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≡ SCENE & HEARD ≡
A relaxed gathering of about 70 former staff members of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee met on Friday at the LA84 Foundation, the living legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games, to say hello, see old friends and remember what happened 40 years ago.
Debra Duncan, an Associate Vice President for Ticketing for the LAOOC – and later a Chair of the LA84 Foundation – was a primary coordinator of the event and spoke briefly about what was achieved, during and after the Games by an organizing committee that very few believed in prior to the opening ceremony on 28 July 1984:
“Today is much more than a reunion, it’s a celebration of the legacy we created together. …
“There just isn’t any real way to put into words what we did or how we feel about it. We certainly didn’t know at the time that these efforts would result in one of the most important Olympic Games ever.
“As [LAOOC President] Peter Ueberroth has told me several times, many people thought the 1984 Olympics would be the last Olympics. I think some of us wondered about that too for a while; we were kind of nervous.
“And you know the reasons. The [Soviet] boycott. The traffic, financial doom, smog. Remember, we had a lot of smog in those days. Fortunately, a lot of people left, so we had plenty of room for people who came in, and, guess what, none of those things happened, and it was about a perfect as we could have hoped for.”
Duncan also related a conversation she had recently had with Ueberroth, not in attendance, but who turned 87 earlier in the month:
“Peter also said, we touched the world. And that really, simply, sums it up. Everyone was watching with their doubts, but at Games-time, we had engaged the world.
“He acknowledges we had luck, and I would always say we had great leadership. But he also said being poor was a big help. We spent money like we had no money, and ultimately made more money than any other Olympics has ever made, even until now.”
And that money has gone to good use. Duncan explained that the originally-named Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles – now the LA84 Foundation since 6 June 2007 – took its original $93 million share of the LAOOC ‘s $232.5 million surplus and:
“Over these four decades, has supported four million youth, trained 200,000 coaches, built or refurbished 400 pools, fields and courts and supported 2,500 non-profit organizations.
“That doesn’t even capture the fact that we have more money than we started with, and under the leadership of our current president and CEO, Renata Simril, we’ve created another 501(c)(3) public foundation … and this foundation allows for charitable contributions from the public – like you and me – and increases advocacy for play equity for kids everywhere, and partners with folks like the NFL for the Super Bowl, the NCAA for the national college football championship and ten other things we have our fingers in.
“All because you came to work every single day, because you believed in what you were doing. You loved the Olympic Movement and agreed to be part of a team that would change the direction of the Olympics forever.
“Please know we are here today, in this place, because of you. You started it and you should be so proud.”
Happily, the attendees included Anita DeFrantz, the long-time President of the LA84 Foundation, who was a 1976 Olympic bronze medalist in rowing, the LAOOC Vice President for the USC Olympic Village and a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1986.
And, or course, the party continued at another Los Angeles icon, El Cholo – The Original, on Western Avenue.
The LA84 Foundation, beyond its activist role in supporting kids in sports, developing coaches and organization and fighting for “play equity” across Los Angeles, also created a new, retrospective look at the 1984 Games, including memorabilia, photographs and especially an intact costume for the Sam the Olympic Eagle mascot, and a full manager’s uniform, which originally belonged to Jim Easton, the only staff member with three positions: Commissioner of Archery, Vice President of Technology and Mayor of the UCLA Olympic Village.
The display is housed at the Paul Ziffren Sports Resource Center on the LA84 campus in Los Angeles. Inquiries on visits by appointment can be made to [email protected].
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