The Informer has been a tabloid hustling newspaper since 1964 when the founder the late Calvin Rolark rolled into DC in the 1950s from Texarkana, Texas, he discovered DC was where fools rushed in and made their home. DC was much like “The California Gold Rush.”

The California gold rush was a peroid that began in January 1848 and lasted until 1855. It all started when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold “In them hills” brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.

There were a lot of fools who rushed-in and many discovered it was a dead-end street. The Gold Rush led to violence against Native Americans, tens of thousands of whom are estimated to have lost their lives in clashes with white settlers. Immgrants from China experience the same type of discrimination. Blacks were nowhere to be found, they were still in chains and gold was the furthest thing from their minds.

The Calvin Rolarks and Marion Barrys are the examples of fools who rushed in and laid their claim to fame and fortune at the expense of Black Native Americans/Washingtonians. They joined the rest of the fools who laid claims as the saviors of the black men and women in Chocolate City, still today a plantation on the Potomac-Taxation without Representation.

When Calvin Rolark died in 1994 he was hailed as a civic leader, a civil rights activist, entrepreneur, humananitarian, and philantropist. They forgot to add his secret life in the community after dark.

I met Rolark when I was in high school at a backyard picnic at my Aunt Mary’s house on Bass Place SE. DC I was introduced by my Great-Uncle William James aka “Uncle Billy.”

Uncle Billy was the first black attorney allowed to practice law in Sumpter, South Carolina. He worn out his welcome early and the KKK chased him out of Sumpter along with my mother and her siblings in the dark of night with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They landed in DC. Uncle Billy would receive a Presidential appointment from Franklin Roosevelt.

My mother would connect with my father Alfred Bell. He was a native Washingtonian and came from a church family. My Great-Grandfather Alfred Johnson Tyler laid the first brick to build Mt. AIRY Baptist Church in 1893. The Tyler House a senior living residence is located on North Capitol and New York Avenue NW, one block from Mt. Airy. The residence is named after my Great Uncle, the Rev. Earl Tyler.

I pay homage honoring my Great-Grand Father in the lobby of Mount Airy Batist Church

The next time I met Rolark face to face was in 1969 in Detroit, Michigan. I was working as a Roving Leader assigned to the youth gang task force for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks. We shared a room on the campus of Michigan State University along with Sam Jordan also a Roving Leader.

The DC Department of Recreation received grants for Roving Leaders to attend a youth summitt on the campus of Michagan State. Rolark talked his way into receiving one of the grants to cover the summitt.

The first night Rolark rolled into the room the next morning just before breakfast complaining his cuff links and watch had been stolen. Sam and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. We wondered how could someone steal your cuff links and watch unless you were asleep.

The late Sam Jordan became the Director of Emergency Management for the DC government. He is seen standing next to NFL legend Jim Brown during a KIT Police Youth Gang Forum at Bible Way Churh in NW DC.

Butch is seen sitting behind the late Mayor of U Street John Snipes taking notes at the forum.

In 1974 Washington Star sports columnist JD Beathea wrote, “Harold Bell maybe 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. If Bell had given his drive and single-mind of purpose, he probably would have been dangerous.”

The recent story written in the Informer on the sudden passing of coach Butch McAdams is another example of poorly written and misleading stories they have been writting for the last several decades.

It is also a media type of disrespect that include pimps in the pulpit, judges and community advocates. Checkout the Informer’s Guest Columnist and see how many have been cited for embezzlement of company funds. I have encountered them through out my pioneering sports media and community careers. When you are the Captain of your own ship and the Godfather of all you have surveyed in sports media, this kind of jealousy and disrespect is a part of the landscape.

See columns written from LA to DC trying to tarnish my name and image

LA TIMES / EARL GUSKEY (SUGAR RAY LEONARD) 1978)  

Ray had the late Earl Guskey write, “I left Harold Bell home because he asked me for a job, and to donate to Kids In Trouble.”

He pretended I was a part of his entourage.  I have never asked Ray for a job, ticket or a dollar–outright lies!  He invited me over to the new home he had just purchased for his mother. He offered me money after he beat Wilfred Benitez for his first title, I said, NO! He has too many skeletons in closet. His son Ray Jr. recently went public and confessed he watched his father beat his mother Jaunita bloody. Fame, forture and cocaine has Ray Sr. living a lie. The only difference between P Diddy and Sugar Ray Leonard, P Diddy was caught on camera. I watched Ray slap Juanita around behind the hotel before the second Thomas Hearns fight. She discovered Ray had other women stashed away in hotel rooms on the Las Vegas strip. The one thing Ray Jr. made clear, “Mr. Bell, I am not my father.”

NORMAN CHAD AND THE WASHINGTON POST

The Washington Post wrote two stories on me in the same 1989 edition (unheard of) after I said, “NO” to their first proposal.  The first story on page one included all the blacks in sports talk radio in DC.  The story on page three was on me alone. In that story Norman Chad the writer tricked Glenn Harris into commenting on my trailblazing journey in sports talk radio. 

Glenn’s response, “Harold Bell thinks someone owes him something. Don’t anyone owe him anything”  I was pissed, this was their old trick, “Divide & Conquer” and Glenn fell for it.  Chad never asked me anything about Glenn, he knew better!

On Saturday Inside Sports aired on W-U-S-T AM Radio, I dissected the page three story.   When I got through describing who Chad was, he was not a happy camper.  He wrote me a dear John letter–I still have in my archives.

What makes this story puzzling, it was witten a decade after the Washington Post had kidnapped my INSIDE SPORTS radio tag and fled to New York City to publish Inside Sports Magazine.

CITY PAPER / DAVE MCKENNA

McKenna wrote a story on me that was full of outlandish lies and he never interviewed me. Guskey and Chad did interview me before they tried to tarnish my name.

Harold Bell’s Black History Mouth

INSIDE SPORTS MAKING A DIFFERENCE:

Inside Sports: changed the way we talk and report sports in America and beyond

Inside Sports: the first sports talk show to discuss sports and politics on the same format

Inside Sports: was the first sports talk show to play message music

Inside Sports: first to host a media Roundtable

Inside Sports: the first to cover track and field meets and Tennis Tournaments world wide via cell phone

Inside Sports: host was the first sports media personality honored as “Washingtonian of the Year.”

Inside Sports: Benefactors before their 15 minutes of fame read like a Who’s Who: John Thompson-Sugar Ray Leonard-James Brown-Michael Wilbon-Dave Aldridge-Tracy Jackson-Adrian Dantley-Adrian Branch-Cathy Hughes-Tim Baylor-Dave Bing-Oden Polyniece-Tony Paige-Kevin Blackistone-Darryl Hill-Jim Vance, Maureen Bunyan-Randall Kennedy-Alex Williams-Christy Winters-Scott-Monica McNutt-Bishop Vasti McKenzie, Roland ‘Fatty’ Taylor, etc.

Inside Sports: before Vasti McKenzie became the first black female Bishop of the AME Church, she was the co-host on Inside Sports evening drive time news. The show aired on WYCB Radio in the late 70s.

Inside Sports: campaigned successfully to get two blackballed pro athletes inducted into the hall of fame. NFL Willie Wood (1989) and NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd (20003).

Boxers and boxing personalities whose names or stories could no get their names or stories written about them in the local papers or added to boxing cards promoted by Don King–their only outlet was “Inside Sports.” The champions whom are now hall of famers include Ray Leonard, Johnny Gant, Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson, Shamba Mitchell, Adrian Davis and boxing ring annoncer Discombobulating Jones.

Inside Sports: campaigned to get several athletes jail terms shorten, include, playground basketball legends, Bernard Levi, JoJo Hunter, NFL great Jim Brown, etc. where is the the beef?

When it comes to media frauds in DC meet Calvin Rolark’s daughter Denise, she proves, “An Apple Does Not Fall Too Far From The Tree.”

To understand how a tabloid like the INFORMER survives you have to look no further than the community frauds who have been bankrolling the tabloid. I have all of them in my archives, politicians, doctors, pimps in the pulpit, lawyers, bankers, judges and dam fools like Ed Hill.

The INFORMER use nickle and dime minor-league reporters and Guest Columnist to distribute messages of hate and bad news in our community. Compare the story written in the Informer and my Inside Sports Blog.

INFORMER: LIE No. 1 “In 2011 rather to sit back and enjoy the benefits of retirement, McAdams decided to enter a new and UNCHARTERED territory, radio broadcasting!” UNCHARTERED?

LIE No. 2, “McAdams learned the broadcasting business from legends such as Joe Madison, Bernie McCain, Larry Hicks and most notablely, Cathy Hughes.” NOWHERE IN SIGHT IN 1972?

LIE No. 3 “In 2013, McAdams was one of 12 men who met weekly to create the infrastructure of DMV-Athletes in Action, Inc.” Adams and Lloyd Mayes were nowhere in sight in the first group. The first couple of meetings took place at Horton’s Funeral Home in NW DC.

I am one of the founding members along with Reds Horton, and William Brockenberg. There were several other brothers in the house but their names escape me at the moment. The fact remaines, Lloyd Mayes and Butch were not among them.

The meetings were moved to a restaurant on H Street, NE and it was then I noticed the WANNABEES in attendance-I made my exit.

LIE No. 4 Hill also claimed, “Bernie McCain, Joe Madison and Cathy Hughes were his mentors, when I met Butch as a teenager on the basketball court at St. Paul and Augustine Church they were nowhere in sight.”

FACT: Butch wanted to name his new show “The Legends of Inside Sports.” My response, “No Way, you won’t last a week with Cathy Hughes with that title.” He decided on “INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF SPORTS!” Sounds like “INSIDE SPORTS” to me.

Inside Sports was the first ever sports talk show to cross the line and add politics and music to its format. ESPN the so-called world leader in sports reporting copied my format and could not stand the heat my format brought with it–their broadcasters like Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon are no longer allowed to talk sports and politics on the ESPN format. To discuss issues outside of sports, they had to established a Podcast. They learned Freedom ain’t FREE.

ESPN and the Washington Post: The Original Inside Sports copied but never duplicated.

Read the INFORMER and count the LIES–Read my blog for the TRUTH!

Remembering ‘The Coach’: James ‘Butch’ McAdams Leaves Behind Lasting Legacy

www.theoriginalinsidesports.blog / The legacy of Butch McAdams

THE TRUTH CAN OVERCOME A LIE–BUT A LIE CANNOT OVERCOME THE TRUTH!

FACEBOOK MEMORIES JULY 1, 2024

“Harold Bell thanks for being my friend and mentor.” Butch McAdams July 1, 2013

MY BOY

“A careful man I wanted to be; A little fellow followed me. I did not dare to go astray, for fear he go the self same way. I could not once escape his eyes, what he saw me do he tried. He thought that I was good and fine, he believed in every word of mine. The bad in me I did not want him to see, the little fellow that followed me. I had to remember as I go, thru summer’s sun and winter’s snow. I was building for the years to be for the little follow who followed me.”

Harold Bell, Kids In Trouble, and Inside Sports Black American History