Vern Glenn is not a cardiologist. He is not a vascular surgeon or an interventional anything. He is the six-time Emmy Award-winning sports anchor at CBS KPIX 5, one of the most recognized faces in Bay Area television, and the kind of person who shows up to my dad’s birthday during COVID with a homemade key lime pie because I mentioned offhandedly that my dad was hoping for one. We will get to that. But first, there is an origin story Dr. John Phillips, my co-host of The Heart of Innovation, had never heard, and it sets the whole tone.
Vern and I go back to the Konocti Harbor Quarterback Shootout, a celebrity golf tournament at Konocti Harbor Resort up in Lake County. He was at KRON 4 at the time, deep into the segment that made him famous around here, “Mr. Involvement,” where his producers would find ways to throw him into whatever sport he was covering. Not cover it. Do it. He got tackled by NFL players, pinned on wrestling mats. So when the shootout wanted water sports coverage and somebody said, hey, there is a fellow Bay Area sports anchor who performs as a professional show skier at Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo on weekends, the decision made itself. They brought me in to show Vern how it worked on a swivel ski.
He held up fine. What he did not know was how easy I went on him. On weekends I was the cherry on top of a three-tier human pyramid on water, holding the American flag in a pink skirt, skiing around the lake. I could have put him in that pyramid. We still have the video. Watch the episode if you want to see what the early career looked like before the microphone.
That is how we met. He became a mentor. Years later we both ended up on a healthcare innovation radio show, and the fact that it is not as strange as it sounds is exactly what this episode is about.
When the Body Sends a Bill
Vern turned 64 this year. He looks like he is in his 40s and he will tell you so himself, but here is the thing he also told us on air: when you are young, you feel like a tank. Nothing touches you. The late nights, the bad habits, whatever you need to get through the grind of a 41-year career. And then somewhere in your 50s, the body sends a bill. His came as a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis. Pre-diabetes first, then Type 1, now Type 2, and every single day is about working the A1C number down through exercise, diet, and weight management. He wants to be around for grandkids someday. He wants 20 more years. Those are his words, not mine.
That lands on a healthcare innovation show because Type 2 diabetes is not separate from what we cover. It is a vascular disease. It damages arteries. It is one of the primary drivers of peripheral artery disease, of critical limb threatening ischemia, of the exact conditions our leg saver hotline exists for. The people who call us often did not know how interconnected it all was until something went wrong. Vern knowing it, managing it, talking about it publicly at 64, that is the message.
Which brings us to June 8th. Every year, Vern hosts the Vern Glenn Invitational, a celebrity charity golf tournament in Marin County that benefits local Marin charities. The lineup reads like a flashback reel of Bay Area sports history. Lorenzo Neal, 16-year NFL veteran and Vern’s own guest analyst during football season, whose block on the Music City Miracle kickoff is one of the most important plays in playoff history. Bill Cartwright, longtime Chicago Bull. Toy Cook, 49er Super Bowl champion. JT, who won the very first VGI. Brandy Chastain won last year’s celebrity putting contest, only woman in the field, took home a gift certificate to Omaha Steaks, and is missing this one because June 8th is her wedding anniversary and her son’s birthday. Nobody is fighting her on that.
None of these people are paid to be there. Vern told us that plainly. They get treated well, championship course, plated dinner, but they volunteer their time. And some of them keep coming back because, as Vern put it, time has passed them by and people have forgotten. Being asked still means something. He wants to hear every story, even the ones he has heard 20 times over. You could see it when he talked about interviewing Hank Aaron at Candlestick Park on a live shot, calm and composed on camera, absolutely screaming on the inside because he was talking to the home run king. He has been in this business for 41 years and he still screams on the inside. That is why there are six Emmys.
What Six Emmys Actually Takes
Dr. John wanted to know how you actually get an Emmy, and the answer is worth knowing. In the Northern California region, you compile your best work, up to 10 or 15 minutes depending on category, and submit it to be judged by peers in markets that have no idea who you are. Blind scoring on a seven to ten point scale. Not every category produces a winner. If nobody scores high enough, the award simply does not go out that year. Vern was nominated five times before he won. His mother refused to attend any of the ceremonies until he actually took one home. When he finally did, he was the only person nominated in his category. His category is a solo craft award, one person, no ensemble, judged on nothing but what you did in front of a camera. He has won it six times.
He just re-signed at KPIX. He said he has a number in mind, a point where he will know it is time, but he is not there yet. Dr. John made the point on air that staying engaged, working, learning, doing things that require your brain to stay sharp, is itself a form of disease prevention. The research on cognitive decline backs that up. Retiring with nothing to do is not rest. It is a risk. Vern loves what he does. That still matters.
Golf is part of it too. He had stepped away from playing for a while, and the tournament pulled him back. Walking 18 holes is three to five miles. Gary Player, who Vern quoted on air, said happiness is a long walk with a putter, and Player is in his late 80s still competing. For someone managing Type 2 diabetes, that is not a hobby. That is medicine. And watching former 49ers and NBA veterans stay out on the course in their 60s and 70s is the kind of modeling that no PSA ever quite achieves, because it is just people you respect doing the work in front of you.
Back to the key lime pie, because it is the best way to close this. May 2020, everybody locked down, my dad’s birthday coming up and he had one request, a key lime pie from a place that was closed. I mentioned it to Vern. He said bring your dad over. We will sit outside six feet apart and I will make him one. He did not know my dad. He just offered. My dad has not stopped talking about it since, and this year, for his birthday, he had one request: Vern Glenn and another key lime pie. He got both.
That is the whole person. Six Emmys, 41 years, Hall of Fame. And he still makes the pie.
The Vern Glenn Invitational is Monday, June 8th. Registration and details at vernglenninvitational.net. Arrive around 9am, meet the athletes, have breakfast. All proceeds go to local Marin County charities. And if you happen to see someone near the first tee with a blood pressure cuff, that is us. Purely voluntary. The shoes can stay on.
The Heart of Innovation airs every Saturday morning on AM 1220 KDOW. Watch the full episode on YouTube at youtube.com/@thewaytomyheart or click on the video above.
