Since 2019, viewers of Local 3 News in Chattanooga, TN have been treated to basketball segment titled “Horsing Around” hosted by Ben Bobick. In this segment, Ben runs brief interviews and converses with local athletes, both college and high school, while playing games of HORSE with them. Since he began, he has only won one game and currently has a record of 1-47, with his one win against Addie Porter of the UTC Mocs team at McKenzie arena in Chattanooga. Despite the shocking record, Ben is unphased and wants to keep doing good for the community by giving recognition to local athletes and giving back to the community.
As Ben draws near to his 50th on air segment of “Horsing Around”, we figured that we should use this opportunity to do two things: 1.) Celebrate how far this segment and Ben have come and then 2.) Use this as an opportunity to give back to the community. For this purpose, we envisioned a special segment entitled “Balling with Ben” in which he can detail his experience at Local 3 and how far he has come. In doing such, we envision following the traditional format of what was usually done on the segment with a few twists to celebrate this milestone.
For the differences in what would happen in this event, there would be two major deviations from can be traditionally found within in these segments. Since this a celebration for 50 on air segments, we figure that we can try and bring back a handful of some of Ben’s favorite athletes he went up against previously, including Addie Porter to see if he can notch another W. These athletes would be chosen by Ben, but they can come from either a college or a local high school. Additionally, the other major deviation would be that the format of the interview would be changed as well. What this means is it will not be Ben running an interview on these athletes this time, rather they will be asking Ben all the questions that they may have. Flipping the script is an interesting concept for this event, but at the same time it is a smart one as we celebrate the contributions that Ben has made to local athletic programs and their respective athletes.
Aside from using this as a way to celebrate a milestone in his career, Ben would also like to use this as an opportunity to do good for his community by donating any and all proceeds related to this event to local charities that support addiction treatment. This is for a very good cause as America is currently undergoing a massive opioid crisis and any funding can help these programs and initiative’s get one step closer to getting everyone the help they need. Additionally, the Southern part of the United States has been grappling with addiction as a whole so using this a platform to bring awareness to a next generation can help these efforts in stopping the cycle of addiction. In short, Ben wants to showcase that there is so much more to “Horsing Around” then just fun.
