Ted Dawson sports 50 years on • •••r A familiar face celebrates his fiftieth year

of sportscasting with the residents of the greater Bozeman area. Ted Dawson became sports director of KBZK and KXLF in January of 2011 and has since fixated himself among local viewers. His personality, profes-sionalism, and diversity of coverage impel audiences to tune in on a nightly basis. His illustrious career has allowed Dawson to bring a certain expertise to a region that loves its major games, but thrives on its local sporting events. Dawson's broadcast record is a unique blend of both, something the seventy-year-old can stand proudly behind.

Dawson got his start at the University of Utah campus radio station where he was offered his first official position in the sports arena. "[They] asked me to do a show for them. I was in pre-med school, planning on becoming a doctor, and it all changed." His future of scrubs and sutures quickly turned into one of microphones and camera cues, and from that point, there was no looking back. Dawson would work as a transient broadcaster for the first part of his career, finding intermittent work all over the country before finding some permanency on the west coast. After college, he travelled to Dodge City, Reno, and Portland for various positions offered to him. "If you strive to get to the top, you start at the bottom, normally," he said in reference to the constant movement from venue to venue in the earliest part of his career. This was exhausting, but necessary and advantageous in consideration of his long-term goals. After he left Oregon, Dawson arrived in Los Angeles where he

would spend the next twenty years working for national CBS and ABC networks.

Dawson has frequently brought the cam-eras outside the studio for countless major games and other events worthy of

inter-

He spent a lot of time in Dallas work-ing during Cowboys' games, broadcasted the Seattle Seahawks' freshman season, as well as the Raiders when they were still in Los Angeles. Perhaps his most notable broadcast came in 1967 when Dawson reported from the very first Super Bowl. "They couldn't fill the coliseum. It was just like another game," he said in reaction to what the annual game has since event that once required only seven press correspondents now falls more around two thousand. One of Dawson's craziest memo-ries, he said, is "doing the postgame inter-views for the first Super Bowl. I was 23 years old, standing there with a mic trying to inter-view Vince Lombardi." Dawson would not realize how significant this interview was for years later and how few people were given the opportunity.

Other than the twenty-seven Super Bowls

he covered, Dawson has broadcast from eighteen NBA Championships, fourteen World Series, traveled to the Wimbledon

Championships, the Masters Tournament, in addition to the US and Australian Opens. He has also been a part of seven Olympics, events that were both "exciting and crazy." Dawson remembered the 1980 games, where he "did the postgame inter-view for the Miracle on Ice, the win over the Russians," and the 1984 LA Olympics, where he "did the stories on all of the athletes. I did the up close and personal stories. Some friends of mine got me a uniform and let me

walk with them in the closing ceremonies. It was fun." Humble of his experiences and accomplishments, Dawson remains proud of his resume. Asked what his biggest challenge was over the last fifty plus years, he respond-ed, "finding time for family. This is an all-consuming job. Even now. I'm seventy years old and work 12 hours a day and it used to be 16." Could be worse.

Dawson temporarily planned to settle down in Palm Springs before he made some discoveries of retired life. "I found out I was a lousy golfer, didn't like sitting around, and I'd always liked small market television." Before making his way to the Bozeman area, he

moved to Idaho Falls to be closer to his son who lived in Jackson at the time. A few years later, two Idaho television stations merged and got rid of their sports department. Dawson was on the move yet again . At an arguably less strenuous time of his profession-al life, Dawson is pleased his career found a home in Southwestern Montana. "T he peo-ple of Bozeman show a great love of sports and a great love of the outdoors, and this is absolutely the best company I've ever worked for. I just love it here." Dawson continues to cover larger events, but takes pleasure in some of the more "off-beat stories" Gallatin County and other rural-ish areas tend to pro-vide. He loves to report on rodeo, college bas-ketball, and even dogsled racing. In fact, one of his recent "Athletes of the Week" was Jenny Greger who won the Race to the Sky with her nine friendly companions. Dawson has complete creative control over who and what he chooses to cover and focus on during his broadcasts, something unheard of at the major networks he worked for in the past.

Dawson maintains, "I have never worked a day in my life--since I left the farm ." Sports journalism is his passion as well as his hobby. "It's been an incredible career. Being back in a small town where I can meet people and shoot my own stories, something I haven't done in thirty years." When asked of his plans for the future, Dawson quickly replied, "Bury me at the end of the transmit-ter. I'll do this as long as I can while I'm still having fun ." Bozeman will continue to wel-come the Cowboys fan as he reports our local and other sports news on KBZK channel 7. •