Leonard’s Losers
December 11, 2024
By Tom Poland
The show claimed to raise your pigskin IQ. To get my weekly prescription of smart pills, I’d tune in the crackling, AM station to hear what Leonard Postero predicted. You football fans too young to experience “Leonard’s Losers?” You missed out. You folks of a certain vintage know the guy was great, a creative genius. There simply was no one like him. Stadiums of football-loving fans followed him.
The show went like this. Lester Flatt and Earl Scrugg’s “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” banjo picking led to an intro … “This is Percy Peabody telling you it’s time for Leonard’s Losers with Leonard Postoasties, the world’s greatest football prognosticator. Tell ’em about it, Leonard.”
He’d cover a few more upsets then transition to his prognostications. “Philip Fulmer and his Volunteer riflemen have their squirrel guns cocked and ready to blow holes in those crocodiles in Gainesville Saturday afternoon. On the other hand Steve Spurrier remembers last year and will have his giant water lizards ready for the Vol’s artillery. Leonard’s loser, in a close one, Tennessee.”
So it would go for ten minutes. Using humor, a down-home delivery, and capitalizing on the South’s fascination for college football, Leonard coined inventive names for teams’ mascots. Georgia was the Red Clay Hounds. The Florida Gators were the Giant Water Lizards, the Alabama Crimson Tide the Pachyderms, and Clemson Tigers the Pickens Pussycats.
The show had deep roots. Leonard Postero first taped his show in 1958 at WRFC-AM in Athens, Georgia. He was a Bulldog having graduated from UGA in 1943 but never showed bias. He was a veteran. From 1943 to 1945, he served as an aviator in the U.S. Navy. Soldiers abroad loved “Leonard’s Losers.”
How did this radio show come to be? A simple judgment, mild criticism, and a spark of imagination birthed a football prognosticator like no other. Leonard liked to bet on the horses but lost a lot. One day driving back from a bad day at the track with a friend, the friend said, “If you pick football games like you pick horse races, you’ll always pick losers.”
“Yeah,” said, Leonard, “Leonard’s Losers.”
A pick ’em show like no other was born. Listeners tuned in religiously. His Jerry Clower way of talking and his colorful use of language proved hard to resist. “Leonard Loser’s” crossed regional and conference lines, It found fans throughout the Southeast. Was he good at what he did? Said, Leonard, “I’m right 100 percent of the time, but the teams get it wrong 20 to 30 percent of the time.”
Leonard Loser’s show was the highlight of tailgating activities. Driving to a game I’d turn up the volume when I heard that banjo music. Like Lewis Grizzard, “Leonard’s Losers” became part of the Southern culture. Even today, many a fellow, finding himself in dire straits, will utter, “Get me outta here, Percy.”
He gave us 41 years of losers. From 1958 through 1999, Postero wrote and produced the show and performed the colorful voices of “Leonard Postoasties” and “Percy Peabody.” The late Jim Koger, one-time voice of WRFC, worked with Leonard. At its peak more than 1,400 radio frequencies carried the show. Postero retired in 1994, having over 125 radio syndications.
Leonard Postero was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame on Saturday, October 19, 2013, as a legacy inductee for his show “Leonard’s Losers.” He died July 20, 2001. His last words were “Get me outta here, Percy.” Well, I like to think they were.
Georgia native Tom Poland writes a weekly column about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and culture and speaks frequently to groups in the South. Governor Henry McMaster conferred the Order of the Palmetto upon Tom, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor, stating, “His work is exceptional to the state.” Poland’s work appears in books, magazines, journals, and newspapers throughout the South.
Visit Tom’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email him at [email protected]
