Greetings to you, music lovers, thrill seekers, conversationalists, all across the fruited plain, Rush Limbaugh, the EIB network, Friday, live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
And when we get back to the phones, remember on Friday, the program is yours.
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Telephone numbers 800-282-2882.
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I am holding in my hand, in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, a copy of Jim Nance's Always by My Side, A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other.
I learned of this book back in January, February, actually, out at Pebble Beach.
Jim's with us now.
Jim, welcome to the EIB Network for the first time.
It's really great to have you here.
Well, Rush, it's the first time I've talked to you on the air.
Of course, we've spoken and emailed for a long time, for years, and off-the-air visited.
This is a thrill to be on the EIB Radio Network.
Well, it's likewise a thrill to have you here.
So many great things in this book, Jim, and it's so timely given the roiled circumstances in our culture.
Your book and your life, the relationship with your family, the way you've lived, provide an example to anybody that that's virtuous and still happens in this country and that it's rewarded.
Jim Nance, ladies and gentlemen, dreamed when he was a young boy, like all of us did, of being sportscasters someday.
My idol growing up was Harry Carrey and Jack Buck.
Wanted to be a sportscaster, never did it.
Jim Nance dreamed of being at CBS when he was a young boy, and now here he is for how many years now at CBS?
23, almost half my lifetime.
It was more than a dream.
It was almost bordering on an obsession.
I know that's a little bit of a strong word, but I had this crazy little idea at the age of 11.
I turned to my father watching the Masters tournament.
I declared it right there on the spot.
One day, I want to be one of those voices.
I want to be there telling the story of that great tournament and all these championships and sporting events around the world.
That's what I wanted to do.
And you've done it.
Well, and you've not just done it.
63-day stretch in 2007 from February through April.
You became the first broadcaster ever to call the Super Bowl the Final Four and the Masters.
Well, you know, that was something that no one had ever had the great fortune of being able to declare during the course of a career.
And I got to do all those events in two months.
It's a statement really about CBS having the stars align more than it has anything to do with any ability or talent on my part.
They just all ended up at my network, and I had a chance to make those championship journeys back to back to back.
It was very special.
You still did it.
And you've maintained your humility throughout all of this, which is unique.
Now, was it CBS because CBS had the Masters?
Was it the Masters that you wanted to do, or was it a combination of the two?
I think it was really the fact that CBS had the Masters, and even back then, they were in this long stretch, this wonderful relationship that is very old-fashioned.
And just the way that it's set up, it's always a one-year agreement.
And we're now, let's see, 53 years in a row of broadcasting that tournament on one-year agreements.
And so I'm a young man, and I just hear these stories by these gentlemen like Pat Summerall and Jack Whitaker, who were working the broadcast back in those days for CBS, and they were just waxing poetic, and I love their erudition about everything.
Beyond just the golf tournament itself, all their knowledge really struck me.
And I wanted to be one of those men, one of those voices that had this worldliness, if you will, and awareness and appreciation for all things, all cultures, all places and people.
One of the things I want to convey to the audience, Jim, is, and I mentioned this in an email to you about what we would do here today.
This book is a fantastic thing because you all have watched Jim Nance and you've heard Jim Nance for 23 years in some cases, but you don't know Jim Nance because Jim Nance is the best at what he does.
He never makes whatever event he's at about him.
He always makes sure that he brings the event to you.
And this book is an opportunity for people to get to know you, Jim, in a personal way.
And I want to tell people, if they ever get a chance to meet you, you are going to be exactly what they hope you would be from having known you on television all of these years.
And it's, you know, a lot of people meet people in prominent positions, primarily in media, and they want them to be what they see on TV, here on radio, and oftentimes they're not, but you are.
You're just as genuine and humble in person as you are on the air.
Let's start here at the beginning of your book because you're in Fort Worth and you're doing a golf tournament.
You're doing a colonial down there.
And your dad is with you.
And I'm jump-starting a little bit here, but this is, I think, the first time your dad is going to—not the first time, but that's the beginning of his illness that happened there.
And it was a very tragic thing.
And they didn't tell you about what actually happened to him until after the tournament, correct?
That's correct.
My father was 66 at the time, healthy, strapping, smart, self-made man who came out of a little town in North Carolina, a real entrepreneurial spirit about everything in his life, always wanted to better himself, always wanted to learn, live life like you do, Rush, with zest to the fullest, wanted to take it all in.
So he would often go out with me on the road to various sporting events, Final Fours, Masters.
In this case, it was the colonial tournament.
I thought he was overheated when he came to the tower as we're about to go on the air.
Ken Venturia is sitting by my side.
And something I could tell right away was terribly wrong.
What it was was he's actually suffering a stroke right before my very eyes.
Now we're going on the air and he's trying to make his way back to the clubhouse.
I didn't realize it was that desperate, but he collapsed at the base of my tower.
And what it really was, it was triggering the onset of Alzheimer's.
His life was never the same.
Now, I had been at the network 10 years.
Not only did I have this dream, and some may have called it far-fetched when I was a young boy, to work for CBS one day, but now it's happened.
And I have now dream part two.
And that is the one day I want my father to be with me every step of the way, traveling with me from sport to sport, seeing all the great championships that we have here in your country.
You wanted to do this as a team.
And he didn't want any part of that.
Well, you know, he was starting to kind of cede to it.
He initially would just kind of pass it off and say, we'll see, son.
You know, he maintained his independence.
But I really thought we were moving within a couple of years of that becoming a reality where I really could find purpose for him being on the road.
It's a busy life that's always in a different city every week and correspondence.
And otherwise, it's difficult to stay on top and manage things.
And I just could see as the only son, I could see that father and son, Bond, now transitioning to the point where even to this day, he would have been 79 years old.
And there I go again.
I'm talking about him in the past tense.
He's now 13 years deep in the darkened stage of Alzheimer's.
And he's still alive.
And I catch myself talking about him in the past tense.
And it crushes me.
But I could still see him out there today with me.
And that's why I took that backdrop last year, those three events, Super Bowl, Final Four, and Masters, and use that as the backdrop, As the place to kind of write about how this would have been the ultimate father's son sports road trip.
But I wanted to make this something like what you do, Rush.
You inspire people and you make things, you know, everything you have is a message.
And, you know, I wanted to really strike universal themes.
Faith, loyalty, love, family, relationships, optimism, courage, and grace.
And that's what the book really is.
It transcends.
It's not a sports book.
It's a book about love and relationships.
It is indeed.
Now, we've met your father here in this interview in his 60s.
Did he encourage you when you told him way back when you were a teenager that you wanted to work at CBS?
Rush, he made me believe anything I ever wanted to achieve in my life was attainable.
He made me believe I could do it.
He lifted me on his shoulders.
And actually, like people do with different things in life, whether they're playing golf or shooting a free throw or about to go in and make a speech, they visualize.
My father taught me the power of visualization.
And I, all through my teens, I envisioned this life.
I saw it.
I mean, there's no sense of entitlement at all, but I believed that one day it was going to happen.
So when I got the chance to audition for CBS years later at the age of 26, it was almost like I was just waiting for the script that I'd already written for life to kind of evolve and catch up with my script.
I felt totally comfortable and prepared and ready for that situation because in my mind, I played it out.
I knew one day it was going to arrive.
Your mom and dad make you feel special?
Oh, of course.
I mean, I was raised in just, you know, about as perfect of a home environment as you could ever imagine.
You know, my parents are very humble people.
My mom is still, she's talking about a hero, going strong and fit and active and smart and, you know, concerned with all things in the world.
And my father was always one with a curious mind and wanted me to get broader and wider than just worrying about who was winning a game.
He looked at the world of sports with a romance in his eyes.
He liked to learn about people who overcame things.
He wanted to watch sports to be taken to places and learn about cultures.
Back in the wide world of sports days, when Jim McKay was taking us to the Behind the Iron Curtain or to the Great Wall of China, he loved that.
And that's the way, alas, I look at the world of sports.
I'm not an agate-type ESPN sports center highlight, in-your-face kind of a sports fan.
I'm looking for something with a little more thought.
The life lessons.
Absolutely.
And that's the reason that people had said, man, you've got so many interesting people you've met in your life.
You ought to write a book about some of these events you do.
But to me, that's a trip that's an ego trip.
If I was going to write something, there had to be some important messages that would inspire all people.
Well, we'll talk about some of these people that you've met because you've met everybody in many realms, and they're all your friends.
This man's got more friends than anybody I know.
Jim Nance, Always by My Side, will continue after this.
And we're back, Rush Limbaugh, The Excellence in Broadcasting Network, and we resume our conversation with Jim Nance of CBS Sports, his terrific new book, Always By My Side, A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other.
There are a lot of names in this book.
You've met a lot of people.
President Bush 41 wrote the forward.
Yes, he did.
I didn't mean to come off like a name-dropper there, Rush.
No, no, I'll take care of that.
I can't.
I'm not good at name-driven.
And you say, I have a lot of friends.
I am blessed, and I count you as a very dear friend, and I treasure all my friendships.
My father was like that.
I opened my shows by saying hello, friends, and it's really a testament.
It's a tribute to my father because all he had in his life were friends.
And, you know, he treated everyone with such dignity and respect from all stations in life.
And when I went on that three-championship journey last year, you know, I had the intention, since my father couldn't be figuratively by my side, you know, I realized at that very point he would always be by my side.
I'd carry his spirit.
I'd find surrogates who could continue to inspire and guide me and promote the positives that dad stood for.
And no one more so than former President Bush.
To write the forward to this book meant a great deal to me, obviously, but his friendship and his guidance for the last 15 years, he really, it's just not some peripheral.
I know him a little bit on the side, met him at a few events.
I mean, he's very much part of my life.
I saw him just a couple of days ago.
I suspect he's probably listening right now because he knows I was going to be on your show, and I hope he's feeling a little bit better because he's been a little under the weather here in recent days.
And he wrote some things I was trying to get across in the book about father figures and people who overcome adversity that really, really hit home.
He wrote in the Ford, few of us will walk this earth and be untouched by tragedy.
And as the old saying goes, adversity has a way of introducing you to yourself.
How'd you meet him?
I met him just after he left office, the great city of Houston.
I heard you talking in the first hour about this ant infestation down in Houston, and it got my attention.
But the great city of Houston has lifted me on its shoulders and claimed me as their own.
I went to college down there.
Again, my parents live in Houston.
They've taken great pride in my career that not only did they give me a chance, at the age of 20, I was anchoring on the CBS affiliate there in Houston on weekend at the sports while still living in the dorm over on the University of Houston campus.
With who?
Who were your roommates?
With Fred Couples, Blaine McAllister, both of whom have had big tour careers, and John Horne, who was on the tour for one year back in the late 80s.
But Houston became the launching point.
They claim me.
They're proud of me.
And President Bush, of course, has Houston as a home, and he was well aware that there was this kid who had made it to the network.
His family had a little history there with CBS.
His father actually served on William Paley's first board at CBS.
So anyway, unrelated to that, the president put out enough feelers and vibes that he wanted to have a chance to meet.
And we did just after January 93 when he left office.
We met, we played golf, and this incredible friendship was spawned.
Frank Turkinian.
Frank Turkinian wants to know why you canceled your golf lesson from a couple of days ago out of the great Emerald Dunes.
Because I'm working.
Okay, now he said you desperately are in need of a lesson.
I know you're going out to the National Boys and Girls Club function next week, which is a great charity event.
But Mr. Turkinian, for those who don't know, is father of golf television, absolute legend in sports television.
Just, in fact, got the lifetime sports Emmy a few weeks ago in New York, and he was a father figure to me, and he gave me that tough love approach.
You know, when I first started, I was working with the likes of Summerall and Venturi, and some gentlemen I had been listening to and watching my whole life, I couldn't believe now I was their colleague, and I was throwing it from hole to hole by, let's go back to Pat, let's go back to Mr. Summerall.
Mr. Venturi, let me ask you this.
And finally, Frank, after a few shows, brought me into the office and just scolded me for, you don't call these guys Mr. This or that.
I had a lot of that tough love, but at first I wasn't seeing a lot of the love part of the deal.
You tell a funny story.
I guess your first tower assignment was at the 16th hole.
And my first master, yeah, Louis.
First Masters.
And it's very close to the green.
And you ask Frank, what do I say if somebody hits all-in-one here?
Yeah, I'm about to head out for the final round, what would turn out to be maybe the greatest day in the history of the game because Jack Nicholas would that day win his sixth green jacket.
So I was aware I'd watch the tournament forever, and I knew that back left hole location was vulnerable to a hole-in-one.
What should I say, Mr. Turkini, if someone makes a hole in one?
He said, son, this is a visual medium.
You say nothing.
Now, get out of my office and don't ever come in here and ask me a stupid question like that.
So I ran out to 16, and Jack almost knocked it in, you know, from the T, the ball.
I took a peek at the hole.
I couldn't get the words out, Rush.
I was so overwhelmed and overmatched.
And 26, not believing the network entrusted this weighty assignment with me.
And I said nothing after he hit the ball until about five minutes later when he knocked the putt in.
Now, Frank never cut away off the scene of Jack walking around the pond, up to the green, standing around, lining up his putt.
I couldn't talk.
My teeth were chattering.
I had chill bumps up and down my arms.
And thankfully, I wasn't on camera to paint this picture because it would have been an ugly sight.
In fact, I was concerned that the mic might be picking up my clicking molars as my teeth were chattering.
Finally, Jack makes the putt to tie the lead, and I somehow mustered up enough courage to say, The bear has come out of hibernation.
Sounding, of course, much more mature than my 26 young years.
And I was just trying to find a way, Rush, to get back invited back the next year.
I didn't want to be one and done and blow it right there.
Well, it turned out you had nothing to worry about.
Well, I didn't know it at the time.
I was consumed with self-doubt, believe me.
All right.
So you're a kid growing up and you're watching CBS.
You've got-I mean, you have to have idols.
You have to have people that inspired you.
And in spite of that, you have your own unique style.
You're nobody else.
What about Ray Scott?
Love Ray Scott.
And I heard you say Jack Buck and Harry Carey, two icons.
But Ray Scott was like the father of the NFL on CBS, if you will, those old Green Bay Packer days and the ultimate minimalist on the air, you know, star, dollar, touchdown, Green Bay.
I got to meet Mr. Scott early in my career, and he was so generous with his time.
He was retired living in Arizona, but really, the Ray Scott, Pav Summerall, Jim McKay, Jack Whitaker, Chris Shankle, Dick Inberg, Kurt Gowdy, did I say Shankle?
That whole group really represented the group that really drove me to want to be in this business, the impetus to make this declaration, I want to work for CBS, because they were always so smart, area about everything.
They didn't try to make the game about them.
They were there to tell the story.
It wasn't about the teller.
Do you know that I got hired again?
It was back in the mid-80s.
So, you know, all of them were alive at that time.
Now we've lost Mr. Gowdy and Mr. Schenkel, but they've all become a part of my life.
And I want to be a composite of all of them.
I want them all to feel invested in my career.
And for example, Chris Shankle, you remember Chris?
Yes.
Chris Shankle one time called me up, and they all call me up from time to time after a show.
And usually they say something like Mr. Whitaker called after the Masters this year and praised the opening to the Masters show as the best in the history of the tournament.
You know why they're doing that?
Because they know that you are preserving a tradition that is vanishing before their very eyes in terms of the way sports is brought into people's homes these days on television.
Do you have a couple more minutes I got to?
I would love to, right?
We'll be back and continue with Jim Nance.
Always by my side is his brand new book.
We'll be back, by the way, debuted on the New York Times list by the already.
We are in the midst of having a great time with Jim Nance, CBS Sports.
His book, Always By My Side, has debuted already on the upcoming New York Times bestseller list, A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other.
I'm really taken by what you said right before the break, and I had to cut you short.
But you talk about all these people who've come before you, Jim, and that you want to be a composite of them.
You know what?
One of the things that when we speak politically, the traditions, the institutions that have made this country great are worth preserving.
And that's what you're doing in your field.
And that's why all these people have such reverence for you is because you revered what they did and the ground that they broke.
And you're continuing that tradition against a whole lot of odds.
You know, as the media markets expand and get filled with niche broadcasters, you still are defining the right way to do it.
And that's why they're appreciative.
Think I'm lucky, Russian, that I got in just in time.
The industry definitely has changed, and everyone, I'm talking young broadcasters, come along today.
They really feel like they have to do something that's outlandish to make them stand out.
They have to say something provocative that maybe they don't even really truly believe in their heart.
And it's not really what their beliefs are, but they're going to sacrifice their beliefs for trying to do something to gain attention.
And I've just never tried to be anything other than who I am.
And it's interesting that sometimes it gets you in a little bit of trouble, the old-fashioned conservative approach to doing it.
But, you know, what are you in trouble?
Well, you know, like you go do a, let's just, well, since it recently happened, let's say you do the Masters Tournament, and, you know, there are some columnists.
I'm not, this is not a rant at all.
People are entitled to their opinion, but people sometimes don't get that sport.
They don't understand golf.
And in fact, I find the mainstream media to be incredibly anti-everything golf.
It's the easiest sport in the world to attack and all those who are associated with it.
So it becomes a breeding ground for ridicule.
So you can come on the air and you can try to wax poetic and do something that's lyrical and write something that is written in television form.
It's maybe not grammatically spot on.
Believe me, I have no grammarian in the world who has any issue with anything I say, but you write something and maybe it's got some drama to it.
And the person that's reading it or hearing it doesn't get it.
They don't understand the sport.
They don't understand what it's like to walk onto the grounds of Augusta.
And for me, it's the childhood dream.
I have chill bumps even to this day when I show up there every year.
So I don't look at the world through a prism of sarcasm.
Anything I do, I take things face on.
That's just, I tell you how I feel, and what you hear on the air is what I'm feeling.
I'm not going to try to fake it, create synthetic drama.
I'm just going to be myself.
They're just jealous, Jim.
I don't know about that.
Just jealous.
They wish they had what you had, including your talent.
You know, my father used to look at people and he treated everyone with such respect.
And he always believed that he would rather trust you face on and be disappointed, perhaps, down the road, be disappointed some of the time, rather than never to trust someone, never to believe in someone, and alas, be disappointed all the time.
So there's a big difference there.
And you try to replicate that philosophy to this day.
I do in everything that I do.
I mean, that's just the way I live my life.
I was raised that way.
I'm wired to do it.
I can confirm this.
You won't remember this, but this was a big deal to me.
It might have been my first or second ATT.
And it was, yeah, I was playing with Fuzzy Zeller, and it was Saturday morning before the Saturday round at Pebble, and we're on the putting green, and you and your crew are out there.
And I think this is actually, I might have seen you at a golf course in a way, but I think this is the first time we actually had a chance to talk.
And right then and there, you were taking people to an Italian restaurant somewhere outside of Pebble that night, and you invited me to go.
You didn't invite me.
You told me I was going.
And I had to fly back.
We weren't going to make the cut, and I had to fly back.
But it was the next year that I was there.
You invited me.
He had no idea who I was other than by reputation.
And it didn't matter.
I was going to his dinner.
And so that just, I think, will confirm for people that you see the best in everybody first and let them disappoint you.
One more sportscasting question based on all of these guys that have come before you and did not insert themselves into the event.
There's one big name who did, got away with it, Howard Cosell.
You know, in the last few months, I've met Howard Kosell's grandsons.
They actually live up my way here in Connecticut, and I have great admiration for them and for their grandfather.
And I read all of the three books that Howard authored.
And, you know, I thought he had a brilliant mind.
And I met him on a couple of occasions when I was in school at Houston.
And, you know, the first time I walked up very timidly and shook his hand and told him I wanted to be a broadcaster.
And, you know, I loved all things, ABC sports back in that golden age of sports television.
His wife, Emmy, was always with him.
And that struck me.
And I just thought that that meant a lot.
And I see that now as I'm someone that's living this life of the Road Warrior.
But just a few months later, the Houston Astros were playing, because I first met him at a football banquet.
Then I met him during the baseball playoffs.
He was doing some baseball work for ABC with Keith Jackson.
And I met him in Philadelphia.
And I walked over.
He says, you know, Emmy, that was his wife.
She's unfortunately gone as well.
He says, Emmy remembers you from down in Houston.
She's here.
Why don't you go over and say hello to her?
You made an impression on her, young man.
And I went over and I saw Emmy Kosell.
I walked over and introduced myself.
He said, I met you in Houston.
I couldn't believe it.
I mean, it's months later, and you think of all the thousands of people that he must have met.
And for some reason, he had later shared that with his wife.
They had discussed it, and he knew that she would still remember me as well.
I'll never forget that.
You know, I don't want to intrude on your space here, but I have a similar story.
When I was in Pittsburgh working for an ABC-owned and operated radio station, Cosell would come in when they had a Monday night game for the Steelers, and the next morning he would go into the radio station, which is KQV, and he would do his speaking of sports commentary.
And, of course, we would all make sure we were there to meet him.
Now, this is 1972.
About 1979, 79 or 80, he came into ABC with ABC to Kansas City when I was working for the Royals to do a game.
And I'm up in the press box where my assigned duties took place.
And he's down in the first base, before the gates are open.
He's down in the first base dugout, the Royals dugout, and he's pre-taping an opening, rehearsing it.
So I said, I got my courage up and went down there.
And I told him I'd met him in Pittsburgh.
Great to see you.
And he just, he was, his first reaction was Howard Kosell.
How dare you insult me, interrupt me when I'm in the middle of this preparation for this broadcast?
Now you expect me to remember you from Pittsburgh.
And then he totally changed after I'm sitting here quaking in my boots.
Of course I remember.
How are you?
Nice to see you.
You know, these guys, another name, two more names here.
Don Olmeyer, I didn't know that you knew Olmey.
I never associated Olmeyer with CBS.
Well, Olmeyer was the executive producer of NBC Sports when I was a college sophomore.
And along with my roommates, the ones we mentioned earlier, all professional golfers later to become, we marched out to the Houston Open on a school day, and there was the NBC compound, and they all said, hey, you ought to go ask him for a job.
They knew, of course, I had this crazy dream that one day I was going to work golf television or work sports for CBS.
I went over to Security Guard and asked for Don Olmeyer to please come out.
I'd like to have a word with him.
The guy said, may I ask him who wants to speak?
I said, yeah, tell him Jim Nance is here to see him.
About five minutes later, here comes Don Olmeyer with the security guard.
He says, I'm sorry, I'm looking for Jim Nance.
Suddenly, I realize I'm kind of in the middle of a bad college prank, but I introduced him to my roommates, and he said, how can I help you?
And I explained I was on the golf team, and I wanted to one day carve out a career in his field.
Is there any employment available this weekend?
What do you have in mind?
And one of the guys blurted out, he wants to be an announcer.
He said, well, he chuckled.
We have all the announcers we need this weekend.
But I'll tell you what, the compound's out here at 17.
The announcers have to park up by the clubhouse.
I could get you a job if you would volunteer.
I can't pay anything.
You could drive the announcers, shuttle them from the parking lot to the compound and to their towers for the broadcast.
Would you be interested in doing that?
Would I be interested in doing that?
I figured if I couldn't be on the air, hanging out with the announcers had to be the second biggest job.
So that got me really my end, to be honest.
The next week I did go work for him again up at the Byron Nelson tournament, and that was my start.
I started calling radio stations and got work off of that.
Now, see, now here's another life lesson, which is what you said sports has taught you and what it really still holds your interest today.
You've mentioned luck a number of times today in discussing your career, but luck is where preparation meets opportunity.
And whether it was a prank or not, you went up and asked for it.
Yes, absolutely right.
You know, there is something about persistence or perseverance or just thinking out of the box a little bit.
And you're right.
Luck often is the wrong word.
Good fortune maybe is a better description.
I have a friend that plays with you out at the AT ⁇ T, Don Lucas.
And he one time told me that I need to drop the luck thing a little bit and talk more about fortune because you do get these moments of fate, and then what are you going to do with them?
You know, it's like, Rush, I know you've talked about this many times, but take 41, for example.
41 has this friendship that develops with President Clinton through all their efforts for tsunami relief over in Southeast Asia and later Katrina relief.
Well, he calls me up one year at the Final Four in St. Louis and says, hey, Jimmy, I have a favor I need to ask.
Now, I know through experience that when President Bush Sr. says he's got a favor to ask, that means he's about to lay the biggest favor in the world on you.
So, sure, sir, how can I help you?
He said, well, you know, I've been traveling around the world here with President Clinton, and we've decided we want to do something that's never been done before.
We want to have like a like a social get-together.
And we don't want the media to know about it.
And I just want to make sure that President Clinton has a good time.
I don't want this thing to be political.
I don't want to talk about world issues.
My favor, I'm asking, would you consider being our intermediary?
Well, you know, you can assign me to go call a Super Bowl or host the Olympics or the Masters, what have you.
But to think that the first time they had this social setting for two days, which was the Reserve Walker's Point.
At Walker's Point.
To think that my father would have been aware of this.
This would have been something that he would have been the most proud of.
The fact that if this was history, in fact, that these two would get together for a quasi-vacation, that his son was the hand-chosen intermediary between two presidents and got invited back again the next year.
And the year after that, well, my goodness, in his eyes, that would have been his son's greatest accomplishment.
And, you know, in addition to all this, you're really a great friend because you permitted yourself to be in the photo.
You let them put you in the picture.
You got it in your book.
I think you're out on the president's boat.
Well, you know, the second year, President Bush called back for another favor and said, you know, we need a fourth this year to play golf.
I want it to be really fun for President Clinton.
Do you have any ideas?
I don't want anybody to travel too far to come here.
Listen, you got a lot of friends.
Anybody close by?
And I said, well, how about Tom Brady?
He said, you mean the New England Patriots quarterback?
I said, well, yes, sir.
He's just 90 miles down the road in Foxborough.
He's a good golfer.
I've got his number and, you know, a good friend.
I think he'd come up.
Do you really think Tom Brady would come up here and play golf with us?
I said, I don't know, sir.
Oh, see, President Bush, President Clinton.
I kind of like our chances.
He said, well, then, Jimmy, by all means, invite him.
So we got Tom Brady to come up the next year.
We had a glorious day of golf.
We played sixes where everybody got to play, you know, with one another and switch the bags around so you rode for six holes.
And I'm here to report to you the results, okay?
Yeah.
Bush Brady defeated Nance Clinton one up.
Bush Nance played Clinton Brady to a draw.
Brady's a scratch.
He is.
He shot 73 on the day.
Now, the last six holes is Brady puts his bag on the cart to ride with me the final six holes.
I turn to him and say, now, look, Tom, you've won three Super Bowls.
That's all well and good.
But there have been other guys who have won Super Bowls, okay?
You have a chance now to do something truly historic here.
And he's kind of laughing, giggling.
What's that?
I said, never in the history of our country have two former presidents, one of whom defeated the other, ever partnered up on a golf course to take on just, you know, two guys off the street.
We have a chance to make history here today.
Well, suddenly, you know, there was a perceptible change in Tom's gaze.
He suddenly looked like that quarterback on those rare occasions trying to lead his team down the field when the Patriots are trailing in the fourth quarter, and we defeated Bush Clinton over the last six holes.
Five up.
Five up as this.
As we're coming up the 18th, Clinton looks over at us, slump-shouldered and rasped.
Boy, you guys sure don't take it easy on a couple of old presidents, do you?
And I responded, welcome to the National Football League, Mr. President.
A couple of guys off the street.
Okay, look, I have to take a break.
I'm a little longer.
I got one more question to ask.
Do we have time for it?
Jim Nance, always by my side is the book, Father's Grace, Sports Journey, Unlike Any Other.
Be right back.
Back to our final moments with Jim Nance, whose new book is out already on the New York Times bestseller list.
Always by my side.
That doesn't mean don't get it.
Just telling you how widely popularly received it already has been.
Always by my side, a father's grace and sports journey unlike any other.
Jim, just a couple minutes here.
You have a unique ability here to keep your childlike appreciation for what you do despite all of these people that you have met.
And by the way, I've got emails from people saying Jim Nance for president.
I've got people.
I like the sound of that, Rush.
I've got to tell you, well, go ahead.
You've got a question, but I'd like to talk about politics because I would love to one day maybe even think about it.
Go ahead.
Okay.
The real question I want to know here is tell us something about Tiger Woods.
And I got one broadcasting question after that.
Tell us something about Tiger Woods we don't know.
Well, Tiger, you see the game face.
You know the focus stories about how he's locked in and how he can walk right past a guy like Jack Nicholas, the very man he wants to break every record that Jack holds.
But it's just part of this genius that his father instilled in him.
I one time got him beyond the game face, if you will.
He was coming up into my tower to be interviewed.
He graciously accepted, and my daughter, Caroline, was just five years old at the time, and she was all excited.
She was going to meet the great Tiger Woods.
And I told Tiger on the way up to the towers.
We're climbing the steps, my daughter Caroline's going to be up there.
She wants to, she just can't wait to meet you, Tiger.
So we walk in, and everyone's pointing and like giving me the shh.
They're pointing underneath the chair.
So, oh, I get it.
She's playing kind of a hide-and-seek thing here, and she's just nervous, as all kids are, about meeting some superstar celebrity.
So Tiger instantly breaks into the game.
He drops his voice down to like a childlike cadence, and he's saying, I thought I was going to see Caroline up here.
This is why I came here.
Caroline, where are you?
Are you over here?
He pushes back some curtains.
No, she's not there.
Being very theatrical about it, all the while, of course, knowing she's curled up in a ball underneath this one given chair.
Goes to another place.
Is she here?
No.
Gets down on all fours and crawls over to the chair.
Oh, there you are, peekaboo.
I'm Tiger.
Come on out.
Let's play.
I wanted to meet you.
And I just thought, what a wonderful snapshot, you know, of Tiger Woods, the tiger we so seldom get to see because everybody in the world's trying to get into that world and trying to get to be a part of his universe.
And it was just a lovely impromptu moment.
Jim, you've led a remarkable life.
You have one of the most solid foundations that a human being could have.
I think it's fabulous that you've written the book to share that with people because it's inspirational.
You have been fabulous in this hour.
I thank you so much for the time.
Looking forward to see you on Tuesday out at Torrey Pines.
Have a wonderful weekend.
And again, wish we had more time because I got people still wanting to know if you had to get rid of your Connecticut accent.
I'll find out.
I'll find out about that.
I'll tell them next week whenever you tell me.
But again, thanks for the time and all the best.
I'm so grateful, Rush, for the time to talk to you.
And you're just a great friend.
Thanks so much for having me on today.
You bet.
Jim Nance always by my side.
You've just heard maybe about 30 pages of this book in this interview just now.
We'll be back and continue right after this.
Don't go.
It's Open Line Friday, and we'll get back to your phone calls as soon as our top of the hour time out.
Once again, thanks to Jim Nance for the full hour.
Just fascinating insight.
So great because people don't get to know him in the course of him doing his job.