Sportscaster Makes Climb, Friends on Mount Kilimanjaro

Imagine, you’re a network sportscaster, covering college basketball in February, when your boss calls and says, “Next week, we’re sending you to Africa to cover an attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

“You’ll be accompanying a group of mentally disabled young people on the climb. Oh, and take warm clothing. You’ll need it.”

It happened to James Brown of CBS.

“I’ll be honest about it,” Brown said Thursday from his home in Washington. “When I was first told about it, I hated the assignment. I asked Ted Shaker (Brown’s boss), ‘Does my job depend on whether or not I go?’

“Here I was, preparing to do an Oklahoma-Seton Hall basketball game when I got seven days’ notice that I was going to Africa. I had to get a passport, a visa and vaccine shots, but mostly I was concerned about the danger of the trip, and my health. I wasn’t in the kind of physical shape needed to make a climb like that, and I had no experience.”

Well, Brown made the trip, survived, and is a key part of an emotion-packed one-hour special that will be part of this weekend’s CBS “Sports Sunday” show at 11 a.m.

For Brown, the assignment he didn’t want turned out to be one of the most rewarding things he’s ever done. The best part, he said, was making new friends. He called it “emotional bonding.”

“I’d gladly do it again,” Brown said.

The climb was the idea of Jim Benson of Newport Beach, who is president of a Los Angeles executive benefits consulting company. Three years ago, Benson, also a member of the Special Olympics board, organized a bike ride across America by a group of 25 mentally disabled people.

Twelve mentally disabled Californians, ranging in age from 19 to 30, went on the Kilimanjaro venture, accompanied by a coach for each and an independent film crew headed by Emmy Award-winning producer Mike Tollin.

Benson’s goal is to show the world, as the Special Olympics creed states, that “ordinary people can do extraordinary things.”

Sunday’s TV special is titled, “Let Me Be Brave,” which is a takeoff on the Special Olympics motto: “Let me win, but if I can not win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

Mount Kilimanjaro, at 19,342 feet, is Africa’s highest mountain, and is 5,000 feet higher than any mountain in the United States, excepting Alaska. Kilimanjaro is located about 150 miles south of Nairobi on the border between Kenya and Tanzania.

The group left Feb. 15, and five of the 12 athletes, their coaches, two cameramen and two soundmen made it to the top on Feb. 22.

Most of the group were sent back to base camp in Arusha, Tanzania, after the worst snowstorm in more than 20 years hit while the expedition was at about 16,000 feet.

Six of the 12 were picked to continue, but one, Diane Hall of Santee, the youngest at 19 and the only woman, became ill and could not continue.

One who did make it to the top, Joe Hayden, 22, of Westmorland, at first said he didn’t want to go on without Brown, his new friend.

Said Brown: “He told me he was scared, and wanted me to accompany him. But the organizers thought it best if I didn’t.

“We hugged, and he told me he was going to make the climb for me.”

The group that continued to the summit returned to base camp a day after the others.

Producer Tollin said: “When the two groups were reunited, the emotion was unbelievable. There was no jealousy about who got to go on and who didn’t.”

Only about 25% of the people who attempt to climb Kilimanjaro make it to the top. This group did better than that, despite terrible weather conditions.

“Here were people who had been told about limitations all their lives,” Tollin said. “But as a group, they had shown what they could do. It didn’t matter which individuals had made it to the top. They had accomplished something extraordinary as a group.”

Golf, TV style: ABC this weekend offers the U.S. Women’s Open, while NBC and CBS offer made-for-TV golf.

The NBC golf is a live telecast of a two-day celebrity tournament at Lake Tahoe. The competitors, a combination of athletes and entertainers, include Michael Jordan.

The CBS golf is the two-day Norman Challenge, taped this week in Arkansas. Greg Norman competes against Wayne Gretzky, Larry Bird and Ivan Lendl, who play a scramble format.

It was touch and go whether Gretzky would be able to compete. His wife gave birth to a son Monday, and Gretzky flew to Arkansas on Bruce McNall’s jet the next day, getting there just in time for the taping.

Gretzky carries a 14 handicap. “If I shoot in the 80s, I’m happy,” he said from Arkansas.

The two sides were both at 33 after the first nine-hole round. We won’t spoil the suspense.

Heavy preparation: Four years ago, the first Goodwill Games in Moscow were a yawner and lost $26 million.

The second Goodwill Games begin in Seattle a week from today, and this time Ted Turner has provided a $22-million budget for television coverage, with the mandate that it be innovative.

To assure that it is, Turner hired Tony Verna as the executive producer. He also named Larry King as the host.

Verna, who invented instant replay in 1963 when he was at CBS, has come up with a number of new twists for the Goodwill Games, such as having athletes interact with family and friends back in their homelands after their events.

One thing is for sure: A lot of planning has gone into the TV coverage. Verna and Turner’s public relations people have put out reams of copy about it. “We call it PR by the ton,” one staffer said.

TV-Radio Notes

CBS has given Pat O’Brien a four-year contract that carries a yearly salary in the $500,000-to-$600,000 range, according to a source. CBS has big plans for O’Brien, including a late-night show. Three one-hour segments of “Overtime With Pat O’Brien,” a talk show with sports and entertainment personalties, will be televised on three Fridays during August, at 11:30 p.m. Also, with Greg Gumbel moving over from baseball to the host role on “NFL Today,” O’Brien figures to assume the host role on CBS’ baseball coverage. . . . Speaking of “NFL Today,” ESPN has decided to put its pregame show, “NFL GameDay,” up against the networks and air it from 9 to 10 a.m. on Sundays this fall. . . . TNT reportedly plans to use Larry King in an unspecified role on its new pregame NFL show on Sunday nights.

CBS says the All-Star game got an 18.5 national Nielsen rating. NBC had an 18.2 rating last year. But NBC and ABC officials point out the 18.5 doesn’t include the part of the game that came after the rain delay. CBS counters that the reason is simply because non prime-time ratings--it was past prime time in the East--are not immediately available.

Now that Chuck Daly has decided to stay as coach of the Detroit Pistons, it’s unknown who will be NBC’s two NBA commentators. The candidates include Mike Fratello, Doug Moe and Earl Strom. NBC probably will name at least one fairly soon, since it will televise Magic Johnson’s “Midsummer Night’s Magic” all-star game at the Forum on Aug. 11. Marv Albert is scheduled to handle the play-by-play. Interestingly, Prime Ticket will produce the coverage for NBC, even though NBC owns half of SportsChannel. . . . Prime Ticket has made a deal with the Raiders to televise two exhibition games on a tape-delayed basis. . . . SportsChannel’s Canadian Football League coverage begins tonight, with the British Columbia Lions facing the Calgary Stampeders in a delayed telecast at 10:30 p.m. Doug Flutie and Mark Gastineau play for the Lions.

Channel 11 sportscaster Rick Garcia is rumored to be headed for Chicago, with Phil Stone replacing him. . . . Former New York Met Manager Davey Johnson will be an analyst on NBC’s coverage of the July 21 baseball game in Havana pitting the U.S. team against Cuba. . . . Brent Musburger’s first “Wide World of Sports” appearance will be on July 21, when he covers horse racing. . . . Ratings game: Although the World Cup final got only a 2.2 national cable rating, which translates to about a 1 rating overall, the soccer match drew an L.A. rating of 7.6 on Channel 34, the highest L.A. sports rating of the day. The Jorge Paez-Troy Dorsey delayed fight on NBC drew a 5.7, the men’s final at Wimbledon a 5.5.