Liebengood was a multi-faceted journalist

Some days you learn about another linkage to your childhood leaving but you
discover something else you grew to admire about that person.

As a San Francisco Bay Area native growing up in Napa, CA, I remember feverishly
flipping through the newscast channels (between the local FOX, NBC, ABC, or
CBS affiliates), seeing which batch of sports highlights I could watch first. Suffice
it to say, I wore out a few remotes.

From time-to-time, I would see Pete Liebengood for KRON (Bay Area NBC affiliate)
deliver the Bay Area sports news. That was, if I couldn’t get Wayne Walker, Joe
Fonzi, Martin Wyatt or Dan Lovett first. That was how I rolled, whoever was first
to my remote, that’s my news source for the day. Liebengood was that man more
than a few times.

Liebengood passed away on Dec. 22 because of lung cancer. Though Liebengood’s
passing has been over a week, the news only started to travel en masse today.

Liebengood, who was 73 years old, wore many hats as a reporter, anchor, producer
and author. He divided most of his work between KCRA (Sacramento), KRON (San
Francisco) and ESPN. He also developed a passion for writing, publishing six novels.  
Liebengood was a man for all seasons, playing offensive tackle for San Francisco
State, where he was all-conference in 1965 before being inducted into the school’s
athletic Hall of Fame in 1988.

Liebengood’s most prominent work came as a sportscaster with KRON from
1978-1990. After which time, I must be honest, I lost track of Liebengood. However,
his time as a sports anchor is what I remembered as my childhood. If you could not
watch the game, you had to call a family member or friend if you wanted to know the
outcome immediately. If you wanted localized highlights, you either had to watch
the news at 6 p.m. of 11 p.m. By the way, you had to wait until the end of the newscast
to see the sports highlights.

With KRON though, there was also a dessert dish known as “Sports Final.” Liebengood
and Gary Radnich co-hosted the program. The former struck me as more straightforward.
The latter struck me as one that tried too hard to be funny. To each their own. What I
remember most about “Sports Final” was that it started at 11:30 p.m. but being in high
school at the time, I stayed up (sometimes secretly) to watch the show. I wanted to hear
the insight of Liebengood and/Radnich.

What makes me respect Liebengood’s talent even more was that he was an accomplished
broadcaster and author. As one who received his degree in broadcast journalism in
1997 from the University of Nebraska that later became a newspaper reporter for 18
years, I know the importance of having multiple skills. I just wish I discovered it earlier
than I did.

As I see Liebengood now, he can take his pick as that anchor or author in the sky.