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David McGrew Family History

David McGrew was born in Columbia, SC on October 3, 1958. He is the son of Charles W. (Mac) McGrew III and Ellen Jorgine Zukunft McGrew.

David has an older brother, Charles W. McGrew IV, who was born on October 11, 1957. Since graduating from North Carolina State University, Charles has worked in the Computer Science Department at the Piscataway Campus of Rutgers University for over 30 years.

David McGrew's father, Mac McGrew, grew up on a sharecropper farm in Sumter County, SC. The family moved to Dillon, SC when Mac was in high school. He graduated from Dillon High School in 1943 and attended Clemson University as a freshman in 1943-44. Upon turning 18, he enlisted in the US Navy and served in the Pacific during World War II on the USS Picket Destroyer Newman K. Perry. McGrew was a member of the Occupation Forces of Japan following the Japanese surrender in 1945. Upon being discharged from the Navy, Mac returned to Clemson for the 1946-47 academic year. To order pursue a degree in Journalism, he transferred to the University of Florida and, after two years, graduated in 1949.

Mac McGrew's newspaper career spanned nearly 50 years from 1949 to 1995 with the Gainesville (FL) Sun, the Columbia (SC) State, the Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch and the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer. From 1949 to 1967, he was a sportswriter, primarily covering Clemson, Virginia, and North Carolina State of the Atlantic Coast Conference. He also extensively covered professional golf during those years covering among many Tournaments, US Opens and also played Augusta National on numerous occasions while covering the Masters. In 1967, he became the National News Editor at the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer until he retired in 1995. Mac McGrew passed away on January 4, 2016.

David McGrew's mother, Ellen Zukunft McGrew, grew up in Portland, ME the oldest of four daughters. Her father was a Danish immigrant, Johannes Zukunft. When Ellen was 12 years old in 1932 during the Great Depression, Johannes died of leukemia. Her mother was Helen McCann Zukunft, a first generation Irish-American whose parents were born in County Cork (Dan McCann) and County Tipperary (Ellen McCarthy) in Ireland. Helen taught special needs children throughout her life.

As a women's basketball players for Portland High School, Ellen led the state of Maine in scoring. After graduating from high school, she attended Westbrook Junior College and became an X-Ray Technician. After Pearl Harbor, Ellen enlisted in the US Navy and following basic training in Iowa was assigned to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington, DC. While at Bethesda Naval Hospital, she helped x-ray the broken arm of John Ford (Jack Feeney), the legendary Hollywood Director. Ford was a family friend from Portland. He grew up in the same tight knit Irish immigrant neighborhood in Portland with Ellen mother, Helen McCann Zukunft.

Shortly thereafter, the Navy sent Zukunft to Smith College where she was one of the first women taught the technology and procedures to track German submarines. Following Officer's Training at Smith College, she was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the US Navy tracking German U-boats off the Atlantic Coast between Wilmington, NC and Jacksonville, FL. Ellen was stationed in Charleston, SC. After the war, she graduated from Boston University, received a Masters Degree from the University of South Carolina and later attended Duke University. She began her career as a high school teacher and taught in South Carolina, Maine, and Virginia.

After marrying Charles W. McGrew III in June 1956, and giving birth to her two sons in 1957 and 1958, she worked for the State of Virginia Department of Education but spent the vast majority of her career as an Archivist for the State of North Carolina. Much of her research into 18th and 19th Century North Carolina Governors and prominent North Carolina women of the same era were widely published in professional journals. Ellen McGrew passed away on January 11, 2008.

Early Life (1958 to 1976)

David McGrew was born in Columbia, SC on October 3, 1958. After living briefly at a very young age in Columbia, and Richmond, VA during his father's work for the Columbia State and Richmond Times-Dispatch newspapers, the family moved permanently to Raleigh, NC where David grew up in the eclectic Cameron Park Neighborhood adjacent to the North Carolina State University campus.

Among his friends growing up in Cameron Park included John Connell, the future Clerk of the North Carolina Court of Appeals; David Connell, Mike Connell and George Huntley, the three founding members of the internationally famous band, The Connells; Scott Hoch, the future PGA and Ryder Cup golfer who was McGrew's teammate on the State Capitol Life Insurance Little League baseball team; David Munger, a future member of the Raleigh City Council, David Vann, a future US Naval Academy graduate; and the Walker Casey, the son of North Carolina State Athletic Director Willis Casey.

The diverse neighbors in Cameron Park included Dr. Nell Hirschberg who was a scientist, writer, music critic for the Raleigh News & Observer and the first Woman President of the Congregation at Temple Beth Or in Raleigh and her roommate Geraldine (Geri) Cate, a native of Columbia, SC, flutist in the North Carolina Symphony and a noted activist for improving race relations in North Carolina; John Key who played center on the basketball team for North Carolina State and his wife Helen; Revered Trial Lawyer Robert McMillan who was the President of the Wake County Bar Association and a member of the North Carolina Bar Association Law Hall of Fame; Al Adams, who served five terms in the North Carolina House of Representatives; Dr. Frank Marshall and Dr. Tom Eichenberger, both professors at N.C. State University; Bones McKinney, the head basketball coach of the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and former head coach at Wake Forest University; David Olmstead, a member of the Presidential Electoral College for North Carolina; plus students from NC State University.

McGrew attended Wiley Elementary School, Daniels Junior High School and graduated from Ravenscroft High School where he played soccer, baseball and wrestled. The two varsity soccer teams McGrew played on for Ravenscroft as a right wing reached the North Carolina High School Final Four including the championship game in 1975. The baseball team reached the 1975 North Carolina High School Final Four.

McGrew was also a member of the Ravenscroft concert and jazz bands where he played the flute, saxophone, and oboe. McGrew was also a member of the Ravenscroft Debate team.

During his teenage years, McGrew delivered afternoon newspapers for the Raleigh Times, worked at Johnson Sunoco Gas Station formerly located at the corner of St. Mary's Street and West Johnson Street, Kerr Drug Store in Cameron Village, and was a copy boy for the Raleigh News & Observer and the Raleigh Times.

In June 1976, McGrew graduated from Ravenscroft High School located on Falls of Neuse Road in North Raleigh.

Clemson University (1976 to 1981)

In August 1976, after attending Clemson Soccer All-Star Summer Camp as a high school player in 1974 and 1975, McGrew enrolled at Clemson University to play soccer for Head Coach Dr. I.M. Ibrahim. At the time, Clemson was the top ranked team in the United States after exploding into prominence by reaching the NCAA Final Four for the first time in 1973 after the program had only been founded in 1967.

McGrew played left back for Clemson's four-man pivot defense in the 4-4-2 formation employed by Ibrahim patterned after the 'Total Football' concept created by and played to perfection in the 1970s by the Dutch National team led by the late Johan Cruyff. Even Clemson's orange Adidas uniforms were identical to the Dutch National Team. McGrew's teammates were from Guyana, Nigeria, Jamaica, Ghana, Lebanon and England. Collectively 19 of McGrew's teammates would play on World Cup and Olympic Teams for their native countries and 22 would play professionally.

As a freshman in 1976, when Michael Gribbon, the other American on the Clemson team, broke his ankle early in the season, McGrew was the only American to see game action for Clemson.

During McGrew's four-year career (1976-1979), Clemson reached the NCAA Final Four three times including the 1979 NCAA Championship game at Tampa Stadium, played in four NCAA Tournaments and won four Atlantic Coast Conference championships.

The Tigers only lost one regular season game in four years and enjoyed a record 57 game regular season unbeaten streak. From 1976 through 1979, Clemson went 68-6-3 with five of the losses coming in the NCAA Tournament where the Tigers were 12-5.

Clemson teammate Obed Ariri from Nigeria also handled field goals and kickoffs for the Clemson football team from 1977 through 1980. Ariri played on three Clemson bowl teams (1977, 78, 79) and one ACC football Championship team (1978). He went on to play five seasons in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Washington Redskins.

At Clemson, McGrew was named to the Mortar Board National Honor Society and the Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science National Honor Society. McGrew was also named Academic All-ACC three times (1976, 1977, 1979).

As a sophomore at Clemson, McGrew became a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.

Each year at Clemson, McGrew also worked in the Sports Information Office of the Clemson Athletic Department for Sports Information Director Bob Bradley and Assistant SIDs Tim Bourret, Al Adams, and Kim Kelly. His duties included working in the press box for Clemson home football games, working for ABC-TV and ESPN-TV during Clemson football telecasts; keeping official stats during men's and women's basketball games; occasionally traveling with Clemson football, basketball and baseball teams; worked at four ACC Basketball Tournaments, the 1978 Gator Bowl, and three NCAA Regional Baseball Tournaments; published the 1979 and 1980 Clemson soccer media guides that were both named 'Best in the Nation' by the Collegiate Sports Information Directors of American (CoSIDA); plus writing articles for the Clemson football and basketball Gameday Programs, Clemson World Magazine and multiple newspapers.

For the 1981 Clemson Football Media Guide, Assistant SID Tim Bourret assigned McGrew to write the 'Outlook' section for the media guide during the spring semester. In the summer, McGrew was hired to be the Assistant Sports Information Director at the University of Georgia. So when the two bitter rivals met in Death Valley in 1981, McGrew had written about the prospects for the 1981 Clemson Tigers who would beat his new employer, Georgia, and go on to win the 1981 national championship in football.

In May 1981, McGrew graduated from Clemson University with a degree in Political Science.

He was accepted to Law School at Mercer University in Macon, GA staring in August 1981.

University of Georgia (1981 to 1984)

After graduating from Clemson University and having taken classes at Clemson year round for three consecutive years, McGrew decided to temporarily put off law school when the Assistant Sports Information Director position at the University of Georgia became available. Future UGA Athletic Director Greg McGarity was promoted to a new position within the UGA Athletic Department from his Assistant SID post. McGarity had also been the Head Coach of the Georgia Women's Tennis team.

Georgia had just won the 1980 College Football National Championship behind the running of freshman tailback sensation and future Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker. The Bulldog basketball program was also making a major push on the national stage led by Head Coach Hugh Durham and future NBA and National Collegiate Hall of Famer plus former McDonalds High School All-American Dominique Wilkins and six other McDonalds All-Americans Durham would sign between 1980 and 1983. Five of the McDonald's All-Americans were from the state of Georgia (Terry Fair/Macon, James Banks/Atlanta, Donald Hartry/Milledgeville, Joe Ward/Griffin and Melvin Howard/Atlanta; Dominique Wilkins/Washington, NC and Vern Fleming/New York, NY).

On July 1, 1981 after UGA engaged in a national search for over a month to fill the Assistant SID postion, McGrew was hired by Associate Athletic Director Claude Felton and began work in Athens on July 1, 1981. In 1981, the full-time SID staff at UGA consisted of Claude Felton, David McGrew and a Secretary. The late Norm Reilly who went on to be an Associate Athletic Director at Alabama-Birmingham was a graduate student assistant. The SID student assistants included the future Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, Mike Hubbard, along future play-by-play voice of the Boise State Broncos, Bob Behler.

McGrew's duties included being the Assistant SID for football. He served as the Men's Basketball SID and was also responsible for Men's Gymnastics, Women's Gymnastics, Men's Golf, Women's Golf and Baseball. McGrew oversaw all game statistic operations for Georgia home football and basketball games. He was the Executive Producer for The Hugh Durham Television Show, the first basketball coach's television show in Georgia history. In addition, McGrew wrote, edited and produced the first ever Georgia Basketball recruiting videos and season highlight videos. The 1983 season highlight videos are still viewed at player reunions.

McGrew was also a member of Claude Felton's 'Herschel Walker for Heisman Trophy' marketing team for 1981 and 1982. He was also responsible for producing the Georgia Men's Basketball media guide and the media guides for five other sports plus the Georgia Basketball GameDay Programs. The UGA Basketball GameDay Programs were named 'Best in the Nation' twice in three seasons by CoSIDA. In 1981-82, McGrew headed up the 1981-82 marketing team for the 'Dominique Wilkins for All-American' push that resulted in NABC, UPI and AP All-American recognition. Wilkins was also named the 1981-82 SEC Player of the Year.

From 1981 through 1984, the Georgia football team went 31-4-1, won two Southeastern Conference titles, and played in three New Years Day bowls. On January 1, 1983 in the Sugar Bowl, the #1 Bulldogs played #2 Penn State for the 1982 national title. With the loss to Penn State, UGA finished 11-1. On January 2, 1984 in the Cotton Bowl, the Dawgs upset Texas, 10-9 to deny the Longhorns the 1983 national title. With the win, Georgia finished the 1983 season, 10-1-1 behind QB John Lastinger and a stout defense. On January 1, 1982 in the Sugar Bowl, if #2 Georgia had defeated Pitt that was led by QB Dan Marino and #1 Clemson had lost to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, Georgia would have won the 1981 national championship. With the last second loss to Pitt, UGA finished the season 10-2.

In 1982, junior tailback Herschel Walker won the Heisman Trophy after nearly winning the Heisman in both 1980 (George Rogers/South Carolina) and 1981 (Marcus Allen/Southern Cal).

Then during the spring of 1983, Walker became the first college football player to turn professional by signing contracts with Donald Trump and the New Jersey Generals of the USFL.

While McGrew served as the Basketball SID, Head Coach Hugh Durham's Bulldog Basketball team reached the 1983 NCAA Final Four in Albuquerque, NM by upsetting Dean Smith's ACC Champion North Carolina Tar Heels led by Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins and Brad Daugherty in the NCAA East Regional Final. Two night earlier in the NCAA East Region Semifinal, Georgia stunned Lou Carnesecca's Big East Champion and #1 NCAA East Seed St. John's Redmen led by Chris Mullin, Bill Wennington and Billy Goodwin. The Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY was the site of both Bulldog upsets.

1982-83 was Georgia's first ever invitation to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The Bulldogs were led by Vern Fleming, Terry Fair, James Banks, Lamar Heard, Gerald Crosby, Derrick Floyd, Donald Hartry, Richard Corhen and Horace McMillan.

In 1983, Georgia also won its first ever SEC basketball title of any kind since the SEC was founded in 1933 when the Dawgs won the 1983 SEC Tournament title by beating Ole Miss, Tennessee and Alabama on successive nights at the Birmingham/Jefferson County Civic Center in Birmingham, AL. In the championship game win over Alabama, the Dawgs were led by the torrid outside shooting of Birmingham native, Gerald Crosby.

In 1982-83, the University of Georgia was the first school in NCAA history to have both its men's and women's basketball teams advance to the NCAA Final Four in the same season. The Lady Bulldogs were coached by Andy Landers and led by freshman phenom and future three-time Olympic Gold Medalist Teresa Edwards from Cairo, GA.

In 1981-82, the Bulldogs reached the NIT Final Four in New York led by SEC Player of the Year and future NBA Hall of Famer and National Collegiate Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, Vern Fleming who had an 11 year career in the NBA, Terry Fair, James Banks, Derrick Floyd, Donald Hartry, Richard Corhen and Horace McMillan. In 1983-84, the Bulldogs again returned the post-season with a bid to the NIT.

In April 1982, junior forward Dominique Wilkins became the first athlete in Georgia athlete history to leave school early and declare for a professional draft. Wilkins was chosen third overall in the NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz and was immediately traded to the Atlanta Hawks allowing him to play almost all of his college and professional career in the state of Georgia.

It was also during these years that the University of Georgia and the University of Oklahoma filed an Ant-Trust lawsuit against the NCAA to break up the NCAA's monopoly over collegiate football television rights. The case would go to the US Supreme Court that agreed with UGA and OU that the NCAA was indeed a monopoly that violated the the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. The Supreme Court stripped the NCAA of all its control over college football television rights. The immediate result was an explosion in television exposure for college athletics with Conferences now controlling the negotiations with National Networks andd Regional Broadcasters as college football games. There was also an explosion of millions of dollars in new revenue going to Conferences and Athletic Departments. The UGA lawsuit changed the face and the direction of college football, college athletics, and conference alignments forever.

And in the summer of 1981, after being overwhelmed with businesses exploiting the 1980 football national championship including 'Bulldog Beer' and 'Bulldog Condoms' hitting the market with UGA having no ability to stop it, Georgia became one of the early Athletic Departments to sign with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) founded by Bill Battle in Atlanta. CLC rebranded the UGA logo and trademarked the Athletic Department name, marks and logos plus provided legal muscle to aggressively police companies from further exploiting the Athletic Department.

Dooley hired Avery McLean, a UGA graduate and marketing director for the Utah Jazz to run UGA athletic marketing and oversee the lucrative CLC relationship.

And during those years, in addition to fundamentally altering the structure of UGA athletics and enhancing the finances for all of college athletics, Athletic Director/Head Football Coach Vince Dooley, Senior Associate Athletic Director Lee Hayley and Associate Athletic Director for Women's Athletics Liz Murphy would embark on the greatest five-year stretch of hiring head coaches in Georgia history that took Georgia to the stratosphere of national standard in overall athletic success on the field.

Dooley was successfully entrenched as the Head Football Coach and was in the midst of the great four year success in Georgia football history. Liz Murphy was also already in place as the women's golf coach. She had quickly established the golf team as a leader in the SEC and regularly competed for NCAA titles just as the men's golf program did every year under long-time Head Coach Dick Copas. Plus, long-time legendary Men's Head Tennis Coach Dan Magill had made the Bulldogs a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament field. Until his retirement in 1989, Men's and Women's Head Track Coach Lewis Gainey built a program that perennially won SEC individual titles and sent countless track stars to NCAA Tournaments. Gainey developed six Olympic track athletes including three-time Olympic Gold Medalist Gwen Torrence.

But in every other UGA sport, upgrades were needed.

In 1979, Dooley got his man to breath life into Georgia Basketball when he convinced Hugh Durham to leave his alma mater Florida State and come to Athens. Prior to Durham's arrival, Georgia had never won an SEC title or been to either the NCAA or NIT post-season Tournaments.

In 1972, Durham had led Florida State to the NCAA Championship game against UCLA. The Seminoles reached the NCAA title game by upsetting Big Ten Champion Minnesota in the NCAA Midwest Region Semifinal and then SEC Champion Kentucky in the Midwest Region Final in what proved to be Adolph Rupp's last game as head coach of the Wildcats.

At the NCAA Final Four in Los Angeles, Durham's Seminoles upset Dean Smith's ACC champion North Carolina Tar Heels led by Bob McAdoo and Bobby Jones.

Remarkably within just four seasons of arriving in Athens, Durham took Georgia to the 1983 NCAA Final Four, the 1982 NIT Final Four and won the 1983 SEC Basketball Tournament.

However, much still needed to be done in addition to the Durham hire. But with six pivotal head coaching hires over a five year period, Dooley, Hayley and Murphy completed the transformation of Georgia athletics into a juggernaut of success on the field in all sports, in the classroom and financially.

Andy Landers was hired to be the Women's Head Basketball Coach. Before his retirement in 2015, Landers led Georgia to two NCAA Championship games, five NCAA Final Fours, 23 NCAA Tournaments, and eleven SEC titles. Landers was a four-time National Coach of the Year and a three-time SEC Coach of the Year. Point Guard Teresa Edwards was a five-time US Olympian and forward Katrina McClain was a four-time US Olympian. Between the two of them, they won five gold medals and two bronze medals. Landers won over 943 games as a head coach including 862 at Georgia. In 2007, he was inducted into the National Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Steve Webber was hired to build a Georgia baseball program that had not been to the NCAA Tournament in 29 years. In 1990, Webber led Georgia to the College World Series Championship. In addition to winning the NCAA baseball title, Webber led the Dawgs to the College World Series twice, made three trips to the NCAA Tournament and sent four pitchers and seven players to the Major Leagues plus scores of others were drafted. After the 1996 season, Webber joined George Steinbrenner's New York Yankees organization and has been in the professional baseball ranks ever since. He is currently working in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.

Jack Bauerle took over as head coach of both the Georgia men's and women's swimming programs. Bauerle built a swimming juggernaut that not only competes and wins NCAA and SEC titles but regularly sends swimmers to the Olympics. Bauerle was the Head Coach of the US Olympic Women's Swimming team at the 2008 Olympic games in China. Under Bauerle, 37 Georgia swimmers and divers have qualified for the Olympics. Georgia has won seven NCAA Women's Team Championships and has finished in the top seven at every NCAA Championship for 21 consecutive years. The men's team has finished in the top ten at the NCAA Championships 14 times under Bauerle. He has been the SEC Coach of the Year 13 times.

Suzanne Yoculan was hired to take over the improving UGA Women's Gymnastics program when Head Coach Rick Walton left to be the Head Coach at Nebraska. Under Yoculan until her retirement in 2009, UGA won 10 NCAA Championships, reached the NCAA Super Six 17 times, won 21 NCAA Regional titles, appeared in 26 NCAA Tournaments, and won 16 SEC Championships. Nine UGA Gymnasts under Yoculan competed in the Olympics.

Jeff Wallace was hired as the Women's Tennis Head Coach. In over 30 seasons as the Head Coach at UGA, Wallace has made Georgia a powerhouse. In 1987, Georgia's first trip ever the NCAA Tournament, Wallace led Georgia to the NCAA title match. He has led Georgia to two NCAA Championships, four USTA Indoor Championships, and 14 SEC titles. The Bulldogs have also finished in the top five in the country 15 times. Wallace has won over 660 matches and produced 31 All-Americans. He has been the National Coach of the Year four times.

At the March 1984 SEC Basketball Tournament, Philip Tate of Host Communications approached McGrew about working for Host Communications in Lexington, KY, the top collegiate sports marketing firm in the United States. Host Communications represented the NCAA in multiple areas including NCAA Tournament Radio Rights and NCAA Tournament Game programs plus numerous University Athletic Departments including Kentucky, Purdue, Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, and Texas Tech and was in rapid expansion mode.

In May 1984, McGrew left the University of Georgia and moved to Lexington, KY to work for Host Communications.

'Host Communications (1984 to 1995)'

HCI Publications Division; Lexington, KY (1984-85)

McGrew began his career in the Publications Division of HCI working with the late Dwight Johnson who previously worked in the West Virginia, Georgia, Auburn and Florida Athletic Departments. In that first year, McGrew worked on the University of Kentucky football and basketball programs, the SEC Basketball Tournament Program, NCAA Championship Programs including the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

In 1984, Jim Host, the CEO of HCI convinced the NCAA to allow HCI to create the NCAA Corporate Partner Program. Host turned to McGrew to create structure to the NCAA program that revolved around use of NCAA marks and logos and creating consumer promotions around the NCAA Final Four. The structure McGrew created became the foundation for the significant success HCI enjoyed marketing the NCAA Corporate Partner Program. It was the beginning of McGrew's heavy involvement in the NCAA, SEC and Big Ten Corporate Partner programs and McGrew's rapid ascension within the HCI ranks.

At the 1985 SEC Basketball Tournament in Birmingham, McGrew assisted Lorimar Productions, the SEC Football and Basketball Television Rights Holder, with the telecasts of the SEC Tournament games.

In 1985, the NCAA Final Four was at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY. McGrew served on the 1985 NCAA Final Four Media Host Committee chaired by Ralph Hacker of WKYT Radio and the long-time color analyst and then play by play announcer for Kentucky football and basketball radio broadcasts.

When Villanova upset Georgetown in the 1985 NCAA title game, McGrew was sitting in the first row of seats underneath the Villanova basket during the second half.

HCI Radio/TV Networks; Lexington, KY (1985-86)

In 1985, McGrew was promoted to General Manager of the HCI NCAA Radio and Television Networks Division. He oversaw the NCAA Radio Network that broadcasted the NCAA Basketball Tournament and NCAA Call-In Shows and te NCAA Final Four at Reunion Arena in Dallas in conjunction with the CBS Radio Network.

In addition, McGrew was the Executive Producer of the first ever NCAA Women's Final Four Radio Network that in 1986 was held at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY. Paul Eels, Andy Landers, and Dick Gabriel called the action for all three games. Texas defeated Cheryl Miller and Southern Cal in the NCAA Championship game.

At the time, CBS Television did not televise the first round games of the NCAA Tournament and only a few select second round games. As a result, HCI televised the games that CBS did not televise. McGrew oversaw the station clearances and coordinated with advertisers, production staff and talent.

In addition, McGrew was the Executive Producer of College Sports Today, a twice weekly show on the CBS Radio Network. He was also was in charge of the Purdue Football and Basketball Radio Networks.

HCI Southwest Conference Radio Network; Dallas, TX (1986-1988)

In 1986, HCI's single most lucrative property was the Southwest Conference Radio Network where HCI, through the Southwest Conference Office, was granted the collective rights to the Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Texas Tech, Baylor, SMU, TCU, Houston, Rice and the Cotton Bowl football radio networks.

However with increasing pressure from SWC schools to go their separate ways, spearheaded by Texas A&M led by Lowry Mays, the CEO of Clear Channel Communications and a member of the Texas A&M Board of Trustees. In addition there was pressure from all the schools for higher rights fees from HCI and wider exposure of SWCRN broadcasts.

McGrew was promoted to General Manager of the Southwest Conference Radio Network and moved to Dallas, TX in October 1986 to deal with these pressing issues.

As the General Manager of the SWCRN, McGrew worked directly with DeLoss Dodds, the Texas AD; Jackie Sherrill, the Texas A&M AD and Head Football Coach; Frank Broyles, the Arkansas AD; Fred Jacoby, the Commissioner of the SWC; the other six Athletic Directors plus play by play legends Ron Franklin of Texas; Dave South of Texas A&M; Frank Fallon of Baylor; Brad Sham of TCU and the Dallas Cowboys; and Chuck Cooperstein of TCU and the Dallas Mavericks.

Over the three football seasons, McGrew helped keep the SWCRN intact, increased revenues to the schools, increased exposure for the schools in Texas and increased exposure in the contiguous states.

The drive for increased radio exposure for SWC football led to the creation of the SWC Game of the Week that was cleared in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico.

However, in the state of Oklahoma, the SWC Game of the Week led to a breach of contract lawsuit being filed the week of the 1988 Texas vs. Oklahoma game by Clear Channel Communications (the Oklahoma football radio rights holder) against Host Communications (the Texas football radio rights holder).

Clear Channel claimed there was an agreement between Texas and Oklahoma that Texas would never allow an Oklahoma radio station to carry the Texas broadcast of the Red River Shootout. The SWC Game of the Week package allowed several Oklahoma radio stations to carry the Texas broadcast of the Texas vs. Oklahoma game.

However, a careful review revealed no such agreement in any contract between Texas, Oklahoma, the Southwest Conference, the Big 8 Conference, Host Communications or Clear Channel.

The day before the 1988 Texas vs. Oklahoma games, an Emergency Court Hearing was held in Oklahoma Federal District Court in Oklahoma City. The Judge assembled all the parties in his Chambers including Larry Naifeh, the attorney for the University of Oklahoma to quickly learn as much as he could about the issues of the Case as he gently rocked back and forth in his rocking chair.

After about 30 minutes and the Judge learning there were, at minimum, five detailed contracts the Judge would have to review, he made it clear he was not going to be able to issue any decision that day. The Federal Judge then turned to the Clear Channel lawyer and asked what short term remedy he was seeking since time was of the essence with the kickoff being less than 24 hours away.

The lawyer for Clear Channel briefly pondered his response and replied that Clear Channel sought an injunction from the Court to delay the kickoff of the 1988 Texas vs. Oklahoma game the next day until a final decision could be reached by the Court.

The Judge abruptly stopped rocking in his rocking chair and fixed a stunned stare upon the lawyer from Clear Channel. No one said a word and all the air seemed to be sucked out of the Judge's Chamber. No one could believe that the Clear Channel lawyer had just requested that a Federal Judge living in Oklahoma postpone indefinitely the Texas vs. Oklahoma game that was being nationally televised by ABC-TV with 30,000 Oklahoma fans either in Dallas or on their way to Dallas for the game set to kick off in less than 24 hours.

The Judge shooed everyone out of his Chambers and into open Court, dismissed the case but invited Clear Channel to re-file its lawsuit at a later date. Clear Channel never re-filed into lawsuit and all the Oklahoma radio stations got to carry the Texas Radio Network broadcast of the Oklahoma game.

HCI Southeastern Conference Corporate Partner Program; Birmingham, AL (1988-1989)

In 1988, Jim Host approached David McGrew that he had reached an agreement with SEC Commissioner Harvey Schiller that HCI would create and market an SEC Corporate Partnership similar in structure to the NCAA Corporate Partner Program McGrew had worked on starting in 1984.

With his background working at the University of Georgia, McGrew jumped at the chance to create the SEC program from scratch and moved to Birmingham, AL in November 1988.