Charile Neal (l.) and Lem Barney (r.) broadcasting for BET here at the 1993 Circle City Classic in Indianapolis. The duo helped introduce American TV audiences to black college football and basketball games and stayed together on the air for 24 years. Neal passed last Tuesday at 80.
HBCU BROADCASTING GIANT CHARLIE NEAL PASSES:
Legendary, veteran broadcaster Charlie Neal, whose name, voice and face became synonymous with black college sports over nearly 50 years, passed Tuesday night in his home outside Washington, D. C. after a year-long battle with a chronic illness.
Neal, 80, who’s golden voice was made for radio and television, came to the broadcast booth as the play-by-play man for Bob Johnson’s Black Entertainment Television (BET) in the early 1980s when the network pioneered weekly TV coverage of live black college football and basketball games. He teamed with Jackson State grad and NFL Hall of Famer Lem Barney as his broadcast partner for over 20 years to unite the then excitement, thrills and pageantry of HBCU sports with its glorious past and history.
After BET moved away from carrying live black college sports events in the early 2000s, Neal continued that role helming HBCU coverage for another black-owned entity, the Atlanta-based Major Broadcasting Company (MBC), before again taking the lead role as ESPN started its live coverage of black college sports games in the early 2000s. He called the first black college football game aired on ESPNU and became the lead announcer of the coverage of black college games on ESPN and ESPN+.
When another black-owned broadcast network, Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, bought out streaming entity HBCUgo.tv in 2021 and inked major deals with HBCU conferences in 2022 to air black college games, they turned to Neal as their lead announcer as well. He served in that capacity until his battle with the disease began last Fall.
During his long career, Charlie rubbed shoulders with and became close friends with the gamut of men and women actors – the game’s top players, coaches, administrators, school presidents and conference officials, game officials and referees, cheer squads, band directors, sponsors, network TV executives and fans – who are the on- and off-field generators of the spectacle of black college sports while also helping to mentor the next generation of men’s and women’s media personalities, and in so doing, he became part of the story.
All these entities turned to him in one way or another for their sporting events, award banquets, Hall of Fame ceremonies, athletic forums, schedule consultations and the like throughout his illustrious career.
He became truly “the name, voice and face of black college sports” as evidenced by his induction into the CIAA, MEAC, SWAC and Black College Football Halls of Fame. No other can lay claim to those honors.
In 2023, Neal became the first National Football Foundation (NFF) Chris Schenkel Award recipient from the HBCU ranks, an annual award given to a sports broadcaster who has had a long and distinguished career broadcasting college football.
The Philadelphia native and Villanova graduate, began his career as a radio disc jockey in his hometown before moving into television as a sports anchor in 1971 in Washington, D. C, later moving to similar roles in Detroit and New York City. Neal also worked for CBS Sports announcing college football, basketball, track & field, and gymnastics also doubling up with assignments from Turner Sports which included the first ever Goodwill Games in Moscow. He hosted the NBA halftime shows for TNT along with play-by play assignments on basketball, gymnastics, and track & field.
Away from his media endeavors the always nattily dressed Neal wore a plethora of hats that many did not see. He was a former basketball and football official, owner of a bus company that provided a host of services including transportation to and from games for high school and black college teams, and a consummate trainer of ‘motormen’ the term used in police circles to identify a motorcycle cop, or any law enforcement officer assigned to the motorcycle division. Above all, he was a decent and caring man.
In many more ways than one, Charlie Neal will be sorely missed.
