SmashMouth

The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans, featuring original artwork commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune with Where Y'Art gallery. Today: Buddy Diliberto.


The icon: Bernard "Buddy" Diliberto

The legacy: Reflecting on the night in 1980 that Buddy D protested the Saints' ineptitude by delivering his entire sportscast with a bag over his head, The Times-Picayune wrote: "It was quintessential Diliberto, a former sportswriter who became a television legend on WVUE and WDSU in the '60s, '70s and '80s in spite of his cosmetic shortcomings and catastrophic vocals - or maybe because of them." Diliberto wore his heart on his sleeve right along with local sports fans, whose hopes, passions and frustrations he gave voice to over five decades.



The artist: Gabriel Flores, WhereYart.net.

The quote: "It was an unbridled, non-stop passion for sports that kept Buddy D young at heart despite the march of time. On TV, he was anything but a telegenic personality. On radio, he packed anything but a suave, velvet-voiced delivery. But he knew his craft. And what he didn't know, he didn't mask. There was no pretense to the man. Instead there was a unique genuineness that connected."
- Longtime Times-Picayune sportswriter Peter Finney, on the occasion of Buddy Diliberto's death in 2005

read more on NOLA

Attached Thumbnails