Ebersol to Deliver Kiphuth Lecture

Nov. 18, 2008

Dick Ebersol, Chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, will deliver the 2008 Kiphuth Fellowship Public Lecture on Thursday, Dec. 4 at 4 p.m. at Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall (SSS) in room 114. The speech is free and open to the public.

Ebersol is a fixture at the top of any list of the most influential and powerful people in sports. Fortune magazine called him "a powerbroker" who "has practically done it all in a storied TV career." He is responsible for all sports programming on the NBC and USA networks, along with overseeing every aspect of NBC Universal's involvement with the Olympic Games and NFL. Ebersol, known for his ability to bring large television audiences together, has produced eight of the top ten most-watched events in U.S. television history, led by the Beijing Olympic Games with a record audience of 215 million viewers.

Over more than three decades in television, Ebersol stands alone as an executive who has played a prominent role in the wide-ranging fields of sports, entertainment and news. Possessing a rare combination of a producer's creative vision with the savvy and business acumen of a CEO, Ebersol leads with passion, drive and a commitment to excellence.

While the cornerstones of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics under Ebersol's leadership are superior production, true partnerships and fiscal responsibility, his crowning achievement has been establishing NBC Universal as the home of the Olympic Games - television's most powerful franchise - through 2012. Beginning in 1967, when he temporarily dropped out of Yale to join Roone Arledge and ABC Sports as television's first-ever Olympic researcher, Ebersol has continually forged new paths. In 2000, the Los Angeles Times said he "established himself as the most influential executive in the industry since Arledge." In 2005, Ebersol was inducted into both the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.

Ebersol has served as executive producer of NBC Universal's coverage for every Olympics NBC has broadcast since the 1992 Barcelona Games, including the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. He also serves as executive producer for "NBC Sunday Night Football," the premier primetime game of the week. Ebersol negotiated the unprecedented six-year NFL deal, which includes innovative flexible scheduling, and continues through the 2011 season with Super Bowls in 2009 and 2012.

Ebersol has regularly been among the top honorees on The Sporting News' annual list of the 100 most powerful sports figures, including 1996 when he was named the publication's Most Powerful Person in Sports. In 1992, Ebersol was awarded the Olympic Order, an honor periodically bestowed by the International Olympic Committee to recognize remarkable contributions to the Olympic Movement. In 2000, the March of Dimes honored Ebersol with its Corporate Leadership Award. At the 2003 Michael S. Modell Awards Dinner, Ebersol was presented with the Dick Schaap Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports. In 2006, following in the footsteps of William S. Paley, Walter Cronkite and Roone Arledge, Ebersol received the prestigious Trustees Award by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The Kiphuth Fellowship Fund was established in 1970 in the memory of Yale University's legendary swimming coach and Athletic Director, the late Robert J.H. Kiphuth. The Fund provides the opportunity for men and women distinguished in the fields of physical training, sport, sports writing, physiology, literature and the arts to visit the Yale campus.