Chris Thomas Dead

[USFGriff]

From TBO.COM

I kinda grew up watching Chris on Channel 8 then listening to him before Rome on 620.  Great man in person.  He will be missed.

TAMPA - Christian Thomas Olrick, better known to Tampa Bay area sports fans as television and radio personality Chris Thomas, died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer.

Thomas, 55, came to Tampa in 1988 as a sportscaster on WFLA, Channel 8, and made an immediate impact on sports fans. His wit and controversial comments were a hit with television viewers and later with his radio listeners, most recently on WDAE, 620 AM. In 1991, he was voted best local sportscaster.

Thomas received his degree in broadcast journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1970. He began his career in 1969 as a disc jockey and sports reporter at WSSC-AM radio in South Carolina. He later tenured as a sports anchor at WBOC-TV in Salisbury, Md., and WBAL-TV in Baltimore. While in Baltimore, he also hosted radio sports talk shows at WFBR and WBAL.

He continued his radio career in Tampa in 1990, hosting a weeknight call-in show with Tedd Webb on WFLA, 970 AM. The show was canceled in early 1992, but Thomas had made his mark in this community.

A listener sent him a tape of Kate Smith singing ``God Bless America.`` Thomas used it to close the show for a week or two as a gag. When he stopped, listeners demanded her return.

``Everybody needs a signature,`` Thomas said in an interview in 1991. ``Not only that - it shortens the show by three minutes!``

It remained his signature closing.

In 1997, WDAE was launched as an all-sports radio station and Thomas was back on the radio, as well as continuing at Channel 8 until his contract was not renewed in 2002.

At WDAE, he described himself as the ``Fabulous Sports Hunk.''

But Thomas' biggest sports love was horse racing.

Beginning in 1998, Thomas taught handicapping seminars at Tampa Bay Downs without compensation.

``I love this sport and I do the seminars mainly to help new fans become comfortable at the track,'' Thomas said. ``Unfortunately, the demographics [of racing fans] get older and older every year.

``The track experience, especially betting, can be very intimidating to a beginner, which is a shame because that's a big part of what keeps people away.''

He always said his greatest career accomplishment was winning an Eclipse Award in 1990.

``It's one of the most prestigious awards in thoroughbred horse racing,'' he said in a 1998 interview ``When I first came to WFLA, I told them I wanted to cover the Triple Crown. So, in spring of 1989, I did a story on Secretariat, who, by the way, is the greatest athlete I've ever seen in 30 years in sports.

``I'll never forget the day I was notified that I had won. I went into my news directors' office to tell him and I started crying. That was the third time I cried over that horse, probably because I knew it was likely I'd never see another athlete like that again in my life. I've won quite a few awards in my career but none meant as much to me as this one because it was about something I cared so much about. I keep the trophy on my desk in my office at home.''

That love for horse racing led him into ownership of thoroughbred horses through his C.T. Stables syndicate.

Bolstered by the stunning success of Super Fuse, the first horse purchased on behalf of the venture, C.T. Stable became one of the most successful syndicates in Florida.

``Friends told me I was a moron, an idiot and a dreamer to even try to get involved in this,'' Thomas said. ``I have no business expertise. I had never put together a business plan or attempted to raise capital.''

But he was able to convinced several listeners from his radio show to invest $20,000 each for his Alpha One project.

He also was a popular speaker. Tribune columnist Steve Otto once wrote: ``Maybe the best advice heard at any graduation ceremony so far came from WFLA sportscaster Chris Thomas, who told the graduating seniors: `Never buy one roll of toilet paper at a time. Always buy the whole six pack. You'll understand why when it happens.' ''

He always was popular with his viewers or listeners. While in Baltimore, he thought he had won the Maryland Lottery.

``When I was working in Baltimore in '88, I thought I won the lottery on the air. I had one of those 26-week lottery subscriptions so I knew what the numbers were by memory - or so I thought,'' he explained. ``I was working one Saturday night and the news anchor read the six numbers. When she read the last number, I freaked out on-air. I thought I won the million bucks or whatever it was then. She was still reading but I was like, `Screw this place. I just won the lotto.' Sports was coming up next but I didn't care. I got up, took my mike off and said, `Screw you guys' and walked off the set.

``I got all the way downstairs before I thought to myself, `Geez, if you're wrong, you've not only made a fool of yourself but you've just lost your job.' So I turned around and made it back to the set like two seconds before sports came on. When I went on, I was calling everybody losers. I was like, `The Orioles lost, but who cares? I'm a millionaire.' I basically trashed everybody in those four minutes. Afterward, I went out to a bar and bought the entire bar drinks and racked up a $243 bar tab. I finally got home at 2:30 in the morning trashed and I pulled out my ticket. I missed two numbers by one on each end. It was like a 35 and 37 and I had a 36 and 34. I won $43 for hitting four out of six numbers. The station ended up getting 300 phone calls, half hoping I had really hit the lotto and quit. The other half hoped I was just kidding.''

[smazza]

somebody on board recently wrote that they didn't  like him

what a strange coincidence