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Jim Lampley (born on April 8, 1949 in Hendersonville, North Carolina) is an American sports broadcaster, news anchor, movie producer and restaurant owner. He has been in several television shows, but is better known for his participation in the HBO Boxing series (officially HBO World Championship Boxing). He currently works alongside Larry Merchant and Emanuel Steward in that series.

Contents 1 Early career 2 CBS 3 NBC 4 HBO 5 Recent Developments 6 Highlights 7 External links

[edit] Early career

Lampley's career as a broadcaster began in 1974, when he was chosen among others 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 baseball games, the 1986-87 Indianapolis 500, five Olympics, as well as the program Wide World of Sports.

[edit] CBS

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

[edit] NBC

That same year, Lampley moved to NBC, where he helped cover the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Before the Atlanta games, in 1995, he began working at the Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel HBO series. For his participation in that show, he has earned three Emmy awards. In 1998, he covered the Nagano Olympics and the Goodwill Games for Turner, and in 2000, he covered the Sydney Olympics, again for NBC.

[edit] HBO

Most casual fans, however, probably know Lampley more than anything else, for his work on HBO World Championship Boxing show, and on the HBO Pay Per View telecast. As commentator in these shows, he has had the opportunity to call 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; James "Buster" Douglas's upset of Mike Tyson for the World Heavyweight championship; and the first Riddick Bowe-Andrew Golota fight at Madison Square Garden, where a riot occurred following the Pole's disqualification for low blows.

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.

[edit] Recent Developments

Lampley's movie production company, Crystal Spring Productions, has produced a handful of movies, including 2000's Welcome to Hollywood. The company has plans of producing a movie about tennis player Pancho Gonzalez, with Benjamin Bratt in the leading role.

Lampley is the owner of two restaurants in Utah, both of which are named the Lakota Restaurant and Bar. He is the father of three girls and one boy, and he resides in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

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 2005, Lampley turned political and began posting on The Huffington Post website, where he revealed his belief that George W. Bush stole the 2004 election via vote tampering in Ohio. [1] He also had to retract a claim that American deaths in Iraq are several times higher than official reports after finding out his source was fraudulent. [2] [3]

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.

In addition to hosting Olympic coverage and commentating on boxing, Jim Lampley can often be heard on The Jim Rome Show as a substitute host. Rome considers Lampley to be the most intelligent person he's interviewed on the show, on June 7, 2006. Lampley has also filled in for liberal talk radio host Ed Schultz.

[edit] Highlights

• Olympics Host: 1984 (Los Angeles), 1984 (Sarajevo), 1988 (Calgary), 1988 (Seoul), 1992 (Albertville), 1992 (Barcelona), 1994 (Lillehammer), 1996 (Atlanta), 1998 (Nagano), 2000 (Sydney), 2002 (Salt Lake City), 2004 (Athens), 2006 (Torino)
• Boxing, Play by Play: HBO World Championship Boxing, HBO Pay-Per-View, HBO Boxing After Dark (from premiere to April 2006)

[edit] External links

• Jim Lampley at the Huffington Post
• Biography at HBO Boxing