A Miracle, And Tony Was There

2-12-10

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

‘Ten...nine...eight,” Tony Gambino remembered.
“When the buzzer went off, it was like nothing you would ever experience again.”
It was the night of Feb. 22, 1980, in Lake Placid.
Tony Gambino didn’t see the final seconds. 
A 30-something cameraman for ABC covering his first Olympics, his lens was focused on the American bench for those final seconds.
When the young men straining with anticipation leaped to their feet in cheers, he knew history was made, a miracle had happened.
The young, fast, eager U.S. team had beaten the USSR, the seasoned grizzly, at its own game, and went on to claim Olympic gold a few days later in an anticlimactic defeat of Finland.
With the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, Feb. 12, that night 30 years ago is much on Gambino’s mind.
So is Sarajevo, 1984, when Jean Claude Killy wiped out right in front of his camera.  And 1988 in Calgary.  And 2002 in Salt Lake City, when speed-skater Apollo Ono’s dreams were shattered before his eyes.
Tony Gambino – he and wife Louise moved to Cooperstown in 2005 – graduated from Mineola High School in 1971, tried college but didn’t like it, then attended the RCA Institute in New York City, studying TV.
That led to a job editing film for WPIX, but it was a stint with WSNL, a start-up on Long Island, where he got to do some of everything, that grounded him in the business that was to be his career.
He rode his motorcycle cross country, and studied further at Sherwood Oaks Film School in California.  Back in New York in 1976, he was picked up by ABC’s “20-20.”
At the time, ABC was merging its film and video efforts; the “young guys” were teaching the “old guys” video, but the “old guys” were teaching the young ones how to shoot, the angles, the lighting.  Tony soaked it up.
Gambino spent the summer of ‘79 at Lake Placid, on a crew laying “miles and miles” of cable then necessary for the networks to transmit their images.
That night, THE night, Tony remembers “the calmness beforehand.  As people began to come into the arena, with their American flags, cowboy hats, American shirts – it just started to feel, this was THE GAME.  This was the Olympics right here.”
He continued, “When that game started, and the kids were playing, the place was erupting. When they pulled the goalie” – he paused – “These kids were skating their hearts out.  These weren’t men.  These were 19 year olds.”
Tony stuck to his post, next to the U.S. bench with a “hand held.”
He remembers 1984 in Sarajevo, sure, sharing Baby Ruths with his Yugoslavian guard, Goring.  Tony gave him an ABC pin; in return, Goring gave him the Red Star off his cap.
That was quite an Olympics for the U.S., too, with Bill Johnson becoming the first American male competitor to win a Gold medal in an Alpine event.
But that night in Placid.
“Heart,” said Tony.  “It was all heart.”