NBC Sports Chicago has served fans well throughout its 20-year history, which ends Monday

As of Monday at 11:59:59 p.m., NBC Sports Chicago will cease to exist.

At some point it will disappear from channel guides and show listings, leaving no trace of its 20 years of bringing Chicago sports to your TV screens – and later to your computers, phones and tablets.

“It’s always hard when something comes to an end,” said Kevin Cross, president and general manager of NBC 5, Telemundo Chicago and NBCSCH. “This week it’s starting to take hold. My focus was on how do we innovate this and how do we provide people with employment? These things are all sorted out. Now it’s real.”

The Chicago Sports Network opens as the new home of the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Although fans will see many familiar faces, the change represents the biggest separation from team lineage on regional sports networks.

When the teams moved from SportsChannel, their original home, to Fox Sports Net in 1998, most of the staff moved with them. They didn’t even have to move their offices. When the teams moved to Comcast SportsNet in 2004, the change was more dramatic as people from all over the country joined those moving to Comcast SportsNet. (The channel was renamed NBC Sports Chicago in 2017.)

“This one feels the most different,” said Cross, who has experienced both previous moves. “It’s done by the teams. This has been an industry of many changes. It’s just the way it is.”

Pat Boyle was one of the people from across the country who joined Comcast SportsNet. He comes from ESPN, where he served as an anchor on “SportsCenter” and ESPNews. Previously, he was at Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. His first job at CSN Chicago was hosting “SportsNite” with Kerry Sayers.

Boyle remembers when the Cubs, who were part of the network until Marquee Sports Network launched in 2020, made a blockbuster trade for Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra in July 2004. He remembers that there was a lack of TV coverage of the deal. At the time, he said CSN, launching in October, would change that.

“We’ll show you the manager and you’ll see the action,” Boyle said. “Now you are expected to get the manager after this. But that wasn’t the case in 2004. I think we changed that in Chicago.”

Boyle began hosting Bears postgame shows in 2005, working with former Bears Jerry Azumah, Richard Dent, Dan Jiggetts and Jim Miller. He hosted other shows with Muhsin Muhammad, Alex Brown and Lance Briggs. That changed in 2012.

“I moved to the Blackhawks and had an amazing turnaround,” said Boyle, who will continue to serve as the Hawks’ studio host at the new station. “It was the best decision of my career. I was a bit hesitant at first, but management wanted me to join one of the owners of the network. It was cool to develop a sports identity in Chicago, the guy who was able to oversee coverage of the Blackhawks.”

Chuck Garfien is another CSN original who came from another network. But Garfien, who came from FSN Denver, graduated from Homewood-Flossmoor High School and grew up a Sox fan. He started at CSN, splitting his time between hosting the midnight edition of “SportsNite” and hosting the Bulls’ pregame and postgame shows with Stacey King. That changed in 2005.

“They knew I was a big Sox fan as a kid,” Garfien said. “As the season went on, I played more and more White Sox, and then they actually won the World Series. I accompanied the team all the way and into the playoffs. I reported live when the Sox won the division in Detroit (in the playoffs) from Boston, Anaheim and Houston.”

Garfien became the Sox’ studio host. Cross said he embodies what NBCSCH wanted from its hosts: someone emotionally invested in the team but able to bring knowledge and perspective. Garfien has also contributed significantly to the network’s digital push over the years.

“When we went on the air, we just did television,” Garfien said. “We had no website, no podcast. We just followed the linear world of television. In these 20 years we have zigzagged the changing landscape. We’ve made 961 White Sox podcasts and have nearly 7 million downloads. We all had to evolve and adapt because we had to be where the fans are.”

Garfien is expected to continue in his role at the new station, but he is emotional at the old station.

“Our network has unfortunately experienced a very slow death,” he said. “What really regrets me is that we have had a number of layoffs in the last few years since the pandemic. We’ve run a very tight team and everyone who comes in brings their best every day. This is the best thing we’ve experienced in recent years, and you can see that in the show. I can’t express how unique and lucky it is to have an ending like that.”

In its two decades, NBCSCH covered five championship teams: the Sox in 2005, the network’s first baseball season, the Hawks in 2010, ’13 and ’15, and the Cubs in 2016. The Bulls didn’t get there, but the Bulls did Derrick Rose Still, the years were special. And the broadcaster did everything it could, in good times and bad, to provide fans with comprehensive and objective coverage of their teams.

“The only thing I think about is how proud I am of the work our employees did,” Cross said. “They gave everything they could for this network. And it really wasn’t about this network, it was about the fans. We were side by side with the fans. That’s what I’ll remember most: We prided ourselves on being, as one of our catchphrases was, the fans’ best friends.”