updated July 16, 2009

After thirty-five years as a network television sportscaster, and with a vast array of credits in television, radio, movies and the Internet, HBO's Jim Lampley is one of America's most accomplished broadcasters. His journey has been blessed by an unusual variety of firsts, onlys and somethings entirely different. He was the youngest of all major network sportscasters when he started. He has achieved unique longevity to become one of the most enduring performers in his craft. He has covered more Olympics than any other sportscaster, and in recent years he has expanded beyond the boundaries of sports to make a mark in politics and public affairs.

Presently, Lampley is best known for his work on HBO Boxing telecasts. Lampley serves as the blow-by-blow announcer on all World Championship Boxing and HBO Pay-Per-View productions. In twenty-one years at HBO, he's called more than 500 fights. In 1992, Lampley was honored with the Sam Taub Award for "Excellence in Broadcast Journalism" presented by the Boxing Writers of America Association. He hosted the HBO documentary series "Legendary Nights," which captured a Sports Emmy Award for "Outstanding Edited Sports Series."

Jim Lampley first appeared on national television in 1974. He was chosen from a talent hunt to help inaugurate a new role called the "college age reporter" on ABC's national telecasts of college football. Lampley concluded graduate school at the University of North Carolina, and a few weeks later launched the first of three seasons spent prowling the sidelines in Birmingham, Columbus, Lincoln, Ann Arbor, and so forth. It set him up for a thirteen-year matriculation at ABC Sports, working football, baseball, Wide World of Sports and five Olympic Games.

In 1987 Lampley left ABC and went to work for CBS in Los Angeles. In the next five years he anchored sports and then, for three and a half years, the 6:00 and 11:00 news at KCBS-TV; functioned as the sports correspondent for "CBS This Morning" in New York; took over hosting boxing and Wimbledon for HBO; hosted sports talk radio shows on WFAN in New York and KMPC in Los Angeles; and went to the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics as a news anchor.

In 1992 Jim Lampley went to work for NBC Sports, for whom he hosted golf and NFL football in 1993 and 1994, and anchored late night Olympic coverage at Barcelona and Atlanta. In 1995, he added reporting on the magazine show "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" to his duties at HBO, and on that program twice won the Emmy Award for Best Sports Journalism, along with a third Emmy for writing on HBO's Wimbledon coverage. In 1998, he anchored the Nagano Winter Olympics and the Goodwill Games for Turner Sports. He went to Sydney in 2000 and Salt Lake City in 2002 to anchor literally hundreds of hours of programming for MSNBC and CNBC. His 2004 appearance as NBC daytime host in Athens marked his twelfth Olympic assignment as a broadcaster, equaling the number attended by the legendary Jim McKay. His work at Torino as NBC daytime and late night host was a record-setting 13th Olympic assignment and Beijing in 2008 made it 14 Olympics for Lampley.

Jim Lampley lives in Del Mar, California with son Aaron. His daughters Brooke,Victoria and Andrea Walker are out thriving in the world.