If you want to know why Harold Bell is the way he is, start with his heroes, Grandma, Amy Tyler Bell. and his mother, Mattie Bell

Grandma Bell with her grands: clockwise, sisters, Ronnie and Carol-brothers, Harold, Earl, Bobby, and cousin Tommie “Red”

“My grandmother use to tell the grands, ‘A lie will change a thousand times. The truth will never change,” Bell said.

His heroes were black women, not black men. Harold’s sheroes could not hit a baseball out of the park, throw a football 60 yards or hit a jump shot from the corner. All were Super-Stars in “The Game Called Life!’

Harold’s other ‘SHEROES’, mother, Mattie Bell, mother-in-law, Elease Thomas and wife, Hattie T.

“If I leave here today or tomorrow, nobody owes me anything, but the same respect and support I shown them. What I’d like to do is try to pay back some of the people that have helped me to help others.

The naysayers can’t say he stole from kids, did drugs or time in jail.”  Instead of going to jail he helped unfairly incarcerated black men get early releases. 

Bell advocated behind the scenes for the early prison release of friend and DC Community Advocate, Happy Myles. DC playground basketball legends, Bernard Levi and University of Maryland basketball star Jo Jo Hunter were benefactors of his early release campaigns.

Hunter had been convicted in 1997 of robbing two jewelry stores and was sentenced to serve up to 43 years in prison. Bell had several prominent sports stars and other Washingtonians write letters on Hunter’s behalf. He was paroled a summer later after serving eighteen years.  Bell says, “All the credit and glory goes to former Bureau of Prisons Director, Norman Carlson.”  He worked closely with Bell when it came to second chances during the Nixon administration.

The late NFL legend Jim Brown also benefited from his social media and letter-writing campaigns. Bell campaigned for Brown’s early release from jail after charges of spousal abuse in 2007. 

He was flawed like the next man or woman, but black women taught him the best way to live was to lead by example.

For five decades, Bell has told the truth as he saw it, on the airwaves and in print in Washington, D.C. He was the first black sports radio talk show host in DC.

He has been a free-lance writer for the the New Observer, Afro-American, the New York Amsterdam, Washington Post, Washington Times newspapers, and the Bleacher Report. He considers the most powerful vehicle in the media is the written ‘Word’.

He regularly calls out SACRED COWS who forgot who they are and where they came from.  He honors those in the black community who often don’t get recognition—both sports figures and regular folks.

His work with with youth gangs and at-risk children is legendary. He has held court in Simple City and delivered toys for tots on Christmas in the wee hours of the morning in Potomac Gardens and Barry Farms housing projects.

KIDS IN TROUBLE LOOKING FOR OFFICER FRIENDLY!

1) 

NFL legend the late Jim Brown and Congressman Tom Davis (R-Va) co-host a Kids In Trouble Youth/Police Forum in Washington, DC.

2) Washington Post columnist Pulitzer Prize winner, Bill Raspberry writes, “Youth and Police Break Accord!” Since the 70s and 80s “Officer Friendly” has become a thing of the past.

3) Officer Friendly, Charles Robinson (4th District) and I talk sports on a DC U Street corner with Kirby Burkes and Ricky Dargan.

When the city overlooked the accomplishments of the Ohio State football team, especially its players, pioneering QB Cornelius Greene, and running backs, Lenny Willis and Woodrow Roach, Bell arranged to pay tribute to them at the Shorham Hotel in their hometown of Washington, DC.

Joining the players would be their legendary and controversial coach, Woody Hayes. Archie Griffin their history making running back teammate would join them. He is the only two-time winner of the prestigious Heisman Trophy in the history of college football.

The Honorees & Guest: Archie Griffin-Host HBell-Coach Woody Hayes, Ronnie Watts-Cornelius Greene and Dave Bing.

The late Grambling alumnus Bob Piper, a DC Public High School basketball coach at Western High School, and Grambling Athletic Director, advised AFL/NFL QB Doug Williams to contact Harold Bell when he made his decision to play for the Washington football team. 

Bell led Doug throught the community, while Doug led the Washington football team to Super Bowl XXII. He was named the MVP, and the first Black to win a Super Bowl.

He honored Gary Mays, a multi-sport athlete in D.C. in the 1950s. Gary guarded high school superstar Elgin Baylor in a upset winning play-off game. He held him to 18 points (Baylor average 35 pt). 

Gary was a catcher for Armstrong High School and almost made it to the major leagues despite having only one arm. He was in a major league baseball tryout for locals at old Griffith Stadium, home of Major League Baseball’s Washington Senators. 

Mays was selected as the best player among hundreds of would-be major league players. Gary was the only player to hit a home run out of the stadium and would-be base stealers never advanced beyond first base. No team offered him a contract or a tryout.

ESPN’s Mike Wilbon and Harold share a laugh during tribute to Gary. Harold Bell says, “Gary Mays is probably one of the greatest all-around athlete I have ever been around. His story should be a movie.”

It was Harold Bell who campaigned to get NFL All-Pro Willie Wood and NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd inducted into their hall of fame after they were “Blackballed” by their leagues. Willie was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989 and Earl was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2003.

Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) wrote a letter to Earl Lloyd to let him know he was on board with Red Auerbach, Dick Heller and Kids In Trouble in their efforts to see that he takes his rightfull place in the NBA Hall of Fame sooner than later.

Legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi said, “Willie was my coach on the field.”

Willie joins the late legendary Washington Times sports columnist, Dick Heller and Harold to say, “Thanks” for their campaign to get him inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

Bell says, Maury Wills revolutionized Major League Baseball in the 1960s. He spent 8+ years playing minor league baseball before being called up by the L. A. Dodgers. Wills, a native Washingtonian was a local hero in the housing project where Bell grew up. All the little guys in the neighborhood looked up to him, including Bell and his younger brother Donald Wills. He was known as Sonny Wills.

Donald and Harold were three-letter athletes at Spingarn High School. They were the quarterback-wide receiver touchdown duo for the football team. Bell telling Wills to “Throw me the dam ball” too much led to him being locked on the school bus at half-time, against next door rival Phelps Vocation High School.

To his surprise, the team won without him, proving he was not as indispensable as he thought. Wills returned a punt for 63 yards to win the game.

There were 13 Wills siblings and all were great all-around athletes including the girls. The older brothers, Guy, Dukey and Bobby were all better baseball players than Maury, accoding to the old-timers.

Maury was a switch-hitter when he arrived in the Major Leagues in 1959 (he hit from both sides of the plate). The time he spend in the minor leagues was not wasted.  He was a master, bunter.

He singled handedly made the homerun obselete as he terrorized opposing catchers. Wills broke Ty Cobbs’ stolen base record of 95 in 1962 in St. Louis. He stole bases 96 and 97 in a 12-2 loss. 

The most bases in one season he would steal, would be 104 in 1962, Lou Brock and Ricky Henderson would all follow his lead. 

Ty Cobb was King of the stolen base before Maury. The story written in the Washington Times by Dick Heller reads, “Maury Wills Ran Ty Cobb out of the record book in 1962”. Wills was named “The Godfather of the Basepaths”

Wills, led the Dodgers to three World Series titles, won 7 stolen base titles, and beat out the great Willie Mays for the MVP in 1962. 

He was the toast of Hollywood–except when it came to voting him into the MLB Baseball Hall of Fame, he was not on the ballot of the baseball writers. 

“Baseball writers vote anonymous, hiding behind anonymity much like the Klu Kux Klan hid behind their hoods and robes when they terrorized black folks in the 1800s. I think they have a problem with the company he kept off the field”, says Bell.

The late Washington Times sports columnist Dick Heller and Bell started a campaign to get him inducted, but Maury had a problem staying focus.

In Washington, DC across the street from Howard University on Georgia Avenue, NW, there is a baseball field named in his honor. Wills, died in 2022 with a broken heart, Bell spoke at a Memorial Service in his honor in DC.

The Roundball Report located in Prince Georges County, Maryland were credential benefactors of Inside Sports and NBA VP Brian McIntyre’s support. Several reporters made it to major media outlets.

“I’ve come to know Harold over the years,” says Brian McIntyre, who was the NBA’s longtime Vice President of Communications through 2010. “He’s a guy who’s reached back and touched an awful lot of people’s lives. He’s a fighter. He believes in what he believes dearly, and he’s not going to give an inch. You have to respect somebody as passionate as he is.”

For 45 years straight years (1968-2013), he and his wife, Hattie, led Kids in Trouble without grants or loans. The organization went into D.C. neighborhoods where Bell grew up while playing at Spingarn High School and addressed the same youth violence that plagues our communities today.

Spingarn High School is the home of Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing, the only players on the NBA’s 50 GREATEST Players of All-Time from the same high school.

The common denominator; Baylor played for Coach Dave Brown and Bing played for Coach William Roundtree–Bell played for both coaches! There the commonality ends.

DC’s finest-Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing

NBA Hall of Fame player and Spingarn alumnus Dave Bing and Willie Wood were the first pro athletes to reach back into the community via Kids In Trouble.

In 1967 there was a shooting after a high school basketball game between Spingarn and McKinley Tech.  A Spingarn student was shot. Dave Bing a Spingarn alumnus was an NBA Rookie playing in his first All-Star Game in Baltimore.

Bell and Wood were working with the DC Recreation Department’s Roving Leader Program (Youth Gang Task Force).  Bell a Spingarn alumnus was assigned to the shooting at his alma mater.

When he arrived at the Benning Road NE school there was talk of revenge among the Spingarn students.  The quick-thinking Bell drove to Baltimore the next morning to solicit help from Bing. 

After playing in the game on national television on Sunday, Monday morning Bing walked into a Spingarn auditorium and got a standing ovation from the Spingarn student body.  His words of wisdom and plea for peace were heard and further violence was averted.

Bell would continue saving young people’s lives in the the community. In 1969 he would walk into The Hillcrest Saturday Program swimming pool and find one of his kids lying at the bottom of the pool.

He dove into the pool and pulled little Horsy Ward out. No one in the pool knew how to apply artificial resuscitation to revive him. On a cold wintry November day, Bell ran two blocks soaking wet to Childrens Hospital with the child in his arms. 

Larry Brown and Harold McLinton of the Washington Redskins football team, joined the Kids In Trouble team in 1970. Brown would be named NFL MVP in 1972. NFL Films video taped its first ever community promo at Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program.  

The NFL promo featured Larry and Harold teaching water safety to the young kids in the pool.

In 2007 he was exiting a subway train at the Potomac Avenue Subway station in SE DC when he spotted a child lying prostate across the subway tracks. 

His first instincts were to jump down on the tracks to help the child. A subway employee stepped in front of him and warned him there was the possibility he would be electricuted by a live rail.

The Amtrak employee suggested that they lie on their stomachs and reach out to the child and hopefully she would respond. Bell followed his lead and they reached out to the child, but she did not respond to their pleas–she just stares at them. 

Bell frustated looks down under his stomach and sees the red lights flashing, indicating a train is arriving. He screams “God Dam it girl, give us you dam hand”, she camly reaches up and gives us her hand as the train arrives in the station”.

Metro General Manager John Catoe thanks his two employees Michael Banks, and Adrian Avant for their part in assisting in saving a young girl’s life in October 2007. Harold’s wife Hattie looks on as he receives a certicate for his quick thinking and the role he played at the Potomac Avenue subway station in NE DC.

In 1978 Harold Bell was a successful and popular sports talk radio personality in DC. He was the pitchman for Nike shoes, Budweiser Beer, Maryland State Lottery, and Coca-Cola, all sponsors of Inside Sports.

He and Andrew Johnson, his childhood friend, former high school teammate, and DC cop on the beat for the 3th District (U Street corridor) both felt it was time to thank those responsible for their success in The Game Called Life.

The two teamed up with former Spingarn track and field star and one of the founders of the in-crowd Foxtrappe Club, the late Bill Lindsay. They honored their Spingarn Principal, Purvis Williams, teachers, and staff at Bill’s new restaurant, Mingles in downtown DC. Today Bell calls the tribute, the most satisfying community endeavor of his lifetime.

Harold and Dave Bing pay tribute to Spingarn High School leaders and heroes. L-R Basketball Coach, William Roundtree-Officer Ray Dixon and Principal Dr. Purvis Williams.

Dr. Williams, teachers, custodian staff, and their favorite cop on the beat, Officer Ray Dixon were all elated. Dixon patroled all four schools on “The Hill”, Spingarn, Phelps, Charles Young Elementary, and Brown Middle school without car, horse or motorcyle. He never lost a footrace or pulled his gun.

Every reach-back program promoted today by the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL all started with Harold and Hattie Bell in Washington, DC. Thousands of children in the District, Virginia and Maryland (DMV) have benefited from Kids In Trouble, Inc. 

DC was home but he could be found in Philadelphia hanging out with playground basketball legend and CBS/NBA color analyst Sonny Hill. He is seen taking a tour of city playgrounds with Mayor Wilson Goode. 

During the murders of black children in Atlanta in the 80s, he raised money for the Atlanta Police Department to help solve the murders. Muhammad Ali, mailed ten one-hundred dollar bills to him as a donation to the project.

First-ever NFL films video taped community promo. They capture MVP NFL RB Larry Brown and teammate LB Harold McLinton teaching water safety to inner-city kids at the Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program.

HERE COMES THE JUDGE–LUKE C. MOORE

During this reach-back experience, Bell tried to improve the lives of at-risk youth by using pro athletes, entertainers, law enforcement, television personalities, and judges as highly visible vehicles in his community programs.

During the 1968 riots, he walked arm in arm with co-worker Willie Wood and U. S. Marshall In-Charge, Luke C. Moore on the U Street and 14^th Street corridors trying to quell the violence and save lives.

DC Superior Court Judges, Luke Moore and Gene Hamilton

Luke Moore was the first modern-day U. S. Marshall appointed after the legendary civil rights advocate Frederick Douglas. When Luke received a Presidential Appointment as a sitting judge for the DC Superior Court from his mentor, President Richard Nixon, they were locked in for life.

He would later joke that he had put in a good word for him to the President. Judge Moore would laugh and say, I don’t doubt you!” Luke, was his hero.

Judge Harry T. Alexander is Santa’s Helper assisting Harold McLinton during the annual KIT toy party.

Judge Alexander, he didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk. Justice was not a one-way street in his courtroom. Harold, remembers being in his courtroom when a white cop kept referring to the male defendant as ‘Boy’. 

Judge Alexander reminded the officer that all defendants were to be addressed as Mr. or Mrs. The officer must have been hard of hearing because he kept addressing the defendant as ‘Boy.’

The third time the officer used the word ‘Boy’ it was his last. Judge Alexander dismissed the case on the grounds of mistaken idenity–the courtroom erupted with applause.

Harold and Hattie founded Kids In Trouble, Inc. and the Hillcrest Saturday Program in 1968 shortly after the riots. The program served neighborhood kids in the U Street/Cardozo/Shaw communties. 

They gave away Thanksgiving turkeys and were the host of Christmas toy parties. They coordinated the parties for kids who otherwise wouldn’t get any toys.

Washington, DC’s first black Police Chief, Burtell Jefferson is a Santa’s Helper during one of KIT’s annual Christmas toy parties.

The Washington team football players, Roy Jefferson, Larry Brown, Harold McLinton, Ted Vactor, Dave Robinson, Doug Williams, (NBA) Sam and KC Jones and Al Attles were all Santa’s Helpers.

He and his wife have raised money to send kids to summer basketball camps in Winston-Salem, NC, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Kids In Trouble youth were often the guest with seats on the field of the Washington NFL pro football team for games at RFK Stadium.

When Hattie and Harold could not find college students from Howard University or DC Teachers’ College to volunteer as tutors, they reached out to the Maryland suburbs for help.

Every Saturday a yellow school bus full of white youth from Takoma Park Seven Day Adventist High School would arrive on 14th and W Street to tutor the kids. 

The white youth and President Richard Nixon inspired him to coin the phrase for the closing of his radio sports talk show-Inside Sports. Every Saturday evening he would close his show saying, “Every Black face you see is not your brother or sister and every white face you see is not your enemy!”

The Kids In Trouble Saturday morning tutoring platforms would lead to youth nationwide receiving credits on their transcripts to college and employment opportunities after college. It all started with a Yellow School Bus arriving from Takoma Park Seven Day Adventist High School on Saturday mornings.

Takoma Park High School students check the homework of the Hillcrest Saturday Program elementary school students. (Washington-Afro March 1969).

Lonnie Taylor was one of the young people in “The Hood” that benefited from the Saturday Program. He would later become the first black Chief of Staff for a white Congressman on Capitol Hill. He wrote;

Dear Mr. Bell,

It was good seeing you at Secretary Jack Kemp’s address sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. As I stated then, as a former resident of the 14th and W Streets area, I owe you many thanks for the things which you did on behalf of the city’s youth. Believe me, Hillcrest Saturday Center Program often brings back fond memories. You should take pride in the fact that your example of selflessness continues in so many of us. Thanks for all that you have done and all that you do.

Sincerely,

Lonnie Taylor, Chief of Staff Jack Buechner, M. C.

President Richard M. Nixon welcomes his old friend Harold and his wife Hattie to the White House President Nixon would give Bell a Presidential Appointment for his work with inner-city kids (1969)

In 1971 Bell wrote a note to the President via Mary Ann Snow in the White House Office of Communications asking to be transferred from the President’s Council on Physical Ftness & Sports. 

There was an opening (Domestic Actions) at the Department of Defense under Secretary Melvin Laird–request granted. He was assigned to Bolling Air Force Base in SE DC. He felt right at home.

Due to overcrowded conditions in juvenile facilities in DC, the Bells found the only halfway house for juvenile delinquents ever established on a military installation.  It was called Bolling Boys Base located on Bolling Air Force Base. 

Judge Moore coordinated the historic transition with Mayor Walter Washington and the Department of Defense. On opening day of the facility, he brought Chief Judge Harold Greene and his homeboy, Judge Hamilton to participate in the festivities.

They were joined by Petey Greene, Larry Brown, Harold McLinton, Roy Jefferson of the Washington Football team. The late Air Force General Earl Brown (the brother had my back) represented Melvin Laird and the Department of Defense.

Bell was a multi-sport star athlete at Spingarn. He admits he spent many games in the coaches’ ‘Doghouse’ for his selfish play.  He says, “My problem, I wanted the ball in my hands when the game was in doubt.  It is the same way I play, The Game Called Life when it comes to our young people.”

He opened community centers that had previously been closed on the weekends to neighborhood residents. Washingtonian Magazine named him Washingtonian of the Year in 1980 and called him “A One Man Community Action Program.”  He was the first sportscaster in the DMV to receive the honor from the magazine.

NFL Quarterback Joe Theisman and Harold share Washingtonian of the Year honors with teammate Mark Mosley and their wives.

Nike rep Laura Newton and I present Congressman Walter Fauntroy Nike runnng shoes for his upcoming campaign.

He was the first Sports and Marketing Rep for Nike and Anheuser Busch in the Nation’s Capitol. He moonlighted on the weekends as a wide receiver playing minor league football for the Virginia Sailors.  

1980 was a very good year for Bell and BET Television founder Bob Johnson. He was at the top of his game as host of the No. 1 sports radio talk show in DC. 

After eight years on the air Inside Sports and Harold Bell were recognized as the trailblazers in sports talk in Washington, DC.

September 1980, Radio and television critic, William Taaffe of the Washington Star News wrote, “Talk Show Host Harold Bell Blazes a Path Inside Sports. Inside Sports rules the roost because of content, freshness and a crusading kind of honesty.”

Bell and Johnson met in Faces Restaurant on Georgia, Avenue, N. W. a hang-out of D C’s “In-Crowd.” Johnson was working in the office Walter Fauntroy (D-DC) as his press secretary.

While having lunch one day in Faces, Johnson asked Bell how would he like to join him at BET and cover high school sports in the DMV. Instead, Bell became a member of BET’s first Sports Media Roundtable with Charlie Neal (W-O-O-K radio), and Martin Wyatt (WRC TV 4). After a month of no pay, Bell gave up on the roundtable.

Hattie and Harold have been honored at the White House by President Richard M. Nixon and cited in the Congressional Record on four different occasions.  First, it was Lou Stokes (D-Ohio), Bob Dole (R-Kan), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and former DC Congressman Walter Fauntroy for their work with at-risk children.

Top Photo: Coach Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines his mentor was voted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. Harold congratulates Bighouse on his induction. In Chicago in 2007 for an alumni tribute to Bighouse, he received the first, “Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines Community Service Award.“

DAVE BROWN DAY: DC’s first Black Mayor, Walter Washington and Bell thank Coach Dave Brown for his many contributions and leadership as a teacher and coach in the DC Public Schools.

Harold said, “The only reason I’m still standing strong today is because of my high school and college coaches, Dave Brown and Bighouse Gaines.  They were there to prevent me from going to hell in a hurry.“

“I tried to keep it real for my kids making sure they went ‘First Class’.  I think I’m more proud of that than anything else. When I see 99% my former youth today as adults, it’s still Mr. Bell. They show respect because I never misled them and they remembered I was there during the good and bad times”,

Bell says, “a man is only as good as his word and I made my word golden with my young people. Today in the black community a man’s word means very little.  I not only talked the talk, I walked the walk”.

Bell and the late Petey Greene were close friends.  Petey was a local legend who hosted a highly-rated radio talk show (and, later, television show) on WOL-AM. 

Bell met Greene while caddying on the weekends at the prestigious Burning Tree Golf Course located in a Maryland suburb.  This was the same golf course he met his friend Vice-President Richard Nixon in 1957.

In 1967 Greene would give Bell five minutes of air time on his Sunday radio talk show, “Petey Greene’s Washington.”  He used those five minutes to talk sports.

Petey would later tell him to get the hell off his show and get his own. WOL radio personality Bobby Bennett picked him up. 

Bennett was the No. 1 DJ in the country at the time and was known as The Mighty Burner.  “I think Bobby was a closet sportscaster in waiting.  We talked sports on Saturday afternoons the show was a big hit,” Bell said.

Community outing at Hillcrest Saturday Program L-R Roland ‘Fatty’ Taylor (NBA), Larry Brown (NFL), Petey Greene (Radio and TV icon)-HBell.

In 1969 Bell encountered President Richard Nixon on a walking tour of the riot-torned U Street corridor.  He tried to reach out to the President, but the Secret Service detail would not let him get anywhere near him.

He tried to tell one of his Secret Service,  “I used to caddy for the President”, his response was, “Write him a letter” and I did.

President Nixon gave him a Presidential appointment in 1969.  Petey Greene and the chance encounter with President Nixon would change his life.

In 1972 Bell was now on a roll and ready to go it alone with Bennett’s blessings.  An old friend from high school, John Edwards was a DJ at  WOOK-AM another black-oriented station.  His radio tag was, “Terrible Turk.” 

Turk, talked the program manager into hiring Bell as a weekend talk show host. They allowed him to express his strong opinions with no filter. The show was christened “Inside Sports,” the tag given to him by his wife, and is now a part of sports talk radio history. 

For much of the next 30 years, Bell held court with a Who’s Who of sports figures.  It was his relationships with Muhammad Ali and Red Auerbach that gave him instant credibility on sports talk radio.

“Inside Sports changed the way we talked and reported sports in America and beyond. Every sports talk show in the country, including ESPN now has a format similar to the original Inside Sports.

Outside the Lines-I was Outside the Lines long before Bob Levy. I was Real Sports long before Bryant Gumble”, he says.

Several years ago Legendary Dallas, Texas sportscaster Dale Hansen was named the “Sportscaster of the Year.” 

He was honored in Washington, DC, Bell called him at his office in Dallas and congratulated him. He reminded Hansen, that his sports talk format was “Inside Sports” a format he found in 1972.

He told Hansen to GOOGLE him. The unexpected response via telephone from Hansen knocked Bell for a loop. 

“Harold, this is Dale Hansen in Dallas.  I lost your telephone number when you called the other day.  I finally had to track through your notes and I finally found it.  I am sorry I didn’t get back to you.  Your stuff is fantastic to read about.  Everything you have done makes my little bit a peeling off of White Privilege and rather insignificant, but I thank you for sharing this with me.  I hope you get this message, Thank you, sir, thank you very much.” 

After he retired from NBC Good Morning America as a co-host with June Paulie, Bryant Gumble discovered a sports talk show he called Real Sports. 

He discovered Real Sports much like Christopher Columbus discovered America.  The landscape was already occupied! 

Gumble another “Copycat” followed ESPN making a living off of the Inside Sports talk format. He recently won a Life Time Achievement Award perpetrating a fraud pretending the talk format was his brainchild.

James Brown (CBS/NFL) was a conspirator and go-fer for Gumble and Real Sports. Brown a native Washingtonian came through Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports. He held the title, reporter/correspondent for Gumble.

In the 70s and 80s, Inside Sports ruled the roost in sports talk in DC. James Brown was just a salesman trying to make a sale for the Xerox Corporation in Washington, DC. He went from modeling in Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports Celebrity fashion shows, to following me in a failed TV audition for a weekend sportscaster opportunity at NBC affiliate WRC TV 4. 

Chuck Taylor was the NBA Washington Bullets analyst until along came James and Chuck disappeared without a trace. I later discovered that James asked Bullet star player, Wes Unseld to put in a good word for him with owner Abe Polin for Chuck’s job.

Brown went from a failed TV audition to an NBA Bullet analyst, to a radio talk show host on WTEM, BET, TV 9 WUSA sports, Don King Boxing, Fox NFL, CBS/NFL,  and not necessarily in that order. Famous last words:

“Harold has always been a voice for people who didn’t have a voice.  He hasalways called it as he saw it.  He has been an inspiration and motivationfor me and a lot of other black broadcasters.”      

James Brown (NFL/CBS Sports)

The pro sports leagues followed his lead, their media coverage reads: Inside the NFL-Inside the NBA-Inside MLB-Inside the NHL, etc.

The one production they could not steal–his exclusive one-on-one Rumble in the Jungle interview with THE GREATEST, Muhammad Ali. It is the only one on one interview on the planet–Ali is seen with a black eye! 

October 30, 2024 the spotlight will be on the 50th Anniversary of The Rumble in the Jungle.

NBA legend, the late Sam Jones, James Brown-HBell, and NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd celebrate Black History Month on Bolling Air Force Base in SE DC.

Bell says, “I was Out of DC long before NWA (Niggers With Attitudes) was Out of Compton. NWA did not hit the big time until the 1980s. I had been on the airwaves for over a decade playing the same type of message music without the profanity.”

“NWA had to go underground with their music because the FCC would not allow their profanity-laced lyrics to be played over the airwaves. The FCC had their eyes on Bell, but their political hands were tied-no profanity.”

 He was tackling the tough issues as it related to pro sports, racism, bad agents, and bad politicians, when everyone else was just giving the scores, and batting averages or telling you how much a player weighed and how tall he was.  He was playing message music when no one dared to play it on talk shows.

He was playing hits like, Wake Up Everybody, What’s Going On, Black & Proud, the Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Who Shot the Sheriff, etc.

“It was unheard of and now I can appreciate Inside Sports while transferring my old shows from cassette to CD. I can understand why people liked the original Inside Sports talk format. 

The show had no ‘Cut Card’ and there were no pom-poms and skirts allowed on the show. A media room deadline is still one of the most segregated hours in America, second only to a church on Sunday morning”, he says.

His interviews with Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Red Auerbach, Spencer Haywood, Harry Edwards, Sonny Hill, Johnny Sample, Don King, Bighouse Gaines and John Chaney are educational talk radio classics.

He was the host and producer for panel discussion shows with football players on the difficulties they faced after they retired, decades before it became a national issue. He was the first to convene a Media Roundtable with other members of the media.  His roundtable discussions with coaches and athletes–unheard of.

There were the Jim Brown & Johnny Sample-Bighouse Gaines & Gary Williams-Don King & Sugar Ray Leonard Roundtables and the list goes on and on.

He gave John Thompson, before he was “Big Man On Campus” and Sugar Ray Leonard before he was the Welterweight Champion of the World, their first on air exposure when they could not buy their way onto a local TV or radio station.

He remembers his friendship with the late Red Auerbach and his wife Dotie they lived in NW D.C.  They treated him and Hattie like family.

His biggest regret, he didn’t tell Red about the rumors of drugs before he drafted Len Bias. He says, “I probably could have saved Bias’ life, but I made a mistake and listened to my street sense over my common sense.”

NB0A legend Red Auerbach and his wife Dotie share a laugh on Inside Sports with a surprise visit from tennis legend Jimmy Connors via telephone.

Others have reached back like former NBA referee Lee Jones and Jim Clemons, who played with the ’72 Lakers championship team. Clemons went on to be an assistant coach on the Bulls’ and Lakers’ title teams of the ’90s and 2000s.  He said, “I owe them dearly.”

Former player/coach Al Attles of the Golden State Warriors says, “Bell is a Good Man. He does so much trying to help others. He is good people.

We go back a long way. He’s just been outstanding. I grew up in New Jersey and went to school in North Carolina, of course, and moved out to the West Coast. But I have always been partial to people who give back to the community.

He has done so many good things. I’m a community guy and he always was. It’s not easy. As we get older, and new people come in and do things, I don’t think it’s that people don’t appreciate what you’ve done, it’s just that people move on.”

Bell says, “Al is right, but it is difficult to move on and leave the mess we help create still standing tall. The liars keep telling lies and the thieves keep stealing. When is enough-enough?”

In 1975, Bell produced and hosted a half-hour sports special on WRC TV 4, the NBC affiliate in Washington, DC.  His special guest was Muhammad Ali.  

Sports media history was made on Sunday, November 23, 1975. Harold Bell became the first black to host and produce a television sports special in prime time on NBC affiliate WRC TV-4.

“I met Ali on the campus of Howard University in 1967, I was a Roving Leader (Youth Gang Task Force) for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks.  Ali was there speaking to the students as a part-time comedian and community activist. 

His boxing license had been suspended because he refused to be drafted into the United States Army. He was on a tour of colleges talking about his problems with the draft and being black in America.

“We hit it off and walked from the campus down Georgia Avenue to 7^th& T Streets together. We talked about my working with young people and the challenges I faced.  He was impressed. I turned to see about 40, or 50 people walking behind us it was like a parade. I didn’t see him again until 5 years later“, he says. 

The late J.D. Bethea a sports writer for the Washington Star was contemplating writing a story on him, he and Attorney Harry Barnett invited him to ride with them to Cleveland to see Ali fight an exhibition for a Cleveland Children’s Hospital.

 “Harold Bell may be the only black guy living who grew up in a ghetto, in real poverty, but still never learned to “play the game,” that great American pasttime. Everybody plays the game to some degree. That is what success is all about. Playing the game. Being alternately maile able and assertive withe the right people at the right time. Bell never learned. If he had, given his drive and singlemindness of purpose, he would probably be dangerous.” J. D. Bethea–Washington Star-News Sunday December 1, 1974

BEFORE YOU BLAME THE CHILDREN–LOOK IN THE MIRROR!

They didn’t have to ask him a second time. Barnett at the time was representing George Foreman.  It was the best car ride ever when Muhammad recognized him during the press conference. He said, “Harold Bell, what are you doing this far away from home?” From that point on their relationship flourished and it was all down hill from there. It was in Cleveland he became ‘The Chosen One’!

The carat in the relationship came in 1974 after Ali shocked the world when he knocked out big George Foreman in the 8th round. He became the undefeated and undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the world. He had made a promise to Harold in Chicago before leaving for Zaire, Africa. He made fun of him, when he said, “Harold Bell since you are scared to fly over the ocean after I knockout George, I will give you the first interview.”

It was five nights after the fight. On a rainy night in DC Harold’s phone rang around 10 pm, it was Ali keeping his word (unheard of). It has been five decades later and Harold says, “I am still amazed by that call. I was just a nobody trying to be somebody”.

Bell hosted Inside Sports well into the 1990s at different radio stations. 

He never compromised (he once gave  boxing promoter Don King a five-figure check back after he claimed King reneged on his word).  “A man is only as good as his word” says Bell.

Don King’s word has never meant anything. There are plenty of fighters including, Ali and Mike Tyson who said, “No Mas” to King, 

Don is the best example, “You can take a N out the ghetto, but cannot take the ghetto out of him”, he said.

Harold has chastised those whom he believed didn’t give enough back to the communities from which they came. Players, media, coaches, it didn’t matter: if you were on Bell’s bad side, there was hell to pay.

He says, “Radio is a special medium.  I enjoyed taking calls from my listening audience.  Bell, however, says he never hung up on a caller and thinks many of today’s radio gabbers are ‘rude’ to their listeners.

“I discovered early you’ve got to be able to distinguish betweenConstructive Criticism and Destructive Criticism, I knew when people were trying to help me and when they were trying to play me. You always have to consider the source.

When Red gave me advice, I knew he wasn’t trying to hurt me. Or when Al Attles pulled me to the side, I knew he was trying to help me.”

Bell is still writing, he was the most read and most popular blogger for Black Men in America.com. The website is one of the most popular black websites on the internet, ranked in the top 10 out of over 500 black websites.

His archives/collection of star maker interviews is still being developed with the likes of Ali, as well as Red Auerbach, Sam Jones, Al Attles, and Connie Hawkins.

In February he will continue to work on “The Chosen One” his documentary to commemorate Black History Month.

His work as the historian at D.C.’s iconic Ben’s Chili Bowl restaurant has come to an end. And he’s still telling the truth and calling it like he sees it.

It is truth without the he say, she says, the frauds and liars that keep our community divided.  There will be no hiding behind anonymity on his watch.

Earl Lloyd was the first black to play in the NBA described Bell best when he said on the late John Thompson ESPN 98O radio sports talk show, “Harold Bell may be controversial, but I have yet to hear anyone call him a liar.”

Case closed–in 2020 the National Association of Black Journalists honored Harold Bell with their pioneer award recognizing his media trailblazing efforts. He thought it was “April Fool”!

https://www.bigmarker.com/nabj/NABJ-Sam-Lacy-Awards-Program? bmid=99ea2ef240f2 / NABJ PIONEER AWARD

Dave Aldridge is a native Washingtonian and a former writer for the Washington Post, reporter for ESPN-TNT/NBA-ATHLETIC. He has interviewed Presidents and some of the greatest athletes of all-time. He has known Harold Bell up-close and personal for over 4 decades. Oct 29, 2021