Here's another trip down memory lane. The lane is often bumpy so you might trip. In February of 1977 I was innocently at work at the TV Sports desk at ch. 6 Indianapolis. A man had just taken a hostage in downtown Indy.The guy doing the dirty work was Tony Kiritsis and his hostage was a mortgage broker named Richard Hall. Kiritsis maintained Hall was cheating him out of his property and he was going to keep Hall until things were straightened out. Kiritsis had wired a shotgun to Hall's head and was walking him down the main drag, North Meridian ST. We at WRTV ch. 6 had the city's only LIVE TRUCK and we were all over this. Live coverage during a 63 hour standoff.
Needless to say, sports could take the night off. Or so I thought. News Director Bob Gamble was glued to the coverage. He looked at me and said "This is a first for Indy TV" . Just then Kiritsis looked into our camera and said "you ##$$@@@*ers get back. Bob then looked at me again and said "Another first".
After some 7 hours I was told by Bob to get on the set. I BELIEVE I SAID, "WHAT?" Yep, Indiana had just finished a win in Bloomington and you don't stiff the viewers when it comes to IU BASKETBALL HIGHLIGHTS. So, as a tired and scared Hall prayed for his life, I delivered a solid :45 second voice over on the Hoosiers buckets. NBC had been plugged into our coverage and had every one of it's stations monitoring it.
I got a call from Marv Albert in New York. He said "Man, that was some tense stuff". I said the KIRITSIS THING? He said, "No, that Kent Benson tip in". Sometimes you just have to have your highlights no matter what. (P.S. Hall was eventually released from his ordeal by Kiritsis. Tony was sent to a mental hospital for the next 11 years and IU finished the season a disappointing 16-11.)