leader on the links
Dennis Dumler
My hopes and dreams
of being a pro baseball player were shattered by a severe shoulder injury in high school in suburban Denver, Colorado. It was then that I adjusted my aspirations and directed my energy towards a career as a sports journalist. I had grown to love all sports and was lucky to have inherited the gift of gab from my father and was able to put words together thanks to a grade school teacher who remained a friend and motivator many years out of the classroom. I landed an opportunity to work at small AM/FM radio station on the 22
plains of eastern Colorado while still in my early 20›s. it gave me the chance to learn the business from every angle including play by play of high school wrestling, basketball and baseball, as well as live remote broadcasts. The General Manager saw that I might have a future elsewhere and that elsewhere turned out to be Atlanta, Ga. My girlfriend had re-located there and during a visit I saw the enormous opportunities in a vibrant, energetic and youthful city that was growing by the minute. I was able to go on the air at WRNG radio as the sports reporter and correspondent for CBS Radio covering events throughout the southeast. A stint at another, more powerful station, WGST, also gave me more exposure in the market and when I was invited to apply for a weekend sports anchor job at WAGA TV, I jumped at the chance. A change of the news director led to my next move, downtown to CNN Sports. The man who hired me was Bill MacPhail who was the president of the sports department and the former
head of CBS sports. My time and exposure at CNN allowed me to travel all over the country covering every major sporting event imaginable. I met athletes of all shapes and sizes and was given the chance to go to places and events that I could have only dreamed about. It was a pleasure to go to work every day. The phrase, “been there, done that,” certainly applies to me. I retired in the late 90›s and moved to Destin, FL. in 2004 after the death of my wife (that girlfriend I followed to Atlanta). Staying busy, I had a sports talk radio show and did local high school sports play by play until moving to Winter Haven, Fl. in 2018 with my second wife Margie, who had also lost her spouse years before. Ironically, he had been a fan and she commented that she had seen my face and heard my voice in the early morning hours many times while at CNN. Now, yet another endeavor with Golf Central Magazine had my juices flowing. I look forward to providing information and hopefully entertainment to our readers! Hit ‹em straight. Golf Central • Volume 22, Issue 7
