Eddie Einhorn, 80; co-owner of Chicago White Sox

[Rick B.]

http://www.northjersey.com/news/eddie-einhorn-white-sox-co-owner-dies-north-jersey-native-laid-groundwork-for-march-madness-1.1517956


February 25, 2016, 10:36 AM
Last updated: Friday, February 26, 2016, 12:02 AM

Eddie Einhorn, White Sox co-owner, dies; North Jersey native laid groundwork for
March Madness

By JAY LEVIN

STAFF WRITER | The Record


Eddie Einhorn, the Paterson-born broadcasting executive who brought college
basketball to the masses — and who made his mark in baseball as co-owner of the
Chicago White Sox — died Wednesday. He was 80 and lived in Alpine.

The cause was complications from a stroke, said his wife, Ann.

Son of an insurance agent and a homemaker, Edward Einhorn was exposed early to
the two sports that would define his career. He was an underachieving member of
Eastside High School’s freshman basketball team and he came to follow baseball
by going to New York Giants games at the Polo Grounds, particularly when the
Cincinnati Reds were in town. Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Vander Meer of Midland
Park was a family friend.

“He loved sports,” Jeff Einhorn said of his dad, “but his love of sports was
best expressed behind the scenes.”

At the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Einhorn was sports director of the campus
radio station and the basketball team’s play-by-play announcer. While at
Northwestern University School of Law, he was a beer and hot dog vendor during
White Sox games at the old Comiskey Park, although he once admitted to The New
York Times that “on some days, I wouldn’t vend; I would just watch the ball
game.”

Still in his 20s, after a stint as a TV sports announcer, Mr. Einhorn founded
the independent TVS Television Network specializing in college basketball, then
a regional sport. Mr. Einhorn pioneered the national syndication of television
and radio coverage of college basketball, both regular season and NCAA
tournament games.

In 1968, his prime-time, nationally televised game at the Houston Astrodome
between undefeated teams — the UCLA Bruins, led by Lew Alcindor (now Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar), and the University of Houston Cougars, led by Elvin Hayes — put
college basketball on the map and laid the groundwork for March Madness. Before
a crowd of more than 50,000, the Cougars won 71-69, ending the Bruins’ 47-game
winning streak. Dick Enberg, who called the action, would later say the
so-called Game of the Century “changed college basketball forever.” The revered
sportscaster once described Mr. Einhorn as “ahead of his time” for seeing the
enormous potential of college basketball.

By the time Mr. Einhorn sold TVS in 1973, other networks were broadcasting the
sport nationally. He went to CBS, where he produced the “CBS Sports Spectacular”
and was responsible for 100 hours of programming a year, winning an Emmy for his
efforts. The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inducted Mr. Einhorn in
2011 for his role as a broadcasting pioneer and a promoter.

Turning to baseball, Mr. Einhorn in 1981 teamed with a law school classmate,
Jerry Reinsdorf, in buying the Chicago White Sox. Seven years earlier, Mr.
Einhorn was part of a syndicate that was outbid by McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc
for the San Diego Padres.

Owning a major league baseball team had been one of Mr. Einhorn’s two dreams,
his son said. The other, which the Paterson native never realized, was producing
a Broadway show.

The high point of his ownership of the White Sox was the 2005 World Series
championship, the team’s first since 1917. Mr. Einhorn and his family rode in a
double-decker bus in the victory parade through downtown Chicago.

At his death, Mr. Einhorn was vice chairman of the White Sox, although he hadn’t
been involved in the franchise’s day-to-day operation for several years.
Reinsdorf, also the owner of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, is chairman of the White
Sox.

Additionally, Mr. Einhorn helped develop the Baseball Network, Major League
Baseball’s broadcasting venture, and founded two youth baseball programs —
Cooperstown Baseball World, a camp in Oneonta, N.Y., and the National Youth
Baseball Championships, an annual tournament.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, in a statement Thursday, called Mr. Einhorn
“a leader in the world of sports and broadcasting” and “a friend to seemingly
all in the baseball and broader sports communities.”

Jeff Einhorn said his father “was the ultimate fan and spectator” of both sports
and theatrical events. Mr. Einhorn, who in 2006 wrote a book about the college
basketball tournament, “How March Became Madness,” attended more than 10 Final
Fours, his son said, and probably would have been glued to the TV for the 2016
tournament, which begins in three weeks.

Eddie Einhorn is survived by his wife of 53 years; his son, of Alpine, a
daughter, Jennifer Jacobson of New York City, and a grandson, Meyer Jacobson.
Funeral services will be at noon Sunday at Louis Suburban Chapel, Fair Lawn.
Entombment will be in the Garden of Memories Mausoleum, Washington Township.

Paterson honored Mr. Einhorn in 2003 with the Mayor’s Award for Outstanding
Civic Contributions. “Whenever I say I’m from Paterson, people do know it,” the
White Sox owner said that year at a celebration of the Silk City at Passaic
County Community College. “And that’s a good feeling when people know your
hometown.”