How Craig Humphreys, set to retire from The Sports Animal, shaped sports talk radio in OKC

It’s a good thing Bev Humphreys convinced her husband, Craig, to introduce themselves to longtime OU play-by-play man John Brooks on a chance encounter in Las Vegas. Because there at the Bally’s racebook, in the land of long odds, Craig Humphreys’ radio career was sparked.

Call it destiny, dumb luck or divine intervention, but sports talk radio in Oklahoma was shaped in part by a few strangers from the same state running into each other 1,000 miles from home.

More than 30 years later, Humphreys, a trail blazer and iconic voice of WWLS-The Sports Animal, is retiring. He’ll host Sports Morning on Thursday for the final time.

The 71-year-old Humphreys planned his departure months ago. He and Bev wanted to spend more time together, not fully knowing how imperative that would be. Bev was diagnosed with breast cancer a year and a half ago. She underwent chemotherapy and has taken various medications to fend off the cancer, but the disease has crept down her spine and invaded her bones.

Craig, while continuing to broadcast his last few weeks of shows, has been caring for Bev as she’s been in and out of the hospital and doing all she can to get out of bed.

Craig made it clear, though, that his decision to step down wasn’t solely based on Bev’s health. The couple wanted to maximize their time together no matter the circumstances that would come.

“I prayed about it and I think it was God telling me when,” Craig Humphreys told The Oklahoman. “If she’s doing well then we need to take advantage of the time that we have. If she’s not, well, then I need to be with her.

“It’s getting to the point where someone needs to be with her.”

Bev had no idea what she was getting into when she urged Craig to introduce himself to Brooks back in 1992.

On the Humphreys’ honeymoon in Hawaii, they heard some guys from Pittsburgh talking about how much they liked sports radio.

“That’s just the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of,” Craig remembers Bev saying.

Back then sports talk radio was a relatively new concept.

“And then she ends up married to a guy who does this for 31 years,” Craig said with a laugh. “She’s a saint.”

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Craig Humphreys, Skip Bayless share lifelong friendship

Skip Bayless was a seventh grader at Taft Junior High when he met Craig Humphreys during a lunch break.

Another one of those chance encounters.

“Somebody tugged on my sleeve and said ‘Hey, do you know him?’ And it was Craig playing Ping-Pong,” said Bayless, relaying the story to The Oklahoman. “Whoever it was said, 'That's a church league basketball legend. That's Craig Humphreys.’”

Bayless, quite the ballplayer himself, became a basketball teammate of Humphreys in the eighth grade and in high school at Northwest Classen, where they graduated together in 1970.

Bayless, the Fox Sports 1 personality known for his scorching takes, is Humphreys’ best friend. They might seem an odd match given their on-air personalities: Humphreys is known for his congenial style, while Bayless embraces confrontations as a debate show star.

“He's a feel-good radio voice,” Bayless said of Humphreys. “He's opinionated, but not annoyingly opinionated. That's where he and I are different. I just can't help myself.”

But their friendship has been fortified over decades. Bayless made a point that he and Humphreys are on their second marriages.

“We were the best men in each others' weddings, the first ones that did not work, but we worked,” Bayless said. “If you got to know us, I don't think you'd think we were much alike at all except for sports.”

Bayless, a longtime newspaper columnist before transitioning to TV, could spill gallons of ink sharing old stories about he and Humphreys.

About Bayless spending the night at the Humphreys’ house (and raiding the Humphreys’ fridge), playing sports together, studying Algebra and working one summer in a warehouse for Humphreys’ dad, Jack, who built a lucrative merchandise and distribution business that was handed down to Craig and his brothers, Kirk, the former Oklahoma City mayor, and Kent, who died in 2013.

“It was very hard, physical work,” Bayless said of the summer job, “and it was the best thing I ever did for myself because Jack was teaching us this is real work.”

At a Masters, when Humphreys was working for Westwood One radio, Bayless said Humphreys invited him to the tower at the 18th green.

“My gosh,” Bayless said then, “we came a long way.”

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Craig Humphreys, Jim Traber team up

After meeting John Brooks in Las Vegas, where they chatted and betted races for a few hours, Craig Humphreys attended Brooks’ sportscasting camp in the summer of 1992 at the Moore Norman Technology Center.

Humphreys, 39 at the time, was in the camp with kids half his age.

“It took real guts to do what he did, to start that late,” Bayless said.

But Humphreys and his brothers had sold the family business, and Humphreys, despite having done quite well for himself, was looking for a new career.

One part of the camp was going to All Sports Stadium at the OKC Fairgrounds to call an 89ers minor league baseball game.

As Humphreys sat in the right field bleachers and announced the game into a tape recorder, Brooks sat beside him.

“I was totally intimidated,” Humphreys said. “A half inning goes by, an inning and a half, and he didn’t say a word.”

Finally, Brooks broke the silence.

“Turn the tape recorder off,” Brooks told Humphreys. “You’re good enough to be doing college or minor league baseball right now.”

Humphreys wasn’t interested in doing play-by-play, though. He wanted to do sports talk radio, an industry still in its infancy. Al Eschbach, the founding father of sports talk radio in Oklahoma City, had been on the air since 1976, and Eschbach owned the market.

Humphreys got to know the right people, though, and by November of 1992 he had his first show — a 6 to 7 a.m. slot on WWLS called The Morning Sports Page.

Humphreys was working for free, but he cracked opened the door into his new passion and livelihood. In addition to hosting his own show, things came full-circle for Humphreys as he worked alongside Brooks calling minor league hockey for the Oklahoma City Blazers.

In the spring of 1995, Humphreys got a call from Jim Traber, another staple of sports talk in this state. Or as Traber tells it, he got a call from Humphreys. Either way, Humphreys and Traber joined forces to go out on their own and lease their own air time. They found a home on what would become SportsTalk 1340.

“Our office was a closet,” Traber said.

Humphreys and Traber were joined by the late Dan Lutz, universally beloved in the radio business, Mike Steely and a trio in Mark Rodgers, Curtis Fitzpatrick and Dean Blevins who can still be heard on The Sports Animal today.

After first leasing five hours of air time, a year later Humphreys and his up-and-coming crew were on for 13 hours.

Caribou Communications, led by Larry Bastida, bought the station in late 1997 from Humphreys, but the crew of on-air talent stayed intact. Months later, Caribou purchased WWLS, bringing Eschbach and Bob Barry Jr. aboard.

The Sports Animal was born.

“This station, it’s up there with the best in the country, it really is,” Traber said. “You go listen to other places, big markets and everything else, we’re right there with them. If you asked me why is sports radio as big as it is right now, I would say the three people that did it are Al Eschbach, Craig Humphreys and Larry Bastida.”

Humphreys, Traber added, “really pushed sports radio in this market to another level.”

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Craig Humphreys, host of Sports Morning

Humphreys has worn many hats, been behind many a microphone at The Sports Animal, from hosting Sports Morning, to reporting annually from The Masters — his favorite event — to hosting the Thunder’s pregame and postgame shows and then in the summer of 2015 returning to Sports Morning following the tragic death of Bob Barry Jr.

“I felt sorry for the guy who was gonna replace BBJ,” Humphreys said.

Humphreys was offered the job, but initially turned it down. After praying on it and giving it more thought, he decided he’d replace Barry and return to Sports Morning for two, maybe three years.

Eight and a half years later, Humphreys is only now leaving.

“I think he’ll miss it more than most people because he loves it so much,” Traber said. “He lives it.”

Humphreys’ depth of preparation is the stuff of legend. Humphreys watches as many games as he can. He’s old school, printing out box scores and game stories, and highlighting chunks from The Oklahoman and USA Today that he might want to mention on air.

“There’s nobody who works harder to prepare for his show than him,” said Matt Meyer, who produces Sports Morning and has been at the station for almost 20 years. “It’s not a knock on any of our other guys, but when it comes to how much he watches, how much he reads, he’ll be up until 12:30 or one o'clock the night before printing up stuff.”

Every host has their own distinct style.

“You listen to me and I’m just flying by the seat of my pants and throwing things out there and getting after it, but Craig is structured in what he’s gonna talk about,” Traber said. “Craig and I are totally different in the way we do our shows, but interestingly enough they’ve both worked for a long period of time.”

More than three decades, with Thursday marking the end for Humphreys.

“It’s gonna be weird for me, it’s gonna be weird for everybody,” Meyer said. “Trust me, there’s a lot of people who probably wouldn’t be doing this in Oklahoma City if not for him. I mean, I’m certainly one of them.”

Said Traber: “Forget about radio, forget about all the things he does, he’s just a tremendous, tremendous man. We’re gonna miss him a lot.”

A phone line will always be open for Humphreys, though, and he hopes to keep reporting from the Masters, a golf major Humphreys has attended since 1988 and has been press credentialed for since 1998.

“He’ll come on,” Traber said. “I’m sure he’ll call me and tell me that I’m crazy about something.”

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Father and son share passion for sports talk

Sam Humphreys, Craig’s son, said his dad never pushed him into pursuing a sports talk radio career, but Sam got the itch. He hosts a golf podcast, The 73rd Hole, and works at The Sports Animal, sometimes alongside his dad.

“My dad has been a perfect father, perfect role model, but now it's like we're best friends,” Sam Humphreys said.

Sam never has to look far for advice. Craig, who also raised three daughters — April, Heather and Amy — calls him after every show Sam hosts.

“How I do radio, it's a little more brash, a little more Traber-esque, I guess,” Sam said. “I like to go after people a little bit. My dad's the guy everybody loves.”

Be yourself, Craig tells Sam.

“I don't want to try to be my dad, I want to try to be me, but I also respect what he's done,” Sam said. “I'm not trying to be my dad, but I do want to be as successful as him one day.”

Sam, who went through a cancer battle of his own in college, has seen how much Craig has cared for Bev.

“Over the past couple years really he's had two full-time jobs,” Sam said. “The one at the radio station and then when he comes home taking care of my mom — making sure she has all the right medicines, the treatments, the doctor's appointments, the emergency room visits …”

As he’s grown older, Sam said he appreciates all his mom did.

“She was the best mom,” Sam said, “because our family dinners were on TV trays watching games as a kid.”

As Craig watched games, preparing for his show, he would throw alley-oops for Sam to flush on a Little Tikes hoop.

If not for Bev, Craig might not have gotten his start in sports radio. Same goes for Sam. Sports talk radio in Oklahoma City, enjoyed by so many, would sound different.

And it will sound different after Thursday, when Craig Humphreys signs off for the last time.

“It’s the right time,” he said.

Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Craig Humphreys, OKC sports talk radio icon, retiring after 30 years