Greek sports reporter Nick Charles has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, but still gives hope embracing life. In an exclusive interview with CNN he speaks about his life, his work and the people he’s leaving behind.
Nicholas Charles Nickeas is an American sports sportscaster and journalist. He was one of CNN’s first on-air personalities and won three CableACE Awards for best sports program during his 17-year tenure as co-host of the network’s Sports Tonight. He is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago.
Charles was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother is of Sicilian heritage, and his father’s Spartan Greek. His wife, Cory is a senior director for CNN International’s Guest Planning Unit. Cory has been with CNN since 1990. Charles has 4 children and 3 grandchildren. His son Jason is an entrepreneur, and owns an audio-visual production company in Tempe, Arizona. His daughter, Katie, runs track and field for Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia.
Charles was the first sports anchor for CNN in 1980. He co-hosted CNN Sports Tonight with Fred Hickman, and later hosted his own program, Page One with Nick Charles until leaving the network in 2001. He hosted the Goodwill Games for Turner Broadcasting in 1986 in Moscow, 1990 in Seattle, 1994 in St. Petersburg, Russia and covered boxing for the Goodwill Games in New York City in 1998.
Beginning in 2001, Charles hosted of Showtime’s ShoBox: The New Generation. As a boxing commentator, he has interviewed major boxing figures including Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. He also hosted boxing on Versus, a sports network. Nick won the Boxing Writer’s Association 2007 Broadcaster award. In 2008, he won the Sam Taub Award for excellence in boxing broadcasting journalism.
He’s been named “sexiest sportscaster” in America several years in a row, by U.S. Television Fan Association. Nick Charles and former heavyweight contender George Chuvalo shared the Bill Crawford Award for perseverance in overcoming adversity in 2010 from the Boxing Writer’s Association.
Charles has terminal metastatic bladder cancer. He has been recording video messages for his family and friends to show after his death.
(Video Source: CNN, with information from Wikipedia)
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
