Journey of a Maverick Sportscaster

'Vic the Brick", master of on-air zaniness

Vic Jacobs, popularly known as ‘Vic the Brick’, interviewing the late Kobe Bryant with whom he had a close friendship during his time with the LA Lakers.

Posted Sunday, June 2, 2024 8:00 am

If Vic Jacobs never followed the corporate handbook for sports journalism, it’s because he never bothered owning one.

For 35 years, ‘Vic the Brick’, as he is popularly known on the Los Angeles airwaves, has entertained his listeners with oddball insights and guru-infused commentaries that only a loyal following can appreciate.

At first glance, the Brooklyn-accented showman who dons gaudy vintage outfits seems out of place for southern California.

But his radio antics and greater-than-life persona are made to embrace LA’s free-spirited, mosaic culture with zen, with light, and always with love.

“My soul is the Lakers…I’m immersed in their flow.”

He is also a devout fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts is a sensei.”

It was a long and winding road for the 71-year-old who currently broadcasts on AM570 LA Sports – ‘Roggin & Rodney’ from 12-3 pm, and ‘Petros & Money’ from 3-7 pm.

‘It’s a journey that began on the island of Guam,” he tells Rmag.

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After college, Jacobs spent 5 years roaming the Pacific islands as a counter-culture journeyman before returning stateside where he eventually settled on the west coast.

Along the way, he covered cockfights, got fired for bringing a steer into a TV station, and had headphones thrown at him on live TV by an irate football coach.

Jacobs grew up in Queens, New York. In high school, he played music in a band and shot hoops in the park with a younger Ernie Grunfeld, who later joined the Milwaukee Bucks and then served as General Manager of the New York Knicks from 1989-1999.

“I nurtured Ernie Grunfeld…taught him how to be tough, use his elbows, and strike a first blow.”

He attended Cortland in upstate New York, but then transferred to Cornell where he earned a BS in Communication Arts.

From early on, he found the general delivery of sports news to be stodgy and uninspiring. His hero was the blustery Howard Cosell with whom he interned at ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

“When Howard walked into a meeting, he just took over the room,” he recalls of his idol.

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Unable to land a full-time position after college, he picked up odd jobs doing phone sales and waiting tables at a Lebanese restaurant.

“There were no great openings and I had no connections in the business.” A year later, he threw on a backpack and took off for Tahiti.

He island-hopped through Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia trying to find work in English-speaking TV stations.

One day, working as an assistant beverage manager at the Guam Reef Hotel, he talked up a TV crew that happened to walk into the bar. Soon enough, he was doing the 10 pm weeknight sports news in Guam.

It was 1979 and Jacobs’ nightly air greetings would open with “Hafa Adai, Sports Fans!” Or, hello sports fans in the native tongue.

He stayed for a year covering various sporting events and then came home. “The South Pacific Games in Fiji were my crowning achievement,” he remembers.

Back on the continent, he sent out hundreds of tapes to news directors, but nothing stuck. One employer wrote back, “You’re a circus freak, go back to Guam!”

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He finally got a break when Dave Brown, a Roswell, New Mexico TV director whose parents were from Guam agreed to an interview.

Seen off by his mother and girlfriend at the bus station, Jacobs hopped on a 50-hour bus ride from New York to Roswell. He got the job and started sportscasting during the week, while shooting film on weekends.

“It was a CBS affiliate, KBIM-TV, and it was owned by the Holsum Bread Company. On my paycheck there was a picture of a loaf of bread…I thought that was cute.”

Having been away from American television for so many years, he developed his own style that was raw and visceral.

It was also in Roswell that he invented his ‘Brick’ schtick, which consisted of tossing a foam brick at the camera and creating a sound effect.

“I wanted something that rhymes with Vic that I could use as a prop to express my pathos.”

To this day, he thinks David Letterman absconded his idea of throwing an object, cue cards in Letterman’s case, at the camera with a desired sound effect.

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A year later, Jacobs was working in Austin, Texas at KXAN-TV, an NBC affiliate, where among other responsibilities he covered the football rivalry between the University of Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies.

Calling himself the ‘Gridiron Guru’, he would visit the Longhorns’ steer mascot, Bevo, at his ranch and rub his horns for good wishes.

In 1984, his stunts went too far when he brought Bevo into the TV station and the 2,000 lb. beast urinated on the floor.

“The Aggies were very aggressive in their animosity towards the Longhorns and threatened to kidnap Bevo and barbecue him, so I brought him into the studio to show everyone that he’s ok.”

To the dismay of his loyal fans, he was let go by managemement.

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He moved to California where in typical anecdotal fashion that seemed to define his life, he landed at a Fox affiliate in Fresno, replacing a sportscaster who was fired for waving a gun at the camera and clicking the trigger on live TV.

“This man owned local video stores that were getting robbed and he wanted to send a warning message on television.”

In Fresno, he covered high school sports and the Fresno State Bulldogs, getting to know their coach, Jim Sweeney, who in a fit of rage one day threw his headset at Jacobs when asked about his losing game.

KCOP-TV in Los Angeles was his last television job before permanently moving to radio in 1989.

During the 1988 Seoul Olympics, he kept a jar of kimchi on his desk when he was on air. "Nobody knew what kimchi was back then.”

In LA, he got to know many of the professional athletes and grew especially close to Kobe Bryant from the day he joined the Lakers in 1996 as young basketball prodigy.

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“I called him…back then you could just call, and I said ‘Welcome to Los Angeles! The city is already electric with your arrival, and I’d love to say hello and meet you.”

They met for the first time at a hotel in Long Beach where Kobe was staying with his mother and sisters.

“His lower body was soaking in an ice bath and he was eating French fries…I sat next to him and he offered me fries as we spoke.”

Reflecting on Bryant’s tragic death in 2020, Jacobs laments, “He was such an incredible talent and a great spirit.”

In 2000, Jacobs was at the victory parade covering the Lakers’ national championship when Shaquille O’Neill turned to him and said, “Vic, get on the bus with us!”

At the time, the media was not allowed on board but they made an exception for the Brick. “I found myself on the back of the bus with Derek Fisher blowing kisses to the crowds…I was in hoops heaven.”

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In 2016, the Brick fought his biggest sports battle yet after a bout of colon-rectal cancer left him physically tattered and vocally sapped.

Still, he never lost the spiritual essence of his mission. “Be the bamboo…bend, do not break.”

Today, Jacobs is cancer-free but the harsh radiation treatments have led to a debilitating auto-immune disease known as Stills Disease, plus severe neuropathy on both hands and feet.

In an era when audiences are plugged into the internet and are as knowledgeable about sports as their radio hosts, the Brick continues to stand out as an irrepressible on-air engager.

Broadcasting from home since the pandemic, he is grateful to Don Martin, EVP of Programming at iHeartMedia Sports, and Brian Blackborne, Operations Manager-Assistant Program Director, who haven’t reined in his eccentricities and continue to believe in him.

In his personal life, he is emotionally nourished by his wife of 24 years, Yuko Sakamoto.

“She is My Tamashi, My Soul, My Essence.”

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