Jim Lampley

Last updated
Jim Lampley
Born (1949-04-08) April 8, 1949 (age 75)
Hendersonville, North Carolina, U.S.
Alma mater University of North Carolina
OccupationTelevision journalist
Notable credit(s) HBO World Championship Boxing anchor and co-host (1988–2018)
Olympic Games reporter and anchor (1984–2008)
Spouses
Bree Walker
​
(m. 1990⁠–⁠1999)​
  • Debra Schuss
Children4

James Lampley (born April 8, 1949) is an American sportscaster, news anchor, film producer, and restaurant owner. He was best known as a blow-by-blow announcer on HBO World Championship Boxing for 30 years. He covered a record 14 Olympic Games on U.S. television, most recently the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

Contents

Early life and career

Lampley was born in Hendersonville, North Carolina. His father died when he was five. His mother immersed him in sports to make up for what she felt his father would have done. He was raised in Hendersonville and Miami, Florida.

He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1971 with a degree in English and completed some coursework for a Master in Mass Communications also at UNC but never wrote his thesis.

Broadcast network television

ABC Sports

In 1974, while in graduate school, he was chosen along with Don Tollefson in what ABC called a talent hunt. ABC executives thought that Lampley's youthful looks would make him endearing to the college crowds they looked to attract for their college football games. At ABC, he covered such events as Major League Baseball and college basketball games, the 1986 and 1987 Indianapolis 500, the 1977 Monon Bell game between DePauw University and Wabash College, five Olympics, as well as the program Wide World of Sports .

From 1983 to 1985, he was the studio host of ABC broadcasts of the United States Football League (USFL), a spring league that featured stars such as Herschel Walker, Jim Kelly, Steve Young and Reggie White.

On July 4, 1984, with Sam Posey alongside, he called the NASCAR Firecracker 400, and interviewed President Ronald Reagan during the winner's interview with race winner Richard Petty.

In 1985, Lampley along with Al Michaels served as anchors for ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XIX, the first Super Bowl that ABC televised. After the game, Lampley presided over the presentation ceremony for the trophy.

KCBS

In 1987, Lampley moved to CBS. At CBS, he took over duties as co-anchor on the daily news show in Los Angeles, and also was a correspondent. That same year, he began working for HBO, covering boxing and HBO's annual telecast of Wimbledon. He also attended the Albertville Olympics in 1992, as a news anchor for KCBS-TV.

NBC Sports

In 1992, Lampley moved to NBC, where he helped cover the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, 1993 Ryder Cup, and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. In 1993, Lampley took over studio hosting duties for Bob Costas on The NFL on NBC . Lampley moved to play-by-play duties for NBC's NFL telecasts the following year and was later replaced by Greg Gumbel. While with NFL on NBC, he was slated to join Jim Laslavic as the #8 announcing team in 1997 during Week 9's Tennessee Oilers-Arizona Cardinals game; however, he was not placed in the lineup at all. In 1995, he began working at the Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel HBO series. In 1998, he covered the Nagano Olympics and the Goodwill Games for Turner, and in 2000, he covered the Sydney Olympics, again for NBC.

In 2004, Lampley was the daytime anchor for NBC's Olympics coverage for the 2004 Summer Olympics, as well as anchoring the USA Network's coverage of the Games. In 2006, Lampley served as a central correspondent for the 2006 Winter Olympics which aired on the networks of NBC Universal. Torino 2006 was the 13th Olympics Lampley covered, surpassing the record set by America's original voice of the Olympics, Jim McKay. Lampley was again called upon to anchor for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Lampley's 14th Games. The 2010 Winter Olympics was the first time since the 1980 Summer Olympics that he didn't cover. Al Michaels served as the daytime host of the 2010 Olympics on NBC. Lampley also did not cover the 2012 Summer Olympics either in which Michaels also served as the daytime host.

HBO World Championship Boxing

Fans may best know Lampley for his work on HBO World Championship Boxing , Boxing After Dark , and on the HBO pay-per-view telecasts from March 1988 until December 2018, when HBO announced that they would drop the boxing program. As blow by blow announcer, he called some of boxing's most famous moments, such as Thunder Meets Lightning, when Julio César Chávez saved himself from a decision defeat by knocking out Meldrick Taylor (who was leading the fight on two of the three official scorecards) with only two seconds to go in the last round, and James "Buster" Douglas's upset of Mike Tyson for the world heavyweight championship. Other highlights in his career were the first Riddick Bowe-Andrew Golota fight at Madison Square Garden, where a riot occurred following the "Foul Pole's" disqualification for low blows, and the famous "It happened...IT HAPPENED!" call of George Foreman's miracle comeback against then heavyweight champion Michael Moorer when a straight right ended Moorer's reign.

Lampley also hosted a series called Legendary Nights in 12 installments in honor of HBO's three decades covering boxing in 2004, recounting 12 memorable fights broadcast on HBO in that timespan.

Lampley later wrote, hosted, and executive produced his own studio boxing news show, The Fight Game with Jim Lampley on HBO.

Olympic Coverage

Sports radio

Lampley was the first program host on New York's sports talk radio station WFAN when it began operation on July 1, 1987.

Awards and recognitions

In 1992, he won the Sam Taub Award for excellence in boxing broadcasting journalism. [2]

For his participation in the Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel HBO series, Lampley earned three Emmy awards.[ clarification needed ][ citation needed ]

Lampley was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its 2015 class. [3]

Life outside sports

Film and producing career

Lampley's movie production company, Crystal Spring Productions, has produced a handful of movies, including 2000's Welcome to Hollywood . The company, now known as Atticus Entertainment was executive producer of the HBO documentary series, On Freddie Roach in 2012–13. Since 2012, it has produced the continuing series, The Fight Game with Jim Lampley.

In addition to several minor credits as an announcer in films, Lampley portrayed himself in the movies like Rocky Balboa , Southpaw , Creed , Grudge Match , all in all more than a dozen feature film credits. He also appeared in the 2007 sports comedy films Blades of Glory starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder, and Balls of Fury , with Christopher Walken. Lampley also appeared on television in shows such as Everybody Hates Chris , MacGyver , the Andy Samberg HBO mockumentary 7 Days in Hell , and Eastbound & Down .

Personal life

Lampley was married to former news anchor Bree Walker from 1990 to 1999. [4] The pair had a son, Aaron James Lampley, born in August 1991. [5]

Lampley and his current wife, Debra, live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. [6] Their blended family includes five daughters, two sons and nine grandchildren. Lampley is the former owner of two restaurants in Utah, both of which were named the Lakota Restaurant and Bar.

One of his daughters is Brooke Lampley, Global Chairman and Head of Global Fine Art at Sotheby's. [7] [8]

Domestic violence arrest

In 2007, Lampley was arrested for suspicion of domestic violence over an incident that took place at his girlfriend's home. [9] He later pleaded no contest to violating a restraining order and was sentenced to three years of probation, plus required to complete a 52-week domestic violence counseling program. [10]

Related Research Articles

Barry David Tompkins is an American sportscaster. He is better known for his work as a boxing commentator, but he has covered football and other sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Michaels</span> American television sportscaster (born 1944)

Alan Richard Michaels is an American television play-by-play sportscaster for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on network sports television since 1971, with his most recent work being with NBC Sports after nearly three decades (1976–2006) with ABC Sports. Michaels is known for his many years calling play-by-play of National Football League (NFL) games, including ABC Monday Night Football from 1986 to 2005 and NBC Sunday Night Football from 2006 to 2021. He is also known for famous calls in other sports, including the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics and the earthquake-interrupted Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryant Gumbel</span> American journalist and sportscaster

Bryant Charles Gumbel is an American television journalist and sportscaster, best known for his 15 years as co-host of NBC's Today. He is the younger brother of sportscaster Greg Gumbel. From 1995 to 2023, he hosted HBO's acclaimed investigative series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, which has been rated as "flat out TV's best sports program" by the Los Angeles Times. It won a Peabody Award in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim McKay</span> American television sports journalist (1921–2008)

James Kenneth McManus, better known professionally as Jim McKay, was an American television sports journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Gumbel</span> American sportscaster (born 1946)

Greg Gumbel is an American television sportscaster. He is best known for his various assignments for CBS Sports. The older brother of news and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel, he became the first African-American announcer to call play-by-play of a major sports championship in the United States when he announced Super Bowl XXXV for the CBS network in 2001. Gumbel is currently the studio host for CBS' men's college basketball coverage and was a play-by-play broadcaster for the NFL on CBS until 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Papa</span> American sportscaster (born 1964)

Robert L. Papa is an American sportscaster who is currently the radio play-by-play voice for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). Papa also is the lead broadcaster for PGA Tour Champions events on Golf Channel and has been the blow-by-blow announcer on many professional boxing telecasts, notably for ESPN and for HBO’s Boxing After Dark series.

Bruce David Beck is the lead sports anchor at WNBC. He is in his 25th year with News 4 New York. He is also the host of Sports Final, WNBC's popular Sunday night sports show. Beck is the host and sideline reporter for New York Giants pre-season football. In November 2021, Broadcasting & Cable honored Bruce as the top local sports anchor in America.

The NBC television network's in-studio pre-game coverage for their National Football League game telecasts has been presented under various titles and formats throughout NBC's NFL coverage history.

The 28th Sports Emmy Awards honoring American sports coverage in 2006 were presented on April 30, 2007 at Frederick P. Rose Hall in the Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York City. The nominees were announced on March 22.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NBC Olympic broadcasts</span> American sports television broadcasts

NBC Olympics is the commercial name for the NBC Sports-produced broadcasts of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games as shown in the United States on NBCUniversal platforms. They include the NBC broadcast network and many of the company's cable networks; Spanish language network Telemundo; and streaming on the NBC Sports app, NBCOlympics.com, and Peacock. The event telecasts during the Olympics have aired primarily in the evening and on weekend afternoons on NBC, and varying times on its cable networks. Additional live coverage is available on the aforementioned streaming platforms.

<i>ABC Olympic broadcasts</i> 1964 American TV series or program

The Olympic Games aired in the United States on the broadcast network ABC during the 1960s to the 1980s. ABC first televised the Winter Olympic Games in 1964, and the Summer Olympic Games in 1968. ABC last televised the Summer Olympics in 1984 and Winter Olympics in 1988.

The Olympic Games have been televised in the United States since 1960. It has become one of the most popular programs on USA television every four and then two years. The Olympics has been exclusively broadcast on NBC and NBCUniversal's TV networks in the United States since 1988 for the Summer Olympics and 2002 for the Winter Olympics. American television companies are one of the major sources of revenue for the IOC.

CBS has occasionally broadcast boxing events; its first broadcast occurred in 1948. The network's most recent broadcasts of the sport have fallen under Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions banner, and its most recent primetime broadcasts have been produced by sister pay television channel Showtime.

The following is a list of commentators to be featured in CBS' television broadcasts of the Olympic Games. CBS was the very first television network in the United States to broadcast the Olympics, beginning with the 1960 Winter Games from Squaw Valley, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Joyce</span> American sportscaster (born 1954)

Andrea Joyce Kuslits, better known as Andrea Joyce, is an American sportscaster who works for NBC Sports after working 10 years with CBS Sports.

Boxing on NBC is the de facto title for NBC Sports' boxing television coverage.

NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.

On March 12, 1990, at the NFL's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, the league new ratified four-year television agreements for the 1990 to 1993 seasons involving ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN and TNT. The contracts totaled US$3.6 billion, the largest package in television history. This contract saw each network having rights to one Super Bowl telecast as part of the package. The fourth Super Bowl (XXVIII) was up for a separate sealed bid. NBC won the bid, and since they were last in the rotation for Super Bowl coverage in the regular contract, ended up with two straight Super Bowls. CBS is the only other network to televise two Super Bowls in a row. NBC, which had held XXVII, was the only network to bid on XXVIII. Previously, the league alternated the Super Bowl broadcast among its broadcast network partners, except for Super Bowl I; CBS broadcast Super Bowl II, then the league rotated the broadcast between CBS and NBC until 1985 when ABC entered the rotation when that network broadcast Super Bowl XIX.

Boxing on ABC refers to a series of boxing events that have been televised on the American Broadcasting Company. Many of these events aired under the Wide World of Sports banner which began on April 11, 1964 when challenger Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, defeated champion Sonny Liston in the seventh round. ABC's final boxing card occurred on June 17, 2000.

Cycling on ABC is the de facto name for broadcasts of bicycle races produced by ABC Sports, the sports division of the American Broadcasting Company television network.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "NBCUniversal's Olympic Tradition". NBC Sports Group Press Box. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  2. ↑ International Boxing Hall of Fame / BWAA Awards Archived 2008-06-17 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ "Bowe, Mancini highlight 2015 HOF class". ESPN.com. 4 December 2014.
  4. ↑ ""L.A.'s Most Visible Office Romance"". Los Angeles Times . 16 March 1990.
  5. ↑ ""Taking the sting out of a disability"". Los Angeles Times . 27 July 2004.
  6. ↑ "HBO Boxing Bios".
  7. ↑ Armstrong, Annie (2022-06-13). "How Type-A Market Dealmaker Brooke Lampley Became the Highly Meme-able Face of Sotheby's Next Generation". Artnet News. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  8. ↑ "Brooke Lampley, Christopher Papagianis". The New York Times. 20 November 2010.
  9. ↑ "" Jim Lampley is arrested in domestic violence case"". Los Angeles Times . 4 January 2007.
  10. ↑ "" Jim Lampley pleads no contest, gets probation"". sandiegouniontribune.com. 22 February 2007.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.