Ed Daniels at WGNO. Famed WGNO sports director Ed Daniels. (WGNO.)
College FootballHigh SchoolLocal NetworksNCAANFLBy Andrew Bucholtz on

Local sports broadcasters and directors who stay in one market for a while often wind up making a major impact there. That certainly was the case with Ed Daniels of Nexstar-owned New Orleans ABC affiliate WGNO, who passed away at 67 Friday. Social media lit up with tributes for him from local media members, team figures, and teams:

The CrescentCitySports.com piece linked above from Lenny Vangilder helps cover some of Daniels’ life and work:

Daniels’ primary home was television, where he spent more than 40 years coming into the homes of New Orleans sports fans – first at WDSU-TV and the last 33 years at WGNO-TV, where he would become the station’s first and, until now, only sports director.

In 1992, just after Daniels’ arrival at WGNO – which was still an independent station at the time – he launched Friday Night Football, the first-of-its-kind show in New Orleans focusing on highlights of that night’s games. Hall of fame coach J.T. Curtis has served as co-host and analyst on FNF since the show’s inception.

Never afraid to express an opinion, Daniels was a sports columnist for the Clarion Herald for nearly two decades – where he took over the columnist space of his one-time boss at WDSU, Buddy Diliberto – and served as a regular contributor to Crescent City Sports and its previous iterations since their launch in 2008.

On radio, he spent his Saturday mornings for the better part of three decades co-hosting the Three Tailgaters show on a variety of frequencies – most recently at 106.1 The Ticket – with his high school and college classmate, Ken Trahan. Additionally, he served a stint as a radio analyst for Saints preseason games, New Orleans Night Arena Football games and University of New Orleans men’s basketball broadcasts.

And the NewOrleansSaints.com piece there from John DeShazier sums up some of the impact Daniels made in New Orleans, especially in televising high school football:

There was a doggedness and relentlessness that defined Daniels like few others, a fire that burned throughout a distinguished professional career as a television sports reporter/anchor/director and was the driving force behind the trend-setting high school football show, “Friday Night Football,” which began in 1992 and generated spinoffs throughout the state.

…”I have never worked with anybody who worked harder, or cared more, than Ed,” said WWL-TV sports director Doug Mouton. “Ed always put doing the best he could on TV ahead of everything. He was a professional every minute that I knew him.

“No one cared more than Ed. And I’ll also say, I was in those early meetings when we were starting ‘Friday Night Football,’ and it was 100 percent Ed’s brainchild. And I was in those meetings when people told us a high school football show will never work in New Orleans. And 33 years later Ed continued to make that thing work. Ed’s been one of the great proponents of high school sports in New Orleans over the last 30 years. The high school sporting world will miss Ed in a huge way.”

But, as the tributes above show, Daniels was an incredible figure for college and professional sports in the state of Louisiana as well. And he’ll certainly be missed. Our thoughts go out to all his family and friends.

[CrescentCitySports.com; image from WGNO]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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