Remembering Neil Flagg: The NBC Sports Mainstay Leaves an Industry Legacy in Sons Ross and Kevin

Neil Flagg, 81, who spent 15 years at NBC Sports and did everything from being a line producer to innovating with robotic cameras and eventually became a technical director and even a director, died Nov. 5 following an eight-month-long battle with cancer. He worked in television for more than 50 years, making a name for himself as someone who could tackle new challenges and problem-solve and always do it with humor and without compromise.

“He embraced new technology and made it work in ways no one else could,” says Ken Aagaard, former EVP, operations and production services, CBS, who worked with Flagg at NBC Sports and at WMAQ Chicago. “But more important than his unique tech accomplishments were his attitude and especially his sense of humor. He always made me laugh. I looked forward to hearing his raspy voice and funny one-liners. Neil was an accomplished engineer and director as time went on and an even better person.”

Neil Flagg (second row, center) with his sons Kevin (second row, left), Ross (second row, right) and wife Fran. Flagg died Nov. 5.

Born in Brooklyn, Flagg spent most of his teens and 20s in Miami Beach after his family moved there. Life in Miami Beach in the ’50s and ’60s shaped Neil’s colorful and theatrical personality.

By 1964, he had begun what would be a 50+-year career in television production. Around this time, he met Frances Weinman at the Peppermint Lounge in Florida, and the two were married in 1965. Three years later, with their first child, Kevin, on the way, Flagg accepted a job at WKBF Cleveland and moved the family north. A second son, Ross, arrived in 1970 and a daughter, Julie, in 1974.

It was in 1973 when Flagg’s professional life really took off. He accepted a job with NBC Sports in Chicago and relocated his family once again. During 15 years with NBC Sports, Flagg worked a wide range of events: NFL, MLB, college football, tennis, PGA golf, horse racing and more. He worked on Super Bowls, World Series, Sportsworld, Wimbledon, Breeders Cups, and the Seoul Olympics.

Along the way, he earned four Emmy Awards: 1979 Super Bowl XIII (for which he worked in graphics), 1986 World Series (as technical director), and two for 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics (technical director).

After leaving NBC Sports in 1987, Flagg continued working in sports while slowly moving into entertainment. He worked several NBA All-Star Games and NBA Finals for NHK/NBA Entertainment and served as line producer on the All-Madden Team Show for FOX Sports in 1993. He also worked with Fletcher Chicago, where he was instrumental in bringing the use of robotic cameras to live sports coverage.

Tom Fletcher, director, marketing, Optical Devices Division, FujiFilm North America, ran Fletcher Chicago, along with his father, and first met Flagg when NBC Sports had a field shop in Chicago in the late ’80s. “When we first held a seminar on the new remote-control–camera technology, Neil was one of the first people to sign up. He was always very forward-thinking.”

Both of Flagg’s sons recall watching NBC Sports’ NFL coverage and seeing their father’s name on TV. Explains Ross, “We would watch a random NFL game on a Sunday because we knew our dad was doing that game, and we watched all the way through to the end, just to see his name in the credits. It was like the biggest thrill for us when we were we were kids.”

He adds that his father would also take his three kids to work with him, a move that greatly influenced both sons: today, Ross is a technical director, and Kevin is a camera operator.

“He would take us down into the into the field shop and let us go into the trucks,” Ross says. “I just naturally gravitated toward sitting at a switcher. He would show me how to call up different wipes, and I would sit there and wipe from color bars to other things all day. My brother, of course, gravitated toward the cameras.”

Adds Kevin, “I loved hanging out with the camera guys, but my dad said he was terrible at running camera.”

As teenagers, Kevin and his brother worked as utilities on their father’s shows in Chicago, lugging cameras and pulling cables through the old Chicago Stadium. Both were hooked, although their father tried to dissuade them.

“When we were little kids,” says Kevin, “he would come to us and say, ‘Boys, don’t ever go into this business; it’s a terrible business. It’s nights, it’s weekends, it’s holidays. You’re away from your family. It’s lots of travel and I’ll see you next week and now I have to go to the Super Bowl or I’m going to be in Hawaii for a golf tournament. To us, that was just the coolest thing.”

Flagg also worked on the entertainment side of the business, including several seasons as technical director on American Gladiators, and in 1991 began a 13-year run on The Jenny Jones Show in Chicago. He was a technical director and had a chance to spend a lot of time working with Kevin, who was a camera operator on the show (Flagg was director of the show for its final three years). He also directed the launch of the The Sharon Osbourne Show in 2003 and worked alongside James Cameron on his 2005 show Last Mysteries of the Titanic.

When Flagg semi-retired following the Jenny Jones Show, he got to work with Ross and Kevin, serving as a stage manager on the occasional ESPN NBA broadcast.

“He did that until he was in his mid 70s,” says Kevin. “He would be glad-handing everyone in the compound and telling all his old stories. I can’t think of my job without thinking of him. Ross and I are very fortunate we could work with him.”

Flagg is survived by Fran; Kevin (and wife Jaimie), Ross, and Julie (and husband John); and grandchildren Madelyn, Jack, Molly, and Samantha.