Every Time I Won Free Tickets to Something, Part 1

It was the summer of 1988. As a kid, I was a week or so from starting 7th grade out to Cap. As a nation, we were three weeks from the summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. As a family, we were in Denver for some reason, probably school shopping or a temple trip.

One thing we did a lot while driving around Denver was listen to 850 KOA news/talk. For the uninitiated, KOA is the 50,000 watt voice of the west. We did not have such things as talk radio in the valley. We were limited to KGIW of Alamosa and KOB out of Albuquerque which supplied us with all the Gloria Estefan and Billy Ocean we could handle.

We were driving around one afternoon and they announced they were giving away tickets. The men’s Olympic basketball team was on a national tour before heading overseas and the seventh of eight stops would be the following night at Denver’s McNichols Arena. 

Every contest has its parameters, and this particular competition was limited to the younger demographic. They wanted to give two tickets to someone 14 and under. I was super into basketball at the time but probably would have never taken the initiative to call on my own. I was an out-of-towner, after all. These city folk certainly weren’t going to give the tickets to a kid from the valley.

But my parents gave me the nudge so I went into Emma’s house and picked up the phone to give it a shot. I don’t remember all the details but I remember being on hold for what seemed like a very long time and occasionally someone would get on and give me an update. The reason why I was holding for so long was because I was going to have to go on the air and tell the hosts why I should get the tickets. I didn’t have a very good answer, just a generic “because I really like basketball” but apparently they weren’t picky because they gave me the information to go down and pick the tickets up at the station the next day. 

One of the main mid-day shows on KOA at the time was a therapist somewhat in the vein of Dr. Laura which wasn’t of particular interest to me but my parents loved it. Anyways, upon arriving at their offices we may have ridden up the elevator with her. I don’t remember exactly how that conclusion was reached but it provided a little bit of fun for the adults to talk about later. 

So my dad and I went to McNichols Arena that night, August 24, 1988. This was the last Olympic team restricted to amateur athletes. The most famous name among them was “The Admiral” David Robinson, who would return four years later as part of the 1992 Dream Team. It was still pretty exciting as these were some of the top collegiate players at the time including Danny Manning of the national champion Kansas Jayhawks.

Their opponent was “NBA all-stars” although that term was used a little loosely. This  wasn’t Magic Johnson and Larry Bird we were talking about. The roster changed depending on the city the game was taking place in, and so this night’s team was heavy on Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz players. We were treated to a competitive and entertaining game - it went to overtime with the Olympians prevailing 105-103. 

Later out to Cap, I recounted this experience to my new student council peers and basically they thought I was making it up. I guess that’s the way my whole life has been - just a collection of experiences far too fantastic to be believable.