By JOEY JOHNSTON
Tribune Staff Writer
(c) Tampa Bay Times. Originally published April 21, 2000.
SUN CITY CENTER – “Salty” Sol Fleischman was an unmistakable Tampa Bay area icon, a departure from the well-coiffed standard in sports broadcasting. On the air, he wore a well-weathered fishing skipper’s cap. Whether reporting on the World Series or the catch of a local-record mullet, he was equally enthusiastic. His counterparts recited scores; he told rich, rambling stories.
It wasn’t a schtick. It was Salty Sol, in your living room each night, part of the family, part of the community.
Almost three decades removed from the limelight and a 54-year broadcasting career that culminated at WTVT, Channel 13, Fleischman died quietly Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at South Bay Hospital, near his Sun City Center home. He was 89. He is survived by his wife, Helen, sons Sol Jr. and Marty, and three grandchildren.
At Fleischman’s request, there will be no funeral or memorial service. He will be cremated. The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, contributions be sent in his name to the Tampa Bay History Museum.
“When Sol spoke, it was from the heart,” said Dick Crippen, former sports director at WFLA, News Channel 8, and one of Fleischman’s contemporaries. “He loved the area and that love came through on the air. That was something I always tried to emulate.
“He was a Willard Scott-type character. He loved the people, and the people loved him. He was as much a part of Tampa as City Hall, the Hillsborough River and the University of Tampa. When you thought about Tampa sports, you thought about Salty Sol.”
Fleischman suffered a heart attack in October and came home, but he was hospitalized again April 7 with a variety of heart and kidney ailments.
Fleischman, whose first radio broadcast was in 1928, became the dean of Florida announcers. He wrote a daily outdoors column for the old Tampa Times, then served as sports director for Channel 13 from 1956 to 1974.
Still, he had a lingering wonder throughout retirement. Will people remember my work? Will people remember me?
According to his son Sol Jr., a Tampa architect, those are moot questions.
“I’m his namesake and it never fails that when I’m introduced to someone, they’ll pause and then say, “Salty Sol?’ ” Fleischman’s son said. “Even in the hospital, he was the life of the party. The nurses and attendants just loved his personality. He felt compelled to entertain his visitors, even when he didn’t have the strength to do that.
“If he could fathom how affectionately he will be remembered, I think he’d be very touched. When he was on TV, it was never rehearsed. People always tell me they felt like they were hearing the sports news from an old friend.”
Fleischman interviewed sports personalities from Babe Ruth to Babe Zaharias, from Jack Dempsey to Pete Rose. He fished with the likes of President Hoover, baseball great Ted Williams, golfer Jimmy Demaret, musician Benny Goodman and beer magnate Gussie Busch.
He did the first radio broadcast of a Gasparilla invasion and parade. He broke away from sports to cover several hurricanes that swept through the area. He became the city’s foremost master of ceremonies and was frequently requested as the keynote speaker for graduations.
Ironically, his public life began by accident.
Born Sept. 10, 1910, in Hawkinsville, Ga., Fleischman developed whooping cough as a toddler and was moved to Tampa with his family. He briefly tried out for football at Hillsborough High, but found his real calling as a cheerleader for the Terriers, then at new Plant High, which opened in 1927.
Other than that, Fleischman performed in the background. He was a musician, a drummer, who played with dance bands in the 1920s. At radio station WDAE, 1250 AM, Fleischman was part of an orchestra that played fight songs while football games were being recreated over the air by an in-house announcer.
In 1928, results of the Florida-Auburn game were being sent by postal telegraph to WDAE. But the regular announcer had been drinking and was in no condition to handle the broadcast, Fleischman once said. The WDAE station manager was desperate for a replacement.
“Sol has a big mouth. … Why don’t you try him?” said Ewell Stanford, the bandleader.
As Fleischman often repeated, “I sat down at the microphone and never left.”
Most of his time was spent at WDAE’s radio microphone, either with his own show or doing play-by-play for football and baseball. With the rise of television, Fleischman was hired away by Channel 13 in 1956 (he briefly accepted a job with Anheuser-Busch, then reneged). He broke from broadcasting only to serve as a Coast Guard lieutenant during World War II.
Fleischman was known for his tattered skipper’s cap (“my sister gave it to me because my bald head shines on TV,” he once said) and the oversized, old-time radio microphone that was stationed at the Channel 13 sports desk. His signature TV pieces were entitled “Where Am I?” They were weekly tapes of his favorite fishing spots throughout Florida. Viewers who identified the spots were rewarded with fishing gear.
Ever the softy, Fleischman couldn’t resist providing hints, some of them dead giveaways. While showing the mouth of a North Florida river, Fleischman hummed to his viewers, “Way down upon the Suwannee River …”
“We had 5,210 correct answers that week,” he said later.
Maybe it was campy, but it was typical Salty Sol. Fleischman said he learned an important lesson from legendary baseball broadcaster Red Barber – “Never talk down to your listeners or viewers” – so he tried to retain the common touch. After an errant prediction of a football result, Fleischman sometimes wore a dunce cap during the next telecast.
Fleischman retired from full-time telecasts in 1974 because of angina. But he did occasional fishing reports for his hand-picked successor at Channel 13, Andy Hardy, until 1981. In retirement, Fleischman remained a champion of the outdoorsman, even though doctor’s orders eventually eliminated his fishing trips.
Fleischman, who remembered the horse-and-buggy days in downtown Tampa, mourned the deaths of several old friends. In recent years, he discovered the Internet and kept in touch with many acquaintances by e-mail. He missed the fast-paced broadcast life, but an award-filled career ensured his legacy.
He won the Governor’s and National Wildlife Federation’s Gold Medal. He was inducted into the International Fishing Hall of Fame, the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame and the Tampa Sports Hall of Fame. Twice, he was named Florida’s No. 1 Conservationist. He was selected Outstanding Citizen by the Tampa Sports Club in 1969-70.
His greatest honor, though, occurred in 1988. The Gandy Boulevard boat ramp at the Coast Guard Auxiliary building was renamed the “Hillsborough County Salty Sol Fleischman Boat Ramp” by the Tampa City Council.
“This has been the epitome of everything that has happened to me,” Fleischman said that day as he stood before a plaque, designed by his son, that officially designated the area. “I guess I am proudest how my hometown has grown from a small town to a major city, and at the same time sports and fishing progressing the same way.”
