Lee Leonard (April 3, 1929 – December 16, 2018) was an American television personality who was involved in the launch of cable television networks ESPN and CNN. Early life Leonard was born Maxwell Lefkowitz on April 3, 1929, in New York City, the son of Estelle (Cohn), a beautician, and Daniel Lefkowitz. After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, he attended Columbia University in New York City but did not graduate. Leonard then served in the United States Army in Germany during the Korean War and developed an interest in broadcasting. He was a midday radio personality on New York's WNBC-AM (660), shortly after it launched its "Conversation Station," a talk format, in 1964. He was part of a weekday talk-variety lineup that included "Big" Wilson, Robert Alda, Mimi Benzell, Sterling Yates, Bill Mazer, Brad Crandall and Long John Nebel and hosted a competition/quiz show for listeners called Fortune Phone. At CBS and NBC In the early 1970s, Leonard was part of an even earlier network TV innovation, partnering on CBS-TV with Jack Whitaker on The NFL on CBS, a studio-based show wrapping around the network's coverage of the National Football League with pregame features and halftime and postgame highlights from around the league. As producers changed, Leonard and Whitaker were eventually succeeded by The NFL Today with Brent Musburger, Phyllis George, Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder and Irv Cross on one of network TV sports' longest-running studio-based programs. The core of the team would stay until the mid-1980s, while the show itself has aired continuously ever since, except for several years in the 1990s when CBS did not have NFL television rights. As for Leonard, he would move to NBC and be teamed with Bryant Gumbel on its GrandStand show, where he would stay until just before ESPN launched. Also during the mid-1970s, Leonard hosted Midday Live, the daily talk show on WNEW-TV (now WNYW) in New York City (he was replaced by Bill Boggs). While at WNEW, Leonard was one of the original co-hosts with Bill Mazer of Sports Extra - considered a pioneering show for the Sunday Evening Sports Wrap-Up show format. At ESPN and CNN On September 7, 1979, he was the first person to ever speak on ESPN. He gave a brief introduction before the network aired its first programming, which was the first episode of SportsCenter. Afterwards, he made occasional appearances on