Mark Berman In Retirement — What the Houston TV Legend's Life Is Like a Year After He Stopped Chasing Every Story
More than a few people wondered if Mark Berman could really step away and relax. Berman himself wondered. After all, for 43 years — including 37 straight Mark Berman, a legendary reporter for Fox 26 in Houston, has retired after 43 years and 37 straight years, following a successful career where he covered more stories than any other reporter in the Houston sports scene. Despite his retirement, Berman remains committed to his role and has lost 27 pounds in the past year and is now walking four miles a day and eating less meat and less seafood. He credits his retirement to being able to spend more time with his wife, Joy, who hosted a party for some of her friends and set up food for them. Despite not being awarded Emmys for his work, Berman is committed to making this his wife's time. He misses some things but also misses the winning and losing, but admits he is good and feels good.
Veröffentlicht : vor 10 Monaten durch Chris Baldwin in Lifestyle
When you've been in the Houston market for generations like Mark Berman of Fox 26 has, a lot of fans are going to ask for a picture.
Mark Berman has been on the Houston sports scene, breaking more stories than anyone, for generations. (Courtesy Fox 26)
More than a few people wondered if Mark Berman could really step away and relax. Berman himself wondered. After all, for 43 years — including 37 straight at Fox 26 — the most dogged reporter in Houston chased every possible sports story in the city, scraped, clawed and charmed for every scoop. But one year into his retirement — Berman’s last night on the air was June 12, 2023 — he sounds like a different man.
“My life’s fantastic,” Berman tells PaperCity. “I don’t have deadlines. I’m not worried about getting beat every day. I can watch games and not worry about what it’s going to mean. Watching an Astros game and something happens, I don’t get freaked out.”
These days Berman tries to walk four miles every day. Usually in the heat of the day. He’s lost 27 pounds in the past year thanks to the routine, work on the elliptical machine he has at home and eating much better (less steak, more seafood). But mostly, Berman’s looked at his retirement as a chance to pay back his wife Joy in time.
When Joy hosted a party at their home for some of her friends, Mark Berman, the fixture on Houston TV screens for four decades, handled all the dusting.
“That’s my job,” Berman laughs. “I’m dusting, . . I went and set up the food (for the party). Whatever she needs. For 30 years, she took care of everything. So I’m trying to take care of something now. I’m trying to do my part. Because I wasn’t doing my part.
Being one of the local faces of Houston sports seems glamorous to the fans who live and die with the games. And Berman’s certainly enjoyed some unbelievable moments — from following Hakeem Olajuwon to multiple Final Fours to multiple NBA championships to seeing Lance McCullers, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and the Astros celebrate their own world championship in Dodgers Stadium.
But fans don’t see all the things missed back home. The now 68-year-0ld Berman retired because he wanted to spend more time with the people he loves most. They don’t give out Emmys for that type of thing and people don’t come up to you in the supermarket and ask for a selfie because you’re being a good husband. But Mark Berman is committed to making this his wife’s time.
That is why Mark Berrman decided to retire. Even though he remained on top of his news breaking game, using one of the best contact lists in Houston to land scoops across multiple sports, routinely beating beat writers who concentrate on just one team.
Still Berman admits the idea of being retired took some getting used to at first.
“Let me tell you something, I wondered about that too,” he says of questioning whether he could really turn it off. “It took me two days to figure it out. That retirement was just right. I miss some things. I miss hanging out with guys like you. You miss the camaraderie.
“I tell you what I miss. I miss the winning (on a story). I don’t miss the losing. And in our business, we lose way more than we win. I’m good. I’m really good.”
In conversations before and after his retirement, Berman often talked about the idea that he’d quickly become irrelevant, that once anyone retires the world quickly moves on and all but forgets about them. He talked about it as a truth. But it turns out it does not apply to Mark Berman. Not in Houston.
A full year after he signed off on the air at Fox 26 for the last time, Berman is still very much of mind to many.
University of Houston basketball coach Kelvin Sampson brought up Berman multiple times unprompted last season, fondly recalling how the reporter would follow him up to his office in pursuit of any little news item or scoop. Any scoop. Houston Rockets champion Mario Elie enthusiastically shouted out Berman, also anything but prompted, in a Houston Chronicle Zoom event on Tuesday celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Rockets’ first championship. Elie’s never forgotten that the guy from Fox 26 is the only reporter in Houston who bothered to show up for his first Rockets press conference. Elie was considered a minor pickup at the time and no other reporters in the city made the effort to get to The Summit for his introduction.
That is Mark Berman. He was always there. Something the athletes and coaches noticed — and respected.
A Major UH Moment and No David Freesing It
Now, Berman’s trying to be there for his wife of 30 years, his son Jacob, his daughter Jessica, his semi Houston Twitter famous grandson Jackson (a huge Astros fan who is in San Francisco for the Giants series) and his son-in-law Andrew. Retirement’s brought some unexpected highs to one of the most recognizable TV faces in Houston. Berman, who graduated from the University of Houston in 1978, a few years ahead of Jim Nantz, received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the school this spring. That makes Berman one of just several hundred people who’ve received that honor out of UH’s more than 300,000 alumni. It’s a honor that still almost knocks Berman back with its magnitude today.
“You go look at the people who’ve been honored with this sort of thing, some very famous people,” Berman says. “And I’m not one of those people. But I’m taking it. And I’m not giving it back.
“. . . I’m not going to be David Freese.”
Freese is the St. Louis Cardinals World Series MVP during that improbable 2011 championship run who turned down his induction into the team’s Hall of Fame because he did not think he was deserving of such an honor. Yes, leave it to Mark Berman to tie in a great sports story.
This kid from little Hempstead, Texas (whose high school class numbered 50 people) who grew up rooting for all the Houston teams is back to pulling for all those teams again, with no journalistic concerns. No self-imposed pressure to get the story first. To do it right. To be there for everything.
“It’s like everybody always says — Time flies when you’re having fun,” Berman says. “Being retired is way better than I ever thought it could be.”