US Olympic Spokesman Mike Moran, 78

(ATR) Mike Moran was an immutable part of the Olympics for more than 20 years. From 1979 until 2003 he was media chief for the US Olympic Committee, regarded for his professionalism and a tenure unmatched by any of his peers in the Olympic world.

Moran died July 7 in Colorado Springs, his home for the past 30 years. He was born in Nebraska where he graduated high school in 1960. He worked at the same TV station in Omaha where another Nebraska native was getting his start in broadcasting, future NBC anchor Tom Brokaw.

Moran went on to become sports information director at the University of Omaha. He took the same position at the University of Colorado, spending 10 years in Boulder. In 1979, he joined the staff of the USOC in Colorado Springs.He arrived just in time to find himself in the midst of one of the great sport stories of the 20th Century, the miracle on ice performed by the US men’s hockey team at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.

At the same time as the winter Olympics were taking place, so too was the controversy over whether the US would boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow. The events of that year clearly established Moran as the spokesman for the USOC, his stature growing with each year and at every one of the 13 Olympics he handled at the USOC.

"He was the best at what he did," Bob Condron tells Around the Rings about his former boss at the USOC. Condron first worked with Moran in 1981 as a volunteer for the US Olympic Festival. At the time Condron was SID at Southern Methodist University in Texas.

"He was such a storehouse of knowledge about the Olympics. And he was always ready to help the big-time journalists as well as those not so connected," Condron says.

"There is nobody who was like him anywhere in the world. He set the standard for Olympicmedia 25 years," says Condron, who worked with Moran until he retired in 2003.

After leaving the US Olympic Committee, Moran worked with the New York City bid for the 2012 Olympics.

Back in Colorado Springs he joined the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation as Senior Media Consultant, a post he held until his death.

Tom Osborne, CEO of the Corporation, says Moran helped raise its stature..

"He did such a great job for us," Osborne tells ATR. "We are just small fish and he put us in a big pond. He did so much to raise our profile, with his connections, with his knowledge. We will really miss him," says Osborne.

Osborne says a memorial service will be planned at some time in the future in Colorado Springs.

In March this year, Moran launched a near daily bulletin of sports news related to the coronavirus pandemic.

In April, he took part in a podcast on ATRadio with IOC member Anita DeFrantz marking the 40th anniversary of the USOC vote to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Written by Ed Hula.