Remembering July 19, 1996

As the sun set on July 19, 2016, many an Atlanta Olympic veteran likely spent time reminiscing.

On this evening 20 years ago, the Centennial Olympic Games opened with great music, Georgia luminaries, star athletes and even a parade of pickup trucks!

The anniversary may be bittersweet for some, considering the night's greatest surprise in 1996 -- Muhammad Ali, who greeted Janet Evans and the world with torch in hand -- died earlier this year, a month or so shy of again celebrating his favorite Games experience (Ali wrote in his autobiography how he could not sleep after lighting the cauldron).

During the last week or so, Atlanta media pulled out the stops for 20th anniversary coverage. 

Local NPR affiliate WABE-FM created a series reliving the 1996 Cultural Olympiad -- great reporting in collaboration with ArtsATL.com. 

The station also aired a one-hour special and even wrote up Nike's new for 2016 Atlanta '96-inspired sneakers 

It was fun to read about the Atlanta History Center's plans to update the Centennial Olympic exhibition, which will close in a few weeks and reopen next year -- visitors can enjoy one of the 1996 opening ceremony costumes (a giant fish puppet) now on view in the entrance lobby.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also created many column inches about Atlanta's Games, including a story about three couples who met and married while working at the Olympics (unmentioned with one couple's memories was my cameo role as neighbor encouraging a job application that led to their introduction).

The city and Centennial Olympic Park also pulled out many stops to host a 20th anniversary "Relive the Dream" celebration hosted by Billy Payne, Andrew Young and a cast of medal-winning athletes.

It was fun to spend Saturday catching up with old friends while meeting new contacts. 

Unfortunately, the "dream" evening on July 16 was not all fun and Games due to two lightning delays. Though they eventually got the party started and the content was fun, a handful of attendees took the organizers to task on Facebook with a few harsh but apt emoticons and comments. 

One of my public relations mentors, his wife, a longtime Olympic historian friend and I spent much of the event playing armchair quarterback to the organizers, ultimately deciding/lamenting the majority of the crowd enjoyed themselves but the event's disarray provided a snapshot of snafus parallel to the issues that played out in grand fashion during those 16 days and nights of 1996. 

The anniversary event scene came complete with crass street vendors, tents and credentials for the feted "haves" gazed upon by the excluded masses of "have nots" and other elements that frustrated many of the worker bees from two decades back. 

When I mentioned our observations to a prominent Olympic historian yesterday, he replied with his take that Atlanta was the "first Olympics at which most of the athletes were professionals and the organizers were all amateurs" -- hysterical! 

But, hey -- where would we be without the Atlanta Games experience? I am thankful Payne went to church and scribbled "Olympics" on his working list of community projects in 1988, and that the experiences afforded in 1996 put me on track to attend my 10th Games at Rio starting next week.

I also appreciate the hard work that went into the anniversary event.

This evening the Olympic news outlet Around The Rings hosted a fun party in honor of the Atlanta milestone, and some of my favorite memories of '96 came to mind:

-- Watching the Opening Ceremony live in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant with my sister, a fellow Olympic Village team member, before we returned to Georgia Tech for the late shift and athletes coming home for the evening

-- Getting acquainted with ACOG Communications Manager Dick Yarbrough and the organization's archivist during work hours (learned the most enriching and "real" Games stories from both of them)

-- Sharing many social gatherings with fellow 1995 USOC interns-turned-Atlantans during the pre-Games spring of '96

-- Following-up the ACOG experience with a bonus two months of Paralympic employment and an additional wave of fun times paired with hard work.

There are many Games-time friends with whom I've lost touch -- would love to reconnect with so many of these people. 

One person in particular is a Village volunteer who attended the University of Georgia. On the last night of the Atlanta Olympic Village, which was Aug. 6, 1996, the two of us visited 4,000 dorm rooms in search of Olympic pins, and I've missed the shared laughter over all the random stuff we discovered the athletes left behind. 

Here's hoping my long-lost friend Emily Sanders is out there and enjoying her Olympic memories as am I.

Photos via Yahoo, Nike, Atlanta History Center. Park photo copyright Nicholas Wolaver.

Dreamers & Believers Celebrate 25 Years Since Atlanta's Olympic Wishes Came True

Twenty-five years ago -- Sept. 18, 1990 -- Atlanta won its Olympic bid to host the 1996 Games.

Tonight the bid's originator, William Porter "Billy" Payne, hosted a classy anniversary event to say thank you and celebrate the "Dreamers & Believers" who shared his five-ringed vision as early as 1987.

In a tent filled with about 400 friends at Centennial Olympic Park, Payne proudly explained his remarks for the evening were "25 years in the making" before rolling a video unveiling two new monuments coming soon to the urban park he created.

The additions include custom marble benches honoring key Atlanta business leaders (Jim Kennedy, Bill Dahlberg, Bob Holder, Bennett Brown, Herman Russell and Ivan Allen III) first to embrace the Olympic bid. A new marble column featuring the names of the "Atlanta Nine" volunteers who led the bid committee will also join the statue of Payne installed in 1997. 

Though more details remain to be announced, Payne briefly mentioned a capital campaign in the works to provide other park improvements in time for next year's 20th Anniversary of Atlanta's Games, which will take place on the eve of the Rio 2016 Olympics. 

Introduced by Payne as the keynote speaker of the evening, bid partner Ambassador Andrew Young put into perspective several Atlanta milestones of the 25 years since the city's Olympic victory.

Young referenced the city's rapid growth (more than 25 percent, according to a state representative who spoke earlier in the evening), successful collaborations (to build the world's busiest airport, create MARTA, and to pursue then host the Games) and details of his initial conversations with Payne when Young was Atlanta's mayor. Young said Montreal's $750 million debt from the 1976 Games made his staff members reluctant for Young to meet with the 34-year-old Payne. 

"[But] I heard Billy got this [Olympic bid] idea after church," said Young. "I'm a preacher and I know now the Lord works on you, and when an aging jock in midlife crisis gets religion ... that's the way the Spirit works." He took the meeting and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Other party presenters included WSB's Monica Kaufman, who was in Tokyo covering the 1990 vote, and Charlie Battle, the Atlanta attorney credited with visiting more nations during the bid and for helping forge the most friendships with voting IOC members. Other VIP attendees included former Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games CFO A.D. Frasier, Cohn & Wolfe co-founder Bob Cohn, a longtime Olympic collector whose firm provided early public relations counsel for the Atlanta bid team's domestic campaign, and University of Georgia football coaching legend Vince Dooley, for whom Payne played years before his Olympic feats and current role as chairman of Augusta National Golf Club.

During his remarks detailing the bid committee milestones of 1988 to 1990, Battle called out several volunteers including Atlanta Marriott Marquis concierge Albert "Smitty" Smith who charmed many IOC leaders and staff.

"[Smitty] is one of the first people IOC friends ask about when I travel and see them," said Battle.

Battle also mentioned the bid team's early events that wooed the U.S. Olympic Committee away from competing bids from San Francisco, Minneapolis and Nashville. He detailed the scrappy manner through which Atlanta created an "Atlanta House" in Seoul during the 1988 Olympics and around the 1989 IOC Session held in Puerto Rico. 

Forging friendships across the Olympic Family echoed as key to the win, according to remarks from Battle, Payne and Young. Since the rules of Olympic bidding now forbid voting IOC member visits to candidate cities, its likely Atlanta's networking techniques were a first- and last-time option for Olympic bid committees of the 2010s and beyond.

Young said Atlanta proved to have a lot more Olympic connections than anticipated, including then-USOC Treasurer Dr. Leroy Walker as a local high school graduate, and Edwin Moses as a top Olympian of 1976 and 1984. 

Young attributed divine intervention, through his U.S. Ambassador assignments from President Jimmy Carter, as federal duties that helped him renew existing connections to up to 55 voting IOC members on behalf of Atlanta. In Young's mind, things started adding up that "The city was ready for it" and "we did it."

During a media Q&A prior to the event, I asked Young if he could recall waking up in Tokyo on Sept. 19 after reality over the victory may have set in for the team.

"The first thought I had was, 'Damn! We won this thing and we're broke,'" said Young. "They [the IOC] gave us a letter saying that we won, but it was also a bill for $1.5 million for the victory party. I said, 'Thanks, you gave us the Olympics and a bill to start with?" 

Like tonight's gathering, that was one party worth every penny.

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

Mind Your Mentoring

In recent weeks, the topic of mentoring has been on the brain. At my desk at Edelman, work with our client PINK focused on the launch of this national outlet's "Minute Mentor" segments, which recipients of The Little PINK Book or anyone may access online.

Several mentors helped me on the journey from a high school student to an Atlanta public relations media supervisor. Two of these special people to me have an Olympic connection.

The following paragraphs include first names only because, unfortunately, some big gaps of time lapsed since the most recent contact with these mentors (committing here to get back in touch!).

The first professional mentor who accidentally earned that title is Leslie.

During the year building up to U.S. Olympic Festival '89 -- the Oklahoma City sports event where "it all started" (my hard core enthusiasm for the Olympics, that is) -- Leslie was the public relations director for the Festival organizing committee.

On my first day as a summer volunteer (at age 15, in 1988), Leslie assigned me some phone bank research and, I think, a media list project. Mundane, yes, but Leslie took the time to explain the importance of getting the facts and figures right, for the public (fellow volunteers and potential ticket buyers) and for reporters. She put the project into the context of shaping opinion about the Festival, and that made everything (including spell check by hand from a phone book) more important and interesting.

Several office projects later, Leslie got me working at one of the Festival's P.R. events. Seeing how it all came together -- the details, the food, the fancy business clothes, the media interest -- introduced me to P.R. She encouraged me, taught me, answered all the silly questions. My ego was boosted by some "Nick P.R." the committee embarked on for a volunteer contribution at the end of the summer. I was drunk on publicity and how it worked!

When school finally ended in the spring of 1989, I could hardly wait to get back to volunteering, and Leslie was there teaching how the media could be engaged on several fronts:

• Media stunts (100 volunteers parked Oklahoma-made GM cars in the shape of the OK89 logo for a photo opportunity)


• Media events (the statewide Olympic Torch Relay)


• Dedication ceremonies (the unveiling of a downtown Oklahoma City Olympic-themed statue)
  

These topics and pitching Festival "story angles" and "media relations" all entered my lexicon thanks to Leslie, who was the main organizing committee P.R. contact who worked with the U.S. Olympic Committee during the actual Festival (seeing the U.S.O.C.'s media operations for the Festival was eye-opening, to be sure -- especially in the pre-Fax, pre-Internet days!).

Leslie went on to work for a global energy company before starting a family, and she was an outstanding touchstone as my college degree du jour evolved from psychology to international relations and finally mass communications at Minnesota State University-Mankato (in those days, MSU stood only for Mankato State U. -- Sarah Palin would love it there, as the mascot was very Mavericky!). Though not often enough, I think of all the time Leslie took to care and listen. Hooray for my professional mentor, Leslie!

A shout out to another mentor of the U.S. Olympic Festival '89 experience: Mr. Clay Bennett! He certainly helped Oklahoma to fulfill the Festival's motto "Winning a Place in the World." (I will write more about Bennett in a separate, future post).

Another mentor in my life entered the scene in 1993, but neither of us knew she was destined for mentor status until the summer of 1994 at the U.S. Olympic Festival of St. Louis. Margaret was an executive on loan to the Festival organizing committee (I later learned she served many years as one of Monsanto's top female executives at a time when there were few to zero women above the glass ceiling).

Margaret was tough, but not one to take no for an answer. In our 15 x 20 office shared at the Washington University in St. Louis Olin Business School (built adjacent to the 1904 St. Louis Olympic venues), Margaret masterminded the best U.S. Olympic Festival Athlete Village in the history of the USOF.

When unexpected challenges came along, she found a solution, or taught our team how. She was outstanding at managing tons of data, hundreds of people (and their vast personality differences) and making things work. And she kept everything upbeat and low key, never letting anyone see her sweat (though there were plenty of times we were all up late sweating to get the Village ready).

After the Festival, Margaret was the touchstone of my later college and early career milestones, from landing two internships (the first with the U.S.O.C. intern program, the second at the Fleishman-Hillard home office), to a first-time full-time job with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. She also taught the importance of community involvement as her own career evolved into leading a nonprofit organization in St. Louis.

My thanks go out to Leslie and Margaret, and many other mentors who helped along the way.

100 Days from Olympic Day

Today was Olympic Day around the globe, and the morning started with a great NBC TODAY Show segment about the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid.

It was a low key holiday in Atlanta. I tried, but could not find details on the apparent local celebrations listed by Olympic Day organizers (until tonight, too late, I stumbled upon a listing on a website -- if I missed something big, read the following with a grain of salt).

To pause and commemorate things, this evening I took a walk through Centennial Olympic Park (which has a great virtual tour online) and asked a mix of locals and visitors if they knew what Olympic Day is or when it takes place -- to my surprise, one woman from Puerto Rico, who was posing for a photo with the park's monument to Modern Olympic Founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin, exclaimed "TODAY is Olympic Day, and my birthday, too!" (not surprising, no one else quizzed had any idea).

The walk provided a mixed bag of sentimentality and cynicism about the Olympic Movement and Atlanta's place in Olympic history.

On one hand, the Atlanta Olympic legacy including the vast urban park, other legacy venues and Turner Field (in view as I type this from high rise office downtown) are priceless. Almost every downtown Atlanta structure that borders Centennial Park -- except for The INFORUM, CNN Center and Tabernacle -- would not exist if the Games went to another city in 1996. And now that Centennial Olympic Park is in its adolescence, it is booming (remember when the trees were sticks in the ground? Now a gorgeous urban forest in bloom, and the fountains are all working again, post-drought!).

On the other hand, it seems sad that in spite of an army of employees and even larger army of volunteers rallied with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) from 1989 (bid days) to 1996, very few in Atlanta seem to celebrate or remember the Games on what is supposed to be its biggest day of celebration in a non-Olympic year.

They do come out of the woodwork every so often, getting out the pin collections and donning Olympic shirts from the glory days. There was a good (and large) celebration of ACOG's/Atlanta's 10th anniversary held in 2006, so that balances out some of what's negativity on the brain (the BBC's Kurt Barling filed an excellent report on the Atlanta Games legacy just after the 10th anniversary event -- be sure to watch the videos, too).

And then you look at the Los Angeles area's ambitious 25th anniversary gathering on the horizon and wonder "what will Atlanta remember/celebrate in 2021?"

Looking forward, it is cool to note that the 2016 host will be selected just 100 days from now. Here's hoping the 2009 Olympic Day celebrations across the U.S. only helped in that decision before the I.O.C. And perhaps, sometime in 2041, Chicago will celebrate its 25th Olympic anniversary.

Spotlight Chicago

On Thursday in Chicago, a small delegation of International Olympic Committee members arrived for their Evaluation Commission visit to assess The Windy City's potential as the 2016 Summer Olympic Games host.

Both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times (and many other media outlets) have early reports on the IOC arrivals, including a photo gallery highlighting the IOC evaluators (for those reading in Atlanta, see if you can spot the former Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games ACOG executive in the Sun-Times' gallery -- hint: he has been in the "bid biz" since the late 1980s).

During the next few days, I will be volunteering with Chicago 2016 and Tweeting from the experience (twitter.com/nickwolaver) while posting on this blog as time and the scope of the volunteer assignment permits.

As I understand it, one of the "E.C." activities will be in progress as my afternoon United flight touches down at O'Hare -- the iconic John Hancock Center hosts a private sunset gathering in its newly refurbished Observatory from which guests can see four states and all of Chicago's magnificence (my girlfriend and I visited last summer and it is spectacular). (disclosure: the John Hancock Observatory is a client of Edelman, the P.R. firm where I work)

At least a couple of reports state that one Chicago "Big O" and our nation's "Big O" will meet with the world's "Big O" Games executives while they are in town. Oh, to be in the thick of Chicago's Olympic bid gives me big, oh ... um ... goosebumps.

Reminds me of this one time in Beijing when Chicago's Mayor Daley shared a few minutes in front of my Flip Camera to talk about the bid.

But seriously, the Olympic bid process is fascinating to me, and I hope to learn a bit more about the nuts and bolts of the effort while contributing to Chicago's Olympic bid team.

Anyone can volunteer or be a part of it with just a few clicks -- more than 1.1 million people already clicked their support, and many of them are following Chicago 2016 on Twitter at http://twitter.com/chi2016.

See you in the Second City!

Meeting the 45th U.S. President (???)

The King Center knows how to celebrate, and last evening at the downtown Atlanta Hyatt, the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. included many of the traditional birthday bash elements mixed with a look at history, present and future for the Civil Rights Movement.

The guests of honor included "Salute to Greatness" 2009 award recipients Secretary of State Designate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chick-fil-A Founder S. Truett Cathy (the company's COO, Dan Cathy accepted the award in his father's absence due to illness), as well as Ambassador Andrew Young, a 1984 Salute to Greatness honoree and Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) chairman.

There were several moments from the event I will always remember. Top of the list is hearing Clinton speak from a photo pit (in front of the front row) seat during her her acceptance remarks. Also, hearing Dr. King's nephew praise Clinton several times, including his endorsement she will make history as the first woman president (the nation's 45th commander in chief) following Obama (Sen. Clinton was visibly moved by this remark and the standing ovation received in the moment).

Getting a moment to pose for a photo with Mrs. Clinton was also remarkable -- I appreciate her staff, the Secretary, and of course The King Center's communications team for making that possible (Sidebar: Was trying to get that photo opp in place since first meeting Mrs. Clinton on Oct. 30, 1992, a few nights before Bill Clinton's election to his first term -- she was at my school, Minnesota State University - Mankato, and my camera failed on that photo attempt 16 years and three months ago).

And still another takeaway from the experience was again being afforded the opportunity to hear Ambassador Young share stories -- he is one of the most remarkable public speakers and storytellers and, in my book, a national treasure. (Another sidebar: Young used to speak to ACOG at staff meetings and volunteer training sessions, and even then I was in awe at how calm and fascinating his stories are masterfully woven into lessons for the ages).

Young introduced Clinton and spoke about how Native Americans once approached him about preparing for the future -- not only for the next generation, but for seven generations to follow -- and how from Young's view, the new secretary of state is the best and smartest choice for a thoughtful approach to the future.

Clinton's remarks, too, were inspiring, with a call to action in support of the new administration and to uphold the ideals instilled by Dr. King.

Dan Cathy performed an amazing trumpet solo of "The Star Spangled Banner" and he also gave an amazing (and touching) acceptance speech on behalf of his father. Like the "seventh generation" message shared by Young, the junior Cathy remarked that his father instilled in Chick-fil-A team members a need for the "Three C's" of competence, chemistry and character, and that "... children are the messengers to those we will not see."

It was a good night to be an Atlantan and an American.

πετρος Ueberroth in the News

I just learned the name Peter comes from the Greek word, πετρος (petros) or "stone" or "rock."

Its a fitting name for Peter Ueberroth, who was born the same day as modern Olympic founder Pierre de Frédy -- Baron de Coubertin died (handing off the torch?).

Ueberroth was in the news today -- the New York Times to be precise -- as his tenure in an official leadership role at the U.S. Olympic Committee may soon come to a close. He's used to headlines, methinks (being Time magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1984 and all), through staging one of the most successful Olympiads in history at Los Angeles.

Mr. Ueberroth is one of the good guys. He was also kind to an awkward 15 year old in Oklahoma City when I approached him requesting an autograph in my copy of "Made In America: His Own Story" (Ueberroth's autobiography of how they pulled off the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad). He was about to go on stage to speak to a packed house of potential sponsors for OKC's U.S. Olympic Festival '89 (it was 22 June 1988), so my timing could not have been worse, but he was very polite and answered all of my silly questions before personalizing that book (if located at home I'll eventually scan it and add to this post).

Those few moments were a big inspiration for me. Ueberroth's remarks to me, and on stage that night, helped solidify some of my Olympic aspirations, in the short term leading me to double my volunteer time at the U.S. Olympic Festival (more on that in future posts), and in the long run serving as a reminder of 'what the Olympics is all about' when some efforts to get involved with the Games have hit a snag.

I've had other opportunities to speak briefly with Ueberroth since then -- once in 1996 (during the ACOG days for Atlanta), again in 2004 and just a few weeks ago at USA House in China. He was consistently cordial, just as he was in 1989. Rock solid Olympic values. It's too bad things have to wind down for his involvement with the U.S.O.C. (though not entirely a surprise as he is now 71).