Jimmy the Greek was a sports commentator that people relied on a daily basis. NFL today has been a very popular show that hosted Jimmy and millions of people tuned in to watch him. Jimmy never sugar-coded anything when it came to sports and he you the grit of the story.
Throughout the show chemistry built with Jimmy and his team and being the only Television football show the ratings were through the roof. He made sports gambling a huge thing in society and that had been his downfall to his career. He used the point spread to his advantage to determine the outcome of games.
Jimmy the Greek really knew about football and when he was seen in public he would be bombarded by thousands of people asking him how he felt about a certain game. Gambling had been in his life ever since he was born and during that era gambling was legal. His gambling career started at the age of 13 when he was introduced to bookmaking and quit school in the 10th grade.
Never liked to get his hands dirty due to his street smart. When he made his first bet at the Kentucky derby and won and from that point on gambling became his career. Jimmy had a hard time excepting women on the show especially Phillis, but an agreement was made that they would never be on air at the same time.
Getting information out of people was his go to strategy and he also gathered every newspaper known to man. He’d predict games and the accuracy was unbelievable. During the 60’s he won a bet of $62,000 on a Notre Dame vs Great Lakes college football game and he went with the Underdog instead of the undefeated Irish.
His gambling went as far as politics and he favored Truman who wasn’t liked and Dewey was winning the political race. Jimmy stated that women don’t like mustaches and Dewey had a mustache. Truman pulled out the hugest upset in political history and Jimmy bet 10 grand on him for 17-1 odds and ended up receiving $170,000.
He was a gambling genius and no one knew how. When he moved to Las Vegas he managed to get in trouble with law and was convicted of interstate gambling, giving a friend a tip about a football game over the phone. He was a huge target.
He lived lavishly and he never second guessed himself. He was an obnoxious person to be around while at the horse races, but when he won his generosity grew by tipping waiters $100, but that’s just who he was.
On January 16, 1988, he was fired by the CBS network after commenting to WRC-TV reporter Ed Hotaling at Duke Zeibert's Washington, D.C. restaurant that African Americans were naturally superior athletes because of them producing stronger offspring. Jimmy went too far this time and it ended his career. In 1996 the legend died on April 21st at the age of 77 due to diabetes. His legacy will never be forgotten.
