Fox Sports producer Jack Simmons
Wendy and Jack Simmons with some of Jack's many Emmy's
Jack Simmons describes his decision in 1990 to pull up stakes and move his family from New York to California as one of two life altering gambles. Simmons was fond of living in the little beach town outside of New York City called Breezy Point. Wendy, his wife of 35 years, was raised in Brooklyn but spent summers in Breezy Point. The couple met as teenagers.
“About 2,000 families live in Breezy Point and everyone knows each other,” Jack said. “People have been there a few generations. My parents lived four blocks away from us, Wendy’s parents across the street from mine. We were all right there together and suddenly we’re leaving for California. That became a very big deal. We had never dreamed our life would take this direction.”
Simmons, 59, is the Senior Vice President of Production for Fox Sports. He and his crews have been awarded 18 Sports Emmy’s for their telecasts of many of the world’s top sporting events.
Though a life-long sports fan, he aspired to be an English teacher when he graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School in New York City.
“A buddy and I were hanging out in Manhattan one Monday and decided to take a tour at NBC,” Simmons recalled. “I applied for a job and they called me back on Wednesday to fill out paperwork. I had an interview with the mail department on Friday, started the following Monday and stayed there 24 years. You never know where life is going to take you.”
Simmons continued taking night classes at St. Francis College in New York City, all the while learning office work at NBC. At 23, he was overseeing a 23-person, accounts payable department.
“At 28, I was still in the same position and wondering what went wrong,” Simmons said. “But during that time, I was meeting a lot of the sports people and sales people.”
One day, he mentioned to a woman who was typing highlights for NBC’s NFL ’78 pregame show that he would like to become involved with sports programming. A half-hour later, he had an interview with the associate producer.
“A woman was having a gall bladder operation, so I got in as one of the scorers,” Simmons said. Bryant Gumbel took a liking to me. I became his assistance on the set and that opened the door for me to get into the world of sports.”
The following year, coverage began for the upcoming Olympic Games. Simmons was hired as a financial analyst and began working in the sports department full time. After the Olympics, he worked as a unit manager for NBC’s Sports World, covering Olympic-style events, including boxing.
“Boxing became my thing for the next 10 years,” Simmons said. “I traveled all around the world covering boxing events. I was promoted into operations. I was like any guy climbing the corporate ladder.”
In 1990, General Electric took over NBC and began downsizing. Simmons’ experience in various roles within the company helped him keep his job — albeit at a price.
“They used the term “Right Sizing,” Simmons said. “There was a four-person sports division in Burbank and all four were fired. I was sent out to be one of the replacements. I had been pretty well rounded with jobs such as on-air operations producer, a field producer, a technical manager and advertising unit salesman. I had worked Orange Bowl events, including the parade and since I had the experience, I became technical manager for the Tournament of Rose Parade.”
Gambles pay off
The gamble to move west wasn’t an immediate hit. The Simmons settled in Simi Valley, where their children Brendan and Katie would later attend Royal High School. Although they enjoyed the weather, it was a lonely time for the family.
“It was just the four of us. No relatives, friends, nothing,” Jack recalled. “The kids used NBC’s back lots as their playgrounds. We had yearly passes to Universal, so we spent a lot of time there because it was easy to get to from NBC and Simi Valley.”
But the move set him up for a second big gamble. In 1994, Fox Broadcasting contacted Simmons for help in founding Fox Sports after having acquired rights to broadcast National Football League games.
“I went to speak with Chairman David Hill and President Ed Goren, and after a half-hour meeting with them, I was hooked. I left NBC, joined Fox and never looked back. Fox came along with a great offer and, in hindsight, had I not taken the Fox offer, the very next football contract NBC lost so I don’t know what might have happened with my career.”
“Fox was grabbing people from all the other networks — NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN — which is why I think we all became like family at Fox. At NBC, it was just me,” Simmons said. “Everybody is social at Fox. It’s different from any other company I’ve every seen. Everybody is banded together and bonded together. We’ve traveled together, celebrated holidays together. When our daughter got married, probably a dozen people from Fox flew to New York for the wedding.”
The East Coast transplants had found a West Coast family.
Moving on
When Fox Sports was launched, it used the old KTTV studios in Hollywood. In 1998, Fox built a new building on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. It wasn’t long before Simmons discovered the additional five to six miles to work added an extra 40 minutes of driving time on the 405 Freeway.
“One day it was raining, and it was before we were using cell phones, and it took me four hours to get to work,” Simmons said. “Wendy said. ‘That’s it, enough of this’ and we began to look for a new place to live. Besides, the Northridge earthquake shook as up pretty good. Simi Valley changed after that. It wasn’t as nice as before. We were always a little on edge waiting for the next earthquake to come.”
Wendy had become friends with some of the wives of co workers who lived in the South Bay and they began looking for a new home, eventually settling on a townhome in Rolling Hills Estates.
“Brendan was a surfer and he would want to surf everyday. He became accepted by the Palos Verdes guys and never had his tires flattened or anything,” Jack said with a chuckle. “He loves surfing in Hermosa. This was the best move coming down here.”
But his son’s love of surfing lead to a tragic consequence. Early one March morning in 2008, Brendan was surfing in Hermosa Beach with longtime friend Nathan Gocke. When Gocke failed to surface after wiping out a wave, Simmons paddled over and helped his friend reach shore. Gocke had suffered a broken neck.
Brendan, 33, lives in Hermosa Beach and has followed in his father’s footsteps. While in high school he took audio visual classes, and began getting coffee for the Fox highlights crew and handing (NFL Hall-of-Famer) Terry Bradshaw highlight information on the set.
At the time, Fox was starting a new computer-based highlight system. Brendan would attend school, work at Fox at night and, like his father, continued to move up the ranks.
“I got noticed because I make a lot of noise. Brendan got noticed because he’s smart and efficient,” Jack said. “He has a much more analytical mind than I do and is very focused. Now he organizes all the commercials, the feeds and organizes the engineers who switch the shows. All I did was get him a job getting coffee.”
Katie, 29, also had her life changed after the move to the South Bay. When she was 20 and attending El Camino College, MTV was in Hermosa Beach filming a show. Jack arranged for his daughter to be a runner at the Beach House Hotel, where she became popular with the crew.
Shortly thereafter, Jack was attending NFL meetings in New York and invited Katie to join him so she could visit old friends. Her father had set up an interview for her with MTV, where she is still employed.
After returning to California, Katie met Sal Cocco at an event in Long Beach and the couple eventually got married.
“Sal is the production manager for NBC Sports and works for my old buddies,” Jack said. “It’s all one big family.”
Living a Dream
Jack has enjoyed watching Fox Sports grow from a fledgling offshoot to a leader in sports entertainment. Along with the NFL, the network has televised the National Hockey League (1994–1999), Major League Baseball (1996–present), NASCAR (2001–present), and the Bowl Championship Series (2007–2010). It has been the exclusive home of the Daytona 500 and the World Series since 2000 and has contract to air the Fall Classic through 2013.
Simmons oversees the organizational and technical management of all Fox Sports studio shows, including the Fox NFL Sunday Pregame Show and the MLB on Fox Pregame. He also manages all Fox Sports post production, transmission and commercial administration requirements.
On air day, Simmons serves as Operations Producer for what he calls the “Boutique Sports,” making sure the airing of proper commercials, promos, show transitions and affiliate requirements are met for all programming, including NFL football, MLB baseball and NASCAR racing. He patrols the transmission area, working closely with the Executive Control box where the president, executive producer and senior producer relay editorial decisions. Simmons translates the decisions to a crew of 100 to 125 people working in different control rooms.
“Each sport is its own animal,” Simmons explained. “During a NASCAR race, I’m making sure all the commercials get in above everything else because it’s a free flowing sport without natural breaks. In baseball, you have a commercial every half inning and when they change pitchers. In football, you get a commercial on every change of possession – a score, a punt, a fumble.
In baseball, with pitching changes, there’s our opportunity to make more revenue through advertising. In football, I’m more of a traffic cop than anything. Overtime in the Super Bowl can pull in an extra $4 Million with an extra spot. It’s a whole choreography. Don’t ask me the score at the end of a game because I have no idea.”
Surprisingly, Simmons only has to travel six or sevens times a year, mainly for what he describes as pleasant events — business meetings in New York, conventions, early set-ups for the Super Bowl and the Emmys. He does most of his work from the control room in Los Angeles. The main control for Fox Sports is in Houston.
“If there’s an earthquake in California, Houston will take over,” Simmons said. “If I ever have to call and say ‘Houston we have a problem,’ I hope they can hear me and I don’t have a building on top of my head.”
Simmons’ career has led to his involvement with Super Bowls, World Series, Summer Olympics, NBA Finals, the Daytona 500, the BCS Championship in college football, French Open tennis and world championship boxing among other events.
Events he recalls with fondness include the World Championship of Track and Field in Rome with Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis, the Detroit Tigers winning World Series in 1984, the Super Bowls, the Olympics and the Larry Holmes heavyweight championship fight. But what Simmons considers his top achievement occurred just last November when the NFL Sunday Pregame show aired from Afghanistan on Veteran’s Day weekend.
“It was the most fulfilling and rewarding experience one could imagine,” Simmons said. “We rode a C-17 30 hours to Bagram Airbase. We didn’t know what to expect. With planes taking off and landing all through the night, you don’t sleep so well. But nobody there complains. It’s really something. I’ve never seen such a group. They’re focused, they’re energetic, they‘re very positive in their approach to what they need to do.”
Simmons was shocked to see so many military personnel sporting NFL paraphernalia. Along with caps from favorite teams, terrible towels were waved by fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and a Raider fan was spotted in the audience holding a Raiders helmet.
“Howie Long spotted it and asked me to go bring it back so he could autograph it for the solder,” Simmons said.
Brendan wanted to accompany his father on the trip but was told no.
“That would have been great, but we didn’t want to take a chance of the two of us going down,” the elder Simmons said. “We had a rocket fired at our plane as we were leaving. Half jokingly the pilot said ‘Oh, their aim’s not very good.’”
Simmons said his favorite sporting event was boxing. Each venue provided a different challenge.
“We did a fight in Monte Carlo and you don’t get that opportunity very often,” Simmons said. “Rocky Lockridge was fighting Julio Caesar Chavez. I’m working with an Italian crew and some British guys so it was a real challenge to get it all organized. It was only an hour show so Bob Arum, the promoter, said we’ll get the fighters into the ring and we’re not going to have any national anthems. We’re about to go on the air and one of the local organizers said there will be three anthems, the Mexican, the United States and the Monte Carlo. I said ‘No we’re not doing any anthems. We don’t have time; we have to go on the air.’ He said, ‘The Prince would like to hear the anthems.’ I looked up to my left and there’s Prince Ranier staring at me. I put the headsets on and ordered three anthems. I thought he was going to throw me out into the Mediterranean somewhere.”
Giving back
Jack and Wendy have found themselves a home on the Peninsula. Jack serves as President of the Homeowners Association and feels the weather is best aspect of living on the hill.
“The whole South Bay area is nice, but the Peninsula is a special place,” Jack said. “The people, the view, the weather are great. You have everything you need at Silver Spur. Nelson’s Restaurant at the Terranea Resort is right on the cliff and I’m a big Lamppost Pizza fan. That’s my spot. Wendy’s is Yummy Yogurt.”
The Simmons’ have become involved in a number of charities.
Part of Jack’s duties at Fox is organizing the segments when soldiers from all over the world send greetings home during the holidays. He is the liaison between Fox and the military and works with the Wounded Marines Career Foundation helping veterans get jobs in television. He also contributes to the Armed Force Foundation and the “Serving those who serve” program with Fox colleagues Howie Long and Jay Glazer.
Jack and Wendy also support the City of Hope and have made Providence TrinityCare Hospice and TrinityKids Care a big part of their lives. Brendan, Katie and her husband Sal were honored as “Family of the Year” at the 20th Annual Embassy Dinner held recently in Long Beach.
“I was shocked to hear about the award,” Wendy said. “I didn’t think we should’ve won it, but when they got up to speak that night, I realized what we had done. I was at a loss for words. I’m so proud that my son, daughter and husband joined me on this journey.
“I knew Trinity had worked with adults, but when I attended an event with the kids, they put the hook into me. It wasn’t long before I fell in love with all these little boys and girls.”
Jack claims Wendy is the driving force behind their charity work and he is “along for the ride” serving as a recruiter.
“Nobody deserves what these kids – and adults – have to go through and we just do what we can to help, which leads us back to Fox,” Jack stated. “Wendy pulled together a group of women who call themselves the Foxy Ladies and have held numerous fundraisers. Wendy is infectious with this and gets everyone involved. She is so humble but works very hard at this, seven days a week, day and night.”
Brendan has become the “unofficial” photographer at events, Katie has served as production manager and Sal has even taken care of the food after a caterer had bailed out.
“That’s what makes it so special – the whole family is involved,” Jack said. “We’ve been very lucky in our lives. There are so many other people in need. We’re no big players, just a couple of kids in the neighborhood doing what we can to help.”
Wendy also stays busy with her company Katie Cocco Confections. Named after her daughter, the company features homemade candies and goes hand-in-hand with the charities, where many gift baskets are donated at events.
Wendy said she became bored when she was pregnant with Katie. Jack was travelling six to eight weeks at a time and during the holiday season, would come home with bottles of booze given as presents. She began making her own Irish Cream and candy liqueurs. Her mother would come over and soon they began selling the candy to her mom’s friends.
As Katie got older, Wendy shared all of her sweet secrets with her, and together they have created a business stemming from their mother-daughter bond.
Now Katie is pregnant with the Simmons’ first grandchild due August 8. The family continues to grow. PEN