If the news business was like football, Mike Wallace would be its MVP. But if news was a beauty contest, Wallace would never have been Mr. Congeniality.

That’s what hundreds of Mike Wallace’s friends, colleagues and family — four generations of them — learned as they gathered at the Rose Hall at Time Warner Center to remember the “60 Minutes” original who died April 8 at age 93.

Morley Safer and Steve Kroft remembered Wallace’s unrelenting competitive streak. When Kroft had set up an interview with Gov. Bill Clinton in 1988, amidst accusations of an extra-marital affair, Kroft says, “Mike offered me encouragement, while trying to take the story away from me.”

Safer admitted months would go by without the two reporters even speaking to each other. In a taped piece, the late Ed Bradley echoed the sentiment, after Wallace stole a Manuel Noriega interview from him. “You and I didn’t talk for  six months,” Bradley says to Wallace who is unmoved.

“He brought the same zeal to a story as he did to a penny ante poker game,” said Safer.

Wallace even stole a story from his own son, Chris Wallace who, at the time, was working for ABC’s “Primetime.” In the Fall of 1997, young Wallace had set up an interview with comedian Chris Rock. Rock canceled not long before the shoot. Wallace later found out why.

“My old man had stolen the interview!” said Wallace. “And he knew he’d stolen it from me!” Bradley ended up conducting the Rock interview, mostly to make amends for the Noriega theft, but also to keep in good stead with his son.

“He was so exasperating and yet so endearing,” said Wallace choking back tears.

“It took many years for us to find our path to each other,” the Fox News anchor admitted. “He had a good heart. He could be naughty. But he was never mean.”

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The Peabody Awards program at the University of Georgia announced four new board members today.

Former Newshour correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault, former PBS VP Alyce Myatt, former ABC, NBC and Miramax executive Allen Sabinson and recently retired Hearst-Argyle news executive Fred Young.

The Peabodys, electronic media’s most coveted prize, is now accepting entries for the calendar year 2009. The entry deadline is January 15, 2010. Original broadcast, cablecast and Webcast programs are eligible.

The 2009 medallions will be announced March 31, 2010.