Don Ohlmeyer

Don Ohlmeyer was born in New Orleans in 1945. After graduating from Notre Dame University, Ohlmeyer began working at ABC in 1967, starting as a production assistant and working his way up to director and producer on all kinds of sporting events, from the Indianapolis 500 to the Winter and Summer Olympics. He was in the control room during the hostage crisis at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich that ended in the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes. A protégé of legendary Roone Alredge, Ohlmeyer was put in charge of juggernaut "Monday Night Football" (ABC, 1970-2005; ESPN, 2006-) in 1973 and helped urge on the shows popularity. He moved to NBC Sports in 1977, shepherding the Super Bowl, the World Series, and Wimbledon. After his disappointment at the US Boycott of the 1980 Olympics, Ohlmeyer left NBC Sports and formed his own company, the Ohlmeyer Communications Company. While there, Ohlmeyer notably focused on golf, and, along with Nabisco, purchased a 20% stake in fledgling ESPN. In 1993, Ohlmeyer was lured back to NBC, this time to revive entire network. Although his actual influence is questionable, he was there to oversee the rise of "Seinfeld" (NBC, 1989-1998) and "Friends" (NBC, 1994-2004), as well as re-establish the medical procedural with "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009). Ohlmeyer retired from NBC in 1998, but was lured out of retirement by the opportunity to again oversee "Monday Night Football." This time, however, the show was struggling, and Ohlmeyer's attempts to add Dennis Miller and Dan Fouts as announcers failed to stop the show's slide. Over his career, Ohlmeyer has won 16 Emmys (including the Lifetime Achievement Award), the Peabody Award, and the Humanitas Award, among others. He died in September 2017.