Track Nut Stumbled Into the Broadcast Booth

A question that often comes our way is, “How does one break into sports broadcasting?”

If you happen to be Carl Lewis, it’s as easy as picking up a telephone and saying yes.

If you happen to be Larry Rawson, it takes a little luck.

Both are track and field commentators. While Lewis is a newcomer, Rawson has been an ESPN commentator since the cable network began operating in 1979.

Rawson lives in New York and works on Wall Street. He is a limited partner in the investment banking firm of Morgan Stanley. But that has nothing to do with his job with ESPN.

In the early 1960s, Rawson was a miler and a steeplechaser for Boston College. His best time in the mile was 4:07.0. Rawson also fell in love with the sport, and continued to follow it closely after he was graduated in 1963.

Living in the Boston area in 1974, Rawson was driving to the finish line of the Boston Marathon while listening to the race on radio station WBZ. Gil Santos, a prominent Boston sportscaster, was the announcer, and his lack of knowledge about running was evident to Rawson.

Santos said on the air that Neil Cusack, the winner who led from the halfway point on, was from the University of Tennessee. But Cusack ran for East Tennessee State, and Rawson knew it. He also knew that Cusack was from Ireland and was the NCAA cross-country champion, among other things.

When Rawson arrived at the finish line, he looked for the area where the radio broadcasters were working so he could pass a note along to Santos.

While in the area, he tripped over a cord belonging to another radio station, WVBF. After apologizing to that station’s announcer, he also gave him some information on Cusack. The young announcer, admitting he knew nothing about running, asked Rawson to stick around and help him out. Rawson ended up on the air, and was impressive enough to be hired by WVBF to work the next three Boston Marathons.

That led to Rawson working a major track meet in 1977 for WGBH, Boston’s public television station. It was the tape from that meet that got him his job with ESPN.

Add track: Rawson, along with Phil Stone and Dwight Stones, will work tonight’s Times/GTE Indoor Games at the Forum. ESPN’s delayed coverage begins at 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, Rawson, also a free- lancer, will be in San Diego to work the afternoon Michelob indoor meet, which will be televised on a delayed basis at 7 p.m. by the Prime Ticket Network. The other announcers will be Tom Kelly and Lewis.

Sunday’s meet will be Lewis’ third assignment as a commentator. Lewis worked the Sunkist on Jan. 17 for ESPN, and the Vitalis/Olympic Invitational on Feb. 8 for WTBS, which will televise its taped coverage this Sunday from 1:05 to 2:05 p.m. Lewis also long-jumped and sang the National Anthem at the Vitalis meet.

Although Lewis worked as a sports reporter for a Houston television station, KTRK, in 1984, before the Olympics, and his sister, Carol, is working in broadcasting, it is not a field that interests Carl as a full-time occupation.

“Acting and singing is what I hope to eventually get into,” said Lewis, who is in Los Angeles this week to make his first record, due out this spring. “I wouldn’t mind working a few track meets, but that’s about it.”

Add Lewis: Not always popular with those who carry a mike, Lewis has become one of them. But he still thinks the criticism he received for not being more cooperative before and during the Olympics was a bad rap.

“What got me was that if I was unable to give an interview and asked if we could do it another time, then the guy would turn around and call me arrogant and an idiot,” Lewis said. “It was impossible for me to do all the interviews that were requested. But an interviewer would lash back at me without ever documenting just how many interviews I actually did.”

Lewis said that during the Sunkist meet, he went up to ask Greg Foster, who ran both the 50- and 60-meter high hurdle races, to get some comments.

“He asked if we could wait until after his second race,” Lewis said. “I understood, and said, ‘Sure, I can wait.’ You can’t turn around and call someone aloof just because they can’t do an interview when you want them to.”

Lewis said he won’t compete again until the outdoor season begins in April, and his schedule won’t be set for another three weeks or so. He said he is undecided about this summer’s Goodwill Games at Moscow.

Last add track: The Michelob meet was originally scheduled for a Friday night, but promoter Al Franken moved it to Sunday afternoon because he thought he had a deal with ABC, and that’s what the network wanted. But ABC thought Olympic 1,500-meter champion Sebastian Coe and Olympic 5,000-meter champion Said Aouita would be competing.

After Coe reneged and Aouita dropped out because of an injury, ABC said the deal was off, leaving Franken with no TV and a hard-to-sell afternoon indoor meet. Franken was able to make a deal with Prime Ticket, but it wasn’t quite the same. ABC was going to pay a $45,000 rights fee. Prime Ticket will pay $5,000.

Notes Despite the race being slowed by eight caution flags, CBS did a marvelous job of covering last Sunday’s Daytona 500. The network won an Emmy for its coverage of the 1985 race, and should win another. . . . CBS lucked out when pole-sitter Bill Elliott decided not to have a race-cam in his car. That decision enabled CBS to put a race-cam in Geoff Bodine’s car, and Bodine won the race. . . . As a member of Bill Elliott’s crew was pounding out a dented fender with a sledge hammer, commentator Chris Economaki said he was using “a Mexican speed wrench.” Later, he told USA Today: “In this melting pot that is America, you have to be thick-skinned. Just because someone calls me a greasy Greek, I don’t run to the (American) Civil Liberties Union.” . . . Best line of the telecast was unintentional. After Dale Earnhardt ran out of fuel with three laps to go, one of the CBS announcers said: “Fuel Economaki is very important.” . . . The Daytona race drew a national Nielsen rating of 8.4. The Lakers-Boston Celtics game that followed drew an 8.9.

ESPN has three announcers--Roger Twibell, Bruce Devlon and Mark Rofling--working the L.A. Open. When CBS was televising the L.A. Open, it used six. “In this case, less is better,” Twibell said. “The flow is better, and it’s less confusing with only three announcers.” . . . ESPN has 14 cameras at Riviera, which is only one less than CBS used in recent years. . . . ESPN, which is televising all four rounds live at 1:30 p.m. each day, is covering the 11th through the 18th holes. . . . ESPN offers coverage of today’s men’s semifinal matches at the Lipton International Players Championship tennis tournament at Boca Rotan, Fla., with ABC taking over for Saturday’s women’s final and Sunday’s men’s final. . . . Al Michaels, Al Trautwig and Arthur Ashe will be the announcers both Saturday and Sunday. Pam Shriver, a first-round loser, will join the team for Saturday’s match. . . . Ashe, who has had a heart attack and two bypass operations, said he is fit and healthy at 42. “I have a stationary bike, and I exercise regularly,” he said. “My stomach is as flat today as it was when I was playing.” Ashe has been ABC’s regular tennis commentator since 1981. He also works Wimbledon for HBO.

It’s not known exactly how much KGIL is paying its new sportscaster, Ed (Superfan) Bieler, but Rick Talley, whom Bieler replaced, was earning only $250 a week. The man who replaced Bieler at San Diego’s KSDO, ex-mayor Roger Hedgecock, reportedly is making $60,000 a year. Thus, it’s safe to assume Bieler is making considerably less money in Los Angeles than he was in San Diego. . . . One thing, Bieler has sure gotten some publicity for KGIL. The Daily News ran a large picture of Bieler behind a KGIL microphone on Page 1 of its sports section last Friday. . . . The UCLA-DePaul game on March 1 had been scheduled as a national telecast by NBC. But after UCLA went 0 for Arizona last week, the game was rescheduled as a regional telecast. It will be shown in the Los Angeles and Chicago areas and in only a few others.

Tonight at 7:20, WTBS will show a half-hour documentary, “New Man From Thunder Road: The Bill Elliott Story,” narrated by Ken Squier. . . . Sunday at 2 p.m., Channel 4 will show “Bob Uecker’s Wacky World of Sports,” including Angelo Spagnallo (America’s worst golfer), a pool-playing poodle and bloopers narrated by Roy Firestone. . . . Sunday night at 7:05, WTBS will show “When the Cheering Stops,” a feature on 1978 World Series star Brian Doyle. . . . Sunday night at 8:30, Channel 11 will show “Title Drive ‘85,” a look at the Dodgers’ 1985 season. A highlight of the film is Steve Sax’s takeoff on Billy Crystal’s impersonation of Fernando Lamas. . . . Drugs will be the topic of discussion on Bob Elder’s “Calling All Sports” show on Channel 56 next Tuesday night at 10.