    dimetrios georgios synodinos (september 9, 1918 â april 21, 1996), better known as jimmy "the greek" snyder, was an american sports commentator and las vegas bookmaker. ==life and career== snyder was born dimetrios georgios synodinos in steubenville, ohio. according to his new york times obituary of april 22, 1996, snyder's family roots were on the island of chios in the aegean sea, in the village of tholopotami (ÎÎ¿Î»oÏÎ¿ÏÎ¬Î¼Î¹). as a teenager in ohio, he became acquainted with bookmakers. snyder and his wife joan lost three of their five children to cystic fibrosis.jimmy the greek faces his longest odds in a family fight for life; people, 26 october 1981 according to his autobiography jimmy the greek, snyder bet us$10,000 on the 1948 election between thomas dewey and harry s. truman, getting 17â1 odds for truman to win. in a later interview he indicated that he knew truman was going to win because dewey had a mustache and "american women didn't trust men with a mustache". he invested money in oil drilling and coal mining, but when those ventures failed, snyder moved to las vegas in 1956 and began a weekly pro-football betting line. ===the nfl today=== the sports line eventually led to a 12-year stint on the cbs sunday morning show, the nfl today, a pregame show for national football league games. known simply as "jimmy the greek," he would appear in segments with sportscaster brent musburger and predict the results of that week's nfl games. while already famous in gambling circles, his rough charm made him into a minor celebrity. he had fairly major conflicts with musburger (whom he once punched in the face at a bar when the show anchor basically called him stupid) and phyllis george (whom he once brought to tears before a show by making an ugly comment about her husband, leading to a scenario where jimmy would tape segments in advance with musberger so that he and george were not on the set at the same time), but the core group was able to overcome them and continue cbs' massive sunday ratings success for a long time. as sports betting was (and remains) illegal in most of the united states, and was at the time a general social taboo, his segment
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