By Bill Koch
Enquirer staff reporter

Cris Collinsworth was an All-Pro wide receiver in the National Football League, a successful talk-show host in Cincinnati and now is an Emmy award-winning network analyst.

A tall, skinny kid with a thick Southern drawl when he was drafted in the second round by the Bengals in 1981 out of the University of Florida, he was an immediate fan favorite here.

GOOD SPORTS

• Making a difference • Cris Collinsworth • Danny Graves • Bob Huggins • Marvin Lewis • Anthony Muñoz • Tim Naehring • Doug Pelfrey • Sean Casey • Willie Anderson

"This town has always been pretty good to me," Collinsworth said. "There's always a handful of people the community embraces and thankfully I feel I was a part of that list."

To show his appreciation, Collinsworth has worked for the past 18 years to return the favor.

"For some reason, I've been really lucky in my life," Collinsworth said. "I don't deserve it. I'm no saint, but it's sort of a feeling that things have been on such a great roll for me for so long you feel like you'd better thank God every day and give something back, find where people are falling through the cracks and try to lift them up.

"Who knows how long your good fortune is going to continue, and then somebody might have to help you? It's part superstition, part religion, part thanking my lucky stars."

Collinsworth worked with former Bengal Anthony Muñoz and Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis in organizing the first Cincinnati Prep Classic, a high school football triple-header that was held Sept. 5 at Paul Brown Stadium to raise money to build a women's health clinic.

"What got me inspired to do the women's center," Collinsworth said, "is that I spent some time at the West End Clinic and the Crossroad Health Center. These people are saints. They work for so many hours for next to no money compared to what other physicians can make."

Through his Cris Collinsworth Foundation, he has sponsored golf outings that have raised money for Children's Hospital, the Kidney Foundation, Camp Stepping Stone and a host of other issues.

His foundation also sponsors an annual chess tournament that brings together kids of different races and backgrounds to compete in chess under the direction of Maurice Ashley, the first African-American chess grandmaster.

"The first year of the event was three days after the riots downtown (in 2001)," Collinsworth said. "People told us to cancel it. They said, 'Don't bring that mix of people into one place. It will be too combustible. You'll have problems.'

"We almost cancelled it, but we said, 'No, let's get on with it.' It was like these kids were totally oblivious to any of that stuff. They played, black kids against white kids, and when they were finished they shook hands. You came away from it thinking there is hope for this world. Thank God there are kids."