Jimmy Snyder

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"Jimmy the Greek" redirects here. For the restaurant, see Jimmy the Greek (restaurant).
For the Indianapolis 500 driver, see Jimmy Snyder (driver).
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Jimmy Snyder
Born September 9, 1918(1918-09-09)
Steubenville, Ohio
Died April 21, 1996 (aged 77)
Las Vegas, Nevada

Dimetrios Georgios Synodinos, better known as Jimmy Snyder and Jimmy the Greek owing to his heritage (September 9, 1918 – April 21, 1996), was an American sports commentator and Las Vegas bookie.

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[edit] Life and career

Snyder was born Dimetrios Georgios Synodinos in Steubenville, Ohio.

According to his New York Times obituary of April 22, 1996, Snyder's family roots were on the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea. As a teenager in Ohio, he became acquainted with bookmakers. He invested money in oil drilling and coal mining, but when those ventures failed, Snyder moved to Las Vegas in 1956 and began a weekly pro football betting line.

That led to a 12-year stint on the CBS Sunday morning football show, The NFL Today. He was fired by CBS Sports in 1988 after a racially insensitive comment. (See item below.)

Jimmy Snyder and his wife lost three children to cystic fibrosis.

[edit] TV career

As a football commentator on television, Snyder was controversial. He would often give his picks for winners of games and touted his ability to make the right picks, which critics claimed were indirectly encouraging gambling. Snyder countered by saying that he never gave the spread of the games, so his picks couldn't be considered an endorsement of gambling. According to the autobiography entitled Jimmy the Greek by Jimmy Snyder, Steve Herskowitz (editor), and Mickey Herskowitz, he bet $10,000 USD on the 1948 election between Thomas Dewey and Harry S. Truman, getting 17:1 odds for Truman to win.

Snyder also commentated the world series of poker from 1973-1979.

On November 10, 2009, ESPN aired a show in their 30 for 30 series titled The Legend of Jimmy the Greek, which was produced by Fritz Mitchell. Commentary was provided by, among others, Brent Musburger, Irv Cross and Phyllis George from The NFL Today, plus one of Jimmy's sons and a sister.

[edit] Cannonball Run

Snyder appeared in a cameo in the 1981 comedy film The Cannonball Run as a bookie. In the movie he offered 20-1 odds against Formula One driver Jamie Blake (played by Dean Martin) and gambler Morris Fenderbaum (played by Sammy Davis Jr.) winning the Cannonball coast-to-coast endurance race. Jimmy the Greek and Dean Martin were childhood acquaintances in Steubenville, Ohio.

[edit] Controversy

On January 16, 1988, he was fired by the CBS network (where he was a contributor to the NFL Today program since 1976) after commenting to WRC-TV reporter Ed Hotaling in a Washington, D.C. restaurant that African Americans were naturally superior athletes at least in part because they had been bred to produce stronger offspring during slavery:

“ The black is a better athlete to begin with because he's been bred to be that way — because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back, and they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs. This goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trading, the owner — the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid. ”

According to the New York Times obituary, Snyder expressed regret for his comments, remarking: "What a foolish thing to say."

[edit] Death

Snyder died of a heart attack in Las Vegas on April 21, 1996 at the age of 77. He is buried at the historical Union Cemetery in Steubenville, Ohio.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Snyder"