ESPN X Games
ESPN created the job of Event Producer for me.
T he role of Event Producer didn’t exist at the first ESPN Extreme Games in 1995, it was created for me starting with the 1996 Games. I was the right person, in the right place, at the right time. This was an extraordinary opportunity to create something brand new, the Extreme Games was a blank slate and I got to invent the entire live experience.
I was the “Right Person” because I had a background in live theater, concert production, television games, AND I had done sports television. I knew what the guys in the truck wanted. I could craft a show that would thrill a live audience and provide great sports television. I called it “Sports Theater”.
ESPN Extreme Games 1995 – Newport, Rhode Island
I did my first year with the ESPN X Games back at the very first event, when we were still called The Extreme Games. I started out as the Assistant Broadcast Manager in year 1. At the end of the event, I went to the Executive Director and told him that I’d like to Produce the live event, I knew what it should look like, what it should feel like, and what it should sound like.
He said he would take that under consideration.
6 months later they called, offering me the job of Event Producer, which they had created for me.
How often does that happen in life? Never. So, I now had the coolest job in the universe.
ESPN X Games 1996 – Newport, Rhode Island
My first year as Event Producer was uphill climb. The producers on the TV side were VERY nervous about what I was proposing to do for a live show. They kept saying “This isn’t the way it’s done”. I kept saying, “This is the X Games, right? We’re all about breaking the rules. This will work, you just have to trust me”.
(It worked!)
Today, everyone does this stuff but back in 1996 it was a total reinvention of what it meant to be at a live sporting event. We won the Special Events Magazine Gala Award this year for “Best Achievement in Logistics”.
Winter X Games 1997 – Big Bear Lake, California
The first Winter X provided all sorts of drama. That year the snowfall was very lean in Big Bear Lake, which had everyone scrambling for a Plan B. Just in time for the event, a major snowstorm finally hit…on the day our load-in started. All of the trucks and gear were stuck at the bottom of the mountain because the roads were unusable. Good times, good times.
Favorite memory: watching a sno-cat attempting haul a Jumbotron up the side of a ski slope. Slightly Cooler, indeed.
ESPN X Games 1997 – San Diego, California
X Games hit the road and moved to San Diego for our next summer games. Record crowds, amazing scenic shots, and a 100′ snowboard ramp on the beach in Mission Bay. We had 3 venues that year, Mission Bay as the HQ, Street Luge up in Oceanside, and Sky Surfing also in Oceanside. My production team had doubled by then since I had to have 3 full teams in operation for the run of the games. We won the Special Event Magazine Award for “Most Outstanding Spectacle of 1997”.
Favorite memory: the day my TD wrote on the board in our ops trailer “It’s a work in progress!” and I wrote underneath “When does it stop being a work in progress and JUST WORK?” We still laugh about that.
Winter X Games 1998 – Crested Butte, Colorado
After being spooked so badly by a near no-snow disaster at Big Bear Lake in 97, we moved the second Winter X to Colorado. Snow was certainly not a problem this time around. Travel was more challenging after getting used to being able to just drive up to the site from our offices in San Diego any time we wanted to take a look-see.
Favorite memory: one one of our site visit trips we flew back to Denver with former US President Jimmy Carter. None of us could figure out why our flight was being delayed (background checks on a bunch of dodgy event people, no doubt) until he boarded with his security detail. He was a consummate gentleman and shook each of our hands as he went through the cabin.
Summer X Games 1998 – San Diego, California
My last year with the XG. I normally don’t like to use pictures of me taken during an event because I’ve not slept in 10 days and am only vertical by assistance of coffee, sugar, and sheer will power.
I closed the event this year out with Green Day’s “Time of Your Life”. It was a little bittersweet because I did have the time of my life and genuinely hope that everyone who attended one of the X Games events under my direction did, too.
“Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don’t ask why
It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right,
I hope you had the time of your life.
So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos and memories and dead skin on trial
For what it’s worth it was worth all the while
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right,
I hope you had the time of your life.”
