‘It Happened’ – Jim Lampley’s new book covers his wide world of sports

After working for 50 years as a Hall of Fame sportscaster and the voice of the world’s greatest events – including nearly every major sport and 14 Olympic Games – you would expect the new book by former Del Mar resident Jim Lampley to be chock-full of stories about the world-class athletes and celebrities he encountered.

Lampley’s book, It Happened!: A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television, doesn’t disappoint as he follows the evolution of sports television from his unique perspective.

There’s plenty of namedropping, history-making events and never-before-told stories from the world of sports, but during Lampley’s appearance for a book signing in front of an enthusiastic full house Wednesday at Warwick’s Books in La Jolla, he emphasized the importance of being honest about both achievements and failures.

He called them “my mistakes, my misjudgments, the things that went wrong,” while reflecting on the influence of the key relationships in his life and the lessons that resonate with him today.

“I knew the book would not be nearly as interesting if I wasn’t honest,” said Lampley, “Long ago, I learned in sports broadcasting and later in news broadcasting, that the truth is way more interesting than any kind of fiction.”

Hosted by Southern California sports broadcaster Scott Kaplan, also Lampley’s longtime friend, the author talked about his approach to writing the book.

“I wrote the book stream of consciousness. I didn’t have an outline. I would write a certain amount every day until I felt like I had told a story. And then I would go to bed that night and lie with my head on the pillow and think, Okay, what is it that I need to write about tomorrow?”

He finished the book in about three months. It was published on April 15. While it is an autobiography, it ties Lampley’s experiences together through the many people who shaped his life, from his mother and his late brother to his mentors, enemies, friends and broadcast partners – and the many athletes whose accomplishments he chronicled.

Early in his career, Lampley crossed paths at the Rome Olympics in 1960 with a man who would greatly influence his life and career, the young gold medal-winning heavyweight Cassius Clay, soon known to the world as Muhammad Ali.

Other influential figures included tennis greats Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King, whom Lampley jokes he still hears in his head offering life lessons to him, and the late former heavyweight champion, entrepreneur, minister and actor George Foreman, who worked alongside Lampley as a boxing commentator with HBO.

“George Foreman was a special, wise, astonishing human being, which brings us to a strange fact. He died two weeks before the publication of the book.

“The first thing you read in the book is about the 19-year-old me watching the 19-year-old him win his gold medal in Mexico City. The blurb on the back of the book that he wrote is possibly the last public act of his life.”

Foreman died on March 21 in Houston at age 76.

“The book is in many ways stimulated and inspired by George. For him to die two weeks before it was published, I’m surprised, knowing me, that I’m not weeping in front of you,” admitted Lampley.

It may have been tougher for Lampley to decide what to leave out of the book after witnessing – or being part of – so many history-making events, many of which transcended athletic competition into popular culture.

• Becoming the first live reporter on the sideline of a nationally televised college football game
• Following in the footsteps of Jim McKay as host on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” and Howard Cosell as halftime host for ABC’s Monday Night Football
• Partnering with ABC, CBS, NBC, Turner and HBO
• Ascending to become host of HBO’s Wimbledon weekday telecasts
• Reaching “icon” status as the 30-year face and voice of HBO World Championship Boxing.

Today, Lampley is still best known for bringing his view from ringside at the world’s biggest prizefights for HBO Boxing. For 30 years, he covered the most famous names during boxing’s heyday in the United States: Ali and Foreman, Mike Tyson, Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao.

Lampley isn’t quite done yet. Although HBO Boxing closed up shop on Dec. 8, 2018, Lampley returned to the microphone for a boxing card on May 3, set in Times Square. He said he expects to offer more boxing commentary in the near future.

And he’s already thinking about a second book, covering the many stories yet to be told.