Jimmy Snyder

"Jimmy the Greek" redirects here. For the restaurant, see Jimmy the Greek (restaurant).

For the Indianapolis 500 driver, see Jimmy Snyder (driver).

Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder
Born	(1918-09-09)September 9, 1918 Steubenville, Ohio, U.S.
Died	April 21, 1996(1996-04-21) (aged 77) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.

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

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, Tholo potami (Θολό Ποτάμι) in the Aegean Sea. As a teenager in Ohio, he became acquainted with bookmakers. Snyder and his wife Joan, lost three of their five children to cystic fibrosis.

According to his autobiography Jimmy the Greek, Snyder bet US$10,000 on the 1948 election between Thomas Dewey and Harry S. Truman, getting 17–1 odds for Truman to win. In a later interview he indicated that he knew Truman was going to win because Dewey had a mustache and "American women didn't trust men with a mustache".

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.

The NFL Today

The sports line eventually led to a 12-year stint on the CBS Sunday morning show, The NFL Today, a pregame show for National Football League games. Known simply as "Jimmy the Greek," he would appear in segments with sportscaster Brent Musburger and predict the results of that week's NFL games. While already famous in gambling circles, his rough charm made him into a minor celebrity.

As sports betting was (and remains) illegal in most of the United States, and was at the time a general social taboo, his segment would not overtly mention betting or gambling. Instead, Jimmy the Greek would predict the score of each game, for example, he would say the Los Angeles Raiders would beat the Los Angeles Rams 31-21. This allowed bettors who knew the line of the game to be able to deduce his selection when betting the point spread: If the spread in the example game was the Raiders by five, bettors would know Jimmy was picking the Raiders to beat it.

Controversy

On January 16, 1988, he was fired by the CBS network (where he had been a regular on NFL Today 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 and he's bred to be the better athlete because this goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trade … 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." His CBS co-workers publicly stated that they did not agree with Snyder's theories and that they did not oppose CBS' decision to fire him. Irv Cross said in the 30 for 30 documentary about Snyder that he worked alongside Jimmy for a long time and never heard any racist comments nor detected any racist attitudes from him. (Cross, a former NFL player, is black.)

Snyder also commented during the WRC-TV interview that if blacks "take over coaching jobs, like everybody wants them to, there's not to be anything left for white people."

In 1991, Snyder sued the CBS network for age discrimination, defamation and breach of contract. Snyder maintained that his firing aggravated his personal health problems, according to court papers. Snyder's attorney, Jeffery L. Liddle, stated that by "firing and repudiating Mr. Snyder, CBS quashed his dream, his dignity, and his spirit."

In popular culture

Snyder appeared in a cameo in the 1981 comedy film The Cannonball Run as a bookie. In the movie he offered 50–1 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.

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 Anthony Snyder Jimmy's son, as well as his brother Johnny and sister Angie. The show also acknowledges his role in the first sportcasts of poker tournaments.

Although Jimmy was largely unknown outside of the United States, in 1974 his name achieved international renown. After beating George Foreman to regain the world heavyweight championship, Muhammad Ali, in the midst of an interview with David Frost, looked into the camera and addressed his doubters. "All of you bow" he said. "All of my critics crawl...All of you suckers bow... If you wanna know any damn thing about boxing, don't go to no boxing experts in Las Vegas, don't go to no Jimmy The Greek. Come to Muhammad Ali."

Death

Snyder suffered from diabetes in his later years and died in Las Vegas of a heart attack on April 21, 1996 at the age of 77. He is buried at Union Cemetery in his native Steubenville.

External links

• Pace, Eric, "Jimmy (the Greek) Snyder, 76, Is Dead; a Sports Oddsmaker," The New York Times, 1996-04-22.
• Find a Grave
• CNN SI item on Jimmy
• Commercial with Jimmy the Greek for Tuffy Auto Centers
• Photo
• Article by Jonathan Rowe in Washington Monthly, April 1988 (Article examining the validity of Jimmy Snyder's racial comments. "Jimmy the Greek got it wrong but so did his critics")
• White, Jack E. (February 1, 1988). "Of Mandingo and Jimmy "the Greek"". Time. Retrieved 2008-05-21. 
• Jimmy the Greek Comments that got him fired Youtube