The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents:

Stroll through 50 Years of TV Sports with Neal Pilson

Hybrid at Berkshire Community College and online via Zoom

Neal Pilson has been a major figure in television sports for close to 50 years and in 2018 was elected to the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. A graduate of Hamilton College and Yale Law School, he was initially active in the legal profession in New York and joined CBS Sports in July, 1976 as the Vice President of Business Affairs charged with the responsibility of negotiating for the network broadcast rights to major events. In that role, subsequently as President of CBS Sports for 15 years, for the past 30 years as an independent consultant for major sports properties and as an expert witness in litigation involving several key sports properties, he helped shape the sports tv industry. The focus of his remarks will be his intensely personal experiences in working with the NFL, the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the Olympics, NASCAR, The Masters, PGA Golf, US Open Tennis and unique personalities including John Madden, Pat Summerall, Brent Musburger, Jimmy the Greek Snyder, Phyllis George and Jim Nantz, among others. Neal will also discuss how and why sports executives make decisions on what sports to cover and which events to buy, who to hire (and fire), the incredible growth of women's sports, and how the TV sports business actually works. Neal recently retired after 17 years teaching Leadership Skills in the Sports Management Program at the Columbia Graduate School for Professional Studies. 

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Ticket information:

Admission is $10 for OLLI at BCC members and $15 for the general public.

Admission is free for students, staff and faculty from Berkshire Community College, MCLA, and Williams; youth 17 and under, and those holding WIC, EBT/SNAP, or ConnectorCare cards.