Jerry McKinnis isn't an Arkansas native. He was born at St. Louis in 1937, finally landing in Little Rock in the 1960s. Though he didn't grow up here, few people are more identified with the lakes and streams of Arkansas than McKinnis, who now lives near Flippin.
McKinnis has a new book out with the alluring title of Bass Fishing, Brown Dogs & Curveballs. He writes about the things mentioned in the book title: "The three of them have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but they cover a lot of ground with me. I could make the argument that any one of them could be the title."
The bass fishing part is obvious for a man whose television show, The Fishin' Hole, was a staple in the early years of ESPN. The part about brown dogs comes from McKinnis' love of dachshunds. The part about curveballs comes from the fact that he grew up playing baseball and still loves the game.
"I just can't tell you what a big part of my life baseball has been," McKinnis says. "I played professionally for just a short time, but believe me, a short time in the minor leagues can certainly be something you will never forget, and it helped shape my life. Naturally, I don't play anymore but follow my beloved St. Louis Cardinals. ... Pardon me for name-dropping, but the first week in December, for many years now, has been the week that Whitey Herzog, the baseball hall of famer, shows up at my home on the White River in Arkansas."
From former college basketball coach Bobby Knight to baseball icon Ted Williams, McKinnis became friends with numerous sports and entertainment celebrities thanks to fishing. In McKinnis' days as a guide on the White River, one of his regular customers was Little Rock businessman R.A. "Brick" Lile. It was Lile who talked McKinnis into running a marina on Lake Maumelle near Little Rock in the 1960s.
McKinnis relates how Bud Campbell, the sports director at KATV-TV, Channel 7, in Little Rock and the radio voice of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, often would come to the marina to relax on a houseboat. Though Campbell didn't fish, he was impressed by the stringers filled with bass that McKinnis would bring in. One day, Campbell asked McKinnis to ice down some of the fish, bring them to the KATV studio and be a live guest at 10 p.m. "He changed my life, and I didn't even know it," McKinnis says of Campbell. "Before my TV career really got going, Bud Campbell was killed in a car wreck, so he never got to see what he had done."
Soon after that first television appearance, McKinnis was asked to host a five-minute fishing report once a week on the station; that turned into a half-hour show called The Arkansas Sportsman. The program had a 10-year run and led to the syndicated program The Fishin' Hole. Former ESPN program director Gary Morgenstern, who calls McKinnis "the most important mentor in my career," met McKinnis in April 1996. McKinnis flew from Little Rock to the ESPN headquarters in Connecticut to meet with Morgenstern.
"During that initial meeting, he explained that his company assembled the ESPN Outdoors block for us on a weekly basis, and what it entailed," Morgenstern writes in the foreword to the book. "What a relief it was to know that I had in Jerry someone who I could count on to help me navigate through the huge and often complex world of outdoors programming. From that day forward, I don't think I made a single decision with regard to ESPN Outdoors programming without first discussing it with Jerry. Over time, I met and got to know everyone at JM Associates, Jerry's production company based in Little Rock. Their role in developing the ESPN Outdoors block, both creatively and physically, was enormous. Their dedication to making ESPN Outdoors great, to pushing the envelope, was second to none."
The Fishin' Hole moved from syndication on individual stations and debuted on ESPN in 1980, the year after the network went on the air. It became the second longest-running regular program on ESPN, behind only SportsCenter. Meanwhile, JM Productions found itself among the top production companies in the world of outdoor media. In 2010, McKinnis and two business partners purchased B.A.S.S., the world's largest fishing organization. The 500,000-member organization includes magazines, a website, television programs, social media platforms and fishing tournaments. The Fishin' Hole no longer airs (it ended its run in March 2007), but McKinnis stays busy.
Near the end of the book, Mc-Kinnis lists what he considers important years in his life. He threw his first curveball in 1948 and his first high school no-hitter in 1954. He was released from professional baseball in 1958. He cranked an outboard motor for the first time in 1959 and caught his first bass in 1960. He caught a 24-pound brown trout on a 4-pound line in 1975, and he appeared on David Letterman's television show in 1989.
Prior to The Fishin' Hole being syndicated, most outdoor shows featured exotic trips. McKinnis chose to focus on lakes and streams across the middle of America that actual fisherman could afford to visit. Bill Dance, who started Bill Dance Outdoors in 1968, calls McKinnis "an American original. Rarely has one man had such an impact on the industry, for young and old alike. He has entertained millions with his laid-back Arkansas manner." And it all started when Bud Campbell asked a young guide at Lake Maumelle to help fill some airtime on a slow day.
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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the director of corporate communications for Simmons First National Corp. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 07/08/2015