Farewell Neumy: Local Sportscaster Bob Neumeier Dies At 70
Back in the pre-internet and pre-saturation days, the local news crew of your preferred station(s) was as familiar to the household as the neighbors and family pet. You'd have your male and female co-anchors, a Jewish guy on weather, and an affable guy or two on sports (real OGs will remember Mike Dowling on WBZ before leaving for WCVB). If you were lucky, you'd have an entertainment reporter as well (shoutout Joyce Kulhawik).
In the '80s and '90s, WBZ-TV viewers were blessed to have the two-headed monster of Bob Lobel and Bob Neumeier. Lobel was the rascally jokester who brought us 'Sports Spotlight' every Thursday and made being a sports anchor look fun. Neumy had fun too, but was a little more serious and it came through in his reporting and writing. No matter who was on the desk that night with Jack, Liz, and Bruce, we were tuning in.
A former New England Whalers play-by-play guy, Neumy had puck bona fides with Bruins fans who were watching. He would later call Bs games on the radio for a few years. Here he is calling a WHA brawl in his Whalers days...
He was also an ace handicapper when it came to the ponies. Not long after winning the World Series of Handicapping at Caesar's Palace, he was hired by NBC to work on the Breeders' Cup. Before long, he was covering the Triple Crown and the great partnership lasted roughly 35 years.
The Weymouth product also called The Frozen Four, did local radio, and worked in various other roles for NBC Sports. Neumy began having health issues in recent years and was last seen working on CSNNE in 2016.
No disrespect to the current crews on local news but the days of the whole fam sitting around the TV knowing the entire line-up are long-gone. Young hoppers don't even watch TV. There's way more turnover so not a lot of guys and gals stay locked in at the same spot for as long. In short, there won't be many more Neumys if any at all. To paraphrase Lobel, sometimes we did get players like that and Neumy was the best example. My condolences to his family and friends.
