Detroit cable TV pioneer hopes to reconnect with Detroit Lions in Las Vegas

Scott Talley, Detroit Free Press
Updated ·9 min read

If the Detroit Lions defeat the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game to advance to the franchise’s first Super Bowl, they already have a fan waiting for them in Las Vegas whose connection with the team began in the chilly seats of Tiger Stadium, when a steady supply of hot chocolate was a little girl’s best friend.

“Classy, jazzy, sassy and sportsfully yours,” is how Detroit native Stephanie Young describes herself. However, before Young started using “The DIVA of Sports” handle on social media, she covered Detroit’s sports scene, including the Lions, for “Sportstalk,' which aired from 1988 through 1998 on Barden Cablevision TV-6. Young hopes to reconnect with the Lions during a media day event if the team advances to Super Bowl LVIII, which will be played in Las Vegas, where Young now lives.

That little girl, now all grown up, is 58-year-old Stephanie Young. And while Young has worked in Las Vegas (host city of Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium) since 2009, the 1983 graduate of Central High School wants it known that she has never stopped being a Detroiter, which includes being connected to the professional football team that dons the Honolulu Blue and silver.

“I was born and raised, bread and buttered, in Detroit,” proclaims Young, whose intense manner of watching the Lions games even as a child caused her grandfather, William Billups, to say that she “appreciated the game like a woman, but watched it like a man,” which was his way of extending a heartfelt compliment to his beloved granddaughter. “I’m excited for the team, but I’m mostly happy for all of the faithful fans that kept hoping and praying, and holding on for dear life through many disappointments.

"It’s no place like 'The D.' And this is a lot of fun for all Detroiters and I’m so happy for the city.”

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The Lions’ exciting season has not only given Young a reason to cheer from nearly 1,800 miles away, but it also has given her a reason to reflect on a time when she came face-to-face with members of the Lions team and staff on a regular basis. In fact, when the Lions last played in the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 12, 1992, against Washington, Young provided feature reports relating to the team for “Sportstalk” throughout the season, which aired on Barden Cablevision TV 6, owned by the late business icon Don Barden, who brought cable television to Detroit. Young, who chased down stories of Detroit interest connected to professional, college and high school sports and more, was a part of a broadcast team that included co-hosts Mike “Tiger” Price and the late Quentin King; high school/college correspondent and announcer Jeff Lowe, a fixture at Detroit Public School League games, and the late Kevin Butler, who directed the show that aired live prime time on Wednesdays and then was rebroadcast during the week.

“I don’t think we’ve seen anything like it, since,” said Young, who spoke on Jan. 23 from Las Vegas, where she works as a member consultant for Archwell Health. “All of us on the show were Detroiters, and we all had been educated in Detroit schools. So our own people in Detroit got to see their own every Wednesday live for an hour without a teleprompter, and it brought a sense of pride.”

In a genuinely modest manner, Young confirmed that the “Sportstalk” on-air personalities became “local celebrities” in the community during a 10-year run from 1988 until 1998. And she believes the admiration was largely due to intentional “touches” that let viewers know that the presenters of the stories also had a personal stake in the community.

As a “Sportstalk” reporter, native Detroiter Stephanie Young had an opportunity to interview local and national sports personalities, including Calvin Hill, who in addition to being the father of former Detroit Pistons star Grant Hill, was an NFL champion after the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI. From 1988 through 1998, “Sportstalk” aired on Barden Cablevision TV-6, owned by the late Don Barden, who brought cable television to Detroit. Young, who is now living in Las Vegas hopes to reconnect with the Detroit Lions, a team she covered for “Sportstalk,” if the Lions advance to Super Bowl LVIII.

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“Everyone who was a part of our show knew that our city is a good city,” said Young, whose Detroit sports roots also include growing up near the old Olympia Stadium. “And, personally, I wanted to highlight the positive. I would cover the Fab 5, Michigan football, and the Pistons and the Lions; but I loved doing those ‘good stuff’ features on topics like the Reggie McKenzie camps, where you have kids working hard, and adults, including professional and college players, giving back because they care about the kids and the community.”

Young set out to work in sports media by enrolling at Specs Howard School of Media Arts in Southfield. And her graduation in 1989 was a source of pride. However, the celebration meal she was expecting to have with her family at Red Lobster was not to be because the late Dick Kernen, the former vice president of Industry Relations at Specs Howard School who shaped the lives of thousands of broadcast professionals, had already arranged an internship interview for Young at Barden Cablevision on the day of her graduation. And when Young walked out of Barden’s Lyndon Street (off Wyoming) offices on Detroit’s west side following the interview, instead of the initial grunt-work assignment she was anticipating, Young was an on-air member of the “Sportstalk” team.

“Specs showed me how to put a story together. And public speaking was never an issue for me. So, I was very excited about the opportunity because I wanted to do sports,” said Young, who during most of her roughly 10-year run with "Sportstalk" was classified as an independent producer and reporter, which were positions she carried out while also working other jobs outside of Barden Cablevision to support herself.

With training from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts in Southfield, Detroit native Stephanie Young covered the local sports scene, including the Detroit Lions, for “Sportstalk,” which aired from 1988 through 1998 on Barden Cablevision TV-6. Young, pictured on the program’s set with the late Quentin King, hopes to reconnect with the Lions during a media day event if the team advances to Super Bowl LVIII, which will be played in Las Vegas, where Young now lives.

When it came to covering the Lions during Young’s time with Barden Cablevision, she explained that keeping the team and the Detroit community connected was an ongoing objective for “Sportstalk,” even during seasons when wins were harder to come by for the team.

“After the Lions moved to the Pontiac Silverdome (opened in 1975), there were still fans that lived in Detroit at the games. But we also knew there were many people living in Detroit that were die-hard Lions fans, even if they were not represented at the Silverdome,” Young explained. “Those fans still had a very strong affiliation with the team and through our show we wanted to bring the Lions to our viewers, which Bill Keenist (former Lions vice president of communications) and the team helped us to do.”

For Young, bringing the Lions to "Sportstalk" viewers meant making the most of media opportunities during training camps and practices, where she interviewed players like Lomas Brown, Kevin Glover, Jerry Ball and Bruce McNorton, just to name a few. Young also has fond memories of interviewing the gentleman who coached the Lions the last time the team appeared in the NFC Championship Game — Wayne Fontes.

“The first time I went to interview Lions players at the Silverdome, Coach Fontes told the team that they better be nice to me,” recalls Young, who also vividly remembers Fontes’ signature golf cart and cigar. “I was never intimidated or scared of any of the players, but I appreciated Coach Fontes’ support. He also brought some excitement and he was a likable guy, like Dan Campbell. It’s a spirit we look for as Detroiters from our players and coaches, and if we like you, you’re in and you become family for life!”

Just as “what if” scenarios are often linked to sports teams, on the evening of Jan. 23, Young went through a few “what ifs” that may have prevented her from having to leave her Detroit family for employment. Young noted that things may have gone differently if she had received responses to the many letters and resumes she sent out after “Sportstalk” ended; or if she had switched her focus from sports to news; or even if Barden Cablevision had the ability to archive volumes of “Sportstalk,” which would have provided Young and her colleagues more work samples to share. But Young’s “what if” talk did not last for long,. And it definitely did not appear to dampen her spirits.

“(The late) Cliff Russell, who was one of my biggest supporters, used to say I was ahead of the times by being a woman in sports media, but my time was my time,” said Young, who reeled off a Who’s Who list of local media professionals that became her mentors and friends during her Barden Cablevision days, including Russell, Jay Berry, Terry Foster, Eric Pate and former Detroit Free Press sports staffers Perry Farrell and Rob Parker. “I enjoy watching the young ladies today on the national sports broadcasts like Pam Oliver, Kristina Pink and Lisa Salters, but I had a great experience and I had an opportunity to do things 30 years ago that people in the business are doing today. I’m also thankful for the athletes that made themselves available to me because now every athlete is a brand, and they all have handlers that have their own handlers.”

As it turns out, Young is not out of the sports media business all together. She has maintained a strong enough connection to sports to secure a credential to a Super Bowl media event and Young shares her thoughts on social media using “The DIVA of Sports” handle. And while Young, who makes frequent visits to Detroit, is grateful for her sports journey, that does not stop her from thinking about how she would cover the sports scene in Detroit today.

“It seems like our local athletes, back in the day, were more into the city and more visible in the community, and I’m thinking of people like John Salley and the late Tony Phillips,” said Young, who spoke proudly about serving as the MC at the annual Detroit PAL Cheerleading Competition and regularly being invited to speak to students during the time when she appeared regularly on Barden Cablevision. “So, if I was doing a show like ‘Sportstalk’ today, I would definitely want to help our local athletes — and not just the Lions — be even more a part of the community. I would try to help connect them so that you would see them more at our Detroit schools, and at the PAL football championships, along with doing even more things to lift the community like mentoring young men and young women.

“I would say let me take you to Mack and Bewick, 7 Mile and Schoenherr, Dexter and Tuxedo, Joy Road and Dexter, and other often forgotten parts of our city. If only for a few minutes, I think our athletes can really make a difference through their presence by letting the people know that they care."

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and lifelong lover of Detroit culture in all of its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at: stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroiter in Vegas wants to renew special bond with Detroit Lions