Olympics on ABC commentators
{{Short description|American Olympic commentation}}
The following is a list of commentators that were featured in the American Broadcasting Company's (ABC) television coverage of the Olympic Games from its first Olympic Games, the 1964 Winter Olympics through the 1988 Winter Olympics, its final Olympic telecast to date.
Hosts
= Winter Olympic Games =
= Summer Olympic Games =
By event
=Winter Olympics=
==1964==
Jim McKay,{{cite news |last= |first= |date=February 5, 1984|title=Jim Mckays Olympic Memories. - Page 51|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NXkoAAAAIBAJ&dq=1964+Winter+Olympics+ABC+Jim+McKay&pg=PA51&article_id=3042,1114874|work=Times Daily|location= |access-date=June 10, 2024}} Curt Gowdy,{{cite news |last= |first= |date=August 2, 1992|title=THE VOICE OF SPORTS FROM FISHING TO THE OLYMPIC GAMES, CURT GOWDY HAS BEEN THE MAN BEHIND THE MIKE FOR 50 YEARS. NOW HE'S SLOWING HIS PACE AT HOME IN PALM BEACH AND RECALLING THE GOOD OLD DAYS.|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1992/08/02/the-voice-of-sports-from-fishing-to-the-olympic-games-curt-gowdy-has-been-the-man-behind-the-mike-for-50-years-now-hes-slowing-his-pace-at-home-in-palm-beach-and-recalling-the-good-old-days/|work=South Florida Sun-Sentinel|location= |access-date=June 10, 2024}} and Jim Simpson{{cite news |last=Schuldel|first=Matt|date=January 13, 2016|title=Jim Simpson, versatile sportscaster who helped launch ESPN, dies at 88|url=https://washingtonpost.com/sports/jim-simpson-versatile-sportscaster-who-helped-launch-espn-dies-at-88/2016/01/13/3f79fb90-ba2d-11e5-b682-4bb4dd403c7d_story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|location= |access-date=June 10, 2024}} were the only play-by-play announcers that were utilized by ABC throughout the 1964 Winter Olympics.
Beginning in 1962, Dick Button worked as a figure skating analyst for ABC Sports, which had acquired the rights to the United States Figure Skating Championships as well as the 1962 World Figure Skating Championships. During ABC's coverage of figure skating events in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Button became the sport's best-known analyst, well known for his frank and often caustic appraisal of skaters' performances. He won an Emmy Award in 1981 for Outstanding Sports Personality – Analyst. Although other U.S. television networks aired the Winter Olympics from the 1990s onward, Button still appeared on ABC's broadcasts of the U.S. and World Figure Skating Championships until ABC removed them from its broadcast schedule in 2008.
According to writer and figure skating historian Ellyn Kestnbaum, Button "in effect educated [an] entire generation in how to watch skating", viewers who had never viewed the sport as live spectators before seeing it on television.Kestnbaum, p. 109
==1968==
==1976==
ABC Sports hired Bob Beattie as a ski-racing commentator, where he was frequently paired with Frank Gifford, a former NFL running back. Beattie's television work included alpine commentary during ABC's coverage of four Winter Olympics in 1976, 1980, 1984,{{cite news|last=Morrill|first=Greg|title=America's top alpine ski racing promoter |url=http://www.stowetoday.com/stowe_reporter/on_snow/retroski/article_73e83a6c-81c4-11e2-9754-0019bb2963f4.html |access-date=February 17, 2014|newspaper=The Stowe Reporter|date=February 28, 2013|location=Stowe, Vermont}} and 1988,{{cite news|title=ABC has new technology for Winter Olympics|author=The Washington Post|author-link=The Washington Post|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DOhVAAAAIBAJ&pg=5555%2C2666509|access-date=February 17, 2014|newspaper=The Register-Guard|location=Eugene, Oregon|date=February 13, 1988|at=TV Week section, p. 3}} and also covered volleyball at the 1984 Summer Olympics.{{cite web|title=Games of the XXIII Olympiad, The {1984 Los Angeles Olympics} {1984/08/02}, Part 1: Boxing (Men), Volleyball (Women) (TV)|url=http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=news&p=25&item=T86:1363|publisher=Paley Center for Media |access-date=February 18, 2014}} He later worked as ABC's winter sports correspondent, which also involved non-alpine sports,{{cite news|last=Nidetz|first=Steve|title=The Soviets Help Fuel A Most Chilling Adventure|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/12/08/the-soviets-help-fuel-a-most-chilling-adventure/|access-date=February 18, 2014|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=December 8, 1989}} and occasionally worked as an announcer for non-winter sports on ABC's Wide World of Sports program.{{cite web|url=https://www.denverpost.com/2018/04/02/bob-beattie-dies-co-founded-world-cup-skiing/|title=Bob Beattie, the patriarch of American skiing, dies at 85|newspaper=The Denver Post|access-date=April 2, 2018|date=April 2, 2018}}
==1980==
Source:[https://archive.today/20120717144935/http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1964&dat=19800208&id=uQAtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Ac4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=2788,1375215 The Palm Beach Post - Feb 8, 1980][https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19800208&id=wDQQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rI0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5933,1517189 Boca Raton News - Feb 8, 1980]
One of Al Michaels's more famous broadcasts were of the 1980 Winter Olympics ice hockey medal round match between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the attempted third game of the 1989 World Series.
In 1980, an unheralded group of college ice hockey players from the United States won the gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games. The medal round match on February 22—which, contrary to popular belief, did not yet assure the team of the gold medal—was of particular interest, as it was played against a heavily favored professional squad from the Soviet Union, and was in front of an incredibly excited pro-American crowd in Lake Placid, New York. Michaels's memorable broadcast of this game, including his interjection—"Do you believe in miracles? YES!"—as time expired on the 4–3 U.S. victory, earned the game the media nickname of The Miracle on Ice.
Most assume that the game was broadcast live (indeed, CTV, which held Canadian rights to the game, aired it live); but in reality, the game started at 5:05 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and ABC decided against pre-empting local and network news (on the East Coast) to carry the game live. Instead, most of it—including the entire third period—was broadcast within the regularly scheduled, prime-time telecast from 8:30 to 11 p.m. Eastern time (and on a six-and-a-half-hour delay on the West Coast from 8:30 to 11 p.m. Pacific Standard Time). Despite being on tape, the game was one of the highest-rated programs of the 1979–80 television season and remains the most-watched ice hockey game in the history of American television.{{Cite web |title=Olympic final most-watched hockey game in 30 years |url=http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=519476 |access-date=April 18, 2014 |publisher=nhl.com}}
Michaels, along with broadcasting partner Ken Dryden, recreated their Olympic commentary in the 2004 movie Miracle. Although Michaels and Dryden recreated the bulk of their commentary for the film, the closing seconds of the game against the Soviet Union used the original ABC Sports commentary from 1980. Gavin O'Connor, the director of Miracle, decided to use the last 10 seconds of Michaels's original "Do you believe in miracles? YES!" call in the film because he felt he couldn't ask him to recreate the emotion he experienced at that moment. Thus they cleaned up the recording to make the transition to the authentic call as seamless as possible.
Immediately before Mike Eruzione's game-winning goal for the US, Dryden expressed his concern that the team was "depending a little bit too much" on goaltender Jim Craig after Craig had just made "too many good saves."
Michaels later recalled, "When I look back, obviously Lake Placid would be the highlight of my career. I can't think of anything that would ever top it. I can't dream up a scenario."
Michaels was only on this particular assignment because he had done one hockey game,{{Cite news |last=Hirdt |first=Steve |date=July 23, 2021 |title=Yes, Al, We Do Believe In Miracles |work=The Analyst |url=https://theanalyst.com/na/2021/07/al-michaels-ford-frick-award-baseball-hall-of-fame/}} eight years prior. The game in question was the gold medal game (the Soviet Union vs. Czechoslovakia) of the 1972 Winter Olympics (on NBC) in Sapporo, Japan. Other announcers on the ABC Sports roster such as Keith Jackson, Frank Gifford, and Howard Cosell had never done a hockey game before. Michaels recalled this during a Real Sports interview in January 2009. Michaels also apparently beat out WABC-AM and New York Islanders commentator George Michael for the assignment.[http://www.nbcumv.com/sports/release_detail.nbc/sports-20090305000000-034i039vebeen.html]{{dead link|date=April 2014}}{{Citation |last=Syken |first=Bill |title=He Missed the Call! |date=November 15, 2004 |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1108840/index.htm |magazine=Sports Illustrated |volume=101 |issue=19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025194127/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1108840/index.htm |archive-date=October 25, 2012}}
Two days later, Michaels would broadcast the gold medal game, in which the U.S. defeated Finland, closing the game out by declaring "This impossible dream comes true!"
Al Michaels continued serving as ABC's lead play-by-play announcer for their ice hockey coverage for their next two Winter Olympics, both with Dryden, the lead color commentator. In 1984 from Sarajevo, Mike Eruzione, who was the captain of the gold medal-winning United States ice hockey team from 1980, primarily worked with Don Chevrier. For ABC's final Winter Olympics four years later, Eruzione was this time, paired with Jiggs McDonald.
==1984==
==1988==
=Summer Olympics=
==1968==
==1972==
In 1972, NBC showed the Winter Games from Sapporo, Japan, then ABC returned to carry the Summer Games in Munich, Germany. It was during the Summer Games that Palestinian terrorists attacked the Olympic Village and killed 11 Israeli athletes. Although Chris Schenkel was the actual host of the Games that year, Arledge assigned the story to McKay largely because he was a local news anchor in Baltimore, Maryland prior to joining CBS in 1950 and later ABC in 1961. McKay was joined on set by ABC news correspondent (and former and future evening news anchor) Peter Jennings, and coverage continued for many hours, until the outcome was known. Howard Cosell went with the film crew to get interviews in the village.
After an unsuccessful rescue attempt of the athletes held hostage, at 3:24 AM German Time, McKay came on the air with this statement:{{cite news|last=Kelly |first=Christopher |url=http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/travel/01/8MUNICH.html |title=Modern Munich lives with its contradictions |work=Statesman.com |date=7 January 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607170043/http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/travel/01/8MUNICH.html |archive-date= 7 June 2011}}{{cite news|last=Abramson |first=Alan |url=http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest/2002/writing/over250/over250.enterprise.second11a.html |title=Black September |newspaper=Dallas Morning News |date=5 September 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051023111706/http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest/2002/writing/over250/over250.enterprise.second11a.html |archive-date=23 October 2005}}
{{blockquote|When I was a kid my father used to say "Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized." Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They have now said there were 11 hostages; two were killed in their rooms this morn-- yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone.|McKay, 1972}}
McKay later won an Emmy Award for his coverage.{{cite video|title=The Tragedy of the Munich Games|medium=DVD|publisher=ABC Sports|date=2002}} He stated in a 2003 HBO documentary about his life and career that he was most proud of a telegram he received from Walter Cronkite the day after the massacre praising his work.
Howard Cosell also played a key role on ABC's coverage of the Palestinian terror group Black September's mass murder of Israeli athletes in Munich at the 1972 Summer Olympics; providing reports directly from the Olympic Village (his image can be seen and voice heard in Steven Spielberg's film about the terror attack).
In the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, and the 1984 games in Los Angeles, Cosell was the main voice for boxing. Sugar Ray Leonard won the gold medal in his light welterweight class at Montreal, beginning his meteoric rise to a world professional title three years later. Cosell became close to Leonard, during this period, announcing many of his fights."I Never Played The Game", by Howard Cosell, 1985.
Keith Jackson was also involved in ABC's coverage of the 1972 Summer Olympics and continued to contribute even when the attack by Palestinian terrorists transformed the coverage from that of a typical sporting event to a greater international and historical news event.[http://www.nssahalloffame.com/34/index.aspx NSSA Hall Of Fame: 1986-1995 Inductees] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070811082326/http://www.nssahalloffame.com/34/index.aspx |date=August 11, 2007}}, National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, Accessed August 20, 2007. In all, he covered a total of 10 Summer and Winter Olympic Games.Andrew Krebs, [http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/1997/11/11-08-97cm/11-08-97m03-016.asp Wide world of Jackson] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226130408/http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/1997/11/11-08-97cm/11-08-97m03-016.asp |date=December 26, 2007}}, The Daily Collegian, November 8, 1997. Jackson covered swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics and track and field at the 1976 Summer Games. He covered speed-skating during the 1980 Winter Olympics featuring Eric Heiden. He was offered the position of play-by-play for hockey, but turned it down (the position ultimately went to Al Michaels). Jackson called speed skating and ski jumping at the 1984 Winter Olympics. He covered basketball in 1984. He was the weekend afternoon host for ABC's final Olympics in 1988 from Calgary.{{cite news|url=http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1065699/2/index.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130102053744/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1065699/2/index.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 2, 2013 |work=CNN |title=Video |date=February 9, 1987 |access-date=May 7, 2010}}
Erich Segal was a color commentator for Olympic marathons during telecasts of both the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics.[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/opinion/31stracher.html Stracher, Cameron. "Running Without a Narrative," The New York Times, Friday, October 30, 2009.] His most notable broadcast was in 1972, when he and Jim McKay called Frank Shorter's gold-medal-winning performance. After an impostor, West German student Norbert Sudhaus, ran into Olympic Stadium ahead of Shorter,[http://www.colorsport.co.uk/comment/sports-views/Frank-Shorter "Olympic Memories: Munich's Marathon Imposter, Frank Shorter, and the 'Running Boom' of the 1970s," Colorsport, Thursday, May 3, 2012.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730034402/http://www.colorsport.co.uk/comment/sports-views/Frank-Shorter |date=July 30, 2013}} an emotionally upset Segal yelled, "That is an impostor! Get him off the track! This happens in bush league marathons! This doesn't happen in an Olympic marathon! Throw the bum out! Get rid of that guy!"{{cite web |title=ABC Coverage 1972 Olympic Marathon |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MindDFatOmI&ab_channel=JohnsAbroad2009 |website=YouTube |publisher=JohnsAbroad2009 |time=0m 3s |date=August 20, 2016 |access-date=December 21, 2021}} When Shorter appeared to be confused by the events, Segal yelled, "come on, Frank, you won it!"{{cite web |title=ABC Coverage 1972 Olympic Marathon |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MindDFatOmI&ab_channel=JohnsAbroad2009 |website=YouTube |publisher=JohnsAbroad2009 |time=0m 45s |date=August 20, 2016 |access-date=December 21, 2021}} and "Frank, it's a fake, Frank!"{{cite web |title=ABC Coverage 1972 Olympic Marathon |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MindDFatOmI&ab_channel=JohnsAbroad2009 |website=YouTube |publisher=JohnsAbroad2009 |time=1m 0s |date=August 20, 2016 |access-date=December 21, 2021}}
Mark Spitz was originally reluctant to swim the 100-meter freestyle, fearing that he would not win the gold medal. Minutes before the race, he confessed on the pool deck to ABC's Donna de Varona, "I know I say I don't want to swim before every event, but this time I'm serious. If I swim six and win six, I'll be a hero. If I swim seven and win six, I'll be a failure." Spitz won by half a stroke in a world-record time of 51.22 seconds.Moore, K. Spitz's mark of seven world records in one Olympic meet was equaled by Michael Phelps in 2008 (This was because Phelps's 100-meter butterfly win fell short of the world mark). [http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068953/2/index.htm "Bionic Man."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820175221/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068953/2/index.htm |date=August 20, 2008}} Sports Illustrated. October 23, 1989. Retrieved August 13, 2008.
==1976==
In the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, and the 1984 games in Los Angeles, Howard Cosell was the main voice for boxing. Sugar Ray Leonard won the gold medal in his light welterweight class at Montreal, beginning his meteoric rise to a world professional title three years later. Cosell became close to Leonard, during this period, announcing many of his fights.
In 1976, ABC Sports employed Pierre Salinger as a features commentator for the network's coverage of the Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, and the Summer Games in Montreal, Quebec.{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901E0D7153AF93BA25753C1A9629C8B63&pagewanted=print|newspaper=The New York Times | title=Pierre Salinger, Press Secretary to Kennedy, Dies at 79 | first=Todd S. | last=Purdum | date=October 18, 2004 | access-date=May 22, 2010|author-link=Todd Purdum}}
==1984==
In 1984, Dwight Stones{{cite news |last= |first= |date=May 22, 2015|title=Dwight Stones |url=https://alumni.ucla.edu/stories/dwight-stones/|work=UCLA Alumni|location= |access-date=June 9, 2024}} became the first athlete to both compete and serve as an announcer at the same Olympics.
Notes
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