James Lampley (born April 8, 1949) is an American sportscaster, news anchor, film producer, and restaurant owner. He is best known as a blow-by-blow announcer on ''

HBO World Championship Boxing ''HBO World Championship Boxing'' (in later years stylized in its title card as ''HBO Boxing – World Championship'') is an American sports television series on premium television network HBO. It premiered on January 22, 1973, with a fight that ...

'' for 30 years. He covered a record 14

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

on U.S. television, most recently the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing, China Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

Early life and career

Lampley was born in

Hendersonville, North Carolina Hendersonville is a city in and the county seat of Henderson County, North Carolina, United States, located south of Asheville, North Carolina, Asheville. Like the county, the city is named for 19th-century North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Jus ...

, and after the sixth grade was raised in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. His father died when he was five, and his mother immersed him in sports to make up for what she felt his father would have done. In 1971, he graduated from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

where he majored in English and earned a master’s degree from UNC’s Department of Radio, Television and Motion Pictures.

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 College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

games. At ABC, he covered such events as

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

and

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

games, the 1986 and 1987 Indianapolis 500, the 1977 Monon Bell game between

DePauw University DePauw University ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Greencastle, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1837 as Indiana Asbury College and changed its name to DePauw University in 1884. The college has a Methodist heritage and was ...

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 The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

(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 The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

Firecracker 400, and interviewed President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

during the winner's interview with race winner

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "the King", is an American former stock car racing driver who competed from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most nota ...

. In 1985, Lampley along with

Al Michaels Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) 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 sin ...

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 A trophy is a tangible, decorative item used to remind of a specific achievement, serving as recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are most commonly awarded for sports, sporting events, ranging from youth sports to professional level athlet ...

KCBS

In 1987, Lampley moved to CBS. At CBS, he took over duties as co-anchor on the daily news show in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and also was a correspondent. That same year, he began working for

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

, covering

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

and HBO's annual telecast of the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

. He also attended the Albertville Olympics in 1992, as a news anchor for

KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS Los Angeles, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship station of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the n ...

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 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

, 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 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

during Week 9's Tennessee Oilers-

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The ...

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 The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

for

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

, 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 The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

, as well as anchoring the

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

's coverage of the Games. In 2006, Lampley served as a central correspondent for the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

which aired on the networks of

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

. 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

, Lampley's 14th Games. The

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

was the first time since the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

that he didn't cover.

served as the daytime host of the 2010 Olympics on NBC. Lampley also did not cover the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

either in which Michaels also served as the daytime host.

''HBO World Championship Boxing''

Fans may best know Lampley for his work on ''

'', '' Boxing After Dark'', and on the HBO

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

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 Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

, 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

1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (, ) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 (), were a winter multi-sport event celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from February 4 to 15, 1976. The games were awarded to Inn ...

(play-by-play for ABC) *

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

(play-by-play for ABC) * 1980 Winter Olympics (play-by-play for ABC) *

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...

(daytime host for ABC) *

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

(late-night host for ABC) *

1992 Winter Olympics The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile '92''), were a winter multi-sport event held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and aroun ...

(coverage for KCBS-TV) *

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

(late-night host for NBC) *

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

(late-night host for NBC) *

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

(primetime host for TNT) *

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

(cable host for

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

) *

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

(cable host for both MSNBC and

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

) *

(daytime host for NBC and cable host for

) *

(daytime and late-night host for NBC) *

(daytime host for NBC)

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. For his participation in the ''Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' HBO series, Lampley earned three

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

awards. Lampley was inducted into the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, right next to exit 34 of the New York State Thruway, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected on ballots cre ...

in its 2015 class.

Life outside sports

Film and producing career

Lampley's movie production company, ''Crystal Spring Productions'', has produced a handful of movies, including

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

'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 A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) which summarizes its core tenets. Many Christian denominations use three creeds ...

'', '' 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 ''Everybody Hates Chris'' (stylized in all lowercase) is an American semi-autobiographical sitcom created by Chris Rock and Ali LeRoi that originally aired on UPN from 2005 to 2006, and then on The CW until 2009. The series is based loosely ...

'', ''

MacGyver Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the MacGyver (1985 TV series), 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in Mac ...

'', the Andy Samberg

mockumentary A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...

'' 7 Days in Hell'', and '' Eastbound & Down''.

Personal life

Lampley was married to former news anchor Bree Walker from 1990 to 1999. The pair had a son, Aaron James Lampley, born in August 1991. Lampley and his current wife, Debra, live in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange and Durham County, North Carolina, Durham counties, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 United States census, making Chapel Hill the List of municipa ...

. Their blended family includes five daughters, two sons and nine grandchildren. Lampley is the former owner of two restaurants in

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, 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 Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

Domestic violence arrest

In 2007, Lampley was arrested for suspicion of domestic violence over an incident that took place at his girlfriend's home. 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.

References

External links

Jim Lampley at the Huffington Post
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lampley, Jim 1949 births Living people American bloggers American talk radio hosts American television reporters and correspondents American television sports announcers American boxing commentators College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers American golf commentators Television anchors from Los Angeles Major League Baseball broadcasters Motorsport announcers NBA broadcasters NFL announcers Notre Dame Fighting Irish football announcers Los Angeles Raiders announcers Olympic Games broadcasters People from Hendersonville, North Carolina Skiing announcers Mass media people from San Diego Sports Emmy Award winners Swimming commentators American tennis commentators University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni United States Football League announcers American sports radio personalities 21st-century American non-fiction writers