Bach Not First IOC President at Super Bowl

(ATR) Thomas Bach may have been the first IOC president interviewed on the Super Bowl pregame but not the first to go to the big game.

Bach spent four minutes with NBC sports anchor Bob Costas on February 1 as part of the Super Bowl pregame, answering questions about the Boston 2024 Olympic bid and preparations for Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Bach was the guest of NBC-TV, Olympics rights holder in the U.S. for the next generation and broadcaster of the 2015 Super Bowl. The game, the most-watched television broadcast every year in the United States, is rotated among the three major TV networks with NBC taking its turn this year.

But whether Bach was the first IOC president to come to the game was a question that could not be answered in time for our coverage of his pregame appearance a week ago. Since then, a 1985 photograph has emerged that gives that distinction to another IOC president, Juan Antonio Samaranch.

The photograph above was supplied to Around the Ringsby IOC member Alex Gilady, who as an NBC vice president urged Bach to accept an invitation from the network to attend this year’s game in Arizona.

The 1985 photo was taken at LaGuardia Airport in New York City and shows Gilady, then a TV executive in Israel, brandishing tickets for the game with Samaranch and family members. They are in the lounge for the now-defunct Eastern Airlines, waiting for their flight to California where the game was to be played at Stanford University in Palo Alto.

Seated next to Samaranch is his daughter Marie Therese. Behind them is a translator who worked with Samaranch the year before at the Los Angeles Olympics and Annie Inchauspe, Samaranch’s long time aide.

And the suave man with the dark mane standing at the front of the group?

Shown a copy of the photo, Juan Antonio Samaranch, Jr. confirms to ATR it is him, then a 26-year old, 16 years before he would take the seat he now holds as an IOC member in Spain.

The circumstances of Samaranch’s Super Bowl trip are still not precise. ABC took its turn as Super Bowl broadcaster in 1985, but covered its last Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984 and a final Winter Games in 1988. NBC took over as Summer Olympic rights holder from 1988.

But the ultimate question as to whether Samaranch was the first IOC president to attend the Super Bowl is still not settled. The 1985 edition was Super Bowl XIX, with two other IOC presidents included in that span of 19 years. So far there is no evidence putting either Lord Kilanin of Ireland or his predecessor from the U.S., Avery Brundage, at any of the earlier games. Brundage served until 1972 when the Super Bowl was six years old. Successor Kilanin was IOC president until 1980.

Olympic historian Bill Mallon tells ATR that Kilanin did not go to any Super Bowls. He is not certain about Brundage.

And the game? Super Bowl XIX, on January 20, 1985, pitted the San Francisco 49ers against the Miami Dolphins. San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana confirmed his status as a legend in the sport by leading his team to a second Super Bowl title in three years, beating Miami 38-16.

Despite the one-sided final score, the game was close for a while. Samaranch tells ATR he remembers "it was a great match."

Written by Ed Hula

Homepage photo: Getty Images

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