I am a native Washingtonian, my life began in Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York in 1938. My mother Mattie would need several years to find her way back home to Washington, DC where all the drama started. She followed my dead beat father Alfred Bell to New York City six months pregnant.

My Aunt Ertis in the Bronx took us in while my mother waited to see if he would do the right thing. The Temptations best described my father in their classic vocal, “Popa Was A Rolling Stone, where he laid his head was truly his home.”

We moved back to DC my mother found a place to live in a neighborhood near the Lily Ponds called Kenilworth Gardens. My first home was a one-room shack and an outhouse at the end of Douglas Street NE.

My Aunt Sara (The Enforcer) told me, “Mama told ‘Brother’, he was not going to keep showing up to make babies and leave them with her to raise.” Despite Grandma Bell’s shoutout, my father was in and out of our lives like a revolving door.

My heroes have always been Black women, my aunts, Sara, Helen, and June on my father’s side of the family. My mother’s side of the family was her cousins, Doretha, and Evelyn aka Ms. B. They were like her sisters. My Aunt Ertis in New York City was like my Godmother. During our brief stay in New York City, my mother and I lived with her in the Bronx before heading back to DC.

One cold January morning my mother quietly left the shack for the corner store to pick up milk and bread. Thinking I was sound to sleep, she left me and my dog Billy with a kerosene lamp burning to keep us warm. The shack caught fire and burned to the ground.

My mother returned home to find fire trucks in front of the burning shack, and me sitting on the ground crying. My dog Billy was standing over me. She thanked the firemen for getting me out of the burning shack. Once she calmed down they explained that was how they found me and the dog sitting on the ground. I went from a one-room shack and an outhouse in NE DC to Grandma Bell’s House to Dean Wood minutes away in NE DC.

It took my grandmother’s wrath to make him do the right thing by my mother and marry her. Amy Tyler Bell did not play when it came to family.

In 2025 I still have no clue how I got out of that burning shack. My dog Billy never said a word. Instead of following the Yellow Brick Road to Grandma Bell’s house, we followed a dirt road and never looked back.

The neighborhood later became Kenilworth Courts a housing project ruled by Kimi Gray, Mayor for Life, Marion Barry, and Secretary of HUD former NFL QB Jack Kemp.

“HAROLD BELL-I NEVER PLAYED THE GAME” AMAZON 5 STARS REVIEW

Harold Bell is more than a journalist-he is a pioneer who revolutionized sports talk media.  He changed the way we talk and report sports in America and created opportunities for inner-city children, and black sports reporters alike.     

In defiance of Critical Race Theory (CRT)-though more accurately, American History.  This legendary sports journalist and civil rights trailblazer will unveil his highly anticipated second book, “For Whom The Bells Toll” in November. 

Harold Bell went from an outhouse and a one-room shack in NE DC to a White House in NW DC.  He has been called, “The Godfather of Sports Talk.” 

His groundbreaking work offers a firsthand account of his extraordinary and at times, improbable relationships with two of the 20th-century’s most celebrated and controversial figures: President Richard Nixon and Muhammad Ali.  

As the creator of Inside Sports and founder of Kids In Trouble, Bell broke barriers in sports journalism, launching a platform centered on Black athletes’ voices long before the Washington Post (Inside Sports Magazine), ESPN (The World Wide Leader in sports reporting) and Bryant Gumble’s, HBO Real Sports (37 Emmys). 

All copied his talk format. The Washington Post now own the copyrights to Inside Sports.   

His talking sports, and politics went where others dared to go.  Inside Sports changed the way we talk and report sports in America. His bold approach and no-cut card were unheard of in sports talk media. 

Today every radio and television sports talk format seen and heard is a copy of the ORIGINAL INSIDE SPORTS.  He paved the way for all who followed in his footsteps at great personal cost. 

Media copy-cats, co-opted his vision, stripping him of the credit and financial rewards he deserved.  Yet, Bell never wavered in his commitment to truth and integrity. 

Bell’s groundbreaking work has been recognized across the globe.  As he famously closed out his Inside Sports talk show with: “Every Black face he saw was not his brother, and every White face he saw was not his enemy.”

The quote shut down critics who sought to label him, reinforcing his belief that truth and integrity in journalism must come before racial divisions and a dollar bill.

Many of today’s most revered sports media journalists got their start because of Bell’s sacrifices—mentored by him, influenced by his work, and standing on the foundation he built.

Leading the pack are, Cathy Hughes (TV ONE), James Brown (CBS/NFL), Dave Aldridge (ESPN), Mike Wilbon (ESPN), Bill Rhoden (NY Times), Larry Fitzgerald, Sr. (ESPN), Kevin Blackistone (ESPN), Sugar Ray Leonard (ESPN), John Thompson (ESPN), Lavonia Perryman (iHeart Radio), Christie Winters-Scott, and Monica McNutt (ESPN). 

Long before their 15 Minutes of Fame, they all came through Inside Sports and Harold Bell.

After Ali’s historic KO of George Foreman in the 8th round in Zaire, Africa, his first call for an exclusive interview was to Harold Bell. 

It was a move that defied Ali’s strict personal rule of avoiding interviews while still visibly bruised.  The heavyweight champion sat down with Bell for a candid, and raw conversation with a never seen before black eye.

Bell’s history-making 1974 interview with Ali made him the first black media personality to secure a one-on-one exclusive interview with a Heavyweight Champion of the World. 

The interview 50 years later, remains copyrighted under Bell’s ownership.  It is part of a larger, invaluable archive of rare footage that only Bell controls.  Some of his material has never been seen or heard by the public and will be central to an upcoming documentary accompanying his next book, “For Whom The Bells Toll.”

Bell reflects on Ali today, saying, “Ali was a prophet in every sense of the word.” The very issues Ali spoke about in our historic, one-on-one interview remain at the forefront of today’s political upheaval and cultural landscape.

His words resonate now more than ever, proving why Harold Bell remains defiant when he says sports and politics are strange bed-fellas, but are American as Apple pie. 

Ali’s perspective on race and social conditioning was profound. As Bell recalls:

“Ali reminded me babies did not come out of their mother’s womb with an AK-47, selling drugs, wearing a KKK robe, or using the ‘N’ word. This is taught behavior.”

This Legacy was built with his wife of 57 years, Hattie.  They found Kids In Trouble in 1968 shortly after the riots almost destroyed his hometown of Washington, DC.  The tag Inside Sports for his groundbreaking sports talk in 1974 was the brainchild of Hattie. 

The NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB all followed Kids In Trouble into the community.  He encouraged professional athletes, judges, and politicians to reach-back and enhance the lives of inner-city children using Kids In Trouble as their vehicle.   

With “For Whom the Bells Toll”, Bell is reclaiming his life story, revealing the untold truths of his relationships with Ali and Nixon, and cementing his legacy as a guardian of Black American History.

A documentary companion to “For Whom the Bells Toll” will feature Bell’s exclusive, copyrighted archival footage of Muhammad Ali, as well as rare insights into his unparalleled conversations with Ali, Richard Nixon, Jim Brown, Harry Edwards, Red Auerbach, Emanuel Steward, Marvin Gaye, Bert Randolph Sugar, Don King, George Foreman, Thomas Hearns, Angelo Dundee, Lloyd Price, Sugar Ray Leonard, John Thompson (GT), Dave Bing (NBA) and the list goes on and on.

The National Association of Black Journalist honored him with its Sam Lacy 2020 Pioneer Award. 

When Maryland Public Television needed someone to preview the cut/paste PBS Ali Documentary by Ken Burns, they called Harold Bell.  He sat on a panel that included Burn’s daughter Sara, and son-in-law, David.  Bell made their commentary look obsolete. 

When Showtime needed a voice to help narrate their boxing special “The Kings” , Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran and ‘The Cash Cow’, Sugar Ray Leonard in 2022, they called Harold Bell. 

This unique journey into sports talk and a life beyond the rim will be a ride you will need to have your seat belts firmly buckled.