R.I.P.: Barry Frank, TV Sports Impresario

Barry Frank

Barry Frank, who over a half-century negotiated deals for sportscasting stars like John Madden, developed or created popular shows like “The Skins Game” and “Superstars,” and helped engineer high-priced network rights deals, died on Tuesday in a hospital in San Francisco.

He was 87, according to The NYTimes.

Frank had once dreamed of being an actor. But he ended up working on different stages — as a network official but chiefly as an executive at the International Management Group (IMG), the sports and entertainment agency founded by Mark McCormack in the early 1960s.

“Mark really created the sports marketing industry,” Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports and a former IMG executive, said by phone. “But you can also make the point that Barry in many ways perfected the sports television and talent representation business.”

McCormack gave Frank a wide berth to build a portfolio. As an agent, he had a stable of top sportscasters, including Bob Costas, Jim Nantz, Robin Roberts, Mike Tirico and Mr. Madden. As an adviser and negotiator, he worked for Major League Baseball, the United States Tennis Association, Wimbledon and the Atlantic Coast Conference to get the most money for their TV rights.

And as a programmer, he created shows — including “American Gladiators” and “Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes” — that were labeled “trash sports” by Sports Illustrated.

When he was asked in 1991 what he thought of those shows being called trash, he told The Associated Press: “My philosophy is simple. A, if people enjoy it, I don’t think these kinds of pejoratives are deserved; and, B, I don’t care.”