hEy3uNX5H9

— Isiah Thomas (@IsiahThomas) September 10, 2019

If you read any of the testimonials from yesterday, you’ll know how hard he worked. Fred worked on the plane between every road trip. He worked all over the U.S. He covered every sport he could cover. The dude loved his job and loved to be able to tell stories that connect us together.

More importantly, he was kind, and he was generous with his time. He tells the story in that interview about how Dan Gilbert was his intern in the 80s, and if he’d have been a jerk to Gilbert, Fred never would’ve gotten the chance to come home and cover the Cavs.

As I tell young kids, forget about having a great voice or a great look – the most important thing is being a good person. If you start there, then you’ve got a shot.

Fred was generous in the booth. Austin Carr wouldn’t have worked with any other announcer. Much of his shtick was too corny, repetitive, and old school. But it worked with McLeod, because he was generous with his partner who didn’t have the announcing experience he did. He gave Carr room to operate, and brought him back to the moment when he was waxing too vociferously about how it was in the old days. Somehow, some way, it worked because we cared and learned to be patient and generous with Austin because Fred did. And somehow the old NBAer who might have been the greatest college player of all time but whose career was cut short due to injury, didn’t come off as a bitter fuddy duddy. Fred’s positivity seeped into AC’s style, and together they became the best local broadcast crew in the NBA.

Through two different championship runs, the worst losing streak in NBA history, and four horrible years of self-entitled Cavalier basketball behind a flat earth wiener, Fred and AC always made it a great show. Hell, there were years where Fred and AC were the best announcers in the NBA, period. They avoided the ridiculous hyperbole and ego that so many national broadcasters bring. They were fans, excited to be there. Excited at the NBA’s history and the ridiculous athleticism and quality of play they got to see every night.

Fred could modulate his game to the moment so well. When the Cavs or another team stunk it up, he was the master of the understatement, and when they were at their best, the zeal in his voice filled up your living room with electricity. As Tom said, he didn’t ask tough or “Gotcha” questions, but his questions were more important. Fred asked fair questions. I can’t count how many times he asked LeBron, Kevin, J.R., Shaq, or Antawn Jamison to take us into the moment and tell us the story of what happened, making the moment about the players and their story, rather than aggrandizing Fred’s ego.

I cried yesterday when I read about him. Maybe it’s because McLeod’s almost my Dad’s age, and now that the greatest generation is almost gone, we’re starting to lose their children. I complain about Baby Boomers a lot, but Fred transcended a generation or an age. He so often came off as a little kid around these freakish athletic giants. But when he needed to, Fred was an elder statesman who lent an air of sobriety and leadership to a tough moment.

If you take one thing from Fred, take his ethos: work hard; be kind. Those two mantras that were the core of Fred McLeod make life seem so much less complicated than most of us make it.  Rest in Peace, Mr. McLeod.

Some night next spring, when the hurt doesn't feel so raw, a banner for Fred McLeod needs to be raised to up to the roof of Rocket Mortgage Field house, right next to Austin Carr.

— Cavs:TheBlog (@CavsTheTweets) September 10, 2019