January 30, 1987
A low point
in the life of Jim Forbes, El Paso Riverside high school boys
basketball coach, will be shared with a national television audience
Sunday during an ABC college basketball telecast. Forbes played
for the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team that lost the gold medal when
a controversial field goal gave the Soviets a 51-50 victory. A
film crew followed Forbes through the school day Monday. Former women’s
college basketball star Cheryl Miller conducted the interview. The segment will be broadcast on KVIA-Channel 7 at halftime of the Nevada-Las Vegas game against Auburn, which begins at noon. Viewers
will be reminded that the Soviets were given three chances to in-bound
the ball in the waning seconds and that on the third try Aleksandr
Belov made a layup for the victory. The U.S. team refused to accept the
silver medal. Dick Buffington, an ABC producer and director, said he got the idea for the Forbes segment from a friend. “My
friend asked if I remembered who was under the basket when Belov got
the ball,” Buffington said in a telephone interview from New York. “I
guessed (Tom) McMillen, but it was Jim Forbes. “My friend told me how Forbes had two dreams shattered in a month – the gold medal and future in the NBA.” Forbes, who played UTEP, injured a knee after the Olympics and never was able to pursue a pro career. “We wanted to get a feeling of how it’s like when something so important is taken away from somebody,” Buffington said. “And how he put his life and his priorities back in perspective.” Forbes
said Miller “asked me how I felt about refusing the silver medal, about
a pro career that fell short, how I liked teaching and coaching.” “I felt comfortable while I was doing it, but I have no idea how it’s going to come out.” Forbes and Miller had a videotape of the last minute of the U.S.-Soviet game. “I
looked at the last 53 seconds of that game seven or eight times,”
Forbes said. “It just made me start wondering all over again.”
| Timestamp: 12:20:19 | Creation-Date: 08/19/2008 |
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