Latest news with #Lampley
Kuwait Times
21-07-2025
- Sport
- Kuwait Times
Pacquiao latest boxer to risk legacy for lure of the ring
Former Filipino senator says his comeback is 'not over' LAS VEGAS: Manny Pacquiao's return to the ring at the weekend after a four-year hiatus marked the latest example of a boxer well past his prime who could not resist the temptation of the squared circle and a chance to add to his competitive legacy. The 46-year-old Filipino came out of retirement on Saturday to fight Mario Barrios in Las Vegas but fell short of breaking his own record as the oldest-ever welterweight champion as the American boxer escaped with a majority draw. Fights involving boxers like Pacquiao, who is one of the sport's all-time greats, used to dominate headlines and attract a who's-who of celebrities ringside but there was considerably less buzz around his latest foray into the ring. 'He's a tremendously meaningful fighter, but is this a meaningful fight? Not really,' International Boxing Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Lampley told Reuters ahead of the fight. 'He's 46 years old. He's been away from the ring for four years. Do I need to say more?' Despite returning to the ring at an advanced age against a boxer 16 years younger than him, Pacquiao put up a valiant effort and even looked to have had the upper hand until late in the bout when Barrios turned up the aggression. Pacquiao, a Filipino senator from 2016 to 2022 and who last month was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, not only silenced some of his critics with his performance but also made clear his comeback is not over. 'Don't worry, the PacMan is back, and the journey will continue,' Pacquiao told reporters after the fight. Pacquiao is hardly the first middle-aged boxer who returned to the ring hoping to roll back the years. Last November, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson came out of retirement at 58 to face Jake Paul in a fight that did not match the hype. Lampley said it's not surprising to see fighters miss the thrill of the spotlight, even if they are far from their peak, and recounted a time he once asked Sugar Ray Leonard, who made two ill-fated comebacks, why it was so hard to stay away. 'He said 'I have surveyed every thrill a man of my level of privilege can experience. Nothing matches the thrill of stepping out of that corner ... another man facing me from 15 feet away, and trying to prove I am more man than him',' Lampley said. 'He knew why he couldn't quit. He could not give up the thrill of that identity and that experience. It is absolutely an addiction.' Health concerns Like any sport, competing at the highest level presents many challenges as an athlete ages. But in a sport like boxing, which involves repeated blows to the head, it also comes with specific health concerns. Robert Cantu, medical director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, said the cumulative effect of repeated blows over a career can take a toll and one should be wary of subjecting an aging brain to more injury. 'The reason we don't (want people boxing in their 40s) is that the brain is already starting to lose neural cells after the age of 20, and by the age of 40 you've lost a fair number,' said Cantu. 'And if you keep losing more than you would have otherwise lost because you are having your head rattled around taking blows you are increasing your risk for dementia.' For some aging boxers who still possess name recognition and the ability to land lucrative paydays, that risk appears worth it for them to step back into the ring though one is left to wonder if their fights are doing the sport more harm than good. — Reuters
Indianapolis Star
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Indianapolis high school sports: 3 finalists for Marion County Female Athlete of the Year
The Marion County Athletic Association will soon name its City and County Athletes of the Year, an award that dates to 1950 and grew to include girls' achievements in 1979. The awards are geared toward athletic achievement, but almost every winner over the years has exhibited impressive credentials in and out of their athletic, academic and personal areas. Generally, multi-sport athletes are given consideration over single-sport athletes, though in some cases a single-sport athlete has been so outstanding that he or she has been selected as the winner. Here are the three finalists for County Female Athlete of the Year (last year's winner was Maddie Rocchio of North Central): Lampley, a Mississippi State signee, led Lawrence Central to a Class 4A state championship as a junior and went on to be the runner-up for Miss Basketball as a senior and earn Indiana All-Stars honors. Lampley, a four-year letterwinner in girls basketball for the Bears, was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for Indiana as a junior after averaging 18.0 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game in a 29-0 season. As a senior, Lampley averaged 21.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 1.8 assists per game for a team that finished 22-2, losing to eventual state champion Lawrence North in the sectional. Lampley is the all-time leading scorer in school history with 1,802 points. She also set program records for rebounds (580) and steals (209). She was a four-time selection as a first teamer to the All-Marion County team. Lampley was twice named the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference Player of the Year. Lampley, a distinguished honor roll student, has goals of playing in the WNBA and working in the medical industry. Matthews, a six-time letterwinner in cross-country and track and field, won the 800 meters at the Marion County track meet as a sophomore and senior and helped her teams to county championships as a sophomore, junior and senior. She was also part of the 4x800 meter relay team that won the sectional championship as a freshman, sophomore and junior. That team also won regional titles in 2022 and '24. Matthews' girls track team won a state title her freshman year, won the sectional every year of her first three years of high school and the regional championship twice. She won the 800 meters and 1,600 meters this spring at the MIC meet. Matthews also won the MIC indoor 3,200 championship. She is part of the school record holding relay teams in the 4x800 and distance medley relay. In cross-country, Matthews is a three-time All-Marion County honoree and three-time All-MIC selection. Her cross-country teams won sectional titles in 2022 and '23, also winning a regional in '23. Matthews plans to attend Marian University to run cross-country and track. She will major in mechanical engineering with a goal of working in motorsports as an engineer. Matthews is a member of the National Honor Society. Thomas, an eight-time letterwinner in basketball and track and field, will play basketball at Northern Kentucky and study psychology. The 6-1 Thomas, a two-time All-Marion County selection, averaged 12.3 points and 4.8 rebounds as a senior to help Lawrence North to a 19-8 season and Class 4A state championship. Her team as a sophomore reached the final game of the semistate and won the MIC basketball championship. Thomas was a three-time MIC selection. In track and field, Thomas was a two-time MIC shot put champion and two-time MIC indoor shot put champion. She was part of three sectional championship teams in track and was twice named All-MIC track and field. Thomas, a distinguished scholar and member of the distinguished honor roll, earned the Lawrence North physical education/health award. She volunteered her time for elementary reading programs at Mary Castle and Sunnyside Elementary. Thomas plans to use her psychology degree to help people overcome adversity and issues in their lives.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jim Lampley wasn't supposed to fall in love with boxing. Instead, he became its voice
Jim Lampley poses next to his photo at the Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., in June 2015. The longtime boxing broadcaster says his life story "reads like a fictional narrative." (Alex Menendez / Getty Images) Jim Lampley has been the voice of boxing for a generation of Americans, which is remarkable because the assignment was only supposed to last one fight. In the winter of 1986, Lampley had a new contract and a new boss who wanted him out. So Dennis Swanson, the head of the ABC's sports division, ordered Lampley to cover Mike Tyson's first fight on network TV in the hopes, Lampley said, he would embarrass himself and slink away. Advertisement Instead, Lampley nailed the assignment and a year later began what would be an unparalleled three-decade career calling fights for HBO. 'I knew from the moment I called that first fight I was home,' said Lampley, 76, whose work earned him induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 'I understood that was where I was supposed to be.' Read more: George Foreman, boxing legend who fought Muhammad Ali in the 'Rumble in the Jungle,' dies So 18 months later, on his agent's advice, Lampley walked into Swanson's office, signed the papers that separated him from ABC Sports, and never looked back. That's one of several stories Lampley tells in 'It Happened: A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television,' an autobiography of an admittedly charmed 50-year career in broadcasting. Advertisement 'My life story reads like a fictional narrative. That's the reason for the title,' Lampley said. 'It's the only way you can respond to something as totally counterintuitive, unexpected and filled with blessings as my career is to say, 'it happened.' 'I can't talk about anything that ever happened to me with anything less than astonishment.' The title of the book, written with journalist Art Chansky, is also a paean to Lampley's most famous call — the narration of George Foreman's stunning knockout of Michael Moorer, which allowed Foreman to become, at 45, the oldest heavyweight champion in history. 'Down goes Moorer on a right hand!. An unbelievably close-in right-hand shot! 'It happened! It happened!' George Foreman, left, punches Michael Moorer during their heavyweight championship fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in November 1994. Jim Lampley's call of the fight helped cement his place in boxing history. (Lennox McLendon / Associated Press) In the book, Lampley takes readers inside locker rooms in every league and into the conference rooms of every network. He shares family stories of growing up in the South at the start of the civil rights movement and dishes celebrity gossip about some of the biggest names in sports and broadcasting. Advertisement But if the career he describes was marked by good fortune — he got his first break at 24 when, still in graduate school, he was chosen from a field of 432 candidates to serve as the first network sideline reporter on ABC's college football broadcasts — he was also very good at what he did. Over his dozen years at ABC he called two Indy 500s, broadcast Major League Baseball, traveled the world reporting for 'Wide World of Sports,' interviewed President Ronald Reagan at Daytona, presided over the trophy presentation after Super Bowl XIX and covered the first of 14 Olympics. He interviewed Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig after the U.S. hockey team's Miracle on Ice, worked with Billie Jean King at Wimbledon, saw Richard Petty's final NASCAR victory and was close enough to smell the sweat at every significant title fight between 1988 and 2018. 'Given his long career across several networks, he probably has some juicy stories to tell,' said Daniel Durbin, a professor at the USC Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media and Society. Yet it was a career that proved memorable as much for Lampley's timing as for his talent. Advertisement 'Jim was one of a group of 1970s college students who grew into sportscasters, that included Jim Nantz, Al Michaels, and Bob Costas,' Durbin continued. 'They pursued careers in a sort of golden age of sportscasting when 'Monday Night Football' had shown the tremendous potential of prime-time sports and ESPN and, later, Fox Sports were just on the horizon. 'He was a consistently strong sportscaster. A very good, workmanlike boxing broadcaster; well-prepared, clear and effective in his calls.' And every time his career seemed to reach a fork in the road, he inevitably chose the right path — one that has him returning to do blow by blow, this time on DAZN PPV, for a May 2 world championship card featuring Ryan Garcia, Teófimo López and Devin Haney, in separate bouts, live from Times Square. It will be his first fight call since HBO ended its boxing programming in 2018. Jim Lampley waves to the crowd during his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in June 2015. (Heather Ainsworth / Associated Press) In between his start at ABC and his return to his ring-side seat this week, Lampley was the first program host listeners heard on WFAN, helping it grow into the biggest sports-talk station in the country; anchored coverage of the Olympics and the NFL on NBC; appeared regularly on 'The CBS Morning Show' and had his own syndicated interview program, 'One on One With Jim Lampley.' Advertisement 'I was working all the time,' he said. 'I was making piles of money, one paycheck on top of another.' But he's also remembered in Los Angeles for a life-changing five-year stint as co-anchor of the nightly news on Channel 2. 'When I was forced out of ABC Sports, my next gig, my landing spot, was at KCBS-TV,' Lampley said on an hourlong Zoom call from his home in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he sat before a wall covered with dozens of the media credentials he has gathered over the decades. 'The first thing I said to my agent was 'that's a local station. That's not a network gig'.' It came with a big contract though. And when the station brought in Bree Walker to join him behind the anchor desk, Lampley's personal life, as well as his career, took a turn. Advertisement 'There was a giant promotional campaign and a lot of hoopla,' Lampley remembered in an interview long on detail and short on regret. 'Yes, it probably boosted my image. [But] I found myself in a situation where I felt ill-equipped to compete with her particular studio skills on air. 'I decided that my best defense would be to get her to fall in love with me.' Read more: The rise and fall of Ryan Garcia: Embattled boxer wants to be the relatable anti-hero And she did, marrying Lampley and having a son with him before the couple divorced after nine years. It was 'Anchorman' 14 years before the Will Ferrell movie made Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone household names. Advertisement Months after moving to Los Angeles, Lampley also signed his first contract to call boxing on HBO, the job that would come to define his career. It was a job he was always meant to have since one of his earliest memories was of his widowed mother sitting him down in front of a television set perched on a TV dinner tray and putting on a Sugar Ray Robinson fight. He was 6. Eight years later he was in the Miami Beach Convention Hall to watch his boyhood idol Cassius Clay knock out Sonny Liston, and more than a quarter-century after that, Lampley was ringside in Tokyo for HBO when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson, making him the only broadcaster to be present for the two greatest upsets in heavyweight boxing history. So it has been a uniquely lucky life. And, as the title of the book says, it happened. 'This was the way it was supposed to go,' Lampley said with a smile. 'It was preordained.' Advertisement Lampley will be in Los Angeles for a pair of book signings, on May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove and on May 10 at 2 p.m. at the Wild Card Boxing Club. The event at the Grove will feature a Q and A session moderated by KCBS-TV sports director Jim Hill. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Jim Lampley wasn't supposed to fall in love with boxing. Instead, he became its voice
Jim Lampley has been the voice of boxing for a generation of Americans, which is remarkable because the assignment was only supposed to last one fight. In the winter of 1986, Lampley had a new contract and a new boss who wanted him out. So Dennis Swanson, the head of the ABC's sports division, ordered Lampley to cover Mike Tyson's first fight on network TV in the hopes, Lampley said, he would embarrass himself and slink away. Instead, Lampley nailed the assignment and a year later began what would be an unparalleled three-decade career calling fights for HBO. 'I knew from the moment I called that first fight I was home,' said Lampley, 76, whose work earned him induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 'I understood that was where I was supposed to be.' So 18 months later, on his agent's advice, Lampley walked into Swanson's office, signed the papers that separated him from ABC Sports, and never looked back. That's one of several stories Lampley tells in 'It Happened: A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television,' an autobiography of an admittedly charmed 50-year career in broadcasting. 'My life story reads like a fictional narrative. That's the reason for the title,' Lampley said. 'It's the only way you can respond to something as totally counterintuitive, unexpected and filled with blessings as my career is to say, 'it happened.' 'I can't talk about anything that ever happened to me with anything less than astonishment.' The title of the book, written with journalist Art Chansky, is also a paean to Lampley's most famous call — the narration of George Foreman's stunning knockout of Michael Moorer, which allowed Foreman to become, at 45, the oldest heavyweight champion in history. 'Down goes Moorer on a right hand!. An unbelievably close-in right-hand shot! 'It happened! It happened!' In the book, Lampley takes readers inside locker rooms in every league and into the conference rooms of every network. He shares family stories of growing up in the South at the start of the civil rights movement and dishes celebrity gossip about some of the biggest names in sports and broadcasting. But if the career he describes was marked by good fortune — he got his first break at 24 when, still in graduate school, he was chosen from a field of 432 candidates to serve as the first network sideline reporter on ABC's college football broadcasts — he was also very good at what he did. Over his dozen years at ABC he called two Indy 500s, broadcast Major League Baseball, traveled the world reporting for 'Wide World of Sports,' interviewed President Ronald Reagan at Daytona, presided over the trophy presentation after Super Bowl XIX and covered the first of 14 Olympics. He interviewed Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig after the U.S. hockey team's Miracle on Ice, worked with Billie Jean King at Wimbledon, saw Richard Petty's final NASCAR victory and was close enough to smell the sweat at every significant title fight between 1988 and 2018. 'Given his long career across several networks, he probably has some juicy stories to tell,' said Daniel Durbin, a professor at the USC Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media and Society. Yet it was a career that proved memorable as much for Lampley's timing as for his talent. 'Jim was one of a group of 1970s college students who grew into sportscasters, that included Jim Nantz, Al Michaels, and Bob Costas,' Durbin continued. 'They pursued careers in a sort of golden age of sportscasting when 'Monday Night Football' had shown the tremendous potential of prime-time sports and ESPN and, later, Fox Sports were just on the horizon. 'He was a consistently strong sportscaster. A very good, workmanlike boxing broadcaster; well-prepared, clear and effective in his calls.' And every time his career seemed to reach a fork in the road, he inevitably chose the right path — one that has him returning to do blow by blow, this time on DAZN PPV, for a May 2 world championship card featuring Ryan Garcia, Teófimo López and Devin Haney, in separate bouts, live from Times Square. It will be his first fight call since HBO ended its boxing programming in 2018. In between his start at ABC and his return to his ring-side seat this week, Lampley was the first program host listeners heard on WFAN, helping it grow into the biggest sports-talk station in the country; anchored coverage of the Olympics and the NFL on NBC; appeared regularly on 'The CBS Morning Show' and had his own syndicated interview program, 'One on One With Jim Lampley.' 'I was working all the time,' he said. 'I was making piles of money, one paycheck on top of another.' But he's also remembered in Los Angeles for a life-changing five-year stint as co-anchor of the nightly news on Channel 2. 'When I was forced out of ABC Sports, my next gig, my landing spot, was at KCBS-TV,' Lampley said on an hourlong Zoom call from his home in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he sat before a wall covered with dozens of the media credentials he has gathered over the decades. 'The first thing I said to my agent was 'that's a local station. That's not a network gig'.' It came with a big contract though. And when the station brought in Bree Walker to join him behind the anchor desk, Lampley's personal life, as well as his career, took a turn. 'There was a giant promotional campaign and a lot of hoopla,' Lampley remembered in an interview long on detail and short on regret. 'Yes, it probably boosted my image. [But] I found myself in a situation where I felt ill-equipped to compete with her particular studio skills on air. 'I decided that my best defense would be to get her to fall in love with me.' And she did, marrying Lampley and having a son with him before the couple divorced after nine years. It was 'Anchorman' 14 years before the Will Ferrell movie made Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone household names. Months after moving to Los Angeles, Lampley also signed his first contract to call boxing on HBO, the job that would come to define his career. It was a job he was always meant to have since one of his earliest memories was of his widowed mother sitting him down in front of a television set perched on a TV dinner tray and putting on a Sugar Ray Robinson fight. He was 6. Eight years later he was in the Miami Beach Convention Hall to watch his boyhood idol Cassius Clay knock out Sonny Liston, and more than a quarter-century after that, Lampley was ringside in Tokyo for HBO when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson, making him the only broadcaster to be present for the two greatest upsets in heavyweight boxing history. So it has been a uniquely lucky life. And, as the title of the book says, it happened. 'This was the way it was supposed to go,' Lampley said with a smile. 'It was preordained.' Lampley will be in Los Angeles for a pair of book signings, on May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove and on May 10 at 2 p.m. at the Wild Card Boxing Club. The event at the Grove will feature a Q and A session moderated by KCBS-TV sports director Jim Hill.
USA Today
01-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney bouts mark return of legendary boxing announcer
Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney bouts mark return of legendary boxing announcer Show Caption Hide Caption Jake Paul beats Mike Tyson by unanimous decision, here's where it leaves both fighters Jake Paul rose to the occasion and beat 58-year-old Mike Tyson in their highly publicized fight on Netflix. Sports Pulse Jim Lampley is entering the ring again. His ring - a place the award-winning announcer called home for more than 30 years until HBO Boxing turned off the lights in 2018. The Emmy winner, 76, is scheduled to call a boxing card featuring Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez on Friday in Times Square. It'll be the first time in more than six years viewers will hear the smooth-toned, distinctive voice on the blow-by-blow call. 'I had dispensed with the notion that anybody was ever going to ask me to call fights again,'' Lampley told USA TODAY Sports. 'So it's thrilling. It really is.'' Fred Sternburg, a publicist inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, said he thinks Lampley might become the oldest announcer to handle blow-by-blow duties. 'If it's a fact, it scares me,'' said Lampley, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2015. 'But being scared is often good.'' Q&A: Garcia vs. Romero fight: Garcia returns to boxing after failed drug test MORE: Ryan Garcia says Jake Paul is a 'wild card. I don't know if he's a boxer.' So says the announcer who covered 14 Olympics and called legendary boxing matches such as Buster Douglas' shocking knockout victory over Mike Tyson in 1990 and George Foreman winning the heavyweight title at age 45 with a knockout of then 26-year-old Michael Moorer in 1994. Now it'll be Garcia vs. Rolando 'Rolly'' Romero, Haney vs. Jose Carlos Ramirez and Lopez vs. Arnold Barboza Jr. Lampley has had to prepare while promoting his recently released memoir - 'It Happened! A Uniquely Lucky Life In Sports Television,'' - and also welcoming a 12th grandchild into his blended family. And now, a new chapter unfolds in New York. 'You don't expect at my age to become the busiest man on the planet,'' Lampley said, 'but I kind of feel as though I am at this particular time.'' How did Jim Lampley boxing return unfold? On Feb. 1, Lampley was at the David Benavidez-David Morrell Jr. fight when members of the media found him. They called his attention to a post on X from Turki Al-Sheikh, the Saudi who's become arguably the most powerful figure in boxing. 'I would like to have and invite Mr. Jim Lampley on the live broadcast of one of our upcoming cards,'' the post read. They were words Lampley had been waiting to hear since HBO shuttered its boxing division. 'It was a change in his life that he maybe still hasn't entirely gotten over,'' said Lampley's wife, Debra, who of HBO's Boxing closing down added, 'It was dark days. They still had his contract, so he couldn't work anyplace else.'' When HBO bought out Lampley's contract in 2020, the offers he thought would come never did. So Lampley, who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, taught a class in media for five semesters at his alma mater, North Carolina. Then, in 2023, he joined for whom he has co-hosted a live viewer chat during pay-per-view fights and also interviewed boxers. He was visible again. Then came Al-Sheikh's post. Followed by a meeting with the Saudi power broker. 'I shook his hand, I looked him in the eye,'' Lampley said. 'I have a personal relationship now and a friendship with Turki Al-Sheikh.'' Perhaps a friendship that could lead to more announcing work for Lampley? 'Let's do one and see what Turki thinks about it,'' Lampley said. 'It's all up to him. … I'm not going to jump the gun or take any step ahead beyond where he wants to be. And all I know for certain about where he wants to be is let's do this. So let's do this and not get ahead of ourselves.'' Jim Lampley, John Grisham and a book tour On April 24, best-selling author John Grisham appeared with Lampley at a book signing event in Chapel Hill to help promote Lampley's book. 'If you had told me a year ago, oh, you'll be promoting your own book and John Grisham will be your co-host at a bookstore, I would've thought, this is insane,'' Lampley said. 'What are we talking about here? And we sold a hundred books, which is a pretty good haul.'' Soon Lampley and his wife will be traveling to California to continue promoting the book. But first comes fight night. 'Am I going to be underprepared? I sort of feel like that might possibly be the case,'' Lampley said. 'I felt under-prepared for every one of the hundreds of fights that I called in my career leading up to this point. And I will feel the same way again next Friday night. 'In a way that's good because it leaves you open to the spontaneous discovery of whatever happens in front of you in the fight, and you never know for sure.'' Garcia, the featured fighter on the boxing card Friday night, is among those excited about Lampley's return. "That's one of the biggest things I think boxing was missing,'' Garcia said. "A great voice, great commentator, and he tells the story good while you're fighting. ... I mean, he's the best in the game. So for him to come back is huge. Shout out Turki for that.'' Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero
