A Front-Row Seat with the Sportswriters Who Sat There
Sit down with host Todd Jones and other sportswriters who knew the greatest athletes and coaches, and experienced first-hand some of the biggest sports moments in the past 50 years. They’ll share stories behind the stories -- some they’ve only told to each other.
Elliott Almond: Catching a Wave of Sports Memories
We surf waves, climb mountains, and dive into odorous media mixed zones with Elliott Almond. He has earned a reputation as one of the top Olympic writers and sports investigative reporters during his adventurous career of nearly 50 years. Elliott explains how Edwin Moses led him to break a major story about steroids before the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games. He recalls the bunker mentality needed to report on the tragic death of Hank Gathers. Why did Marion Jones talk to Elliott after a failed relay despite despising him? Hear about the craziness of writing about figure skating on deadline, how surfing with quarterback Todd Marinovich led to Elliott taking the Wonderlic test, and how climber Alex Honnold paused to provide a unique perspective. And there’s the time a Secret Service agent pointed a gun at Elliott when he was chasing Richard Nixon . . .
For nearly 50 years, Almond has been a sports journalist on the West Coast, noted for his enterprise work and Olympic coverage at the Los Angeles Times (1974-1996), the Seattle Times (1996-98), and the San Jose Mercury News (1998-2021). He has been recognized by such organizations as the Associated Press Sports Editors, Best American Sports Writing, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Elliott has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times. He is currently an outdoor columnist for the Cascadia Daily News in the Pacific Northwest.
Elliott covered 14 Summer and Winter Olympics, as well as the 1999 and 2007 Pan American Games. His investigative work includes reporting on the BALCO drug scandal, steroids in international track and field, Gathers’ death, Magic Johnson and the issue of HIV, and cheating in college sports at Washington, USC, UCLA, and UNLV. He wrote about such diverse subjects as the Tour de France, social issues in sports such as abuse in women’s sports, crime in college and professional sports, and concussions and the consequences of traumatic brain injuries.
A life-long surfer, Almond spent much of his youth traveling the Southern California and Baja California coastlines. He is the author of the book “Surfing: Mastering Waves from Basic to Intermediate.”
From 2009-13, Elliott was an instructor for San Jose State University, where he served as an editor overseeing the production of a broadsheet newspaper by teenagers participating in a high school journalism workshop.
Elliott graduated from California State-Fullerton in 1975 with bachelor’s degrees in communications and political science. He completed a master’s program, except for the dissertation, at California State-Long Beach.
Follow him on Twitter: @ElliottAlmond
Where to Listen
Find us in your favorite podcast app.
Elliott Almond edited transcript
[00:00:01.330] - Todd
Hey, Elliot. I know you've been up in the mountains hiking. No need to wipe off your feet. Just come on in. Welcome.
[00:00:08.570] - Elliott
Okay, thanks. I'm pretty dusty right now.
[00:00:12.160] - Todd
That's fine. There's a lot of dusty characters who have come come through this den of decadence, so you're more than welcome. Hey, I'm really excited about this because this has to be the first time on our show that we've had a guest who can actually surf. A surfer. We have a surfer, a lifelong surfer. Tell us about this, Elliot.
[00:00:36.530] - Elliott
Wow. I don't even know where to begin, but it's in my blood. I'm an author of a book on surfing.
[00:00:41.890] - Todd
That's right.
[00:00:42.330] - Elliott
Instructional book. But it's just been a big part of my life. I love nature, and it's just something that has allowed me, I think, as a sports writer, has allowed me to view people in a sort of a different plane, if you will. There's something about the water that balances us all out. And I mean, to think back that I took Todd Morenovitch surfing that's right. To do a magazine profile on him. Boy, there's so much there. I caught him on a bad I believe he was out partying all night with his drugs and stuff. But, heck, he got up and combed his hair and we went out, and then he just wasn't doing well, and I realized I was dominating the waves, and so I had to give them some waves for my story. Right?
[00:01:44.160] - Todd
That's right.
[00:01:45.140] - Elliott
Yeah.
[00:02:24.760] - Todd
Well, I grew up in Kentucky. We were not surfing in Kentucky. There was a guy on the beach in San Clemente who liked to take walks and his wing tips, and his name is Richard Nixon. And I don't know if we've had any Richard Nixon talk on this show. It's based on sports writing. But you have a little bit of a history with Richard Nixon, of all people. How did that come about?
[00:03:02.890] - Elliott
Well, there's two stories here, Todd, and the first time I was with a photographer by the name of Darris Jeanette at the La times. Back then, there weren't very many skate parks like there is in everybody's neighborhood. So I was doing a story on a renowned orange county skater by the name of sketch Hitchcock, a hall of famer and innovator, and the only place to take photos was in oceanside north San Diego county. And we were driving him down there, and Darris, this was the second anniversary of Nixon leaving the white house, and Darris said, hey, guys, I'm going to put the scanner on, So we kept hearing the word Mr. Pete, and we thought, oh, some kind of code.
[00:04:29.720] - Elliott
There's some kind of code going on. So Darris gets on highway one. We call it PCH pacific coast highway. And he's heading toward downtown San clemente. And I look up, and I see Mr. Pete. It's a hamburger stand. And we turn around and we go in, and there's all the black cars. And we realize, I don't know what dick was thinking. Richard Dickson.
[00:05:07.130] - Todd
I mean, well, dick okay, yeah, dick to me, anyway.
[00:05:12.670] - Elliott
He decided to play golf at a public links on his second anniversary of him leaving the white house. So we head over to the golf course, and the secret service knew Darris. Everybody hated him, and they knew who he was. Nixon knew who he was.
[00:05:33.630] - Todd
They saw betty knew.
[00:05:38.630] - Elliott
They saw us. And then the guy was at the 18th hole, and apparently Nixon was getting ready to tee off at the 18th. He called up, and they called back down, and they told us, no photos, no interviews, no nothing. Well, we're listening on the scanner, so we hear them say, okay, take them to the 6th hole. I'm making up the 6th hole. But in other words, take them around. Let's get rid of these guys. I had a map of the golf course, and we saw we could drive up and meet them. So we drive up, way up. It's a hilly court, and we drive up park. We tell sketch Hitchcock, the skateboarder stay in the car. So what does he do? He does not stay in the car.
[00:06:26.960] - Todd
Of course not. His name is sketch.
[00:06:28.790] - Elliott
Yeah, he's so excited. So he runs out and follows us. And the upshot of the story, Todd, is we got a picture that ran worldwide. I guess AP picked it up, but all we got was a photo, and it's a golf cart with Nixon writing shotgun. A secret Service guy driving it, and then a Secret Service agent hanging on the back, pointing a gun at us.
[00:06:58.050] - Todd
Nice.
[00:06:59.250] - Elliott
Yeah. Second time in my career I had a law authority point a gun at me for something.
[00:07:26.110] - Elliott
So the next year, one year later, this is, like, a week. So it's mid August now. So it's a week after Nixon had resigned, so it's not on the same day, but unbelievably, derek Jeanette's wife had the same obstetrician as Julie Nixon Eisenhower.
[00:07:52.410] - Todd
Wow. Okay, this is interesting.
[00:07:57.970] - Elliott
I'm an intern doing metro. and so city editor came over and says, you've got your surfer clothes in the car, right? I said always. He goes, Go put them on. Darris's wife just called to say her appointment was canceled because the doctor has to deliver Juliet Nixon Eisenhower's baby. So you and Darris are going down to find that. So we head down to San Clemente General Hospital, So I run up, and this blonde woman it had to be Diane Sawyer, because she was Nixon's secretary back then, taking care of stuff. And she looks at me and says, what are you doing here?
[00:09:15.290] - Elliott
And I said, Well, I was skateboarding with my brother, and he broke his leg. So I brought him here, and she said, you got to go somewhere else. The president's having his first grandchild confirmed.
[00:09:31.010] - Todd
There you go, confirmation.
[00:09:32.830] - Elliott
So, boom. So I go back to Darris. I tell them, yeah, it's happening. And plus, you could see all the black Secret Service cars there anyway, so we go around the front park. We go in. Derris has got his camera, but everybody the Secret Service knows Darris. So we go in, and there's this little door with one of those oldfashioned windows, little rectangular windows. You can see in, and you can see Nixon or Dick, as I like to call them. They're right there having delivering the baby. So two Secret Service guys come out, and they say to me, oh, they say to us, okay, guys, Julie's having the baby. You guys have to leave. And we're like, no, we don't. And then the one guy gets nasty, and he says, I'm ordering you as a Secret Service agent of the federal government. I'm ordering you out of the hospital. I turned to Darren. You have to understand. I'm just a kid. I don't know what I'm doing. I turned to Darris and I said, daris, when did San Clemente General Hospital become a federal building? And, oh, my God, that guy put his hand in my face and went, F you.
[00:10:48.640] - Elliott
I don't want to use a bad word, but he used a bad word. So we're at a standoff, and just then, he comes out the door. Dick. Mr. President. Nixon he comes out the door and says, Guys, I've got this. And they said, Mr. President, can you please take them outside? And then Nixon turns to us and says, Follow me, guy. So we go out in front of the hospital, and remember, this is before Frost.
[00:12:09.510] - Elliott
Nixon right. He hasn't talked. He hasn't talked in public.
[00:12:14.520] - Todd
Now he's got this young surfer dude hanging with him.
[00:12:16.880] - Elliott
Yeah. But Nixon is talking to me, and he's really close, and Derek Jeanette is standing behind me, and he keeps whispering in my ear, Step back. So I step back so he can get the photo. And then as soon as I step back, Nixon steps in. He just wants to have this intimate conversation. And you realize that I'm writing this on my notepad as fast as I can and trying to think what to ask. And then David Eisenhower comes out. He's the grandson of Dwight Eisenhower. He's the new father.
[00:13:30.220] - Todd
Right.
[00:13:31.530] - Elliott
And so now we have pictures of him that are really good because he's still wearing all the hospital gear, and we get both of them together, and then he goes away. And then Dick still wants to talk, and suddenly this black limousine comes around the corner.
[00:13:55.010] - Todd
More guns.
[00:13:57.330] - Elliott
The window rose down really slow, and it's Pat. And she said, his wife, she says, Dick, let's go. We got to go. Time's up. And he's been out there with us almost an hour, and he turns to her and says, Just a little more.
[00:14:19.230] - Todd
He was lonely.
[00:14:20.670] - Elliott
Yeah.
[00:14:21.440] - Todd
I thought he hated depressed. Wait a minute.
[00:14:23.760] - Elliott
Right? Well, I wasn't Hunter S. Thompson, but you're right here's. The surfer, it's just a kid. So he feels like he can say manipulate. Anyway, it went on. I did the best I could with it.
[00:15:36.820] - Todd
So you get the Nixon story. Now, we have not had a surfer, and I don't think we've had a guest who got the Nixon story. So you already win a prize for two first, Elliot.
[00:15:46.610] - Elliott
All right.
[00:15:47.520] - Todd
Two gold medals. Well, Nixon knew about investigations, and so do you, Elliot, but you know them from the role of investigator. At the la. Times, san Jose Mercury News, Seattle Times, you were at the forefront of a lot of sports investigations that really made waves, won awards, the Balko scandal, different stories about drugs and sports, concussions, university of Washington football. There's one particular story I wanted to ask you about because I have kind of a personal interest in it, and that's involving Hank Gathers, the Lola Marymount basketball player who died in March of 1990. You were part of a team of reporters at the La. Times that covered the aftermath of Hank's death. When you think about that 30 years later, what do you think about Gathers in that story and how it came about?
[00:16:45.570] - Elliott
I love the way you framed the question, Todd, because nobody's ever really asked me that way. I had to get to know a dead person. I never talked to Todd in my life. Todd. Excuse me. I'd never met Hank or never covered them or anything. But in that aftermath, which I might add, I had just been at a sports investigative news conference at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. I flew home that Sunday. He collapsed that evening in the playoff game. I got to call, and I mean immediately that night, I had to start writing medical stories about this. But when I think back 30 years later, it's like, God, he just seemed like such an interesting person, and I wish I had known him. I feel like I do know him through friends, family, and everything else, but for me, that's the biggest thing I think about with Hank.
[00:17:48.030] - Todd
And you had a team of reporters, right, that pretty much hold up into a hotel, kind of like, once again with Nixon, kind of like the Pentagon Papers.
[00:17:55.770] - Elliott
Yeah, it's a funny story. So John Sherva, we had just started the iteam, and John Sherva, which I think many of the listeners would know, is a great editor at the La Times, Orlando Sentinel, Chicago Tribune, he was our editor. And we just had formed sports investigative team with the incredibly great Danny Robbins and Marianne Hudson. We were just learning on the spot to work together what strengths people have, and we ended up breaking it down. Where I was doing medical, danny was doing almost everything, and Marianne was doing the family. She covered the funeral, et cetera. But Bill Doyer, the sports editor, decided that we needed to do a step back special section in a narrative format. And so the way we did that was John Sherva. He's a single guy living in a big house in Diamond Bar, California. So he had Danny, Marianne, and I move in for a week, and we just worked around the clock. Doing what reporting we still needed to do, which was a lot. And it was like the Pentagon Papers in that hotel. We were there a week. And the poor beat reporter for the Leo and Mary Mount team, he was the one guy that covered Hank and new Hank Allen.
[00:19:32.980] - Elliott
Drew. Well, we realized that he probably hadn't told us all the information that we needed, so he had to drive out one day and have three reporters in this great editor. I wouldn't say brow beating him, but trying to force him to remember every little thing. I mean, like, he was starting to tell us stuff about, oh, yeah, they carried a defibrillator with the team bus. They did what? We're just learning about this now. Things like that, that came out. And anyway, that was quite an experience. And the final product, I think, really holds up. It was really well done. Sherva and Bill dewier both edited it. Each of us wrote sections, and they made it all work together. So that was amazing.
[00:20:23.770] - Todd
I'm such a pack rat that I actually have a physical copy of that publication that you guys put together, that special section I still have it. And the reason is I had a small story about Hank Gathers a couple of months prior to his death. They had played in Cincinnati against Xavier University. And I was a young reporter, and I got a tip that defibrillator that they carried everywhere with them, they forgot to bring it to the game that night, and there was no ambulance at the arena. The old Cincinnati Gardens, and Chip Schaefer, I think was his name, the trainer, they just forgot that the fiber, they left it at the hotel. And so I ended up getting the story, and it became like one of the first stories as a young reporter where I felt like I got a little attention from the editors, like, hey, this is more than what we've been getting from them. So I always felt like Hank's tragic death had this weird connection with my own career as a young reporter. And it's interesting that you mentioned the defibrillator, because I think about that quite often when we get to Anniversaries about Hank's death, and it's just still a story that resonates with me.
[00:21:39.560] - Elliott
So I have a question for you. I realize that you're the interviewer here, but seriously, where were you when we needed you?
[00:21:50.210] - Todd
I was probably at a bar in Cincinnati.
[00:21:52.220] - Elliott
Oh, my God. That would have been part of the narrative for sure. That was a great anecdote.
[00:21:58.970] - Todd
Yeah, it's funny, some of those stories just stick with you, those little anecdotal things all these years later. Well, you did so many great investigations throughout your career, and you really got your first break as a young reporter writing about drugs in track and field in the lead up to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. And I know throughout that process, you met a famous track athlete by the name of Edwin Moses and who became an important person in your career. Right. Can you tell us a little bit about Edwin, a two time gold medalist in the 400 meters for the United States?
[00:22:38.300] - Elliott
Yes, 400 meters.
[00:22:40.010] - Todd
Hurdles, I should say.
[00:22:40.890] - Elliott
Yeah. Well, Edwin lived in Orange County, and I knew who he was, of course. I loved track and field, and he would train alone. He didn't have coaches or anything. So I would go out to Saddleback College where he was training, and he'd go like, who is this reporter who's not stalking him but cares enough to be out there? So I wrote profiles on him and kept up with what he was doing. And he really appreciated Todd, that I would take the time and care enough. And I'm thinking, this is the guy in the middle of his 50 odd major wind streak. Right. He's like one of the world's great.
[00:23:26.410] - Todd
Athletes, I think from 77 to 87. He won, like, 122 straight races, 107 of them finals. He was just an incredible at the peak of track and field at that time.
[00:23:39.020] - Elliott
Indeed. So what happened was in June of 1983, him and his wife invited me. And I had a girlfriend at the time who went on to become the food editor for The New York Times, by the way. But he invited us over for dinne. So we're there. We're having a great time. And not an agent, but he had this guy who was part of his life helping with his planning and stuff. Not really his coach, but also a track and field coach. And so they were there, and the whole evening was all about drugs and sports. And Evan told me 90% of track and field athletes, the ones you just saw at the World Championships in Helsinki, they're all taking drugs.
[00:24:56.250] - Todd
Wow.
He was just telling me they were just amazing, openly talking about all this. So you have to understand, in 1983, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm an outlier. I'm a very slow learner and not a good journalist or anything. But the one good thing I did was I called the La office. I worked in Orange County. I called the La office and told the Dwyer's assistant editor that Edwin had told me this. And then he said, can you write this? And I said, I can, but you have track and field writers now. Back then, it was very territorial, and I was just a little nothing, and I didn't want to step on anybody's shoulders. And I said, I will help in any way, and nothing happened. And then let's fast forward to the Pan American Games in South America in August of 83, and suddenly all these famous US athletes are going home, and nobody knows what's going on. So this editor says, in a meeting I'm not there, but in a meeting downtown at the La office hey, La at Alman called me in June and said, Edwin Moses said 90% of the athletes are on drugs.
[00:26:41.170] - Elliott
And Dwyer is like, what? They called me again and said, can you reach Evelyn? I said, he's in Germany, but I'll try to find him. I reached Edwin, and Edwin said, there's a doctor in Germany by the name of Manford Donica, and he's got a gas chromograph machine. And they've learned to calibrate it to catch the basic anabolic steroids, because back then, they couldn't catch it. So they took winstrol. They took all the regular oil based drugs that are easily detectable nowadays. Anyway, he brought the machine to the Pan American Games, and that's why the word got out. So people said, crap. I'm on drugs. This was everybody. And they said, I don't want to be tested. I'm going home. The next morning in Caracas, manfordonica held a news conference. Here's my machine. Here's what I'm doing. I can catch these guys.
[00:28:16.850] - Elliott
So the next day, the phone rings, and it's Dwyer, and it's like the sports editor. And it's like, what the hell do you know, and what can you do for us here? And I'm like, Lewis. So I made some contacts. But at the same time, we had just hired Julie Cart in the Orange County addition.
[00:28:41.030] - Todd
Great reporter.
[00:28:41.900] - Elliott
I knew Julie's background is a great discus thrower. She was just close to being an Olympian. And after deadline of dealing with high school stuff that we were doing, I went over to her desk. She was still at the office. And I said, hey, I've got all this stuff. I just told her what I knew, and then what I knew was nothing. She knew everything. She knew where all the skeletons were. At that point, I waited for Randy Harvey, the chief Olympic writer, to come back from Caracas, and I messaged him. And to Randy's credit, julie and I are nobody. And he invited us up for lunch and to listen. And after he heard from Julie, he marched us into Dwyer's office, and we just let Julie talk. And then Dwyer just said, Cart blanche, go where you need to go in the world. Just go get this story. Do whatever you need to do. And that set us on a path of going to Mexico.
[00:30:03.990] - Elliott
We bought Steroids in Tijuana.
[00:30:07.950] - Todd
Wait a minute. You purchased them in Tijuana?
[00:30:12.690] - Elliott
We wanted to replicate what the athletes were doing. So there I am, and I could barely speak Spanish then, and they're having me try to ask. Our photographer is a former football player, Mark Boston, and he was my college photographer too, so he's a big guy. And anyway, the kid behind the cash register, he said to us, you athletes better be careful. You're going to get caught. And it's like, oh, this isn't the first athlete that you've sold drugs to now. So that was a great story that Randy wrote, by the way, going across the border. I guess I have to say, we took illegal drugs across the border just to see what it was like, and hopefully we didn't get caught. And we didn't. But just that feeling of what it was like. Anyway, that went on Edwin So changed my life.
[00:31:17.670] - Todd
Right? I mean, he trusted you as a young reporter because you showed interest in coming out and being there while he's training alone. And you grew a working relationship to the point where he shed light on something that hadn't really been exposed to that point, not very much, not at least in the US. And I think that says a lot about building relationships. The way you were able to do.
[00:31:41.980] - Elliott
That with Edwin, it was really cool. Todd there was one point in which we wrote about some drugs, and the chief testing officer for the 1984 Olympics who ran the UCLA lab, his name is Don Catlin. He's a super famous drug tester. He called me one day, first time I met him, to start a relationship with him. He called me and said, hey, I saw that you guys wrote about this drug. Where did you find it? I said, The Olympics are less than a year away. You don't know about this drug. And he goes, Where did you guys find those drugs? And I said, Can I come down and meet you and have a conversation? So that started a relationship with him, and I was more than willing in that case, I think it was not unethical to have, like, okay, well, look, it's pretty public. You can find these drugs, and here's what you need to look.
[00:32:43.770] - Todd
Right? Well, this led down a path of just great investigative work by you and the Times, but really by you throughout your career in so many different sports. And I think in 1990, you obtained documents that showed that many of the American track and field athletes had tested positive. But the Athletics Congress, which is now USA Track and Field, they were covering it up. That was a huge bombshell of a story, and it really led eventually to the United States Olympic Committee forming the US. Anti Doping Agency. And so it really started to change the sport.
[00:33:37.440] - Elliott
But I have to tell you one thing about the documents. Okay? Do you mind?
[00:33:58.170] - Todd
We like to hear about documents. Give it up.
[00:34:01.110] - Elliott
Anyway, I don't want to say who the source is, but what happened was Randy and Julie were in Italy covering the World Cup, soccer World Cup. So I was there, and a friend of mine was trying to get an interview with my source for a feature, and a very close friend of mine who I had hired and brought into the La times. And so I said, Oh, gosh, let me help you. And so I called the source who was just sitting there waiting for me to call and said, I'm so glad you called. You need to come see me right away. And handed me the documents that you're referring to that were really important that was going to come out. I think another source wanted to give it to Julie Cart. And actually it was just a weird thing. I don't know all of it, but she seemed to be mad that I had them.
[00:35:04.050] - Todd
Well, this is very Woodward and Bernstein like. We have a Nixon theme running throughout this episode. Were you in the parking garage when you got the documents?
[00:35:13.350] - Elliott
Not a dark parking garage like that, but yes, it was a hand off. It was a hand off.
[00:35:21.570] - Todd
Well, you exposed a lot of the dark crevices of sports and really brought a lot of help. You and other reporters of your ilk really brought a lot of positive change to the world of sports in that regard. So you get involved in like the Balco coverage and this other drug stuff and here it is, track and field. And I fast forward to the 2004 Athens and you at this point had a pretty interesting working relationship with Marianne Jones. She was a star athlete at the Sydney Games in 2005 medals. And now here you are in Athens and she was on the four x 100 relay team. I remember this bad exchange that Jones and Lauren Williams had and it meant that she was not going to meddle. So she had gone from being a star to all of a sudden not meddling.
[00:36:29.880] - Todd
And there you are in a mix zone of reporters after the race. By the way, can you describe what a mix zone is like?
[00:36:38.070] - Elliott
Can anybody describe it? So one thing the public never sees well, the Olympics has set up these areas in which the athletes have to pass through after their competition and it's like being in we're cattle so we're in this little corral, if you will, fenced off area. You know it well because you were there and the different country reporters are always wanting the same athletes. They want their own country athletes. So they band together. And with the US. It can be 20 people deep.
[00:37:16.230] - Todd
Right?
[00:37:16.970] - Elliott
It's a total zoo in Athens. Was so bad that the Washington Post reporter wrote a whole story about the Athens track and field nick zone. People, Europeans, not to disparage anybody, but people have different ideas about when to take showers or taking showers every day.
[00:37:36.080] - Todd
Oh yeah. There was a whole strategy about whether or not to bathe it before you had to dive into the mix zone because it might create some space for you.
[00:37:42.340] - Elliott
Yeah, exactly. Anyway, in the Athens mix zone, Todd, like all the top track and field riders, sports Illustrated, New York Times, La. Times, all of those guys and women, they all bunched together right at the mouth of the mix zone so they could grab the athletes right away. So I walked in that day and I looked at that. It was 20 people deep. And I'm thinking, I'm not going to even hear. I said screw it. It was too hot, it was too smelly. I had had enough. I was too tired to deal with it. So I walke so back to Marion Jones. She was really upset. This was her last chance to meddle in Athens, and she didn't with the exchange, poor exchange. So I didn't see this. But she apparently blew past the US. Contingent, that 20 person deep group at the top of the mix zone. So she's walking along and I see her, and as you pointed out, my relationship with her was really bad.
[00:39:13.930] - Todd
All right, well, tell us how bad.
[00:39:15.930] - Elliott
Well, I found a number to reach them to talk about drugs, because we had a lot of stuff on them, and this is a family oriented show, and I can't use all not really. Well, she said every bad word you can think of about me just because I called and she had known the stories I was writing, because I had heard all the stuff from the mastermind of Falco, and we had written a lot.
[00:39:53.950] - Todd
So she didn't like you at all?
[00:39:56.080] - Elliott
No, she didn't like me at all. She would have nothing to do with me. And there she is, and I'm standing there looking like, what is she doing? She's walking toward me. Todd in the mix zone, she sees me and walks toward me. And the only thing I can think of is she recognized my face as somebody, but didn't realize this is the asshole lad almond. So she came up and I said, I didn't say who I was, but you can see on my credential you've worn the credentials, the picture and name. I just said gosh. Mary, I'm so sorry. What happened? What's your emotions about that? This was your last chance for a medal? And she had calmed down at that point, and so she told me, and then we went through the exchange. She wasn't pointing fingers, she was gracious. She was the old Marion, blah, blah, blah. This is the way the mixed zone works, and you know it well, but for those who don't, it's a rumor mill in there. So somebody saw that Marion talked to me, and the rumor was just like wildfire, right? And I made a decision that Maryanne just used me to tell what she wanted to tell everybody.
[00:41:23.870] - Elliott
So I'll just share this like a pool. Like a pool reporter, right? There's one reporter at a very big newspaper that was practically crying, and I'm just told the person, don't worry, I'll transcribe it and give you the transcription. And that person said, can I listen to the tape right now? And I said, yes, you can. Here it is. Do not go anywhere.
[00:41:55.190] - Todd
A little pressure and stress swirling around in that mix zone besides the body odor.
[00:41:59.420] - Elliott
Anyway, so that's how that thing went. And I guess other people I was told that most people would have never done that. Too bad for you guys, I got this, and that's me. But the European press, who are friends of mine, and I knew well, because of the Balko story, they had done features on me in limone and things like that. So I helped them, and that came back to really help me. They had stuff for a big story I was doing that they introduced me to everybody, and I got in. So it came back to benefit my readers.
[00:42:43.910] - Todd
So Marion Jones, who had gone from screaming every nasty word you can think of at you, walks over and ends up talking to you. Do you really think she didn't know who you were?
[00:42:53.990] - Elliott
You really ask great questions, and I hate to say I hate when people say that on radio. That's a good question, but gosh, Todd, I won't know. I'll never know. I just won't know. So my theory is that she recognized my face and said, oh, there's an American reporter, and had calmed down enough to come over to talk. But somebody that sophisticated with the media.
[00:43:26.750] - Todd
Right?
[00:43:27.680] - Elliott
So your question is really perceptive, because she should have known, right? I mean, I can't explain it. Let's just leave it at that.
[00:43:39.270] - Todd
Well, things can get pretty crazy in that mixed zone, and they can get crazy when you're covering international sporting events far from home. I mean, you covered 14 Olympics, the Tour de France, you've been out on the front lines far, far from the homebase. And it can get crazy on deadline, too. And I think there was a story back at Nanagano Winter Olympics that I really always found humorous, and that involves the women's figure skating final, Michelle Kwan was the big favorite to win that night, and I think a day or two before, you had kind of an inkling that this other skater, Tara Lepinsky, might be able to pull an upset. Can you tell us a little bit about why you thought that Lepinsky might win?
[00:44:31.300] - Elliott
Well, this is my first time covering figure skating in Olympics in the gano, so I didn't know anything.
[00:45:06.550] - Elliott
Anyway, so there's a real cartel of Olympic figure skating riders, and they had cornered Michelle Kwan's dad the day before, and so other reporters couldn't get to him. And Michelle was holed up in a hotel. And so this was just survival for me. Todd, I know other reporters were grumbling and mad at those reporters, but you know what? They earned their stripes.
[00:45:44.510] - Todd
Right? They earned the access that they were getting.
[00:45:46.930] - Elliott
So I didn't begrudge them. And plus, they're really good friends of mine for the most part. So as survival, Lepinsky was making herself available. And so I decided I could see like, here's the kid, she's really loose and talking to the media and Michelle is squirreled away and maybe she's tight. She seems tight. It seems weird that she's not being her normal self because she's nicest person in the world. If you know Michelle, she's amazing, right? So I just had my normal interview with Terra at the press conference and then last Q and A after, and then I went back to write my story in the satellite press trailer. And I'm working on my story and all of a sudden I see Tara is like cruising through and looking and she's all excited, like, oh my God, they're writing stories. And I called her over and said, I'm writing about you right now. And she was like all excited, 14 year old kid. After she left, I added that into my story. And then the next night I had written my let me back up and see. I worked for the Seattle Times. We were still a PM newspaper so we could get results in Japan in the paper.
[00:47:17.830] - Elliott
And before it goes on, the time difference worked in your paper before it would be on TV or anything. But figure skating ended. I think when it ended, I had 15 minutes. I think that was for the first edition. I had something like 15 minutes.
I was sitting next to the reporter from the Alaska Anchorage paper, and I was paralyzed for like I don't know how long, but not long. But after Lepinsky skated last and it was clear that, oh my God, she just outskated Kwan. And then the judges scores come up and I looked at this woman and I said, did that just happened? And she said, yes. And then I snapped too, and I got my butt out of the arena and I was running to rewrite my story completely running, and it's freezing rain outside, and I see this woman run by me in the pitch black. And all of a sudden I realized that's Roslyn Summers from Edmonds, Washington, local for the Seattle Times and figure skater who won a silver medal. And so I turned around screen that said Roslyn, and she stopped, thank God. And she said, I've got to go on air. And I said, it's late. Almond at the Seattle Times. You have to talk to me right now. And she came over in the middle of the rain and then gave me this great story that she knew Tara, and I talked to her, her advice.
[00:49:08.330] - Elliott
So here was this really good quote. I had no quotes or anything, but here I get this quote. So I go in and I write as fast as I can for that first edition, and we have a full story. And Night Ritter was able to put that out on the wire. And some papers just went with my story, which was crazy because the other reporters had about 10 hours before their deadline.
[00:49:46.520] - Todd
You had about 15 minutes. 15 minutes, right. But you know what? You did all the pre work, right? I mean, you did the homework. You were observant about the competitors before the competition itself. You had a working relationship with Roslyn, and fate has it that you run into her and then because of that working relationship, that led to a quote. So it all comes together because of the work that you did beforehand, the same way it did with Edwin Moses. It doesn't always happen just in the moment. I think for good sports, writing, reporting and writing, the best ones did it before the deadline. I think that's a great example. You mentioned Todd Morenovitch and the story you did with him, and you went surfing with him. And this is after he's out of USC and he's out of the NFL, right, the quarterback. But that story and relationship that you built with Todd, that led to another story, right?
[00:50:47.670] - Elliott
Yeah, that was Todd. This is really kind of just a crazy thing. And I love how you frame it with the theme because I always tell people I just was lucky. I don't know what I'm doing. But Todd left the Raiders and he disappeared. And we thought, where the heck is he? What's he doing? It'd be a good story. It's been a year. Nobody's heard from him. So because of my relationship with him, we both lived in Newport Beach and we both surfed. So we had these other things in common that we could talk about. Anyway, finally, through his family, I was able to track him down and, oh, my God, he told me these great surfing stories, which I led my thing with, we don't need to get into that. But we really had a great time, and he was a Grateful dad fanatic, so he was following the Grateful dad. So I wrote this story for the La. Times, and this guy called me and said introduced himself and said that he was an agent or something and getting into the agency. And if Todd wants to get back in the football, he'd love to help him do it.
[00:52:02.310] - Elliott
And I said, there's no way I can give you Todd's number, but if you give me your number, I will get it to his family. And lo and behold, the sister's husband called that guy back, and they chatted. And I don't know, maybe a year later, Todd two years, I don't know, this agent calls me and says, hey, do you remember me? You helped me with Todd Morenovitch. And I've never forgotten that. And I go, God, I didn't do anything. I believe that I was facilitated, if that could help both sides, and that's great, but I didn't do anything. And he said, I really want to take you to lunch. Now, I lived in Newport Beach. If you go anywhere in La. You lose a day, literally because of the traffic and everything. So I really didn't want to do this. And he kept bugging me, and he promised to take me to California Pizza Kitchen, which was a new thing and a big deal out on the West Side. So this whole day was great. So he just wanted to meet me and basically thank me. So I said, okay, I'll do it. I had a free day, and he took me by the Browns where O.
[00:53:31.180] - Elliott
J. Simpson and the murders happened. I'd never been by there, so his office was near there, and I mentioned I had never been there. So he drove me by that. So I got to see that, grew some sightseeing. We went to California Pizza Kitchen, and we each paid separately, by the way. I wasn't getting a free meal. And then the day's getting late, and I still have to get to the office through La. And he said, hey, this was a great day. It was so fun. He goes, can you come up to the office? I'm like, no, dude, I can't. I got to get to my office. I have to show up to work at some point. And he goes, I want to give you something. And I roll my eyes, I go into his office, and he hands me that year's Wonder Lick test that the NFL used with all the draftes. It had everything. It had their names. It had everything you could want to know about them. And he goes, thank you for just being who you are. And he handed me this. He goes, I made a copy of it for you, and this is yours.
[00:54:45.870] - Todd
All right, now we're talking.
[00:54:47.440] - Elliott
Now we got more documents yet again. I don't know what I'm doing. It's like the accidental journalist. I shouldn't even be a journalist. And I bring it in I bring it in to John Sherva and my editor, and he says, Well, Bill Polaski is the NFL writer. You have to give it to him. And I thought, well, wait a second, this is a big story, and there's no story if not for me. That's not what who am I? Chopped liver.
[00:55:20.610] - Todd
Right? You've grown from the early days of.
[00:55:23.260] - Elliott
Your track experience anyway. But I do what he says. And to Bill Plaske's credit, I don't know how well you know Bill. You definitely will have him on your show sometime. He's amazing. Bill saw this, he realized how important it was, and he called me and said, that's how he always talks. He goes, oh, my God, this is great. Good stuff, good stuff. Hey, we need to do this together. We put together a three or four story one day series, so we did all the reporting, but it all ran one day. And Bill was great. He was the lead writer, as he should be, and we marshalled everything we had. And then Sherville liked the idea of us working together, and then he said, hey, you guys have to take the Wonder Lick test, and we're going to put your scores into I'm like, Holy crap, I don't like tests. I didn't do that on the Sat. So sherwin took it, too, and the three of us took it.
[00:56:38.110] - Todd
All right, give us the scores.
[00:56:39.320] - Elliott
Let's put it this way. One of my cousins, who's a lawyer now, he sent me a note and said, you've embarrassed the family. [00:57:44.670] - Todd
Well, that story about the wonder lick won an APSC News award. And again, I think it shows the type of reporter that you have been throughout your career, the fact that you can build relationships with people. People are willing to trust you and tell you things and give you documents, and you did it for so many great years, 22 years at the La Times, 23 at the San Jose Mercury News a couple at Seattle. And now you're out writing an outdoor column as an outdoor columnist at the Cascadia Daily News. And I know how much you love the outdoors, and we talked about surfing, but you're always out on great hikes and the mountains, and your Instagram feed is a must, must follow. Please do it. It will make you feel better about your life if you see Elliot up in the mountains and you're really participating in enterprise and community journalism, the type of journalism that really is going to move forward as the business continues to evolve. But that love of the outdoors has one last thing I want to ask you about, and that involves mountain climbing. Specifically, Alex Honnold, the famous American climber who did El Capitan.
[00:59:02.100] - Todd
First one to free solo. It in that movie free solo and El Capitan at Yosemite National Park, which is like 3000ft of granite. You got to know this guy over the years. And there was a story about another climber who had fallen, but she survived. And you knew how to get a hold of Alex.
[00:59:29.200] - Elliott
Well, what happened was Emily Harrington was doing a first for a female climber, and Alex was assisting her. The good climbers help each other and he was involved in the rescue. And what happened was I was trying to get Emily to tell the story, but her people weren't interested in the little San Jose Mercury nose. It turns out. They were shopping it around to the New York Times, and then she was on Good Morning America, blah blah blah. So again, as a journalist, I need to get somebody to talk about this. And I'm thinking, I'm just going to call Alex because I have a cell. So I get them. And Alex is like, oh, hey, Elliot. Okay. And he's kind of pausing and stuff. So finally I said, Am I catching you at a bad time? And he says, Well, Sony and I are climbing right now, so long pause, right? Alex, are you free soloing? Are you roped up? And he goes, no, I'm always roped with Sonny. I go, Where are you climbing? And so he tells me where they're climbing. And anyway, he didn't want to stay on the phone, but he gave me the whole story about the rescue and what it meant and everything.
[01:00:50.850] - Todd
So he did an interview while he's on the phone.
[01:00:52.840] - Elliott
He roped up on a wall out on a mountain. And people, a lot of people who are interested in that community, that story still gets calls up for five years, I don't know, seven years. People are always finding that story because it was the only first what was the first real detailed account of what happened. And people like climbing community loves details and stuff like that. Thank God for Alex. He's one of the most amazing athletes that I've ever got to interview and spend time with.
[01:01:37.030] - Todd
What is he like?
[01:01:38.650] - Elliott
He's just honest. He's self reflective. He's humble, really, for the kind of stuff he does. He doesn't have a big ego. He tries to see other people's side when he's received a lot of criticism. And he doesn't just get defensive ever. He tries to hear it and think about it and be supportive and say, you know what? They're probably right. I just haven't met many people like him. Todd.
[01:02:13.090] - Todd
He seems to have no filter in terms of yes, exactly right. Exactly right. Well, the fact that you mentioned that he's honest and he's willing to share things with you and he doesn't have an ego, it sounds a lot like you.
[01:02:27.950] - Elliott
Oh, yeah, we're the same. I'll be on El Cap climbing any day now. Oh, my gosh.
[01:02:35.890] - Todd
Well, I would not be surprised by that. I mean, you are willing to go anywhere for a story, and that's really what made you such a great and respected journalist and really one of the great, kind souls in our business. There's a lot of sharks out there, personality wise. But, Elliot, you are always a guy that I know I could turn to if I needed a dose of humanity in the main press room or the mix zone. So I thank you for your friendship over the years, Elliot. And I really thank you for being willing to come in from the great outdoors and join us here at Preston.
[01:03:09.070] - Elliott
I have to say, what you just said, I don't want to cry, but thank you so much. And that is what I cared more about trying to do than when they appeal to surprise. That means more to me. Thank you so much.
[01:03:29.330] - Todd
Well. Thank you, Elliot. I wish you the best in all your future adventures. And I will be following you on Instagram and reading too.
[01:03:36.740] – Elliott Bye bye. [01:03:37.270] – Todd Take care.
Hide TranscriptRecent Episodes
View AllWriters Bear Witness to Memorable Moments from March Madness
Press Box AccessJerry Tipton: “You could just walk into the Kentucky coach’s office.”
Press Box AccessHelene Elliott: “Gretzky was like no one we had seen before.”
Press Box AccessDave Molinari: “Lemieux Taxed the Limits of my Ability to Describe What I Saw.”
Press Box AccessHear More From Us!
Subscribe Today and get the newest Evergreen content delivered straight to your inbox!