Hall of Fame sportscaster Jim Lampley appeared Saturday at the famed Wild Card Boxing Club to sign copies of his new book IT HAPPENED!: A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television (Matt Holt Books). Legendary trainer Freddie Roach hosted the May 10 meet-and-greet with Lampley (known to the boxing community for HBO World Championship Boxing, HBO Boxing After Dark and HBO PPV broadcasts).

The line to get into the famed Hollywood gym began in the parking lot and snaked up the stairs as boxing aficionados, associates and fight fans all waited their turn to chat with the author and popular blow-by-blow boxing commentator. They were looking forward to purchasing a copy or two of his new title (with proceeds going to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (both Fox and Roach have Parkinson’s disease).

The guests waiting in line were treated to some tasty food (Tacos 1986) and delicious fresh churros from Churro Champ (owned by pro fighter Hugo Centeno Jr.) courtesy of the event organizers. Many fans were in awe to see Lampley and Roach in person while looking around the historic boxing gym with photos, posters, newspaper clippings, magazine articles and more lining the walls. The Wild Card gym is really a living museum to the sweet science.

Freddie has trained thousands of prizefighters during his 30 years plus at Wild Card and Jim has called many boxing matches that featured the boxing coach in the corner. Roach is, of course, best known worldwide for being Manny Pacquiao’s trainer and there are many mementos of PacMan’s career at Wild Card.

It was a fun day catching up with lots of familiar faces who stopped by the book signing. There were many ex-fighters, current boxers, young amateurs, film directors, authors, historians, boxing trainers, cornermen and more hanging out in the storied gym. Danny “Little Red” Lopez, Hugo Centeno Jr., Daniel “June Bug” Garcia, Lencho Garcia, Matty McHale, Holly Lawson, Sammy Stewart, Pepe Reilly, Juan “Superman” Jimenez, Gene Aguilera, Chris Smith, Terry McCormack, Steve Harpst, Steve DeBro, Rachel Charles, Nancy Rodriguez, Brenda Zaragoza, Daniel “Boone” Moses, Blake Arriola, and more came by to see Lampley, whose wife and family were also in attendance.

The boxing icon has spent over 50 years covering sports as a sideline reporter, sports anchor, ringside reporter, etc. Lampley has covered 14 Olympic Games and has worked for all the sports networks. Boxing fans will always remember him for the epic broadcasts alongside Larry Merchant, Harold Lederman and more. “Lamps” was a beloved fixture on our TV screens and always delivered the most epic commentary during live broadcasts. His emotion and immense knowledge of the sport made him “the voice” of boxing for many decades.

Lampley is currently working with PPV.COM as an analyst while also interviewing the fighters and hosting live viewer chats too. The journalist also works as a Media Studies professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (his alma mater).

He has won numerous awards and has received countless accolades for his work in boxing and sports. I have no doubt his new book–a 50-year “travelog”–will be a very entertaining read. IT HAPPENED! was released last month and has been receiving knockout reviews.

During the gathering, attendees at the book signing continued to arrive with a steady stream of people wanting to buy their own copy of the book. It was a nonstop line for over two hours. But the line moved fast and Lampley kept signing his autograph and inscriptions on the pages to the delight of the fans. It was a KO day at Wild Card with an estimate of over 100 copies sold.

Lampley took time to greet each patron with his engaging, down to earth personality. Many fans recalled their favorite memories of his HBO live broadcasts that are etched in their minds decades later. Jim’s memory is quite something–he remembered facts, places and details from years ago! He spoke with everyone and at times, went into his “broadcast” voice in which the crowd became mesmerized. We all miss HBO Boxing and the memories will remain through videos, YouTube, TikTok and other forms of social media.

Kudos to Jim Lampley on his new book release IT HAPPENED!

Photos by Michele Chong