Val Pinchbeck Jr., a former sports information director who helped build the National Football League into a $17.6-billion television juggernaut, died March 6, 2004 after collapsing on a New York street and being struck by a taxi. He was 73.
Mr. Pinchbeck was in New York to help create the NFL's 2004 schedule and had finished dinner Saturday night when he collapsed and was hit, according to his son, Val Pinchbeck III.
Mr. Pinchbeck had been an institution at the NFL, friends said, playing a leading role in creating every league schedule since 1971 and taking part in several billion-dollar television contract negotiations.
In his job, Mr. Pinchbeck had to manage the interests of the league, its players, the owners and the television networks, said Kevin O'Malley, a former CBS Sports vice president who now lives in East Lake.
"Val was the expert," O'Malley said. "The balancing act he had to pull off was truly monumental."
Though he officially retired in 1998, Mr. Pinchbeck had remained a consultant with the NFL, working on the league's 17-week schedule and acting as a liaison between the league and the networks.
He attended a game every week, friends said, and became a close friend and adviser to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Mr. Pinchbeck sat in Tagliabue's private box during last month's Super Bowl.
"The NFL was a huge part of his life and he got his energy from it," said Dick Maxwell, the NFL's senior director of broadcasting operations and services. "He was such a tremendous resource for the commissioners. He's been an integral part of the decisionmaking process for a long, long time.
"No one could have a better mentor than Val Pinchbeck."
During his career, Mr. Pinchbeck took part in a series of negotiations between television networks and the NFL for broadcast rights. Those rights are now part of a $17.6-billion, eight-year contract, the largest in professional sports.
O'Malley said Mr. Pinchbeck's contributions have spawned the sport's prodigious growth.
"NFL football is almost unique in the partnership it has forged with television," O'Malley said. "It became just a tremendously dominating force in that medium over many years. Val was responsible for that."
Besides working with television networks, Mr. Pinchbeck was the league's chief scheduler for more than 30 years.
Since 1971, Mr. Pinchbeck spent a month after the end of the season figuring out when, where and on what television network the league's now 32 teams would play each weekend.
In the beginning, Mr. Pinchbeck only had a 4-by-6-foot wooden board to help him match up schedules, field availabilities and weather concerns.
Now there are computer models and statistical computations to help make the pieces fit. But the process still isn't easy, said friend, neighbor and NFL colleague Jim Heffernan.
"You still have to please television and 32 millionaire owners," Heffernan said. "You have to try and satisfy the networks and the owners, they're paying a lot of money. Val did that."
Mr. Pinchbeck was in New York last week to build next year's NFL schedule. He was scheduled to return this week to Florida, where he had lived since 1998.
In a memo to NFL employees Monday, Tagliabue said Mr. Pinchbeck will be sorely missed. The commissioner will eulogize Mr. Pinchbeck at a public service Friday.
Mr. Pinchbeck is originally from New York and graduated from Syracuse University in 1952 with a degree in journalism.
After serving in the Navy during the Korean War, he became the sports information director for Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and later held the same position at Syracuse.
In 1966, Mr. Pinchbeck became director of special events for the then-American Football League. The following year, he moved to the Denver Broncos as director of public relations and in 1970 started working at the league's New York office.
A public viewing will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday at Blount and Curry Funeral Home, 605 S MacDill Ave., Tampa. The public service will follow.
In April, Mr. Pinchbeck will posthumously receive the Order of the Leather Helmet from the NFL Alumni Association, an award given to people who have made significant contributions to the tradition of football, said Frank Krauser, president and chief executive of the association.
"We just spoke last week about the award," Krauser said. "It's sad he won't be there to accept it. He will be missed."
A widower, Mr. Pinchbeck is survived by two sons, James and Val III, both of Tampa, and one granddaughter.
"For all the computers the NFL has now, the one they will miss most is my father's," Val Pinchbeck III said. "His head was as good, if not better, than any computer they had."