Chris Schenkel’s Lakefront Home Sells For $2.9 Million
Staff Report
LEESBURG – The former home of sports broadcasting pioneer Chris Schenkel has been sold at auction for $2.9 million.
The five-bedroom lakefront home on Tippecanoe Lake was sold at auction Saturday, Aug. 27.
The property was sold by Metzger Property Services.
You can see a video recap of the property here.
As a broadcaster, he was the first to cover a nationally televised college football game, the first to cover golf’s Masters Tournament on television (1956), and the first to cover the Olympics on live television (1968).
He hosted numerous sports legends at the home, including Wayne Gretzky, Muhammad Ali and Mark Spitz.
Schenkel died in 2005 at the age of 82.
He was a figure on the International Palace of Sports Board and hosted the annual Mermaid Festival King of Sports event, arranging to have national sports figures present at the yearly event as “King Of Sports.”
He also served as honorary chairman of the Kosciusko County American Cancer Society fundraiser, a forerunner to today’s Cancer Care Fund of Kosciusko County.
Schenkel was a native of Bippus and received international acclaim throughout his career as the only sportscaster to work for five networks: Dumont, ABC, CBS, NBC and ESPN.