Seoul – 1988

At 34, I was really pushing the envelope in the twilight of my athletic career when the 1988 Olympic Trials rolled around.  I had achieved my qualifying mark less than a week prior to the meet and my chances of a fourth Olympic team were not very strong.  I exited in an uneventful way in the qualifying round with three misses at 7’2’ ½” (2.20m) and my active career came to an end.

I had been hired by NBC Sports to be the analyst for the field events and the multi-event competitions in Korea and I decided to throw myself into the job with everything I had.  Continuing to be affiliated with track & field was something I wanted and I had the distinct advantage of still having intimate knowledge of and unfettered access to many of the sports biggest names. I could get information for broadcasts that would be difficult for other journalist/broadcasters to obtain.

The Seoul Games lacked exactly that, the feeling of Olympic soul.  Having the point of view of participating in three Olympic Games myself I felt qualified to make that observation.  Sure, I wasn’t in the Olympic Village, mingling with the athletes and living through my athletic instincts, but I could sense the difference in these Games.

The Koreans did a great job of having all the venues completed in plenty of time and organizing most of the logistics but there was an absence of Olympic “magic” that I had always associated with the event and that made my transition from athlete to ancillary participant much easier somehow.  I can’t say that I “missed” being “down there” even though my own career had ended just 8 weeks earlier.  I was no longer at “that level” and I knew and accepted it.

Because it was only myself and Frank Shorter as analysts in the booth for the track & field events I wound up doing quite a bit more than just “jumps and throws” at the Seoul Games and I relished the opportunity to comment on some of my favorite running events, especially relays.  I was even provided the opportunity to call one of the men’s 100 meter quarterfinals “live” to the U.S. because Frank and Charlie Jones hadn’t arrived back from the women’s marathon yet.

I also got to work with broadcasting legend Dick Enberg when he was roped into doing the play by play on the final event of the decathlon, the 1500 meters.  He had come over to the stadium to watch the event having almost no knowledge of the participants.  I told him to just set the top three once per lap and I’d take care of the rest.

My 5 year old son, Jason was on the trip with us and still has specific memories from that trip.  He was quite a hit with the local population because of his toe-head blond hair.  I can’t tell you how many times he was pulled away from us for pictures with different Korean families.

When I returned from Seoul I knew that television sports broadcasting was what I wanted to pursue seriously.  It was my intention to divert all my athletic angst into that pursuit but I already knew that the politics of the business and the esoteric sport that I came from would make it a huge challenge.  The proliferation of cable programming was well-timed for my change in careers but I had a firm grasp on the fact that my sport was never likely to have “Monday Night Track.”