Jim Lampley who has had more than fifty years as a network television broadcaster who got his start when the people at ABC sports had the foresight to search for a college age sideline reporter for college football games. Now of course it is so common in most sports. This took place in 1974 so depending on your age and if you were in to sports you may have followed Mr. Lampley's career. He covered college football, pro football, professional golf, major league baseball, many Olympics, Wimbledon, by working with or being assigned to the Wide World of Sports he covered many Eunique sports like the World Lumberjack Championships or the triathlons when they started check out one called The Crawl of Shame that was about Julie Moss. And of course, his long career (31 years) as a ring side announcer for boxing. It is interesting to read that his mother had to be responsible for developing his love of boxing at an early age by making him sit-down and watch a televised boxing match. His mother was also responsible for Jim and his brothers' views of supporting the civil rights movement, equality and to push back against the ugliness of racism in the 1950's and her coming from a family that definitely did not hold the same views. There are many stories about his relationships with fellow broadcasters and sport stars and his own personal relationships that were not as successful as his career. There are many great stories but one that stuck out for me was the fight between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas that took place at the Tokyo Dome and the crowd was so quiet that you could hear the fighters' shoes on the canvas, definitely not that way here in the United States. There are many great stories in here so pick it up and give it a read.

I’m really interested in boxing and sports in general so this autobiography of Lampley ticks a lot of boxes-plus I went to Duke and he went to Chapel Hill. Anyways this was a quick read, serviceably written that was enjoyable. My major complaint is that Lampley covers so much ground that he seems to skim the surface of many personalities that he covered and worked with. Would have like more in depth of Cosell, Ali, Foreman , etc… still worth a read for an overview of many key sports events of the last half century.