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Speaker 1: Hammer and Nigel.

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Speaker 2: Do you believe these characters are weirdos?

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Speaker 1: My name is and Igel Jason Hammer right over there.

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Speaker 1: Rest in peace, Nancy Leonard, widow of Bobby Slick Leonard,

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Speaker 1: passing away last night at the age of ninety three.

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Speaker 1: Hammerh I'll lets who read the family statement.

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Speaker 2: This is the perfect statement to put out from the

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Speaker 2: family of the Leonard children. This is a perfect statement.

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Speaker 2: Quote with sorrow, the children of Bob and Nancy Leonard

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Speaker 2: announced the peaceful passing of our mother last night. Her

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Speaker 2: health steadily declined in recent months, but her will to

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Speaker 2: get the most out of life never wavered, as evidence

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Speaker 2: by her insistence on attending Pacer games this past season.

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Speaker 2: At ninety three years young, she will always be the

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Speaker 2: pacers number one fan. Our family extends a heartfelt thank

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Speaker 2: you to all who lovingly touched Mom's life during her

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Speaker 2: and credible earthly journey. We are especially grateful to her

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Speaker 2: wonderful caregivers and health teams. Dad joins us in shouting

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Speaker 2: boom baby. Yeah, that's a great statement from the the

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Speaker 2: children of Bob and Nancy. And you heard it the news. Earlier.

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Speaker 2: Tyrese Haliburton released a statement calling Nancy the first lady

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Speaker 2: of Indiana basketball. And I think that's an accurate statement.

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Speaker 2: I really do, because there would not be an Indiana

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Speaker 2: Pacers without Nancy Leonard. We kind of know Bob right

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Speaker 2: from the coach to the broadcasters click boom baby. Sure,

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Speaker 2: passing away a couple of years ago, yes, but without Nancy,

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Speaker 2: you don't have an Indiana Pacers. Once the Pacers decided

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Speaker 2: to join the NBA. Once they were invited to join,

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Speaker 2: it cost a lot of money. Were they were in

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Speaker 2: the ABA correct, and they were probably the premier franchise

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Speaker 2: in the ABA. Wow, But the NBA said, unless you

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Speaker 2: have a season ticket sale threshold of around eight thousand

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Speaker 2: ticket holders by the end of nineteen seventy seven, the

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Speaker 2: Pacers were going to have to be sold to somebody else,

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Speaker 2: which was probably going to move the franchise. So think

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Speaker 2: about that. The Pacers don't have this telethon, which was

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Speaker 2: Nancy's idea telethon to get all the season ticket holders

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Speaker 2: they need. The Pacers don't come, which means there's no

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Speaker 2: Market Square arena. And what's the domino effect of that?

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Speaker 2: Is there no who's your dome? Do the Colts not

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Speaker 2: move here? Do we become this town, this city with

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Speaker 2: all these conventions, does INDI Skyline grow?

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Speaker 1: Are we like Flint Michigan in Semi pro in my

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Speaker 1: movie with Will Ferrell?

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Speaker 2: Are we just the Flint dropics?

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Speaker 1: Yes? Right?

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Speaker 2: So you could look at Nancy's decision to have this

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Speaker 2: telethon in nineteen seventy seven to get eight thousand season

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Speaker 2: ticket holders as the springboard for the city of Indianapolis

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Speaker 2: becoming what it is. She was the marketing genius, She

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Speaker 2: was the muse behind Bobby Slick Leonard.

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Speaker 1: What was the positioning, what was the context? How do

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Speaker 1: you I mean you usually have the telethon, the telethon

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Speaker 1: that I know of, best of it, Jerry Lewis Muscular

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Speaker 1: District of Labor Day telethon, right, And I'm wondering how

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Speaker 1: I'd be curious to go back and see how they

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Speaker 1: positioned this.

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Speaker 2: So Channel for the Park aired it, and they were

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Speaker 2: the television home of the Pacers, gotcha, So they had

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Speaker 2: some skin in this game as well. So Channel four

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Speaker 2: WTTV they dedicated I think sixteen and a half hours

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Speaker 2: for a PACER's telethon and the goal was to reach

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Speaker 2: eight thousand season ticket holders and they had to do

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Speaker 2: so in a certain amount of time, or they weren't

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Speaker 2: going to be able to keep the franchise in Indie.

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Speaker 2: Let's jump in the old hot tup time machine. This

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Speaker 2: is what it sounded like on the air. You're gonna

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Speaker 2: hear Bobby Slick Leonard, who was the general manager of

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Speaker 2: the Pacers in nineteen seventy seven, talk about how they're

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Speaker 2: in the home stretch, they're not sure if they're going

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Speaker 2: to meet their goal, and then in the final ten

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Speaker 2: minutes they got the number they needed. It was Nancy

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Speaker 2: that broke the news.

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Speaker 1: Our actual pamp is six thousand, seven hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: as of twelve twenty five.

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Speaker 2: Of you got an hour and fifty minutes to go five.

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Speaker 1: We're in eighty twenty eight. A tearful nay. Hear the

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Speaker 1: emotion in her voice. Wow, that gives me chills. And

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Speaker 1: what I think is so great. Wow, the connection the

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Speaker 1: Pacers have with this city. It goes back so many generations. Right,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of cult fans, don't get me wrong,

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Speaker 1: but the Colts didn't get here until nineteen eighty four.

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Speaker 1: A good chance if you're around our age, you know

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Speaker 1: I'm going to be forty eight.

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Speaker 2: You know next week that your parents probably were fans

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Speaker 2: of some other team, whether it be the Bears or

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Speaker 2: the Bengals, or Cowboys, Dolphins, whoever. The Colts were like

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Speaker 2: a transplant for my parents' age. But the Pacers were

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Speaker 2: always here fan bases go back into the sixties and

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Speaker 2: up unto today. And I love the fact that the

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Speaker 2: Pacers always kept that ABA tradition alive even in the NBA.

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Speaker 2: Like in the NBA Finals this past year, the Pacers

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Speaker 2: had a special seat for Nancy right there behind the bench.

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Speaker 2: You know, this wasn't something that they were trying to

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Speaker 2: sell for ten twenty thousand dollars. They probably could do that,

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Speaker 2: but it was important to make sure Nancy was there

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Speaker 2: because there'd be no Indiana Pacers without Nancy. And I've

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Speaker 2: said for years, if you're going to do statues over

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Speaker 2: at Gamebridge Fieldhouse, you know the Colts have one of

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Speaker 2: Peyton Manning over at Lucas Oil. If you're going to

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Speaker 2: do one for Slick, Nancy needs to be a part

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Speaker 2: of it. Slick and Nancy together about a banner a banner.

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Speaker 2: Slick's got one up there, but I'd like to see

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Speaker 2: something with Nancy too. That's a great idea because at

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Speaker 2: Gamebridge Field House there are two exits. There's a Pennsylvania street,

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Speaker 2: there's a Delaware street. How about a Reggie statue on

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Speaker 2: one side, Slick and Nancy on the other. Maybe that's

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Speaker 2: too many statues. I don't know, but something needs to

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Speaker 2: be done.

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Speaker 1: To honor no I happened to hear out in the

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Speaker 1: hallway earlier Jake Querry talking about on our sister sports

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Speaker 1: flock station one of simify the fan that you know,

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Speaker 1: every banner that's up there has either a number associated

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Speaker 1: with that banner, like in terms of players or you know,

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Speaker 1: Bobby Slick being the coach and being the manager. Is

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Speaker 1: the possibility in your mind, hammer of a Nancy Leonard banner?

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Speaker 1: Is that? Is that a possibility? Is that something that

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Speaker 1: needs to be considered. I think it could be.

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Speaker 2: We're going to talk to some folks throughout the afternoon

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Speaker 2: that work over at the Pacers will kick that idea around. Certainly,

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Speaker 2: at the bare minimum, a patch on the jerseys this

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Speaker 2: year I think is appropriate. So yeah, yeah, Nancy Leonard

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Speaker 2: passing away last night at the age of ninety three.

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Speaker 1: Can I tell you just real quick? I know we

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Speaker 1: wouldn't want to move on here the one of the

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Speaker 1: great I've never met Bobby Slick Leonard and when we

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Speaker 1: did our podcast at Coaches Tavern, before we got the show,

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Speaker 1: I was unable to attend. I think I was in flood,

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Speaker 1: was on vacation in Florida when Bobby Slick agreed to

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Speaker 1: come in and do the show with you. Yes, and

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Speaker 1: I believe j Query. I think Query filled in for

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Speaker 1: me on the podcast. One of the great regrets of

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Speaker 1: my life is that I would have much rather been

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Speaker 1: on that stage of Coaches Tavern than I would have

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Speaker 1: in Florida.

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Speaker 2: And Nancy was there that night too, taking pictures, and yeah, man,

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Speaker 2: that's that's awesome. Big part of Indiana lost with the

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Speaker 2: passing of Nancy Leonard last night