Best Of Query & Company - Wedneday 9/24/25

Today’s Best of Features:

(00:00-17:20) – Bill Benner joins the show to discuss the impact Nancy had on him, the impact she had on professional sports, hopes that people will pass on the story of Nancy Leonard being the reason that the Pacers and Fever are here, and shares some stories that he will always cherish.

(17:20-37:28) – Pacers radio broadcaster, Mark Boyle, joins the show to discuss the partnership between Slick Leonard and Nancy Leonard, believes that downtown Indianapolis would not be what it is today without Nancy Leonard keeping the Pacers franchise alive, his understanding on how Nancy was respected when she was in the front office in the early stages of the franchise, and his relationship with the Leonard’s over the years.

(37:28-52:14) – Kevin Pritchard, President of Basketball Operations for the Indiana Pacers, rounds out the second hour of the show by discussing the impact Nancy Leonard had on him, shares what he remembers watching the telethon, the joy that Nancy Leonard had with the team no matter if they were winning or losing, and reacts to a suggestion on what number should be associated with here in the rafters.

(52:14-1:08:48) – Indianapolis historian, author, and former Pacers writer, Mark Montieth joins Query & Company to share some stories about Nancy Leonard. Mark tells the story as to how the infamous telethon was put together, how she convinced Darnel Hillman to participate in the first ever dunk contest, and discusses her relationship with Slick Leonard.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of those who knew Nancy and was able to
see the crossbreed not only from a sports standpoint, but
from the business standpoint as well. He is in the
Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. He went on to become,
of course, a vice president for the Indiana Pacers. Bill Binner,
who also worked for the Indiana Sports Corps a number
of different capacities, saw the impact of Nancy Leonard joining
me on the show today, Bill, let me begin by

(00:23):
saying my condolences to you, as I know that Nancy
Leonard was somebody that you were close to, but I
don't think that it is possible for us even in
the next three hours, next three weeks, to talk about
the incredible impact she had on this city.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, Jake, first of all, I'm honored that you would
have me on to talk about Nancy the Leondard legacy.
I always called her as our friendship grew over the years,
always research to as the first Lady, and that was

(00:59):
our little thing that we had going between us because
she was and I put on a Facebook post, she was,
She's She's royalty, She's Indiana Royalty.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
And everything you've just gone through in this history lesson
is so accurate and so profound because without without that
Nancy's business acumen, without her being Slick's lifelong partner and
managing Slick, which took some took some doing from time

(01:36):
to time, without her influence on the Pacers and their
survival through the telephone, to the to the telethon, I
don't think it's too strong to say that Indianapolis might
not have evolved into the sports city that it is today.

(01:57):
And for all the things he just mentioned, the fever,
the Colts, the Pacers eventual success beginning with the Bunty
Walls Shars, but just our mere survival back in nineteen
seventy seven, I was the beat writer back for the
Facers during the telethon days during their transition to the NBA,

(02:20):
and certainly I was aware of the incredible financial difficulties
that the franchise faced as it transitioned into the NBA,
and the impact of that telethon. Had that night gone through,
you could make the case, Jake, as you just have

(02:41):
so convincingly that our amateur sports movement, our attraction of
the Colts, our building of the Hoosier Dome, or an
eventual attraction of the NCAA and certainly the future of
the pacers. All of that might not have taken place,
or had it taken place, it would have come in

(03:03):
a much more much slower pace and perhaps scale. So
you can trace it all back to that, Yeah, that
that business clash back back in Indiana University in nineteen
fifty two. It was just just a phenomenal couple, uh,

(03:27):
and she was a phenomenal person. I got to say
one more thing, Uh. One of my best memories of Nancy,
she was part of they called it Murderer's Row and
was her and uh Paul Frinskin's life and Jane Hammilgard's wife,
Gena and Gina and food they were on. Their food

(03:52):
was the timer and Gene was on the scores table,
and their whine lives Fernski and nev One Himergarden Nancy
for murderers Row, and they would they would hold nothing
back uh during the UH to call out the officiating
during the formative ABA days. And so I remember them

(04:16):
so fondly. And again Nancy Slick and became fast friends
of ours. The part of the again just foundational aspects
of the pieces franchise and everything that we are Indianapolis,
Indianapolis today, and so, Jake, I so appreciate what you

(04:37):
just did recalling the history of Nancy's profound impact on
on one is evolved.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Bill. I think one of the things, Bill Benner is
my guest here as we remember Nancy Leonard today, one
of the things I think, and I wanted to have
you on because you know, admittedly, Bill, a lot of
what I can opine share recall is going to be secondhand,
you know some of it. I mean, sure I met

(05:05):
Nancy Leonard, Sure I knew her, but it would be
disingenuous to say that I had the relationship of say
yourself or Mark Boyle, who will be on later, or
Mark Monteith, or you know, Darnelle Hillman, for example, who
we may talk to later in the week. And I
certainly understand that a lot of people are grieving today
as well. But one of the aspects of it that
I wanted to to ask you about, or ask you

(05:25):
to expand upon, perhaps, and I mean this in the
most positive of ways, there was a level of endearment.
And you tell me if this is accurate. There was
a level of endearment about this fact, and that is
that you know, Slick Leonard grew into and became, of course,
this this gruff but loving character that was, you know,
just a huge figure within the game of basketball and

(05:48):
a larger than life personality in many many ways. But
to accomplish a lot of what he did was to
be kept in check. And there was one person that
he virtually and I'm gonna say feared, for lack of
a better phrase, but that he made sure that he
always stayed in line with, and that he when there

(06:09):
were decisions to be made or things to be done,
that he always ran it past or basically checked off with.
And that was Nancy Leonard. She was the one person
that could not only usurp him but also keep him
in line with things, and that combination became as powerful

(06:29):
a force as anything that we've seen from a business
standpoint in this town. Now, I want you to tell
me if that's inaccurate.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
That is absolutely one hundred percent correct. He both loved
Nancy to the absolute in degree. There isn't all but
the fear there for Slick. You know, he would often
have a few beers postgame and then Nancy would drive

(06:58):
him home and Slick would rant, especially if they've lost
he would he would rant all the way home and
uh and Nancy would absorb that and she would direct him,
uh and she would calm him when chikun. But that
that pairing, the Leonard pairing, Uh, they both made each

(07:23):
other so much better in so many many ways. And
that effect went beyond their own relationship, to the relationship
of the paces, to the relationship of the paces to
the city, to the relationship of basketball in the state
of Indiana. I mean, it had so many levels. And

(07:44):
absolutely Jake Nancy was core to keeping Slick being Slick,
the slick that he had to be, the slick that
he was, but also also standing off those those rough
edges learned they needed to be standing off and sometimes
they needed to be grated off because that was that

(08:07):
was Slick's uh sweet personality. Yeah, he slicked fair Nola.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
That he he did.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
He did fair Nancy, and it was it was a
good thing that he did, because she she she would
keep him in his place. And all the time she
was doing that, she was raising the family. She was
raising a wonderful, great, great family. Uh. And she was
becoming friends to so many and she was championing others.

(08:39):
I'll give you Another female uh uh, great female later
leader that Nancy Letter helped create and create the platform
was Sandy Knapp, the first president of the Indiana Sports Corporation.
Sandy was working for the Pacers and working alongside Nancy,
and Nancy created the avenue for Sandy Nap to become

(09:02):
one of the great leaders not only in Innapolis English sports,
but in American amateur sports. And a female for runner,
and that's again let's go back to Nancy was a
female for runner. She was assistant general manager running the
entire business operation of an NBA franchise when that simply

(09:23):
didn't happen, That simply didn't happen back in nineteen seventy six.
In nineteen seventy seven, she was the one, and purposely
she kept herself in the background because it was never
about Nancy. It was always about the Pacers, the franchise
and doing whatever she could to help make that a

(09:48):
better franchise. And then in selects later years, you know,
when he became a Boil sidekick and did the radio
on television work, and Nancy was steadfast, steadfast as his
number one supporter, his number one fan, and just a

(10:09):
face of the franchise.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
Again.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
I always every time my last step with Facers the
last seven seasons, I was always so honored to Great
Slick and Nancy when they came down the tunnel and
parked the car and got out, and I would always
give her a hug and greet her as the first lady.
And she would always smile and only the way she could,

(10:31):
and give me a hug back and say, old Bill,
you're You're just so nice to call me that. And
I said, Nancy, I call you that because it's true,
you're the first lady.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Bill. Let me ask you. Bill Benner is my guest
as we reflect on Nancy Leonard, who the announcement this
morning that she passed away at the age of ninety three. Bill,
in this town, you know, you are, like myself, native
to Indianapolis. You from the far south side at Center
Grove area, and you know your brother David obviously worked

(11:03):
at the newspaper, worked for the Pacers. You are rooted
in this town. And if anybody has you know the
the validity of your Hoosier root goes to the fact
that you've sat through twenty four and sixty five dreadful
Indiana football games to which you're finally being rewarded. But
but when you think about the evolution of this city,

(11:25):
one of the things to me that is special, and
it truly is special. All of the sports properties here,
you know, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway pays tribute to its legends.
The Indianapolis Colts has the Ring of Honor in which
you know, Jim Mersey has gone in, but so too
the players and the executives before that, you know, that

(11:47):
have helped shape the last forty years of football here.
And the Pacers having Nancy Leonard sitting behind the bench
at every game, continuing to give her tickets, doing the
same for you know, Donnie Walsh. The all of the
different organizations in town have great respect and pay great

(12:09):
respect to their pillars. And so I'm curious, in your opinion,
as somebody who grew up here, that generosity, that appreciation,
that respect, is that because it's who we are as
a people, or is it because it's the people that
deem that respect from us.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Boy, that's a that's a that's a great you know,
that's a great question, Jake, And I think I think
it it comes from our We have a certain humility
here and we've always had a Yeah, I don't want
to call it, I don't want to use naptown. But

(12:50):
we've always had a certain self awareness of who we are,
how we got there, and what we've become. And I
hope again, as an old guy, I hope we never
lose sight of the fact of the people who had
the vision to buy into an ABA, create create an

(13:15):
American Basketball Association, and then create the flagship franchise of
the American Basketball Association, and then had the dumption to
make the financial considerations to advance that franchise into the
National Basketball Association. Are true, not discarding the Indianapolis Olympians, but

(13:37):
our truly first step into the realm of major professional sports.
And so we can't ever forget those pillars, as you
say in Nancy Leonard and Slick Leonard, certainly among those pillars,
Dick Tinkham, Mike Storn, you can go back to those

(13:58):
who had the vision of the of the Indian Pacers,
certainly bomb Usay and Jim Irsay, Jim Morris and Ted
Bohm and that group.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Who we'd be remiss if we didn't mention as well
the Schumacher family and what they've done from downtown Indianapolis
and Victory Field and the Indianapolis Indians, which are a
staple of who we are. There are just so many right.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
And the Homely family.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
I mean again, it's all part of who we were,
who we are and what we've become.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
You know it.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
I've said this so many times to so many groups.
We're one, We're one of the great Americans success success stories, Indianapolis,
the Indianapolis and I grew up indian No place remember
that down oh yeah?

Speaker 4 (14:46):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
And to see what we've evolved into and reflected as
the things you just mentioned, the Indiana fever uh, the
Indianapolis cults uh, the Indiana Pacers making that magic run
to the seventh game of the NBA Finals, the Indianapolis
Motter Speedway, and the Indians being one of the top

(15:09):
deep not the top triple life franchises in all in baseball.
I mean, all of these things that we've seen are
the results of those people such as the Letards, such
as the people we've mentioned, who had the vision, the
gumption to say, this is not who we are, this

(15:31):
is who we're going to be, and we're going to
get there. And I'm blessed to have I'm so blessed
to have lived through it, to have written about it
during my time at the Star, and then to have
participated in it during my time with in the second
half of my career with the Sports corporate with Visit

(15:55):
India and Horizon League, and then pat some sports entertainment.
I am so us two have had my lifespan encompassed
the city's lifespan as it evolved.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
And Nancy Leonard a huge part of that. The Simon
family and Pacer Sports and Entertainment have issued statement as well.
We will get to that just a couple of minutes
from now, But Bill, I certainly sincerely want to thank
you today for being able to come on on what
is again, I know, a difficult day, but at the
same time and I see it as a day of celebration.
It's a day to celebrate who we are and what

(16:28):
we are. And Nancy Leonard was the best of all
of us, certainly from a vision standpoint of this town,
and I appreciate you being able to expand on that today.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Well, thanks again, Jake, I'm honored that you would you
would have me on and again, Nancy was such a
beloved Nancy an Slick. We're such beloved friends of sharing
and I and you know, I'm heartbroken, but I'm happy
that she's she's there with Slick and my brother and
Jim Morris and her and Melson and all those who

(17:02):
have played a role in the.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
Pace of franchise.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
And again, it's a tough day, but I'm happy for
her in that respect.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Bill, I appreciate it. Be well, all right, we'll talk
to you soon. Thanks, Jake, Bill Betner joining me on
the program. Of course, Slick Leonard went beyond being a coach.
He went into broadcasting. He was the broadcast partner of
our next guest, who is the radio voice of the
Indiana Pacers, Mark Boyle, joining me on the program. And Mark,
I will bring you on with the same thing that

(17:34):
I had said to Bill Benner, and that is that
I do offer condolences because it would be my assumption
that Nancy Leonard was someone who was very on a
personal level, special and close to you. But I also
appreciate your time today in being able to reflect upon
and champion her.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
I appreciate that, And having heard your comments before I
came on, I will say this, you don't need me
to be your guest. You've already said it perfectly. Downtown
would not be again, in my opinion, would not be
what it is. Would the Colts be here? Maybe yes,
maybe know when I'm here for the eighty eight eighty
nine season, there was a big giant hole in the

(18:12):
ground where them ma all is now. Downtown was dead.
One of the differences. And this is just a microcosm
back in the day when I came into the NBA.
The guys that came in from the other teams Indianapolis
really now they look forward to coming. There's stuff to do,
there's interesting venues, be at restaurants, be at bars, be

(18:33):
it whatever you like. And it's one of the more
particularly for a town this size, it's one of the
more vibrant towns in the entire league. Guys like coming
here now. And I would never be even with my
own bias, I would never be so bold as to
say that's because of Slick and Nancy. But there's certainly
key figures in that whole transition.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Well, and I want to go back to in Bill
and I talked about this mark, but I think you
would be you could offer a very unique perspective. You're
almost perhaps one that is isolated to just you, and
that is in terms of from the business aspect of it,
in seeing you Slick as the broadcaster and as your
partner for so many years on the radio, the significance

(19:17):
of Nancy Leonard being behind him as a stabilizing but
also driving force into each area and aspect with which
he ventured in his professional career. I would hope that
people are aware of that, but I don't think that
we can overstate her impact on Slick and the way

(19:37):
that he admired, looked up to, and loved her. And
I was hoping that you could expand upon that.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Well, it is technically accurate to say that Nancy was
Slick's wife and then Slick was Antsy's husband, both true statements,
but only to scratch the service of the entire equation.
They were partners, and where Slick was not necessarily strong,
Nancy was to say that she was the driving force

(20:05):
behind Slick, I think would be a little bit not insulting,
it would be a little bit too dismissive of Slick.
He was a strong person on his own and a
vibrant personality and a big factor in what he did
and the people he influenced. But there's no question Nancy
was his part, his equal, and they were a great team.

(20:26):
They were together for over sixty years, and they were
such a perfect fit. Two great people who welcomed everybody
into their orbit, and they didn't have to, but they did.
They cared not just about each other and their family,
and not just about the Pacers either. They cared about
the city, they cared about the state, and they were

(20:48):
influent in so many ways. I don't know that you
could actually quantify the difference they made or even make
an all encompassing statement, but I think on a general level,
it's safe to say that they were a great partnership
and two really wonderful people whose impact will never ever
be forgotten.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
Of course, that partnership began, as I mentioned earlier in
nineteen fifty, in the fall of nineteen fifty at Indiana University,
when Bob Leonard as he was known then obviously the
promising basketball star from Terre Haute, and then Nancy being
from South Bend, and they met in I believe it
was a health class when they began dating, and then

(21:26):
the relationship, as Marca just mentioned, went on for you know,
sixty years. Beyond that, the aspect, Mark, and I guess
the unique factor of Nancy. And I know that this
was before your time here, but Nancy Leonard being a
basketball executive in the early NBA years, in particular for

(21:49):
the Pacers from nineteen seventy six to nineteen eighty by
definition the assistant general manager. But you know, being there
and involved in it, there had to be a strength there,
did there not, just based on the fact that it
was not necessarily at that time common to see a
woman in an executive role. But yet, while I was

(22:10):
not around, it is my understanding that she had instant
respect from those that worked around her. Is that also
your understanding?

Speaker 3 (22:17):
It's my understanding, But like you, I wasn't here then,
but I ansay this. She was in the front office
of a professional basketball team at a time when the
only women around professionals were in the stands. Right now,
we have women in the front office, we have women coaching,
as it should have been forever. But progress is slow.

(22:38):
She was a pioneer, and I can't even begin to
imagine how difficult it must have been to be the
only woman. First of all, men I think probably looked
down on her, which made her job more difficult, and
that was in the days of sports. NBA included their corporations.
Now we have several hundred people, for example, looking for

(23:00):
the Pacers, But back in those days, the front office
was three or four people and they had to do everything. Now,
there wasn't some of the influence that we have now.
There was no digital marketing was essentially non existent. It
was just trying to get sponsors and ticket holders. That
doesn't diminish what she did, especially as the first female
she assumed such a position. But there's one example of

(23:23):
the influence that she had and that Slick had, because
Slick was the one that put her into the front office.
It's I guess it's stuck there from the public perception,
but it's so much more significant and so deeper than
that that it's you know, we could talk about it
for hours and still only scratch the surface mark.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
In terms of Nancy Leonard, Mark Boyles, my guest, the
radio play by play voice, of course, said the Indiana
Pacers Nancy Leonard. The news coming this morning from the
Leonard family that she passed away at the age of
ninety three. In terms of this, you know, this past
spring and summer and the run that the Pacers had,
and you know it was special to see Miles Turner

(24:02):
go down and immediately hug Nancy Leonard when they won
the Eastern Conference and Tyre's Haliburton today paying tribute on
social media and posting a video of him embracing her
as well. What was the actual, I guess, timeline of
how when a player would come to Indiana, how it
would come to be that they would become aware of

(24:25):
Nancy Leonard? It was it just the fact that she
was at every game, and it's kind of inevitable that
you understand who that is or was she introduced to
different players as they came along. Are you aware of
perhaps just how those relationships formed.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Well, they were formed differently over the court time. Now,
when I came, Slick was doing television and then he
started doing radio with me. The point is though, that
he was around all time, he traveled with us. He
got to know the players who considered him as a
father or a grandfather at various advents they meet Nancy.

(25:00):
It's different now Slick has passed. We have players on
this team whenever met Slick, and I wouldn't be surprised
if we have players on the team who don't know
who Nancy is. That's just generational. But the way it
started was Slick was far more intimately involved as a broadcaster,
and he knew everybody, all the players, all the coaches.
I still smile when I think about some of the

(25:20):
cards on the plane where he'd be the oldest guy
there and he was taking their money like they were
ATMs and Chuck Paul Socket, and he took their money,
but they still loved him. He was just that kind
of guy. He warm and welcome to everyone, and Nancy
the same, although on a lower profile level as far

(25:41):
as the players are concerned. But you saw it with
Tyrese and Miles if you use an example in the playoffs,
the current roster of guys that did know her obviously
accepted her as part of a family. And that's something
when she's in their nineties and they're in their twenties.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
By the way, it was card games on an airplane.
How Slick got his name right.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yes, And there's a bit of a misnomer about that.
My impression is the common wisdom is that the nickname
Slick was given to him by hot Rod Huntley, who
was his roommate with the Lakers and then went on
to be a broadcaster for the Lakers and the Jazz.
But Slick told me that that name was given to
him by George Micah. I think he was the coach

(26:23):
of the Lakers at the time when Slick was playing,
and they weren't a card game, and according to Slick,
George said, man, you're just too slick for me, and
it stuck. So I'll bet you there's a whole bunch
of people that when we say Bobby Leonard, they don't
even know who that is.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah, right, yeah, correct, And you know you are correct
Mark in the fact that the variation or the alternate
version of that story is that he was playing a
card game and that hot Rod Huntley was the one
that warned somebody like, hey, don't don't don't get too
playing too far with that guy because he's too slick,

(26:58):
you know. So I listen, you'd have to go with
if Slick says it's Mike and then it's Mike, and right,
I mean, that's the version you got to go with.
If that's Slick's variation of it.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
Right, If Slick said God gave him the nickname, I'm
buying that tells me something.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Fair enough, right. So Mark Boyle is our guest. We're
talking about Nancy Leonard and her impact on not you know,
the Pacers obviously, And and Mark, you began doing radio
with Slick in what year?

Speaker 3 (27:31):
Well, I worked with Clark Kellogg my first year and
then I worked solo for seven years. That they would
always give me a guy in the playoffs. So I
had Billy Keller, I had George McGinnis, I had Ceasting,
I had Slick one time. And then the first time
the Pacers made a playoff run was ninety three ninety four.
Slick was my guy. I'd worked solo the whole season.

(27:53):
He was my playoff guy, and the Pacers made a
long run and they decided they liked sound, and then
he was my guy. Although at the end he mostly
either did it remotely or just home games as his
health started to fail. But we were together in some way,
shape or form for almost thirty years.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
And during that time. In those thirty years, you know,
obviously Nancy Leonard was coming to the games and was
you know, for the better part of assuming that her
health would be good. She was ubiquitous down at games beforehand,
and those sorts of things. What did your personal relationship become,
not just with Slick but also with Nancy as well,

(28:35):
because you mentioned you know they were partners. How did
they I guess impact you.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Well, this isn't the whole story, but I'll give you
a story that illustrates the relationship. When I came here,
I've been here for thirty seven years. But when I
came here and I was working my way to this
point in my career, I had seven jobs my first
nine years. Now each one was better, but I was
very trans so I signed on for two years. I

(29:02):
figured I'd stay and then move on to something else.
And from the day I met Slick, you always used
to tell me you got to own the ground you
live on. Well, I'm not building a house here. After
seven or eight years, I decided maybe I'd be here
for a while, so I decided to build a house.
Nancy was my real estate agent. Their son Tommy built

(29:23):
my house. So that's an illustration of how far I
go back with the lesson. And by the way, Nancy
was the greatest real estate agent ever because she was
like a tiger. If you went into the cage with
her and you were properly armed, you were going to
get eaten. She was your advocate. I didn't even need attention.

(29:43):
She just handled everything. That's how she was. She was determined,
she was smart, She thought of all the angles. She
was just a really fantastic person. And beyond that, she
was smart, she was intuitive. I can't even think of
enough positive terms to stick next to her name, because

(30:05):
he is just magnificent.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Well, and she marked in that what you'd mentioned, you know.
I know that when when Slick Leonard, for example, began
working for HERF Jones and they were living in Kokomo,
she was I think working at the local high school,
you know. But in addition to that, she really helped
him out. And again to your point, I don't want

(30:27):
to under sell Slick Leonard's intellect by any stretch of
the imagination. You don't, you know, run an organization from
a coaching standpoint and win the number of games he
did by being a dummy. I mean, obviously the guy
was a smart guy, but from the business intuitive nature
of this is how things need to be done. Maybe
she wasn't the one that strong armed him in that regard,

(30:49):
but certainly was there to assist him in that regard.
Fair statement, you.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Know I'm not there for those conversations. That seems fair
to me. And I know that he held her advice
and counsel and the highest possible esteem. So I'm certain
even though I wasn't there for those conversations, I'm quite
certain that you're onto something.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Mark when you you know the summertimes oftentime in the
off season, and this year the off season was much
shorter than in years past for the obvious reasons. But
you have always found different ways to fill the time,
whether it be going in broadcasting minor league baseball, whether
it be walking around the state raising money. You have
spent your time this offseason doing exactly.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
What, going to bed at night and hoping I wake
up in the morning.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
That's I quoted down the years, I guess right, that's listen, listen.
That seems like lofty goals each day, right.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
Well, you get the loftier they are.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Yeah, yeah, I mean. And here's the other thing. What
better reward each morning than to know you you succeeded
another day?

Speaker 4 (31:54):
Right?

Speaker 3 (31:55):
Well, I've been really blessed with genetics and such so
that I literally but almost never gets sick. Now I'm
at the age and this happened to me the summer.
I got shingles, and at first then but like three
days and I thought, okay, this is it. I'm glad
I have my will written. I'm dying.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
I listen, I've heard and I'm not trying to make
light of it. I when I turned fifty, you know,
they're like, you got to get the shingles. It's a
two shot vaccine, and the second one was I mean,
it was pretty brutal. And then people said to me
that have had shingles, well, listen, that's better than the alternative.
Because I hear it's grueling, it's brutal.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
I can't really compare it because I've had it time
and I don't know how extreme it gets. But it's
not pleasant. I can tell you that. And I will
tell you this. You're on a good piece of land there.
Because I had chicken pox as a kid. I got
those vaccinations. And when I went in, when I realized
I had to go to my doctor, he said, I'm

(32:54):
surprised only three percent of the people and your circumstances
get it. I said, well, thanks, man, that doesn't really
help me.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Listen, there is no reason for you to buy a
Powerball ticket ever again, because you just spent all your
your odds, right.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Oh yeah, so is the at least for me, I
still feel great. I still have my health, and I'm
there's no day where I don't feel fortunate a for
that and be to have this job and see for
the people I work with and all of the other
things that are associated with that. But the reality is this.
I used to joke when I was a kid, not

(33:29):
a child, but in my twenties, I've always been Jake.
I've always been so forgetful, and I always joke with
my friends man, if I ever dementia, I'm not even
gonna know. Well, now when I forget something, it's, oh
my god, Dementia's.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Listen, it's I there's You've never said anything in your
radio career that is more relatable to me than that, right,
it is. Every day it's oh my gosh, you know.
And here's the other thing with me, Mark, Mark, I
think that I'm cursed by it because everyone has told

(34:04):
me my entire life what a phenomenal memory I have,
and I'm like, shut up, don't chinse it?

Speaker 4 (34:09):
Right?

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Yeah, well I never had that phenomenal memory. It was
good enough to get me where I needed to go.
But if you talk to anybody I've traveled with, even
back to my first years here, Remember the time Mark
left his keys in Chicago. Remember the time he forgot
that suit in New York. Yeah, well I always forget stuff,
and so that's standard operating procedure for me. But the

(34:31):
point I'm making here is that the older you get,
your perception is different. Whereas I just blew it off
and I was in my thirties. Hey, hey, I've been
that way. Now I'm oh, I can see the finish line. Yeah,
so you overreact the other way.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Okay, lastly, Mark, and then I wanted to ask you
one more thing on Nancy. But you know, speaking of memory,
it obviously was a memorable run for the Pacers, and
now it comes at a season of intrigue because of
the injury to Halliburton and because of you know, some
different players that may be called upon to play in
different roles with the Miles Turner departure, for example, how

(35:07):
intrigued are you by the upcoming season?

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Very?

Speaker 3 (35:11):
I don't see championship contention in the mix short term,
although if things developed, we hope they might This season
when Haliburton comes back, assuming a complete recovery, then next
season will be really intriguing. For now, I don't see
any reason that this group of guys, particularly in a
conference that isn't that good, can at least contend for

(35:33):
a playoff spot, And I think that would be positive.
Given that you lost your player and one of the
other tops, say three players decided to go somewhere else,
that's a huge loss. And if you can overcome that
by getting to the playoffs, I think that would be
an excellent season mark.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
When I recall vividly when Slick Leonard passed, and I
know you know what an incredible impact he had on you,
both personally and professionally, and I would assume the same
as true of Nancy, as you had talked about earlier.
But I remember you leading off your broadcast with an
incredible and articulate tribute to Slick and what he meant.

(36:11):
I wanted to give you the opportunity to simply let
our listeners know that may not have known of the impact,
the importance, the significance of Nancy Leonard, not just on
the Pacers franchise, but in this town. From the vantage
point in which you saw it if you could just
let people know exactly who or what Nancy Leonard was as.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
A person, Well, I think we've already covered most of that,
So to capitalize it, I would say her impact on
our franchise, not anyone that knew her, on the city
and states is immeasurable personally if you ever get to
meet not one, but in my case two, And I'm

(36:53):
not suggesting I haven't met other great people, but if
you ever get to meet one person like Nancy Leonard
or one person likes Click Leonard, then consider yourself lucky.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Mark. I appreciate the time. Certainly help you feel better,
by the way, if you have not begun feeling better yet? Right,
and just so you know, in three days, I'll text
you to make sure you remember coming on the radio.
How's that?

Speaker 5 (37:16):
Who are you again?

Speaker 1 (37:18):
I get that a lot. Anyway, I appreciate it, Mark,
Mark Boyle joining us the radio play by play voice
of the Indiana Pacers. I will begin by saying what
I have been saying throughout the course of today, and
that is that, as somebody who grew up in this town,

(37:38):
I have such a pride for the teams in this city.
And in addition, to that the way that this city
has embraced sports and really built its identity around sports.
And it is my belief that perhaps the strongest pillar
in all of that was Nancy Leonard. And without Nancy
Leonard and her vision for the Pacers, her vision for

(38:00):
being able to cement them within the NBA, coming from
the ABA, I don't know that you get expansion of
the Convention Center and the building of the Hoosier Dome
and eventually an NFL franchise and all of the things
that we now enjoy. And it is a sad day,
but the day that we celebrate Nancy Leonard here in
Indianapolis and joining me now on the program he is

(38:21):
the president of basketball Operations for the Indiana Pacers. Kevin
Pritchard joining us, Kevin on what I know is again
a sad day, but at the same time a celebratory day.
I appreciate your time in being able to reflect on
Nancy Leonard.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
Now.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
Glad to be on, Jake, and congratulations to you and
your success. And you know, coming from Indianapolis and growing
up in Lawrence and Noblesville, I remember going to a
fifth grade basketball camp with the Pacers and meeting Nancy

(38:56):
and Slick at that time, and they were just they
were bigger than life. And you know, if you've met him,
you'd think that you were their best friends. And you know,
throughout my tenure, I've been very blessed to work with
Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird and like the foundational piece
that they're about is people first. And you know, I'm

(39:20):
getting a little sad talking about it because it's such
a blow to not just the Pacers organization, but what
the Leonards and specifically Nancy has done for this community.
It can't be measured. You just.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
Lost, specifically, can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, sorry about that, Go ahead, Kevin.

Speaker 5 (39:47):
She just she just was a pillar of this community.
And the one thing you knew about Nancy is there's
nothing more and she didn't have any more pride than
the Pacers. And it was because she was the original.
She was the og general manager. And you know, we
hired Kelly Cross Golf as one of the you know,

(40:09):
top females in the business a few years ago to
be an executive for the Pacers, but the original was Nancy.
And it's a really, really sad day. I'm proud on
one thing, and that is you know, she came to
some playoff games this year and I would see her

(40:32):
after a big home win, and it just you could
tell there was just this amount of pride that can't
be described in words. And I wish we could have
won a championship, because today I could have said that
she would have won a championship, you know, another championship
for the organization. And so it's a tough loss.

Speaker 4 (40:54):
It's a really tough loss.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
You know, Kevin, I was thinking about this in life
in general, and no matter what realm or relationship you
have with people, oftentimes you know you look back, whether
it be they're passing, or you know, you go to
another job, whatever it may be, there are always times
where you look back and you think I should have
said this, or I wish I'd done that. You know,
that kind of a thing for you personally and for

(41:18):
the organization. What is the element of pride or can
you speak to it in knowing that you are right?
I mean it was a half away from a title,
I get that, but yet it was such an incredible
run of joy in Euphoria and this town that cemented
again the relationship between this town and that organization and

(41:39):
professional basketball in the Indiana Pacers and Nancy Leonard being
able to hug Myles Turner, to hug Tyre's Halliburton, to
soak in and see the fruits of her labor before
her almost feels like it was this town's way of
saying thank you, job well done. What does it mean
for you to know that you were somebody who helped
facilitate that and be able to have her enjoy that?

Speaker 5 (42:04):
Well, I can tell you this that I do remember
hugging her after some playoff games, and you know, you see,
you can just you know, you can see when somebody's
all in right, Like there's there's people that are fans
or people that come to the games. But she was
the queen of the Pacers, and you know, you always,

(42:30):
you always felt her presence, no matter whether she was
at the game or not. She would always walk by
the management room and say hello. And you know I
remember many times seeing her, you know, throughout the community
at a golf event or or you know, any any
out to dinner. And I was kevy, you know, I

(42:51):
wasn't you know, mister Pritchard or anything like that. I
was heavy to her. And you know, they had a
great feel of making you feel like you were part
of their family. And I think I think that trickles
down today to the Pacers. And you know, again, I'm
not sure you could measure that. That's measurable in terms

(43:14):
of influence and love and caring. And it wasn't a team,
it wasn't an organization. It was a family to her.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
And you know, as.

Speaker 5 (43:26):
I'm reflecting back, I hope in some ways that I
can do that and make people around us and in
the organization and our fan base know that, yeah, we
want to win as much, but when we do this together,
we win together and we lose together. And I think
that's what I felt, because during tough times she was
the same way as she was during a championship run.

(43:49):
So I think that's that's the one thing that I
will remember about her, is no matter what, I was
part of her family.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Kevin, when you look back, Kevin Pritchard is our guest
from the pace, were remembering Nancy Leonard today. The partnership,
I mean, obviously, as I've talked about with others today
goes without saying the incredible bond of love between Nancy
and Slick Leonard. And you know, you could see that immediately.
But also, you know, going back to the telethon the

(44:17):
partnership that the two of them had, and her ability,
her business acumen, her vision for the franchise, all of
those things. Did you witness firsthand or can you illuminate
us on something you might have seen in terms of
the influence on a day to day that she had
on Slick Leonard.

Speaker 5 (44:37):
Well, I think you know, how do I say this politely?
Flick out a lot of passion and sometimes when you
have that passion, sometimes you need to have someone right
next to your side saying it's going to be okay,
We're gonna figure this out. And the other thing I
would tell you about Nancy is, you know, I just

(45:01):
there was no way she was going to accept no.
I mean, she she had a way of, you know,
being influential in a very positive way. But the last
thing I ever felt like I could do is they
know to her, And she did it in a way
that was her own way, with her own words and
her own feel and her own touch. And that's a

(45:23):
special touch. But her and Slick were you know, I
don't know if you could talk about Slick without talking
about Nancy. It's just they were the Leonards. They were
the king and Queen of the Pacers, and you know
that's that's immeasurable.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Again, had you not grown up here, Kevin and been
around at what you did, I mean obviously as you
mentioned at the outset, but if you had come here
from an organization where you didn't have ties to Indiana
other than taking the job here, would you have immediately
known of the impact of the Leonards. Was it the
kind of thing that's introduced to people when they come

(45:59):
here or do you just kind of see it from
the immediacy.

Speaker 5 (46:03):
No, I think you know, any official events, whether it's
a banquet or a meeting, or you know, where they
were involved, you knew the Leonards like you know, I
lived here until I was twelve or thirteen, and then
I moved away, and then I came back, and immediately

(46:24):
the first thing I do is, you know, communicate with
the Leonards and touch base with those would both Slick
and Nancy. But I always just felt like they were
my family, and they may be part of the family.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
Whether I was, you.

Speaker 5 (46:41):
Know, five thousand miles away or a mile away. They
just they embodied what the Pacers are today and what
they were back then, and I remember specifically the teleton
and you know, I was a really young boy when
that happened, but you know I grew up and who

(47:01):
who the Pacers were? Who was the face of the
franchise for many years and still are?

Speaker 1 (47:08):
You know, Chris texted in a listener Kevin and pointed
this out. I thought it was a fabulous idea. If
Nancy Leonard's name goes up in the rafters, which you know,
Tyre's Haliburton even mentioned that he'd love to see it.
I realized that that's above both of us for that matter,
but in terms of those decisions, But each person that's
in the rafters, excluding Mel Simon and Jim Morris, you know,

(47:31):
there's a number attached to them in some way, and
slicks case, it's the number of career wins. I think
it should say Nancy Leonard eighty twenty eight because that's
the number of season tickets that were needed from the telethon,
and that's the number she was so joyous in being
able to announce that essentially quote unquote saved the Pacers. Now,
I give that a thumbs up idea.

Speaker 5 (47:48):
Your thoughts, I completely agree, thumbs up and I wasn't
aware of that exact number, but god that back then.
You know, it seems like a low number today, but
when you were growing up, that was monumental and just
saved the Pacers. And like you said earlier heard in

(48:11):
the segment, you know, the Pacers led to the Convention
Center and the Colts and then you know it just
it's snowballed into this incredible sports town. And whether you
go anywhere in the United States, the first thing people say, well,
Indianapolis is an incredible sportstown. And I think we all

(48:31):
from Indiana. We take a lot of you know, I
remember back when the nca tournament was going to be
canceled and Indianapolis popped up and said, hey, we will
host all these basketball games for the NCAA tournament. And
then everybody was like, holy cow, what an incredible job
Indianapolis did. And you think about that, that doesn't happen

(48:52):
if the Pacers aren't here, and if that, if the
Pacers are here, and again how that transcended into other things.
There'd be no way the NCAA is here. There'd be
no way that tournament could have gotten played in Indianapolis.
So it was a snowball effect, and I think it
still grows. And for me, as a steward of a

(49:15):
team in this town, alls we want to do is
keep it going and keeping Indianapolis great, an amazing place
where sports not only as important, it's part of our culture.
So I hope in some way that we can be
good stewards of that helmet that she created.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Lastly, Kevin, when it comes to Nancy Leonard, I'm curious
of this when you come in and you know you're
in that position and you are the president of basketball
operations and you have a woman sitting there near you
at the games that was one of the original, the
original as you mentioned, you know, pioneer executives of the franchise.

(50:01):
Did she carry with her a confidence or exude any
sort of a belief of her knowing her own standing
or was there an elegance about it where you just
kind of knew it and she didn't have to say it.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Oh. I think that's a difficult question, because she had
an amazing elegance. I just I just think that the
Leonard's presence was always felt, and you know, you couldn't
remove the Pacers and the Leonards. It just it goes in.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
The same sentence.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
It's attached and it's it's meaningful. But when when when
I would hug her, it wasn't like, oh hi, you know,
a little side hugged. When you hugged Flick and Nancy,
it was an embrace and it was meaningful. And they
just had a way of touching everybody, you know, like

(51:04):
again calling me Kevy, and you know they did that
with a lot of people. But for some reason, it
just made you feel like you were a home and
that's irreplaceable. You don't feel fill those shoes.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Ever, Kevin. Obviously you know on this program the season
is getting ready to get underway. There was a transaction
that took place yesterday that was announced in adding a
point guard in Monti Morris. There are a lot of
things in that aspect. I could ask you about it,
probably in the eyes of many would be remissive me
to not do so. However, when I asked you to

(51:39):
come on the program today, it was under the guys
of being able to talk about and reflect upon and
celebrate the life of Nancy Leonard. And I think in
the integrity of that, I keep it to that and
certainly would welcome you back on another time from a
basketball standpoint, but I appreciate the perspectives today.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
Yep. Glad to do it and keep up the great.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
World, Jake, appreciate it. Kevin Pritcher joining us, the president
of basketball Operations for the Indiana Pacers, as we celebrate
today the life of Nancy Leonard at the age of
ninety three years old. Yes, joining me now on the program.
Somebody who knew Nancy Well, who knew Slickwell, who was
a historian not only of Indianapolis, but obviously a published

(52:23):
author in the history of the Indiana Pacers as well.
His website is Markmonteeth dot com. Mark joins me on
the show. Mark, Good afternoon. How are you good, Jake.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
Good to be with you.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
I want to begin with this, and you know, the
things that I was just talking about, I wanted to
kind of lay that for you to take off with.
And that is I think that we know about the
colorful caricature of Slick Leonard, and we know about the
the ABA Championships, and you know, just the wild and crazy,

(52:54):
good old fun days, if you will, of the Pacers.
But I know that people know of the impact that
Nancy Leonard had, But I don't think we can overstate it.
Can you illuminate for listeners just how centralized and important
a figures she was.

Speaker 6 (53:09):
Yeah, I would say on both a professional and personal level,
the support and the backbone that she provided for first
of all Slick in their family and then the Pacers
was absolutely essential. I used to half jokingly say, hey,
Slick would have died a long time ago if it
wasn't for Nancy. I really think that's true, because she

(53:32):
kept him organized and under control, as well as anybody
to keep Slick under control, and just kept him going,
you know, providing support. Slick once told me that he
never wrote a checkon in his life, you know, he
never He didn't know how to work his phone. Really,
he didn't know how to work computers. He didn't know
how to balance books or anything. He was the front man,

(53:56):
you know, when he worked for Hers Jones selling those
graduation supplies.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
He made calls.

Speaker 6 (54:00):
She was the personality. Nancy ran the business back home.
She was a business teacher at Cocomon Taylor High School.
When Slick became the Pacer coach, she was the one
capable of doing that kind of thing. And then later
when he's the coach and GM of the pacers. She's
the one running the front office, like a twelve man
group of people who worked like crazy to keep the

(54:20):
doors open. And she was very bold and decisive and
demanding and just kept the franchise going behind the scenes
when he was out there coaching and making trades. And
some people believe she had a hand in some of
the personnel moves too, and I wouldn't be surprised by that.
She kind of denied it, but I really think she

(54:42):
occasionally had an opinion that was followed on certain personnel matters.
So a very strong personality, but a very nice, generous
person at the same time. I was with her once
and she'd had a glass or to a wine and
she said I was person and I kind of laughed.
I said, at least you're plenty of nice. But I

(55:04):
know what she meant, because she could be very stern
as well. You did not want to cross her, you know,
you didn't want her to get mad at you. But
at the same time, she was a very generous, good
harted person and that certainly came through day to day.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
You know, Mark, It's interesting. There were so many people
in the life and I want to go back to
something I said earlier, and I said this to Bill
Benner off the top of the show mark, and I'll
say it to you as well. I on a personal
or selfish level, which maybe I'm guilty of too often,
but you know, for me, it would be disingenuous to

(55:39):
say that I was around in this capacity when Nancy
Leonard and Slick Leonard were, you know, at their apex.
I mean I did not know them in those days,
nor did I know either of them well anything other
than professional. And for that reason, it is with the
utmost gratitude that I have the access to ask Bill
Benner or yourself or others. And I'm not saying that

(56:00):
because you say that you're older than I. I don't
mean it that way. But you you have covered it
from so many different areas and angles, and so I
wanted you to expand upon your understanding or what you
saw firsthand in terms of her ability. Nancy Leonard's to
be somebody who, as I understand it, was one that

(56:24):
Slick Leonard, and there probably were not a lot of
people that Slick Leonard would defer to, but theoretically she
was one of them. Did you witness that firsthand.

Speaker 6 (56:33):
Yeah, no question, no question. I wrote about her an
Slick at length various stops along the way, and I
did a one on one episode with Nancy as well
in their living room one time. So did see a
lot of things firsthand. I could tell you one time
I was sitting in the living room interviewing both and

(56:55):
you know, Slick admitted that he was a little afraid
of her. I know you talked about this a little
bit earlier, and that she kind of laughed at that,
and the Stick also got a little choked up just
talking about what she meant to him. But she ran
the show at home, no questions about it. I could
tell you another time, Stick and Eye went down to
Louisville to play golf with Ralph Beard, who was a

(57:17):
three time All American the Kentucky and member of the
Indianapolis Olympians, and that he and Stick were in the
army together, so they were friends and I kind of
got them reunited, and Stick and I went to a
riverboat casino after we played golf, but Stick was afraid
to tell Nancy what he was doing, so he said, yeah,
we went to dinner and I ran into Tom Jerry.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
She's the athletic director at.

Speaker 6 (57:38):
Louisville at the times that, you know, so we hung around,
so we're just getting back down, you know. But he
was afraid to tell her that he'd gone gambling after
we played golf, you know, And that shows you're really
kind of the respect he had for her and her
ability to kind of keep him in line because he
didn't want to get her mad at him, you know.
And I'm sure there are plenty of times she did
get mad at him, you know, But Slick needed that because,

(58:02):
you know, he was just a guy from the opposite
side of the tracks that Nancy was from. She grew
up in an upper middle class family in South Bend.
Her dad had a construction company. Slick grew up poor
in Terre Haute, and you know, they never would have
hooked up in the normal situation. But I know the

(58:22):
story you have told it already, how they met and
health class the freshman year at IU and Stick wonder
over with his persistence in naivity, and she was a
big sports fan, so the fact that he was on
the basketball team really meant a lot to her, and
that was part of his appeal as well. So in fact,
when I U won the national championship in nineteen fifty three,

(58:42):
they came back to Bloomington and there's a parade there
around the town square in Bloemouton and Flicks in a
convertible and Nancy hopped in the car with him. You know,
she's riding around in the parade with him. And she
was in the parade the pacer parades for winning ABA
championships with him as well at times. So she was
always the organization. People knew of her that they didn't

(59:03):
really have an idea of how important she was to
the operation of the franchise and just too slicks existence.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Mark, you grew up in this town, Mark Monteith is
my guest. You grew up in this town, you know,
on the on the west side. You're a graduate of
Pike High School, so you were like and Bill and
I talked about this earlier for those that are listening,
and I don't mean to belabor the point, but I
think on a day like today, it's an important one
to recognize, and that is that we we love the

(59:34):
luxury in this town. You love the luxury being able
to cover sports and write about it and run a
website and do interviews and I love being able to
do a sports talk radio show and talk about the
Colts and Rams and the fever and the Indians and
the NCAA here in town, and you know, the the
eleven and the igniting, all the different things that go on.
In your opinion, Mark, without Nancy and Slick Leonard and

(59:59):
with out that telethon in nineteen seventy seven, I'm not
here to say that all of a sudden, we're Doomsday
and we instantly become fort Wayne overnight. But it's not
as far fetched as people would think. Would you agree
with that?

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:00:13):
I would, I would. I mean, the Pacers' survival has
done so much for the city, and certainly you could
argue that without sticking Nancy, they wouldn't be here today.
I think it's about a dozen people you can point
to and say without that person, the Pacers would not exist.
Certainly Melvin Herb Simon would fall into that category. I

(01:00:33):
think the group that doesn't get enough respect, or the
original investors in nineteen sixty seven and eight who kicked
in twenty thirds thirty thousand dollars apiece just to keep
the doors open.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
That includes some.

Speaker 6 (01:00:44):
People in Lafayette as well. The PACER's first president was
Joe Bannon, president at Lafayette Bank. You had these people
who sought no glory and didn't really expect to make
any money, kicking in money just to get the franchise started,
you know. So you have to like that Yugosati had
not made that trade for mel Daniel in nineteen sixty eight,
that they never would have been above a five hundred

(01:01:06):
team and never would have survived. You know, there's a
lot of people you can point to, but certainly Slick
and Nancy are absolutely essential to the existence of the
franchise today. And really, you know that telethon that people
talk about so much. You know, Slick and Nancy were
in Hawaii and there was like a postseason All Star game,
and they were scouting and taking a vacation and word

(01:01:28):
came back from the absentee owner they had, Sam Nacy.
The word came back that hey, if we don't raise
a certain amount of money or get a guarantee of
season ticket sales.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
We're going to be sold.

Speaker 6 (01:01:40):
So they came back and Nancy had a week to
ten days to put together a telethon, which is something
that usually takes about a year to organize, but she
got it done in about a week.

Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
To ten days.

Speaker 6 (01:01:52):
The Convincement Center donated space, RB's donated food. The telethon
was aired on three of the four local TV channels.
I mean the whole city combined to kick in and
contributed to somehow people came in over at three in
the morning and played guitar or whatever to have something
to look at, you know, overnight, because the thing aired
for nearly twenty four hours. It was on three and

(01:02:15):
four in the morning. And she's the one who was
able to organize that in such a short amount of time.
And then the story of how she became the assistant GM.
You know, she wasn't the GM, but she was the
assistant GM who ran the front office. And she told
me that, you know, there was a meeting with the owners.
This is in nineteen seventy six when the pacers are
entering the NBA from the ABA, and again there's a

(01:02:40):
man who kicked in three point two million dollars to
meet the fee to enter the NBA. But they're at
a meeting with the owners and they're talking about, well,
who's going to run the front office. Now you know,
Slick will be the GM. But who we got to
run the front office, and they seem to be intimidated
by it. And Andy said, look, guys, there's a league
and they have a set of rules, and you just

(01:03:02):
follow those rules and guidelines and do whatever you're supposed
to do. It's not that hard. And somebody who wants
you do it. And she claims that she had not
even thought about that, and Slick said, well, she could
do it, and lo and behold, she became the assistant
GM of the Pacers that day in such a haphazard way,
and she was accepted. You know, I don't think I

(01:03:25):
don't know of any occasions where people were saying, oh,
this is crazy to have a woman running the front office.
What's that all about. She told the story of how
Bob Collins, the sports editor of the Star, called her
up and went her to meet her for lunch, and
she was worried that, oh man, he's probably gonna rip me.
He's going to tell me that I have no business
doing this. And in fact, when they met, Colin said, look,

(01:03:49):
you're going to do great, and if anybody gives you
a hard time, you send them my way. I'll take
care of it. That kind of thing. So she got
a lot of support and it all worked out.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:03:59):
She she had that twelve person staff back in the
late seventies when the Pacers weren't any good and kept
that thing going. And you know, and then see what
every game that Slick was at, she was at, you know,
and she I other than Slick. She has attended more
Pacer home games than anybody ever alive, because she was

(01:04:21):
always there in whatever capacity she was serving, even it
was just as a fan.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Mark, when you look back in talking to players, talking
to people that are around it, Mark Monteeth is my guest.
We're talking about Nancy Leonard, who passes away at the
age of ninety three. When you from the recollection, the
interviews you've done, the people you've talked to, what was
the relationship that Nancy Leonard had with players in that time?

(01:04:48):
And I don't even necessarily mean those that were playing
for Slick, but rather like as they were transitioning into
the NBA for example, or both in that crossover, in
terms of how players received having a female executive that
was there and was around.

Speaker 6 (01:05:03):
Yeah, I think that when she was the assistant GM,
I think they all accepted her and respected her. Because
again she was very authoritative and very decisive.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
Darnell Hillman told me the story that when the.

Speaker 6 (01:05:15):
NBA, or it wasn't the NBA, CBS had an NBA
Slam Dunk contest. You know, we know Darnell was the
winner of the first NBA Slam Dunk contest, not put
on by the league but by CBS Television, completely different.

Speaker 4 (01:05:30):
Format than what they have today.

Speaker 6 (01:05:31):
And Darnell tells the story they were warming up before
practice one day and Nancy came down to the floor
and said, look, guys, there's going to be a slam
dunk contest on CBS. It's going to work like this,
YadA ya YadA, and Darnell you'll represent the Pacers. It
wasn't like, hey, you guys figured out, or let's have
a team competition to see who wins and represents the Pacers.

(01:05:52):
Darnell tough and she was gone. You know, she made
that decision and no time.

Speaker 4 (01:05:57):
At all and went on.

Speaker 6 (01:05:58):
So I think the players respected that authority and they
knew that Slick respected her and again was a little
afraid of her. So for that reason, you know, they
respected her as well. And then later years when you
know Slick's a broadcaster. You know, she would be at
the golf outings and other events and she was like
a mom. You know, I've got a picture on my

(01:06:19):
phone of her hugging Lance Stevenson, and you know we've
all seen pictures of her with guys like Miles Turner
and Haliburton and all through the year. I got a
picture of my phone of her with Darnell Hillman and
Billy Kelder. I mean, she was that grandmotherly or motherly
figure who everybody enjoyed being around. And again, they respected her,

(01:06:40):
but it was in a different way because she wasn't
their boss at that time. But she was just somebody
who obviously liked people and cared about the franchise and
cared about them.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
Mark one other thing before I let you go. That's
interesting about that when you talk about the Darnell Hillman
will represent the Pacers in the Dunk Contest, it led
to one of the great shirts of all time because
by the time it came around, he wasn't a Pacer, right.

Speaker 6 (01:07:03):
Yeah, yeah, the bottle Shop. Darnell had been traded late
that season to New Jersey and so he and he
really wasn't yet under contract with either team, I believe
so from remembering this, right, he was. He knew he
was going to be with New Jersey, but he hadn't
signed this deal yet or whatever, and so he was

(01:07:24):
kind of free. So he had played on a softball
team in the summer sponsored by the Bottle Shop, which
still exists today on North College around what fifty fourth.

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
There you go.

Speaker 6 (01:07:36):
Yeah, my buddy Tom Bovas owns it now. And so
Darnell wore a Bottle Shop shirt as his warm up
He didn't dunk in it, but he wore it as
his warm up shirt. And yeah, we have sold and
you came by to buy one. I know, we have
sold Bottle Shop shirts that are exact replicas of the
softball jersey that they wore then. And you can go

(01:07:58):
on YouTube and search for I guess it'd be like
nineteen seventy seven NBA Slam Dunk or just put in
Darnelle Hillman's name. You can see him being interviewed by
Don Cricky after winning the Slam Dunk competition out in
Portland in that Bottleshop shirt.

Speaker 4 (01:08:14):
So it's a pretty cool thing. It's awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:08:17):
Yeah, Ed Nancy is the one who made sure Darnell
was representing the Pacers because nobody knew better than her.

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
He was a dunker, and.

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
When it comes to talking the history of the Pacers,
there are others that may be on par but nobody
knows more certainly than Mark Monteeth. On short notice, Mark,
I always appreciate your willingness to come on, hop on
and certainly shed perspectives far beyond my capability, and so
therefore it's greatly appreciated.

Speaker 3 (01:08:43):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:08:44):
I appreciate the opportunity, Jake, Thank you

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Mark Monteeth joining us on the program