After working for 50 years as a Hall of Fame sportscaster and the voice of the world’s greatest events – including nearly every major sport and 14 Olympic Games – you would expect the new book by former Del Mar resident Jim Lampley to be chock-full of stories about the world-class athletes and celebrities he encountered.
Lampley’s book, It Happened!: A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television, doesn’t disappoint as he follows the evolution of sports television from his unique perspective.
There’s plenty of namedropping, history-making events and never-before-told stories from the world of sports, but during Lampley’s appearance for a book signing in front of an enthusiastic full house Wednesday at Warwick’s Books in La Jolla, he emphasized the importance of being honest about both achievements and failures.
He called them “my mistakes, my misjudgments, the things that went wrong,” while reflecting on the influence of the key relationships in his life and the lessons that resonate with him today.
“I knew the book would not be nearly as interesting if I wasn’t honest,” said Lampley, “Long ago, I learned in sports broadcasting and later in news broadcasting, that the truth is way more interesting than any kind of fiction.”
