Friends and Associates Mourn Sports Journalist Chuck Betson

By TIM KELLY Tributes and expressions of sadness poured in Saturday as news spread of the passing of Ocean City resident and local sports icon, Chuck Betson. Betson, 68, was a former newspaper TV and radio commentator, radio play-by-play man and marketing executive for two local pro sports franchises and a former Ocean City lifeguard and member of its Hall of Fame. He died on Friday, one of his sons, Scott, confirmed in a published report. Former colleagues and friends spoke of Betson’s devotion to the craft of reporting and commenting on sports. A common thread among the comments was Betson’s professionalism and passion for whatever job he was working on at the time. As a person, they spoke of his devotion to family and unflinching loyalty to friends and associates. “This is very sad news,” La Salle University Athletic Director Bill Bradshaw said via social media. “He was a straight shooter and a good man.” Longtime Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter Sam Carchidi, a summer resident of Ocean City, called Betson “One of the most passionate people I ever met, when it came to sports. I always enjoyed our lively radio chats.” Betson, a native of the Philly suburb Lansdowne, Pa., was an Ocean City visitor since childhood and member of the Beach Patrol in the early 1970s. He burst onto the local media scene in 1980 with The Press of Atlantic City, where he worked for 11 years as a sportswriter and later a columnist. At The Press, Betson covered World Series and Super Bowls, bigtime professional boxing, golf, horse racing and all four of the Philly pro franchises among other sports. He was also passionate about covering the lifeguard races during the late summer weeks. Chuck Betson and his wife Barbara in his element at an Eagles game in Philly. (Photo courtesy Chuck Betson Facebook page) Robert Strauss, longtime Philly area sportswriter and author, recalled covering a Super Bowl in Pasadena with Betson when fellow scribe Ray Didinger, then working for the Philly Daily News, concocted a prank. “He was quite a hyper guy so we decided to have some fun with him,” Strauss recalled. “He came up to us in the lobby after a hard day of filing the many stories The Press assigned him to do. Ray said, ‘Did you hear the big story?’ We made up something that one of the main players had slammed a car door on his hand and broken it." “Betson went bananas,” Strauss said. “He almost started crying. Ray, being the humane person that he is, started laughing after about 20 seconds and told him it was a joke. But Chuck had it in his mind and still went out to research the fake news story.” One of his other great loves was college basketball and football, and he was a devotee of his alma mater’s teams, the University of Florida Gators. Chuck and both of his sons (Matt is his other son) graduated from U.F. “I knew the ‘Bet Man’ well,” sports writing peer Dave Wyche said, referring to Chuck’s nickname. “We covered many (Philadelphia) Big Five games together both at home and on the road. As knowledgeable as he was, he always listened to learn more. He was a great guy with enormous passion and positive attitude.” When The Press began cutting staff in the 1990s, Betson took a buyout and reinvented himself as the radio play-by-play man, public address announcer, PR man and advertising salesman for the independent minor league baseball team, the Atlantic City Surf. He filled a similar role with the Atlantic City Seagulls of the professional USBL. Both teams won their respective championships and Chuck proudly wore his Surf championship ring for years thereafter. Betson continued to evolve professionally. He did a cable TV show, radio shows for stations WIBG and WOND, and a newspaper column for Atlantic City Weekly, which often beat his old paper on breaking news. He named the column and all of his broadcast shows, “The Betson Connection,” which made sense, peers said. Chuck Betson, in blue jacket, landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated, in this photo of Indiana’s Keith Smart launching a game-winning shot, while he was covering the NCAA finals game for The Press of A.C. (Photo courtesy Chuck Betson Facebook page) Chuck was always connecting with a high profile guest to put his readers or viewers or listeners in touch with the big game or event of the moment. “He would be doing a show about the Super Bowl and he’d make one call and get on Jimmy Vaccaro, the biggest Las Vegas name in the sportsbook and odds making industries,” said City Councilman Keith Hartzell, one of Chuck’s radio co-hosts and a close friend. “We’d preview Monday Night Football and he would get (one of the producers) on the phone to break down the game,” Hartzell said. “He had an unbelievable array of sources and contacts. (Bigtime guests) didn’t hesitate to come on because they knew they would be treated fairly. He really had a national show in a local market.” Hartzell added, “Chuck had opportunities to move on to bigger things, but he always said, ‘I don’t want to commute. I don’t want to leave here. I love it here too much.’ He was content being a local legend.” Though an accomplished radio man, Betson sometimes felt so strongly about something going on in the Philly sports scene he would call top-rated sports talk station WIP and go on the air as simply, “Chuck from Ocean City.” Instead of the normal 30 seconds of fan speak listeners had grown accustomed to, there would come the unmistakable booming voice of Betson, reeling about the latest perceived gaffe of, say, Rich Kotite. Chuck would proceed to articulate his position strongly, loudly, and unassailably. One had to smile if Betson encountered and won the argument with an inexperienced host who didn’t know what hit him, or a veteran who prefaced a weak response by telling the audience something, “Yeah, we know Chuck. And he makes a great point.” Betson retired from WOND two years ago but had the itch to un-retire, friends said. Inquirer and Daily News Eagles beat reporter Les Bowen: “Very sorry to hear about Chuck. He was determined to get back on the radio, the last time we spoke.” Hartzell said the pair were exploring the possibility of doing a new weekly call-in show before Betson began to experience health problems. “It was going to just be a weekly thing, mostly for fun, and he was getting excited about it,” he noted. At the time of this article, funeral services were incomplete. In addition to his sons, Betson’s survivors include wife Barbara, Scott’s wife LisaAnn, his sister Jodi Betson Rosen and her husband Craig, his sister Christine and her husband Ray and their children Lauren and Zsa Zsa, his sister Amy Carpenter and her husband Bob, and grandchildren William and Lilliana. Chuck Betson, wearing the jersey of his beloved Florida Gators, flashes his Atlantic City Surf championship ring. (Photo courtesy Chuck Betson Facebook page).