Chet Coppock, sportscaster who got his flamboyant start in Indianapolis, dies after auto accident

Chet Coppock, the legendary and flamboyant sportscaster who changed the landscape of broadcasting in Indianapolis — wearing a signature full-length fur coat and injecting his sometimes-controversial opinion into every story — has died.

Coppock was in a car crash last week outside Hilton Head, S.C., and died Wednesday due to the injuries he sustained, his daughter wrote in a post on Facebook. He was 70 years old.

"His passing is untimely, unexpected and painfully sad," Lyndsey Coppock wrote, "but all we can do at this time is remember how lucky we were to have such a unique and creative trailblazer help shape (us) into the adults we know he was so incredibly proud of."

In Indianapolis, Coppock was known as the first loudmouth sportscaster, a former roller derby announcer who joined WISH-TV (Channel 8) in the early 1970s and left as sports director in 1981 for Chicago.

"Chet Coppock used to wear a big fur coat, go to sporting events and prance around. He did things to attract attention," said Mark Montieth, a writer for the Indiana Pacers. "He did that kind of thing that other locals weren't doing."

In an interview with the Indianapolis News in 1978, Coppock described himself as a "shake, rattle and roll" sportscaster. "I inject opinion into every story I do," he said at the time.

Later as a sports broadcaster in Chicago, back in the state where he was born and raised, he gave Indianapolis credit for launching his character.

"WISH helped me carve my entire broadcasting persona," he said in 2013, an inductee to the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame. "They let me be something Indianapolis had never had: a villain."

Bear wrestler, colorful, game changer

As a young boy, Montieth watched Coppock on television. He was so different from the other guys.

"He was a game-changer in the local media," Montieth said. "He was the guy who instead of just sitting at a desk and reading scores on the evening sportscast was just a lot more colorful."

For several seasons, Coppock would go to Pacers games at Market Square Arena and wrestle a bear. The crowds couldn't get enough of it.

Coppock, a graduate of Columbia College, was the first to read professional wrestling scores on air and that was fitting, Montieth said, because he was comparable to a pro wrestler.

"He was real cocky, real flamboyant," said Montieth, who did a one-on-one interview with Coppock in 2013. "I compared him to wrestler Gorgeous George."

He entered the ring with a splash. Coppock entered viewers' homes with that same splash. Coppock once described himself as "part professional wrestling, part carnival barker, part hustler and part journalist."

Former WISH-TV anchor Mike Ahern told IndyStar that Coppock changed "the whole framework of sportscasting" in Indianapolis, in an article after Coppock had moved to Chicago.

"I remember one time Coppock had a real glum look on his face," Ahern said. "I said, 'What's wrong?' He said, 'I can't understand it. I haven't received one piece of hate mail today."

in 1977, Bobby "Slick" Leonard brought Coppock on to help save the Pacers during a telethon. The team was struggling financially to stay afloat. The telethon was a success. 

Coppock was certainly a trailblazer in many ways, said Mark Patrick, who was a sports anchor for WISH-TV from 1990 to 1998.  

Patrick remembers Coppock would walk a circular pattern around the court during the Pacers’ games, wearing his full-length fur, waving to people.

"He was a master showman," Patrick said. "After Chet, all the rest were allowed to show much more personality."

Just a terrific guy

By 1980, Coppock's larger than life persona caught the attention of a bigger city. With an offer to be sports director at an NBC affiliate in Chicago, he went to WISH-TV to try to get out of a long-term contract he had signed just two years earlier. 

It became a bitter, 9-month battle between the station and Coppock, until someone bigger than both in Indiana stepped in.

Montieth said Coppock always said that it was IU basketball coach Bob Knight who eventually swayed the station.

"Knight said, 'If you don't let Chet go, I'm never going to talk to your station again,'" Montieth said.

The following year, as a 33-year-old rising star in Chicago at WMAQ-Channel 5, Coppock said he still felt some resentment for how it ended in Indianapolis. "But everything has worked out for the best," he said.

Coppock eventually segued into Chicago radio, where he retained his flashy and sometimes polarizing personality. He eventually earned the nickname the "Godfather of Sports Talk Radio."

"He would run around Chicago in a big giant SUV before people had SUVs in a full mink coat. He looked preposterous," said Kent Sterling, who lived in Chicago before coming to Indianapolis, where he has been a longtime sports media figure. "It was all about building a brand. It wasn’t he was an egomaniac. This was his brand."

And Coppock took issue with people thinking he was arrogant or egotistical. In a piece Sterling wrote for his website once in Indy, he made a reference to Coppock and his "all about me" ways.

Immediately, Sterling got a response from Coppock. "That's really not fair," he told Sterling. "Let me talk to you."

Fifteen minutes later, the two were on the phone having a conversation in which Sterling said Coppock "could not have been nicer." Through the years, the two chatted on social media and Coppock was always generous and supportive of what Sterling was doing in sports media.

"He was just a terrific guy," Sterling said.

Lyndsey Coppock said her father's last wishes were to have a memorial service for friends and family to reflect on good times and to laugh, sharing memories of the past. Details of those services have not yet been set, she said.

"Life is too short and you are never promised another day," she said. "Tell your friends and family you love them, you never know when your last moments with them will be. We love you, Dad, and we are so proud of you."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via e-mail: dbenbow@indystar.com.