Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Summer of Sid.

Sid Hartman is one of the more recognizable names in the Twin Cities, if not the entire country. With 60-plus years as a Star Tribune sports columnist in addition to a 50-year stint on WCCO radio, Sid has made an indelible mark on the local sports scene.

In 1992 at the Mall of America, the WCCO promotions staff decided to capitalize on Sid’s popularity with the “Sid Hartman sound alike contest”. Basically eight contestants would give their best Sid impersonation and the judges (usually other ‘CCO personalities) would select the best three to compete in the championship round. The winner would receive a free steak dinner with Sid at Murray’s Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. The running joke was “What does the loser get? Two dinners with Sid?”

What was supposed to be an annual contest ceased after only four years. Fortunately for me I was a participant in the final go-round in 1995 at the Minnesota State Fair. Hard to believe that was thirteen years and fifty pounds ago.

Sifting through some of my old VHS cassettes, I came across the video footage containing my fifteen two minutes, eleven seconds of fame.



-------------------------------------------
at

2 comments:

  1. W.B. Picklesworth10/14/2008 1:45 PM

    Nice specs!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brad Carlson10/14/2008 3:12 PM

    They were actually my brother's shades. I wanted some non-prescription sunglasses because I didn't want to see the crowd of 150-200 people gathered in front of me. Back then I was absolutely terrified of talking in front of two people, much less a couple hundred.

    ReplyDelete