Want to hear Curt Gowdy announcing a swimming race? Here is a video of the women's 4x100m freestyle relay from the 1976 Olympics in Montreal as the USA team took the gold medal over the favored East Germans. Gowdy called the race for ABC along with analyst Donna DeVarona. Gowdy worked for NBC at the time and was still their #1 NFL play-by-play voice, but NBC loaned Gowdy to ABC for the Montreal Olympics. Gowdy also called basketball with Bill Russell at the 1976 games.
A few items of note from the clip: When the announcers appear on the screen at the 0:53 mark wearing the famous ABC yellow blazers, their press credentials are clearly visible on camera. Around the 6:23 mark, Gowdy twice cuts off DeVarona and talks for almost 20 seconds recapping the lane assignments before allowing her to make a point. Also, multiple times Gowdy refers to the event as the "4 times 100 meters".
2 facts.
ReplyDelete1.This was the only gold for the US women's swimming in 1976 as the East Germans dominated.After the fall of the Berlin Wall it was discovered that the team was heavily drugged (apparently without the athlete's knowledge).
2.Curt Gowdy was NBC's #1 football guy but they also allowed him to do "The American Sportsman" outdoors show for ABC during the off-season.
And Curt needed the extra work that summer since that was the first one where he wasn't doing baseball for NBC, having been dumped after the 75 World Series because Chrysler wanted Joe Garagiola to become the #1 PBP voice for NBC baseball.
ReplyDeleteis it odd to see gowdy working with Donna DeVarona rather than tony kubek
ReplyDelete