- Joined
- Jan 16, 2008
"NC State" has an article on the broadcast career of Terry Gannon, who was in the class of 1985 and a member of the basketball team during his four years there. He played on the NCAA championship team of 1983. (My two years as a graduate student there coincided with his sophomore and junior years.) The article discusses how he decided not to pursue a career in professional basketball and instead got started in sports broadcasting. Here's a snippet:
Gannon signed the contract (with ABC in 1993) and continued to rove, leading to a phone call from ABC executives asking if he could cover a figure skating event in Tokyo on short notice. Gannon told them he had heard of gold medalist skater Peggy Fleming, but that he knew nothing else about figure skating.
“And they say, ‘Well, we think you can do it.’ And you say ‘OK, let’s do it,’” Gannon says. “Then the next question is, ‘Well, they wear tuxedos. You own a tux, right?’ And, you lie and say, ‘Oh sure, sure.’ And then, the next moment, you’re renting a tux for Tokyo the next week. And that’s how it happened all along the way.”
There are comments from Tara Lipinski and from Terry's wife, Lisa. You can read the article at:
magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu
Gannon signed the contract (with ABC in 1993) and continued to rove, leading to a phone call from ABC executives asking if he could cover a figure skating event in Tokyo on short notice. Gannon told them he had heard of gold medalist skater Peggy Fleming, but that he knew nothing else about figure skating.
“And they say, ‘Well, we think you can do it.’ And you say ‘OK, let’s do it,’” Gannon says. “Then the next question is, ‘Well, they wear tuxedos. You own a tux, right?’ And, you lie and say, ‘Oh sure, sure.’ And then, the next moment, you’re renting a tux for Tokyo the next week. And that’s how it happened all along the way.”
There are comments from Tara Lipinski and from Terry's wife, Lisa. You can read the article at:
The Power of YES: From Wolfpack Basketball to Olympic Broadcaster
Being open to opportunities has led former Wolfpack basketball star Terry Gannon ’85 to center stage as a voice of the Olympics.
magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu
