Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Jim Lampley, Former sportscaster, news anchor, film producer and more. Lampley broke into national television in 1974 as ABC’s first sideline reporter for college football. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, he anchored events like the Indianapolis 500, Major League Baseball, college hoops, the United States Football League, NASCAR’s Firecracker 400 (where he famously interviewed President Reagan), and Super Bowl XIX. In 1987, he moved to CBS and year-round roles at HBO, becoming the familiar voice of HBO’s World Championship Boxing for three decades (1988–2018). Lampley also covered a record 14 Olympic Games for US television from 1976 to 2008, working for ABC, KCBS, NBC, and other networks. He earned distinctions including the Sam Taub Award in 1992 for outstanding boxing broadcasting journalism, four Sports Emmy Awards, and induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2015.
Beyond television, Lampley produced and hosted HBO’s The Fight Game with Jim Lampley and executive-produced series like On Freddie Roach. He also owns a restaurant and a production company and has made cameo appearances in films like Rocky Balboa, Creed, and Ocean’s Eleven.
Jim resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife Debra Schuss. His career spans nearly 50 years and marks him as one of America’s most enduring and influential commentators.