I’m launching a new feature today called My First Job.

For all the success and accomplishments people have in the business, virtually everyone had a first job that saw them start on the ground floor, or lower. Often, it was a humbling, if not sobering, experience that included a pitfall or two along the way. Call it  learning life’s lessons. The stories are pretty entertaining.

From time to time, I’m going to check in with the now rich and famous to write about where they started in the media game.

With the Olympics taking place, I figured Bob Costas would be a good first subject. Besides hosting the Olympics, he is known for his work on baseball, football, basketball and as an excellent interviewer.

Yet his first paid broadcast job came doing hockey. Here’s Costas:

I called games for the Syracuse Blazers of what was essentially the old Eastern Hockey League. It was the league that Slapshot was based on. I knew many of the people who were extras in the movie. The screenwriter (Nancy Dowd) was the sister of Ned Dowd, who was the goaltender for the Johnstown Jets. The character of Ogie Oglethorpe–and people who have watched this movie 100 times, and I know there are people like that, know this character–he’s based 100 percent on a guy named Bill Harpo, who played for the Syracuse Blazers.

I got $30 per game. I was a senior in Syracuse (Oct., ’73). They didn’t do home games; only road games on the theory that a radio broadcast would hurt the home gate. The team drew very well.

We went to Johnstown, Pa., Lewistown, Maine. They played in the (facility) where Ali knocked out Liston in ’65. We would ride the bus 7-8 hours. You’d get on the bus at 7 in morning. I’d literally be writing term papers and studying lineups at same time while riding the bus.

The learning curve was steep. Not just because I had to teach myself how to broadcast hockey, I wasn’t a polished broadcaster to begin with. I had only done college radio. I had no hockey background.

I got to where I was pretty good. I could definitely keep up with the action.

From there, almost a year later, I’m in St. Louis on KMOX doing Spirits of St. Louis basketball (of the old ABA). That team had the great Marvin Barnes.

When I got to KMOX, it was a broadcast mecca. The station had Jack Buck, Dan Kelly, Bob Starr, one of the best football announcers ever. These were people of real consequence. You had to get better in a hurry just to keep up. By osmosis, I’m sure I learned a lot and improved quicker than I otherwise would have.

Costas eventually went to NBC. In 1980, he worked his first network game with Tim McCarver, who was in his initial days as analyst after retiring from Philadelphia. McCarver remembers the experience:

Bob and I did our first game for the network (NBC) together in 1980. It was Red Sox-Angels. We were the back-up to the back-up game. Maybe six percent of the country saw it.

Bob had an Uncle Lenny. He sat in the truck, and he actually critiqued our broadcast. He was probably the only one who saw it. He said, “You could have done this better.”

I still have a picture from Bob. He signed it, “To Tim: Uncle Lenny would approve.”

We’re the only two people who know what that means.