Pete enters the Boxing ring with other Sportscasters

Part 2: We dive into KMOL-TV Sportscaster Pete Delgado history and experiences working the San Antonio Sport/ TV market. A unique perspective of Down In SA.

Along with Dan Cook, Fear of Flying, Friday Night Lights, Pete surviving 2 Fires! & more.

This is Part 2 Part ..enjoy! 

Music by: Los#2 Dinners

Songs: Chingadera & Party Animal

Podcast Copyright: 24 Hour Entertainment- 2024-2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:04

Welcome to Down in SA, aka down in San Antonio, Texas, that is. Here you will be a part of the lives of the cool kids who grew up here in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. From the music, culture, society, big red, hippo sodas, and breakfast tacos. You will learn the cool elements of our hidden society. So grab a long neck or a shot of tequila, light up a doobie, and say, screw the Alamo. This is who we really are. The cool kids. Down an essay. I'd like to welcome our audience back to Down in SA. My name is Chick. This is part two with ex-Camwell sportscaster Pete Delgado. So we're gonna pick up the conversation here, Pete. Uh so you come into the market, you're the uh lead sportscaster. Who were the other lead sportscasters from the other TV stations? At that point, I guess it was just K Sat and Ken's, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Right, right. Well, uh Greg Simmons uh was a few years into being there. I think he'd been at the station for what I understand for several years. I think started as an intern there, worked his way up, and eventually became uh the sports director. Um, he and I had an unusual relationship because we didn't have one. Um my first or second day uh at the station was the first time I saw him. I saw him on the air, and they uh they had recorded, they we would record the other two sports casts to see what they did compared to what we did on that day. So I went, I made a comment, you know, Greg was not Kerry Grant, and uh, you know, I he I said, Wow, look at those lips. They should have a hook in them. Well, ha ha ha in the office. Well, unbeknownst to me, there was a photographer from KSAT standing outside the sports office, picking up a tape, you know, a pool tape from a trial or something. He heard me say that and immediately went and told Greg, this is what the new guy said about you. I heard it. Well, uh, Greg was very good friends with Deborah, Deborah Daniels. They had worked together. He called her, called Don Harris, you know, what's with your guy, you know, whatever. And it's like, I don't know, whatever. Well, uh uh Greg and I uh never spoke. We never spoke. So in my age, there were times where we were doing live shots five feet apart, and we never spoke to each other. So um, yeah, that was that was just we just agreed to just be that way. So that's how that was. And now Dan Cook was at Ken's, and obviously he was a legend. Uh that was one of the first things they talked about. Like, hey, you're going up against a guy, that's a legend. Uh Dan, of course, uh wrote for the Express News as a sports writer. Well loved, well read. Uh, you know, he was just, you know, Mr. Broadhind was his alter ego that he was uh Dan Cook was able to maybe put out a controversial point, but it was in an interview with Mr. Broadhind. Mr. Broadhind said it, right? A fictional guy, but Dan could get his controversial opinion out there without putting it on himself, you know. Right. Uh very, very clever. Uh and you know, he and so there he was at Ken's. Now, a lot of folks don't know. Ken stands for Express News Service. The the newspaper was the Express News, you know. Uh so you know, he did that. He was definitely not flashy in any way, uh, very monotone, but uh people loved him. You know, he he was known for the phrase, you know, it's not over till the fat lady sings. Uh he actually said on the air, which would get people fired today, uh made a reference to the LPGA saying they were spikes in uh dykes in spikes. You know, so you know, I mean, what?

SPEAKER_03 4:08

You know, that was Dan Cook.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yeah, Dan, you know, Dan can get away with that, you know. What Dan was not known for was actually going out and covering events. Uh, you know, he never went to a Spurs game, he never went to a missions game. I never saw him until um, you know, I'm I'm into the job maybe, you know, six, seven months into it. You know, I'm out, I'm seeing Greg, I'm seeing other people, you know, out of these things. But uh I was at the Texas OE OU football game at the Cotton Bowl. And the way he got up into the press box, at least the way I went, he had to go up a little spiral staircase that was like from the stands that went up into the press box. And I was going up, I'm looking at my feet, and evidently Dan Cook's coming down the other way looking at his feet, and we literally run into each other. And it was kind of like a hey, hey, and uh, you know, that was about it. And then maybe a year or so later, we had a big boxing event at the Alamo Dome. Uh Pernel Whitaker, Caesar Chavez were the headliners, and Dan went to that. And I spoke with him for a long time. That was the you know, the one, maybe the only conversation. Very cordial uh man, uh intelligent, and boy, did he love boxing. So, yeah, those were the two guys in town when I showed up.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Yeah, that was his main deal because he had gone back as far as seeing Cassius Clay, uh Alex Arguello, um who else was there? Carlos Palomino, because my uncle, Lefty Soldania, he was a fireman at station number one, was a lifeguard at the Roosevelt Pool, and he was co-owner with Stefan Stefania Balsarelli's father. Now, Stefania, everyone remembers her, she had known us on St. Mary's. Well, her father and my uncle Lefty Soldania, they were co-owners of the Golden Gloves. And the Golden Gloves is well, I it's still a vacant shell of a building on St. Mary's across from the little Catholic church there, right next door, but I believe to the jury or the holiday inn. I don't think anybody has still leased that space, but that's where the golden gloves were. And my uncle and aunt lived in Lavaca, which was like a street over from Hemisphere. A lot of my cousins lived in in uh King William area, and uh and my cousins boxed. They boxed a municipal auditorium, and so Dan Cook was always there. You know, my uncle would say, Hey, Cassius Clay's gonna be here over the weekend. Oh, really? And these boxes would come boxed there because of the humidity and the heat. That's when they would get to work out, and that's when he became like, you know, like, hey, I got he would get a lot of inside storytelling for his articles in boxing, and nationwide they picked him up because he could get to these boxers where there wasn't a lot of people around him, right? And so, um you know, here he is, right, publishing in the Express News. And the interesting thing about uh Dan Cook and the late Joe Sweeney, who was the anchor before George Mackenzie at Channel 4, is they both owned a bar. Right, uh the newsroom was Joe Sweeney's, and Time Out was uh Dan Cook's, which was kind of unheard of at that time because it's like, wait a minute, uh you two guys are like, you know, sports directors and you own bars.

unknown 7:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

So, you know, they they had and time out was like right up the road from where I grew up. The timeout lounge and the newsroom. I mean, so like, you know, they were I mean, at that at that point, I wasn't old enough to drink, although I was like any other teenager, I was still sneaking a drink somewhere. But, anyways, but yeah, they they both own bars, and so um you know, there's just a lot of uniqueness in the people that uh worked in the media in those 60s, 70s, and 80s, and then you like intersecting with them. What about um storytelling like great moments of people that you didn't expect to meet? Well, you know what? Let's go back into boxing and tell me about Jesse James Lahawk, because he was just a cub getting into the boxing world, and you kind of followed him through his whole career, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

You know, he his career was very young when I came. Uh the TV station arranged for some local sports personalities uh to shoot some little promotions with me, like kind of welcome me to town. Uh George Girvin was one of them, uh, you know, things like that. And one of them was Jesse James Leha, who, you know, I was told was, you know, an up-and-coming and exciting boxing figure in San Antonio, but I had never heard of him. But a very sweet, nice young man with a pretty young wife, and his career was masterly uh directed by his uh manager, Lester Bedford. And, you know, Lester brought him along slow. Uh, you know, he he was he was a good-looking kid, you know, a good boxer, strong, uh, you know, for a guy his size, who was, you know, weighing 130 pounds. Um, you know, he eventually fought Azuma Nelson on that same card at the Albany.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

Oh, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

He fought Azuma Nelson, who was the world champion, and gave Azuma everything he wanted. I believe it ended in a draw. It ended in a draw. Uh Leha would later on uh fight him again and win, and would win. Uh so and got the champion. I think he won the uh the world three different times. So, you know, uh one of the things about James is, and and Lester was telling me this, you know, you know, many an athlete makes the money and blows it all, and you know, ends up being that. No, James put money away, bought some real estate. I know he's got a he's got a gym, you know, in town still. Uh he uh, you know, he he trains people like you and me who, you know, want to just get in shape, not fight anybody. Right. You know, he does a boxing type regiment. Yeah. You know, he's got people of all ages in there. Uh, you know, he was he was involved for a little bit also in some local boxing promotions. But James is doing great, you know, still looking great. Still look, you know, he's still in pretty good shape. You know, I mean he I I'm friends with him on Facebook. He doesn't mind taking his shirt off, you know. It's just something, you know, I do mind. So, yeah. Right. But uh yeah, no, no, no. That that James, that that was that was something else. And of course, you know, one of one of San Antonio's favorite ever athletes.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

So let's get into uh, and we don't want to leave anybody in SA hanging without knowing about high school football, because that is like the preeminent of you know any medium, large, or small town in Texas, whether you live in Dallas or whether you live in Tyler, whether you live in Paris, Texas, it's all about Friday night lights. And so um I remember that would be all hands on deck. I remember we didn't want to enter the newsroom with you guys just tearing at it, just rolling through tapes and cueing up stuff and everybody writing and everybody looking it over. And I think you guys got like the biggest block for the rundown because it was Friday night. I think eventually it became a 30-minute show after the initial newscast. But I remember there was this Sky News 4. And so tell us about Sky News 4 and tell us why you never flew on it.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yeah, well, you know, I I worked in other in other towns, you know, in high school football, you know, on a Friday night was, you know, uh something something that was going on. And I come to Texas and I'm going, wow, this is a totally different thing. Uh, you know, 500 kids are involved in a Friday night football game from the little, you know, for the cheerleaders on the field, the band, uh flag girls, the little song girls in in the stands, you know. I mean, you know, the whole school gets involved. You know, all the kids come out, you know, 8,000 people, you know, watching a high school football game. You know, other places I'd go, there'd be 200, you know, something like that. Well, yes, and our show, uh Friday Night Fever, which was an extended sports cast, and we covered a whole lot of high school games. And the television station had a relationship with mission funeral homes, uh, which gave us access to their helicopter and also their little plane. So, yes, we would fly that helicopter. We'd put a photographer in there, and he'd he'd fly over the stadium. And, you know, uh Don would mimic um uh Brent Musberger and going, We're you're looking live as we'd be circling Northside Stadium or something like that, right? You know, we'd have that shot, you know, that air, we had an aerial shot of that.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Yeah, that was pre-drone era.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Yeah, right, you know, and you know, the the station management wanted me to go up in that helicopter and do shots. And I'm like, no, you know, those things fall out of the sky sometimes. You know, I'm I mean, I you know, I I didn't like putting up the Christmas lights, you know, let alone being up in that helicopter, you know. But uh yeah, so I never did it. That uh I I was not a fan favorite uh among management for not wanting to do it, but you know, it was just something that kind of kind of spooked me, which, you know, brought me to this other situation where uh one year Cowboys were in the playoffs. They were always in the playoffs that whole time I was there, uh, and had a had a uh a southwest flight to Love Field to go cover the playoff game on a Sunday morning. I overslept. Uh the photographers calling me from the airport saying, Hey, where are you? We're missing our flight. Well, we did miss the flight. So the station made an arrangement to use the little airplane that the uh that the that the funeral home had for transporting bodies, I suppose. Uh, and they put us in that thing. Uh there was one seat for the pilot and two little jump seats that folded down on the side. Uh, you get on a plane and they do, you know, all the safety procedures, and you're not listening to it. You're looking at your phone, you're doing what I listened to every word that guy said. Uh, you know, he also went over the safety procedures. I mean, I'm I'm scared to death. You know, I didn't want to be in the helicopter, I didn't want to be on that thing. And I remember when he was trying to start the engines. It was a prop lane, one on one prop on each wing, and he couldn't get it to start. You know, and we're like looking at each other, me and looking at the photographer, like, what is this? You know, it's just going, that gets started, the other one fires up, and we went and we took off at such an angle, and that plane is full, you know, and we're bouncing. He made a turn at one point where I was on the right side of the plane, but I could see out and see the ground out of the window on the left. He was essentially, you know, was banking like that. It was one of the most terrifying things. I think it was probably an hour and a half flight or something, you know, in that little plane that was probably going 120 miles an hour. I don't know. But uh, I'll tell you what, I never missed a flight after that.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

So, so tell me about celebrities. Uh well, you know what? What I remember is that you were a celebrity. I remember going to events with you, and people wanted to take a picture with you, and they wanted to take an autograph with you. I mean, it was it was and and I don't I don't I don't remember that, you know, like well for sure with Dan Cook, he doesn't never never really came out of the cave. And with Greg Simmons, I just don't know. But you know, you became, you know, quite a headliner in sports. Were your ratings better than anybody else's when it came to the sports ratings?

SPEAKER_00 16:19

I, you know, I I don't know. You know, I mean, KMOL was always in third, but we were always close. On an overnight, somebody'd have a 14.8.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Number two would have a 14.7, and we'd have a 14.6. But we always stayed number three, and that was one of the stigmas. Uh, one thing I was always really proud of is one year I did win uh the Associated Press uh Sportscaster of the Year for South Texas. So uh, you know, that that's something it's it's on my wall. Okay. Uh got got it, you know, that was one of those things. I was I was uh always very, very proud of that. But you know what? Any market I worked at, uh San Antonio market was different. Uh we were kind of, we were more of a celebrity. I and and and I don't, you know, again, maybe San Antonio, one of those things where you know the community itself looks up and loves you. You know, you're part of our family, you're in our house, you know, everything from the Spurs to the you know the the iguana hockey players, you know. I mean, you know, and and I think that was kind of what it was. You know, just just the overall sense in the community that these people on TV, they're in our house, they're our family. And I never, any other market, you know, I worked briefly in Los Angeles. I I didn't get that, I didn't get that feeling there even compared to San Antonio, you know. Uh the way people just looked up to us and you know thought we were really something, you know. And right, you know, in in in many cases we really weren't.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

Yeah. Yeah. So so let's get to uh we're gonna close it out here, but I want to get to you get hired by um Herrick, and if I'm not mistaken, you get let go by Donahue, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:11

No, no, no. Uh no.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Oh, that was uh Tim, right? Tim, Tim, Tim was the news director at that.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

No, no, no, guys. Uh Byron something was the news director. And Don helped me. Don was the general manager. He never cared for me. He never cared for me.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah. Well, I thought I thought uh Bob Donahue was still the GM.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

No, no, no, no, no. He hired me. Uh he also extended my contract five years. I I didn't even use an agent. I just went in and I said, look, and I'd like to make this this year, this this year, this year, next year, and and hey, maybe give me a signing bonus. And he went, okay. That was, you know, I mean, that was the negotiation. It was very, very simple and nice. Uh, but no, uh Well, I was already gone. The station sold. The station sold. Things were, you know, things were different, different management styles. And, you know, I often say when I through KMOL from the, you know, through the 90s when I was there, that was kind of like the peak, I believe, or near the peak, of just what local television was. They were making the stations were making money, the product was good, this sort of thing. If it wasn't the peak, it was the it was at a point that where it dropped really hard in the 2000s, where, you know, uh the internet came about and you know, all the different streaming services and things like that. People had choices. They could watch the news or get news when they wanted. They didn't have to wait till 1025 to see Pete do sports. Right. You know, no, we can look at it on our computer, we can look at it on our phone, you know. So uh it was, you know, the the industry changed so much. But like at that time, at that time, we were right riding high. Everybody was making money. And then, as you know, you know, today, all those guys you were mentioning that you worked in production, there's hardly a production department anymore. Things are automated, things are all done on a computer, uh, you know, AI, these sorts, these sorts of things, you know, it it it's it's a totally different ball game compared to, like, you know, I want to say, at least for me personally, the heyday of television in the in the 90s and well, two thousand when the 2000 started, that's when things really started slipping.

SPEAKER_03 20:39

What was the year that you were let go?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Uh, 2000.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

I was okay, yeah, because I was long gone by then, but I think I remember the story of you telling me. Or was it Danny Richardson? You walked out to throw trash out or whatever, and your picture was in the dumpster that they would normally hang in the hallway.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Carrie Garza. Yeah, you know, the the the station used to have our photos.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

Yeah, big ones.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Used to have our photos in the lobby.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

Yeah, huge ones.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Where Emery was out there with those photos. You know, there's our there's our news crew, there's our anchors, you know, out there big, you know, you know, uh 18 by 30 pictures of our big face, you know. And uh yeah, Carrie Garza, my friend. You were you worked with him in production.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Uh he walked out to dump the trash, and my and my picture was in the trash. And uh, you know, Carrie grabbed it. Carrie grabbed it and got it and brought it to me. And, you know, I've I've had it. I I've lived in a couple of states since then, and you know, eventually moved back to Texas. Uh and I had it hanging in my garage, just you know, that picture. Because people say, Why do you have that big picture in your big face like that? Well, let me tell you, I used to be this guy, you know. So, anyway, um a guy was coming, he came over to my house, and he was uh working on my garage door. And he sees the picture on the wall. And he said, Hey, why do you have that sportscaster's picture on your wall? Are you related to him? And I said, I used to be that guy.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

So we can we can we can like summarize it this way. You and Pam Bondi have something in common. Her photo was thrown in the trash can, too.

unknown 22:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

The Attorney General of the United States of America. So it doesn't matter what level you are in your professionalism, there is a trash can waiting for you somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Yeah, well, you know, uh, and you know, maybe just you know, talking about that, we can maybe close on this one. Now, that photo was taken about 99. Okay. Well, the TV station caught on fire some years ago. They had to leave that building. And uh after that, I mean, the station was just, you know, broken into by homeless people, copper wire and tubing and stuff ripped out of walls. You know, I mean, it's it's a total mess in there. And uh, one of the former employees had posted on Facebook uh the photos of what the station looks like now. This is about a year ago. And he's posting pictures, posting pictures around like what's at this. Oh, this was the general manager's office, you know, wires are hanging from the ceiling, you know, things are toppled over, it's just you know, destroyed in there. But in the hallway was another photo of me, another framed photo from about 1994, right? And it's against the wall. Well, it's a KMOL like in a reunion page, you know, the face Facebook page. And several people were going, like, hey, get that picture to Pete, because he just left it there, right? He just left it there. So, yes, I contacted the man, Tom Guerrero, who's still in accounting with the company, and I said, Hey, Tom, I sure like that photo. And he says, Well, if I go back in there, I'll see what I can do. Well, uh the a week or so after that, the building caught on fire again. And, you know, and he sends me a text or an email saying, Hey, well, I don't think that picture's there now. Uh, you know, I don't think it's there now. Well, he did go back in, and sure enough, that picture was still leaning against the wall in a hallway. Who knows who saved it, why, from when? Because again, it was it was several years older than the one that was taken off the wall when they let me go. Somehow that picture survived a whole lot of time, 30-something years, uh, and two fires. But it is also hanging now in my man cave uh underneath the one that was in the trash can. So again, people ask, why do you have pictures of yourself like that?

SPEAKER_03 25:09

And I go, well, you can see that guy. I think it was Dolly Entertainment tonight. Two years later. California boy makes good, goes to demise, past station burns twice, homeless people evacuated, and he still lives. Hey, well, listen. Thanks for joining us down in SA. You are one of the cool kids. We wish you all the best. Take care of yourself, and we'll talk to you again sometime in the future.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Thank you.