![]() “It enabled him to connect with people from all walks of life, from all areas of the country and he was truly a man of the people.” But John was a man who, you know, didn’t fly and (got the bus) across the country. ![]() “He was a tremendously well-read, well-educated man who was very much on top of everything. “And some people probably thought he was a bit of an oaf because he had all the sounds going on and that, the booms. “John (Madden) was the kind of guy that, he would weigh in on everything,” Michaels remembered. He spent 20 years fronting ABC’s Monday Night Football broadcast, becoming known for his partnership with Hall of Fame coach and broadcaster John Madden. Then in 1986, Michaels turned his hand to what he really made his name in: football. Michaels became a household name, commentating from all over the world – including that famous moment in Lake Placid at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Three years later, Michaels was given the role of leading the television broadcast for the Cincinnati Reds and, from there, the rest is history. He got what he considered to be his big break when he was hired to be the full-time announcer of the Hawaii Islanders – a Chicago White Sox feeder team at the time – in 1968. And that’s exactly how I fell in love with sports.”Īfter graduating from Arizona State University, Michaels took on a variety of different roles within the media in attempt to get his big breakthrough – from choosing contestants for a reality dating TV show to working in public relations for the Los Angeles Lakers. The place was so colorful, it was a beautiful day. “There was signage on the outfield walls. The Dodger uniforms, Vin Scully used to call them ‘wedding cake white,’ which was perfect. Michaels added: “The grass was a shade of green I’d never seen. “And I get in for free, and I want, I want a job that enables me to do that. “I walked in and I thought to myself: ‘I want to be here every day,’” Michael explained. That trip to Ebbets Field in Brooklyn sparked Michaels’ imagination and planted a thought in his head about a future career. Michaels is pictured during the US' game against Sweden at the 1980 Winter Olympics. I know what the fan feels, and, when I’m sitting there announcing a game, I’m really – I’m looking at it as a broadcaster, but I’m also feeling it as a fan.” “And I think I have, I have a feeling, and I still love sports. “So I think the one thing, maybe for me, as a kid, as a six-year-old: I loved sports,” Michaels told CNN’s Chris Wallace. It all started when as a six-year-old he was taken around Ebbets Field – the home of the former Major League Baseball franchise, the Brooklyn Dodgers. He is the only sportscaster to have covered the finals of the four major American sports. Over an extensive broadcasting career, Michaels became of one of the premiere voices in US sports, covering 11 Super Bowls, eight World Series, three Stanley Cup Finals, two NBA Finals and nine Olympics. “I consider it to be one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven, and the next thing would be about number eight,” Michaels once said about it. The famous line etched Al Michaels, the commentator for the historic moment, into sporting folklore. The victory of a ragtag team of college players from the US over the Soviet Union – then the world’s largest hockey superpower – at the 1980 Winter Olympics was coined the “Miracle on Ice” and, with it, legends were born not only on the rink, but also the man with a microphone in his hand. It was one of sport’s greatest ever upsets, so it was fitting it was accompanied by one of broadcasting’s most memorable lines.
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