Greg Gumbel - The Grind of Sportscasting
May 20, 2019
Brian Lord
President
In a podcast interview on Beyond Speaking, Greg Gumbel shared some insights into his outstanding career as a sports broadcaster. Though he started out with a sales background, he moved to Chicago to become the Sports Director for an NBC station for nearly seven years. From there, he moved on to ESPN and built an illustrious career that spanned twenty years, hosting a variety of sporting events from NCAA Basketball and March Madness, to NFL football, including the Super Bowl. He also hosted the Olympics three times.
Gumbel’s life values influenced each stage of his career path. As a salesman, he learned that it’s always best to provide a good product, good service, and likeability, meaning it’s important to conduct yourself in ways that make people appreciate you and want to be around you.
His brother Bryant influenced him to be more confident. Greg said that he had to learn to be confident in the work he did, grow into it and come to trust it. His brother on the other hand, seemed to simply be born with confidence. Either way, success is inevitably tied to our willingness to believe in ourselves. Gumbel declared that in his beginning years, he was called “Waterfall” simply because he sweat profusely before he went on the air. He needed confidence.
Greg’s father was a circuit court judge, who passed away too young, but who taught him to appreciate the world of sports and to recognize the importance of perseverance and treating people well. His father guided him to do the right thing and to be honest and straight forward. He told him it was always best to meet life head on and treat people with respect.
Speaking of meeting life head-on, Gumbel commented about the challenges of doing the broadcasts for the Olympics. Yes, he was a dedicated sports broadcaster who knew a lot about basketball and football, but doing the Olympics was neither of those things. Now he had to do some research about the country he was in and the formidable athletes who were part of the Luge run or the Cross-Country Ski team. He spent three hours a week for a whole year before the event studying the sport and learning all he could to be able to set the scene for each event at the Olympics. It was a challenge, but he was willing to do the work so he could do it well. That’s the mark of a champion in any field!
So, whether Gumbel was learning all the stats about each team member who would appear in the Super Bowl, or preparing for Olympic sports teams, he never backed down from the challenges.
What’s his greatest advice to himself and to us? He would say that we need to be confident and know we can do what we want to do. He might also tell us to relax more, and smile. Oh, and one last thought. Leave the past behind you and move on. There will be another great event tomorrow.
No doubt, these are wise words for any of us!
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