Lowell Cohn announced his retirement from an illustrious sports writing career on Sunday and decided to join Gary and Larry Tuesday to recap 37 years of covering Bay Area sports.
Alongside his son Grant, Cohn told memorable stories throughout the 38 minute segment, and led off with a column he wrote about San Jose State coach Jack Elway giving his press conference in the nude.
“I didn’t describe the weiner,” Cohn said to laughs, “but I did get pretty detailed. But then he said, ‘Why did you do it?’ And I said, ‘My wife told me to.’ And he goes, ‘Fine. Let’s have a drink.’”
Larry Krueger brought up an excellent point: Cohn was sports radio before there was sports radio. His columns in the San Francisco Chronicle and Santa Rosa Press Democrat were famous for taking shots at players, coaches and executives. Everyone read them.
“I never thought of it as power,” Cohn said. “For me, Ioved writing. That’s what I’m trying to do with Grant (his son). Telling stories and my opinion and putting things into words. Power would not have been something I thought about, although, sure, in retrospect, I had it. But stepping away, I don’t feel like I’m stepping away from power.”
Cohn did admit to being Bill Walsh’s mouthpiece from time to time, but also said he didn’t talk to the Hall of Fame coach for two years after writing his book — Cohn quoted him using too many F-bombs.
Listen to the full segment here.