In a recent Courier Journal profile of my radio career, a 1992 photo of Howard Schnellenberger pretending to punch me reflected a real life incident from a few years earlier. The photo was staged at a golf tournament awards dinner, but only Coach Schnellenberger and I understood and chuckled at the backstory.

I ran frequent radio sketches where Schnellenberger would drive his loaner Cadillac right through the glass doors of my studio, a nod to his frequent driving mishaps behind the wheel of a local dealer’s car. The parody Schnellenberger would scream DISC JOCKEY (instead of learning my name) and demand that I drop down and give him 5 pushups for being a sissy, spineless, “poor excuse for a man.”

The radio sketches always positioned him as an intimidating bully and me as a hapless fool trying to steer clear of macho brutality.

So the fake punch photo was an homage to a misunderstanding. The real Howard Schnellenberger walked into my studio and motioned for me to join him in the hallway. He got up in my face and bellowed, “Did you say I was cheating on my wife?”

My mind started spinning as I wondered what he meant. Then I recalled that in a recent sketch with the Schnellenberger character, I impersonated both Howard and his boss Bill Olsen, the UofL athletic director.

“Howard, I want you to get more involved in the community by being a philanthropist.”

“You want me to cheat on my wife?” a confused Schnelly asked.

“No…that’s philanderer. A philanthropist gives away his money to charities.”

The Schnellenberger voice pauses for a moment and then asks Olsen, “You got any other ideas?”

While pinned against the wall, I explained this sketch to the real Coach Schnellenberger. He stared me down, cocked an eyebrow, and eventually muttered “Oh.” He then sauntered away without killing me.