Longtime Chicago Radio 'Icon' Les Grobstein Dies At Age 69

CHICAGO — Les Grobstein was there. He was always there.

That’s how columnist Chris Emma will remember his colleague at Chicago's 670 The Score a day after the longtime sports talk radio host was found dead in his Elk Grove Village residence on Sunday. He was 69.

Grobstein, known affectionately to his listeners and media colleagues as “The Grobber” worked for more than 50 years in Chicago sports talk radio. Most recently, Grobstein was the overnight host at WCSR AM-670 — a job he had held since 2009 and where he kept overnight company with his legion of fans, the station's manager said on Monday.

Grobstein was a walking sports encyclopedia after years of witnessing decades of legendary sports moments in the city’s sporting history. From covering all of Chicago's professional sports franchises and broadcasting games for the city's now-defunct semi-pro football teams and its minor league hockey team, the Chicago Wolves, Grobstein had a front-row seat for all of it and was never short on words about any of it, his colleagues remembered after his unexpected death.

Grobstein, first hired by WLS in 1979, is probably most known for recording the now infamous profanity-laced postgame rant by former Cubs manager Lee Elia in 1983, who targeted the team's fanbase for not supporting their beloved North Side baseball franchise. Not only did Grobstein capture the episode on tape on that day nearly 39 years ago, but then kept it for posterity’s sake and replayed it year after year as an homage to long-suffering Cubs fans.

No matter how many of Chicago’s sports moment Grobstein witnessed, however, Grobstein's penchant for engaging listeners with his particular brand of sports talk radio, taking many a sports media professional under his wing and serving as an unforgettable press box character will likely most define his legacy.

“We are devastated by the loss of a Chicago sports legend," Mitch Rosen, operations director and brand manager for 670 The Score said statement issued by the station on Monday. "Our audience who Les kept company overnight for years will miss him the most along with our team at The Score. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and all of his fans."

On Monday, tributes to Grobstein came from many media members and other sports personalities who expressed shock in his sudden death. Reports indicated that Grobstein had been ill recently and had not worked since the midpoint of last week.

Among those who remembered Grobstein was Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald, who called Grobstein “one of the few constants in my life as a Chicago sports fan" in a a post to his Twitter feed on Monday.

“His recall and passion for the games, players and coaches were unmatched,” Fitzgerald wrote.

The Chicago Bears issued a statement Monday calling Grobstein a “true media icon” whose knowledge of Chicago sports was unparalleled. The team said that Grobstein attended more than 100 Bears-Packers games during his career — including his first in 1963 — which “he could recall like it was yesterday,” the Bears' statement said.

Emma, who covers the Bears and serves as a columnist for The Score’s website, wrote in his remembrance on Monday that Grobstein was a “one-of-a-kind treasure we all shared.”

“Whether you listened to Les on the radio or were fortunate to know him personally, you heard the same stories over and over again,” Emma wrote.” And you listened to every one like you had never heard it before, because he loved sharing them.”

As knowledgeable of a sports fan as Grobstein was, he will long be remembered for his passion for his craft and for the games he witnessed. Colleagues on Monday remembered Grobstein for the enthusiasm he displayed on air and in the press boxes he inhabited around Chicago during his more than five decades in sports radio.

Grobstein was a lifelong Chicagoan and a graduate of Von Steuben High School and Columbia College. After calling Northwestern basketball games starting in 1970, Grobstein went on to work as a stringer calling in sports scores for Sportsphone Chicago before starting a 10-year stint as the sports director at WLS, according a column written by Chicago media columnist Robert Feder on Monday.

Grobstein later worked for CBS Radio and WMVP 1000 before later moving to the Score, where he became the station’s overnight host in 2009. Grobstein is survived by his longtime partner, Kathy and his son, Scott. As of Monday night, a Go Fund Me effort to provide support for Grobstein's family and to help pay for a funeral had raised more than $22,000.

“He was a radio legend and a sports savant,” veteran WBEZ sports contributor Cheryl (Raye) Stout wrote on Twitter on Monday. “I’ll miss him.”

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