In 1980 Washington Star radio and TV critic William Taaffe wrote:

“Most radio sports shows do not contain intimate verse set to music, as Bell’s show did on WYCB-1340 last week.

Neither do most shows feature stimilating discussions about drug use in sports, racism within the NFL, the abuse of naive athletes by agents, and stimulating messages about life on 14th street. But then Harold Bell is unique-sports announcer, former athlete, youth leader and social critic all rolled into one.

Lets say it right at the top, Inside Sports is a jewel of a program-easily the most reflective and provocative radio sports show in Washington. Its guest actually say something. The other shows are bland by comparison.”

In 1974 Washington Star sports columnist J. D. Beatea wrote a lionizing column about my work in the streets of the inner-city with youth gangs and at-risk children-no Hughes-Madison-McCain in sight.

In all due respect to my mentee the late Butch Adams. The player-haters and back stabbers have come out of the closet despite his untimely death–to compare to him to a man anoted as the Godfather of Sports Talk, according to legendary sports columnist, Dick Heller of the Washington Times and Washingtonian Magazine.

Read the two columns above regarding sports talk radio in Washington, DC and youth advocacy in the Nation’s Capital. It is truly amazing how the crabs in the barrel syndrome is alive and well in the black community, especiall in the news media. You cannot find one of the naysayers who ever sat down and interviewed, Muhammad Ali, Red Auerbach, Jim Brown, Bert Sugar, Hank Aaron to just name a few of the legends of Inside Sports.

None have ever walked in communities like Simple City, Potomac Gardens, Barry Farms, Mount Pleasant in DC, Charles Houston Rec Center in Alexander, Virginia or Homer Avenue in Suitland, Md. to quell gang violence.

Participants in the Kids In Trouble Youth Violence forum at Bible Way Baptist Church in NW DC. The late Jim Brown (NFL) and Congressman Tom Davis (R-Vir) were the co-host. Butch McAdams is seen sitting in the audience taking notes behind the late Mayor of U Street, Carton Snipes.

Inside Sports changed the way we talk and report sports in America and beyond. Every radio and television sports talk show seen has copied the Inside Sports format, including the so-called world-wide leader, ESPN.

Community Reach Back’s foundation can be found at the doorsteps of Kids In Trouble, Inc. The NFL-NBA-MLB and NHL all followed Kids In Trouble’s format when it came reaching back into the inner-city.

The benefactors of Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports read like a Who’s Who led by John Thompson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Cathy Hughes and her foster child, Alfred, Adrian Dantley, Tony Paige, Mike Wilbon, Adrian Branch, James Brown, Monica McNutt, Christie Winters-Scott, Alex Williams, Howard White, etc.

Lonnie Taylor is one of my proudest moments in regards to the Hillcrest Saturday Program’s tutorial program. He later became the first Black American Chief of staff for a white Congressman on Capitol Hill (see letter).

The Inside Sports format was so powerfu and influentia the Washington Post kidnapped the tag, “INSIDE SPORTS.” Their sports editor George Solomon and his writers were sitting in the studios of WYCB Radio as owners Catherine as Donald Graham were plotting the plans to just take INSIDE SPORTS. The writers under a cover of darkness took a midnight train to New York City to publish the ill-fated “INSIDE SPORTS MAGAZINE” in 1978.

IF YOU CAN MAKE IT IN NEW YORK CITY YOU CAN MAKE IT ANYWHERE!

THE INSIDE SPORTS MAGAZINE NEVER MADE IT IN NEW YORK CITY

The magazine failed in the Big Apple, simply because Tony Kornhiser and crew had no clue on how to transfer my successful talk show into print. Catherine and Donald Graham said, “No Mas” and closed down the whole operation. They cut their losses of several million dollars and ordered the writers back to DC, but not before trademarking and getting the copyrights to “ISIDE SPORTS.”

THE CRITICS

“Harold has always been a voice for people who didn’t have a voice.  He has always called it as he saw it.  He has been an inspiration and motivation for me and a lot of other black broadcasters.” James Brown (NFL/CBS Sports)

NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd was a guest on the ESPN Radio talk show with John Thompson and co-host Doc Walker. Big John mentioned the name Harold Bell. Lloyd’s response, “Harold Bell maybe controversial but I have yet to hear anyone call him a liar.” It was so quiet in the studio, you could have heard a mouse pee on cotton.

When the great Willie Wood and Earl Lloyd were blackballed from their Hall of Fames, Harold Bell asked Red Auerbach, Dick Heller, and Congressman John Lewis to join him in a campaign to get both men inducted. Willie was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989. Earl Lloyd was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2003. Blackballed, Maury Wills, Dick Allen, Vida Pinson, Bobby Bonds, Curt Flood and Pete Rose are still waiting with no help in sight.

The voting is done by secret ballet! Detroit sports writer Ron Parker was recently added to the secret ballot brigade. The question, will his secret ballot help the above worthy inductees? Don’t hold your breath.

Sometimes it is best to be thought a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt-I rest my case.