A life of contradictions: Shedding light on Dark Star
Once he was plain old George, and then, foibles and all, he turned himself into one of the Twin Cities' most flamboyant sports media personalities. Like the name he took to his death, he was full of contradictions.
July 12, 2012 — 7:48am
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When he collapsed in his apartment on June 1, dead at the age of 66, his friends and many of his listeners from his old WCCO-AM radio sports show were still trying to figure him out.
He had three names -- Dark Star, George Chapple and George Baird -- a seemingly endless supply of money and possibly two ex-wives, though some thought there were three. He drove a Maserati, took the name Dark Star from the 1953 Kentucky Derby winner and once falsified a subpoena to scare a man into apologizing when he felt he had been insulted.