Colgate has followed Mr. Schanzer to what he believes is the “greatest job in the world.” For Schanzer, there really are no average days. For the last ten years, he has worked closely with his associate Dick Ebersol, Chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, solving problems and making deals at NBC.
He struggled to describe an average day, but said, “The bottom line is this. I get up in the morning, I get on a train, I buy a couple of papers, and I turn to the sports section and I am working. Most of the other guys on the train flip to the sports section because they can’t wait to get there, but I am working.”
Of course there are things about the job that he doesn’t like. Schanzer was quick to point out that he runs a business just like any other business, and for that reason there are parts of the job that he sometimes doesn’t enjoy. “But it just so happens that my business is sports,” he said. “So it’s pretty cool.”
Schanzer admitted that he knows plenty of men who make more money than he does. He recalled a particular golf tournament that he plays in every year.
The tournament has 88 players, and he supposed that he was, “the poorest guy in this tournament by a factor of ten.” But, he said, “I don’t think there is a guy in this tournament who wouldn’t give his right arm to do what I do for a living.”
The evidence for this comes to Schanzer every year after the tournament when men call him asking for things that they cannot buy that he earns by virtue of his job.
Schanzer loves his job, and by virtue of his work with NBC Sports, business meetings have become sporting events that he dreamed of attending as a child. His job has allowed him to meet people and do things he could only dream of.
He recalled one story in particular from several years ago. He was skiing with several associates, and one afternoon they brought along world-famous Austrian skier, Franz Klammer, who won a gold medal in the downhill at the 1976 Winter Olympics.
After four or five runs, Schanzer found himself sitting on a chairlift next to one of the single greatest alpine skiers of all time, and he sighed and said, “I’ve now skied with Franz Klammer and played golf with Jack Nicklaus. I could die now and it would be okay.” Klammer then turned to him and said incredulously, “You played golf with Jack Nicklaus?”
But Schanzer’s career didn’t start on the eighteenth green with golf’s greatest player. After getting his law degree, Schanzer began a career in politics working on campaigns in Washington.
For years before he began his career at NBC, Schanzer worked on campaigns and as a lobbyist. His career as a lobbyist led to him to NBC, and he was offered the position of Vice President of Negotiations. When he retires, Schanzer will be the longest serving executive member at NBC Sports.
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