The OTP | Pregame - Week 11

Published Nov 15, 2024, 2:00 AM
Mike Keith and Amie Wells are joined by Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton to talk about his upcoming charity event on the OTP: Pregame, presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans.

This is the OTP Pregame, presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans, seventy seven years in the business of providing Tennesseeans with high quality health coverage at an affordable cost. Visit FBHP dot com to learn about our history in Tennessee. This is Amy Wells. I'm Mike Keith. We're glad you're with us. The OTP Pregame is the Thursday edition of the OTP. It's a lot of football generally, typically yes, but sometimes you get the opportunity to have a guest that you just simply will not turn down.

Absolutely not.

That is one of these times. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the OTP. Scott Hamilton, you.

Can hear it.

You can hear it. Olympic gold Medalist, broadcaster, entrepreneur, philanthropist, cultural icon, enter, entertainer, Wow impostorpost.

I have imposter, you know, I do kind of because it just none of it makes sense to me, and the older I get, the less it makes sense to me. The last sixty six years I've been playing with house money and it's like here we go and now I'm sitting here with you guys. So it's been a really wild and fun ride.

Well we have to say why Scott Hamilton is here. He wants to be with us. Peace.

Yeah, just a desire.

Scott Hambleton and Friends Bridgestone Arena, November twenty fourth, raising money to help us figure out how to get rid of cancer.

All it is a solvable problem. Forty seven years ago I lost my mom to cancer. And she was extraordinary. She had no chance, There was no solution for her problem. She suffered for two and a half years and succumbed, and the she died was a day. I kind of decided that I need to grow up a little bit because I was kind of like stuck toward the bottom of the standings constantly. I was playing to lose, not to win, right, So, yeah, I lost her. Two things happened. One I decided that I was going to take her with me to the ice every single day and be accountable to her and all the sacrifices she made for me and everything else. And the second thing I was going to do is be a fundraiser for cancer research. So I did that for twenty years. At the end of that twenty years, I was diagnosed with cancer. So now I was going through it and the more I went through it, it was like I kind of had to transition from fundraiser to activists. And the more I learned, the more I realized that my mom had no hope. I was given a ninety five percent chance of survival due to a guy named Larry Einhorn in Indiana who figured out the right mix of chemotherapy drugs to eradicate my cancer and get me back into the world. There's more to it now, because now we met the genome. Now we're even understanding the more even complex immune system that our bodies have. And I thought, you know, it's it's not naive to feel that while our bodies created the cancer, why can't we just teach our bodies how to detect and destroy it. Because right now we're sitting here, our bodies are detecting things that don't belong, and our immune systems are destroying them and discarding them. What is it about the cancer cell, which obviously doesn't belong, but it's something our body creates. How can we teach our body to detect and destroy it. So ten years ago we put a stake in the ground saying we're only going to fund research in immunotherapy and three years after we put that stake in the ground, the first drug at the market. It's been amazing to see the advancements. You know, we're just really a fun group to work with. We don't feel like we can solve the problem alone. So the CARES is the acronym Cancer Alliance for Research, Education, Survivorship. So we've done a lot of really cool things in education survivorship and a lot of cool things in research. But now we're kind of letting the E and the AS take care of itself because we've established our programs there and now we're fully invested in the R and the A because we really understand that silos don't ever accomplish really anything.

So your aim is to narrow it to say, let's make it a solvable problem.

Yes, it's a solvable problem. And you know, car T is an amazing example of the T cell therapy for you know B cell infoma. Right, So they take your T cells out, they may reprogram them, and then they put them back in your body and now they're they're hunting for those cells that don't belong and they're program to find a certain protein that's in that that B cell. Follow my cancer cell and they just destroy and discard it. So that's the future and the now of cancer research. It's just limited to a few cancers. It's getting broader and broader. Like I was on a call with Moffitt Cancer Center last year and two research scientists presented and they got two stage four lung cancer patients to full remission using a cross between immunotherapy and chemotherapy. And it was miraculous because stage four lung cancer when I grew up, it's like make your plans. Yeah, that was it. So we do an event every year. It's our big signature event at bridge Own Arena. We just try to raise as much money as we can and we try to be as inclusive as we can. And it's honestly, and it's not bragging. If it's true that it's not bragging. We're the only ones that can produce this show in the world. Okay, why we have access to unlimited live music, yes, iconic musicians, and I have unlimited access to the investigators world. You know, I was a good citizen, you know during my time, and you know people did well. Yes, And I mean I've got Kurt Browning coming back again, four time world champion just in professionally what he did it is remarkable. But we have all these skaters coming back and and they love this event because they never get to skate in front of live music ever. If the sponsors or whoever wants to come to the dinner afterwards, we do a celebration dinner at the Omni afterwards. Matt Rogers is our auctioneer. Yeah, which you guys might know a little bit about Roger now. He's like nobody handles a live auction like when his dear friend Matt Eisman is coming to help us host it again this year for the third year in a row. When you suffer that kind of loss, My mom was forty nine years old. You know. It's just like I always thought, if I could find a cure for her cancer, I'd have a better understanding of why I was born. She had metacetic millanoma rest cancer. Three years ago we got a immunotherapy research proposal for her form of cancer and so Cares. Thanks to the philanthropy of this town and our big event at Bridgetone Arena, we funded it fully and on the fortieth anniversary night of my Olympic gold medal, I got Brian Orser on my left, silver medalist, and I've got Joseph Object, my bronze medalist on my right. And I was able to announce that that research study is and now in clinical trial. Wow, so how do you how do you? How do you even get that out? You know? And it was it was so powerful because you know, these are two of my best friends, and we shared a great moment forty years ago and now we're together again, just laughing constantly. Just and Andrew Joyce was doing kind of like a Q and A with us, and she said, I don't understand. I do a lot of Olympics and most most podiums don't get along very well because they want that medal, of course, And how is it that you guys are best friends? It's like, well, we we enjoyed spending more time together off the ice than on the ice, and we were always rooting for each other. And it was extraordinary that on that night I got to better understand why I was born, not so much about the fortieth anniversary moment, but about what the moment I lost my mom that was the big moment of now what am I going to do? And and I'm praying that that clinical trial goes all the way through and we're able to be that ninety five percent curate that Larry Einhorn created in my form of cancer. So we're about immuno therapy, targeted therapies, treat the cancer and leave the patient alone, let them live their normal lives. But let's get rid of the cancer. And it's been a remarkable journey.

Scott Cares dot org.

Yeah, Scott Cares dot org. I know you have a lot of questions for us. Definitely didn't contact. This is not your first meeting.

You had the opportunity to be a part of his induction into the Tennessee.

About the first meeting that was the way to do eighteen years whatever. How long have you been doing the Titans twenty six? Okay, yeah, so ever since I moved here.

Yeah. Well, but I was excited that we were getting to honor Scott for what he had done here to get so many kids on ice.

Oh man.

And that to me, I mean, listen, we could have put you in because you lived here and you got to go medal for your broadcasting. I mean, there's so many things we could talk about in that way that would have made you worthy of being in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. But I was excited that we got to honor the fact, like my nephew played hockey in large part. And the Predators have done a great job too. Don't want to ta get anything away from their efforts.

They did it and they will come yes, yes.

But for what you had done to make ice available to kids, You've expanded the sports world in this state, which is why I thought he belongs in the tennis's We're tall fave and so I was excited.

But you didn't get to ask all of your questions because you're.

I'm looking for a different hijected, I had to hijack.

Was hijacked a little bit something to the.

Impact of touchdown? Yeah, all right, so it's third and seven and the nine.

Nine Titans trail. Let's go.

He loves that way, Staniel Handy Johnson coming left.

Jackson Like, how many people get to be in the room for that call.

Scott Hamilton. There are not many people that can get Mike Keith to do that outside of a broadcast, and yet you pulled it off off, which is amazing.

So I have to know why it was a big night and you were handling how many inductions that night? Twelve twelve inductions that night, A lot of things, and he was doing such a great job you and I just I'm sitting there going, you know, Mike is like the best of the best, and it's like, I just want to It's just like, how many times am I sitting next to bernlon Quist during the Olympics?

The best?

Yeah? Right, So it's like I just I just feel like that audience, I just wanted you to share that because that's iconic in this town. It really is.

Well, you're nice to sit you. It really is scared the crap out of me because I'm sitting here, you know, because you're following. I mean, you do dinners, you know how things go, and we're trying to we're trying to get people home at a normal hour while giving everyone their moment this such thing. And when he when he said that, when he said, Hey, how about you do this, I was I almost went out of buy. I was like, what he's not, Scott Hampleton is not really doing this?

It was so fun.

It turns out it was fun and I'm glad you did it, But in the moment, I was just oh gosh, and you know you're terrified you won't do it right.

You know, Mike, it's counting. You can count back?

Why I can count back? It was part of the degreat. We had to cut the interview a little bit.

Well are the questions you wanted to do?

So do I get the one that really wanted? Here's here's what I really wanted to nervous. You mentioned it's the fortieth anniversary of your gold medal. Yeah, I remember sitting in my living room at two hundred Valley Ridge Road in Franklin, Tennessee, boy watching on the you know, the.

Big TV, Yeah, the big Tube TV.

And it's ABC at that time, because that night it's Al Michaels and Dick.

Button, nol Michaels and Dick Button.

Yeah, and here you're going for the gold medal. And what you, as younger don't quite understand, and those of your generation, the Cold War was such a big deal at that moment. It hit every day of our lives somewhere. There was a fear. When we competed internationally and we had a chance for one of our guys or our girls to win, it was a big deal. No matter what your sport was. We all watched it. We knew who you were. You were in our thoughts, in prayers, we wanted you to come through. And so you're the three time world champion at that point, you would win a fourth later three in a row.

I was undefeated for almost four years. Yeah, well, okay for you. So you're just asking it doesn't make any sense.

So you're going out there for the free skate to put it away, and we're all on your back at that point.

Now it's a big day, and you go out and.

You come through and you win the gold medal, and when you come off the ice, the first thing you say is sorry, yeah, wow, And I was like, you were great.

Yeah, it was. It was wild because that whole season and I was like, I'm going to eliminate every would have could have been, should have Like I'm not stepping on the ice in Sarajevo and going, oh I I would have done a few more run throughs. I could have, I could have worked a little harder. I'm only so. My strategy going in was my weakness is always the compulsory figures and were there were thirty percent of the competition back then short program was twenty percent the long program was fifty percent right, so I figured if I could be top three in all three events, mathematically I could not lose. I won the figures, which was impossible because I beat the probably the best guy ever God named Jean christophsimm from France. I went to Paris on the way. My coach was very strategic and we stopped there to get used to the time change. He really wanted me to see Jean Christoph's figures, and Jean Christophe's coach wanted me to light a fire under his tail to be more like aggressive in his freestyle. Right, So it served both coaches. So I put my patch right next to his and I'm kind of like doing my thing, and then I let go over. I was like, I can totally beat him. I knew in that moment I can totally beat him. So I was first and figures go out. For the short program. Brian Orser and I tied, basically broken tie in his favor, still sitting in first. He was eighth and figures came up a little bit. So when we got to the freestyle, I had to be fifths. Brian had to win, which he was going to because he threw a clinic down that night, and I had to be fifth in along in order to lose, and I haven't lost the free program in over three years. Wow. So what I was getting from the media, and that's why I hid my room the whole time, was do you realize that you're the only real sure thing in this Olympics. If you lose, it's going to be a humiliation of our country. These are the proddings I'm getting from the press. I just hid going after that long program. I was a little nervous, and I made two mistakes and I hadn't I'd skated that program clean for almost three months, like I hadn't missed that program ever, And I was a little sick. Right side of my head was congested, and I couldn't take anything for it because of doping, right and so I was kind of a little bit off my game, and I was so prepared that I was almost on the other side of it. And I had to survive that program in order to kind of win. And I was second to Orcer because he was spectacular, and so I won the gold medal and it was remarkable because the press conference afterwards, it was how does somebody not win seventy percent of the competition and win the whole thing, right because they didn't understand. They're either football writers or baseball writers or hockey writers, and they're there are a couple of the Olympics the don't understand bigger skinning, and Woody Page was one of them. So what, He's a legend, And yeah, I lived in Denbury's Denver Post. He's already written his article and I'm just going to get tard and feathered. I'm going to come back to my hometown shamed. And I just told him exactly how it went down. I go, Yeah, I came here with a strategy. I go, if you guys are football writers, and if especially if you're like a Bronco writer, you know, and you go to the super Bowl and somebody throws up thirty five points in the second quarter, you're probably not going to win the game, you know. So that's kind of what I did. I scored thirty five points in the first quarter, and how do you make up that ground? You just can't. And I go, I didn't do my best here, but I came in with a strategy. I stuck to it. Brian Orser was magnificent. I'll never take anything away from him. He's one of my best friends, and Woody tore up his article.

How did you even function with all of that pressure?

When I went my first Worlds, I was thinking either the sports at its lowest place in history or I got up my game. And then I got through that seat, and then the next season I was undefeated. I went to the World Championship and I won it again, and I'm looking at the whole sport and it's like, I'm not competing against everybody in the world. I'm just competing against knuckleheads like me, and all they want to do is the best they can. So my job is to get better next year and then be better than next year after that, and that way I can stay ahead of those guys. And so the next year I went to the Worlds and I really up my game. I was like way better changed, and I was wearing more of a speed skating suit to kind of create a more athletic image of the sport. I was different, right, And so I won that World's easily, and then I had all the momentum in the world going into the next season, and I was headhunting that year internationally because I wanted to compete against the second place guy everywhere I could to convince him that he couldn't beat me. Wow, like, just give me no where's he going? That's where I want to go. And I said, you guys figure skating, and I said, nobody's won the European Championships, no American except for Dick Button. I want you to get me into the European Championships. And they go, we can't, and I go why and he goes, well, when Dick Button won it, they created a rule that no one was allowed to come back from North America. I go, come on, that's not fair. Those European skaters are in front of all those judges more than we are. I want to be in front of those judges. So I was really I was going after everybody, and that held through when Orcer beat me in the short and the long in the Olympics, there was all that kind of like, well, I mean, you know, he barely made it through. And I said, where are Worlds? Oh, they're in Canada. Where's Brian Orser from He's in Canada. Let's go to Worlds. So I was offered all these endorsements, right, you know, because you know, and I turned them all down to go back to the World Championships because I figured the government's going to take half that money before I even get it, and I'm going to spend it like within a week. And it's like, so why don't I if I go to have a fourth Worlds I have that forever, forever and it's just me and Hayes, Jenkins and Dick. But and so I went back and in Ottawa, Canada against Brian Orser, went into the same strategy. I won the figures, I won the short and then you know, a lot pretty bad and I got my fourth World Championship, and then it was time to get a.

Job as a competitor. Having been under that kind of pressure, Will Levice, if you were advising somebody who faces that kind of scrutiny, that kind of pressure as an athlete, what's your number one piece of advice?

Preparation. It's all preparation. It's all preparation and knowing that you've got that throw, knowing that you know you understand that defense, knowing exactly where your receivers are going, knowing exactly you know the timing of that hand, all of its preparation and all that preparation for like a Will Evis. It happened in little league stuff, and then it went to high school, then it went to college, and now he's in the pros. It's all it's all you know, talent preparation. But the main thing is is going into that moment knowing that you've done everything you can and now you just got to step into it and make it happen. And so when you're an individual athlete, as Vern Lunquist would say, alone on the ice, it's just you. It's all on you. My body knew what it was doing. I'm I'm in the air for point seven seconds. How much thought is going to go into that if I have to make any you know, and no, my body is trained to do its job. Let your body do its job. And the mental side of it is try not to stand in your opening positions. They don't choke. Right, I'm prepared, No would have, could have or should have. I don't have one regret, and I'm stepping into this moment because AI earned it, and b I'm prepared.

So just trust your trust.

Your preparation, and trust your body. Let's say, in football, right, you've got a receiver wide open, right, and by the time the ball gets to me sixty yards away, you know, you've got to know exactly how much force you're going to put behind that ball because you want to put it right into his hands. That takes repetition and understanding of what that moment looks like. He was open, but that quarterback had to be so unbelievably skilled in his release and his timing and knowing exactly where to put that ball, like sixty yards down the field on the run with the guy that could probably run a four three forty and you're trying to put it right in the basket. It's like, come on, yeah, impossible. That is not for them because they've had all that preparation. They have all that skill.

Talking about preparation your body and trusting just your instincts really, because your career is one that doesn't end at the Olympics.

No.

A lot of people who win Olympics memos, A lot of people who win Olympic gold though, that's the pinnacle, that's the best point in their career.

For you, that's one thing.

In a list of a thousand things that you've done. You've got stars on ice, you're a broadcaster, you've done all of these incredible things in as a philanthropist, as a fundraiser.

As the list goes on and on and on.

You're a cultural icon, like everybody knows Scott Hamilton. Is that because you were prepared for every moment?

No, no, no. When I won eighty four Worlds, I was still living in my best friend's parents' basement. Really he went off to law school with DePaul, and I was living in the family just for a couple of weeks. I have stayed for four years, and so I need to figure out a way next. And there was no path for a male figure skater. If I were Canadian, yes, If I were a woman, yes, American woman like Peggy Fleming paid the way, Dorothy Hamill paid the way. There was just you step right into that and it's like, you know, but for a guy, not so much. And when I signed with the Ice Capades, the president says, I have no idea what we're gonna do with you, but we had to sign it because we didn't want you to go into the competition. I had to kind of figure out a way to build an audience and to build their trust. So I worked really hard. I never missed a press conference. I stayed at top of my game, skated really hard, skated well, never missed a show. I was learning about lighting and music and production, and I was learning about you know how it all works, because I was fascinated by it. And I was skating really hard. And then the president of the Ice Capades, who had grown a really good friendship with he came and put his arm around me, started to walk and I thought I was getting my third year option, but he was there to tell me that the new owner of the Ice Capades didn't want any male skaters, so they were letting me go. So I met my manager. He goes, meet me and Florida, I will talk about next. And so I met him in Florida. We're sitting on the beach in Delray Beach, Florida. Went down for the Lipton. You know, yeah, I was a big tennis fan. And uh, he goes, I've done everything I can, every trick in the book. They're not gonna bring you back. And he goes, but we've been talking internally, and you seem to know a lot about the sport and you know shows. Can you help us put together a tour? And I remember looking at him and I said, let me check my calendar. I'm so unemployed it's unbelievable. And so I just pen to paper, I went, I started, I started recruiting. I said, you're gonna go. I need you the production. I needed this, I need I need it. You're gonna choreograph.

We're gonna do this.

We're gonna bring the skaters together. We're gonna and we put on a show thirty eight years ago that turned into Stars on Ice and it was amazing. I remember we were six years in. I'm on the road with Orser. We're just having a blast together. We're doing all these shows. You know, I've got Peter and Kitty Carruthers, I've got Gordy, even grink Off. I've got like, you know, Roslyn Sumners.

It's all.

The Olympians wanted to be a part of that, and so we took them all. I'm covering my first Olympics for CBS and at the end of the competition, Christy Almagucci miraculously wins the gold medal and they asked her what's next. She goes, I'm joining Stars on Ice and I was like, well, now we're really pregnant. What are we gonna do now. So we went from thirty to sixty cities, and then you know, Canada got bigger. Everything got bigger, bigger and bigger. Paul Wiley joined us, and then Tory Linden joined us, and then Katerinavit joined us, and it's just like Kurt Browning joined us, and we just kept getting bigger and we're selling out arenas all over the country. It was just this huge success story. And it got to the point where I figured, if I skated four years, I'm fooling a lot of people as a pro. If I skates six years, I'm obviously a fraud. But now like I'm headed towards like fifteen years full touring, NonStop sixteen years ago and then you know, I get cancer and so I had to skip the last ten cities of the sixty city tour and then Canada and I went through chemo and then I'd be old thirty eight staple surgery. And my whole thing was I'm going to be back on the ice next year, wow, wow, no matter what. So from the day I was diagnosed till first performance back, which they did a CBS television special call back on the Ice, it was six and a half months. Looking back on that, it's like impossible, like that that ever happened. But I was back on the road the next year, and then on the third anniversary of my diagnosis doing Stars in Ice in Memphis, and I meet my wife backstage and it's like it just you just can't make this stuff up. So all of that right, and it was you just had to make it up as you go. Where do you get your inspiration in? Mine were all rock stars, right, Bruce Springsteen. I'm going to blue call my way. I'm going to figure out a way to grow an audience, and I'm gonna work harder than anybody. I'm going to show up and I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna be Bruce Springsteen. It's like that because he was like amazing. And then I'm gonna like Neil Diamond. Have you ever been to a Neil Diamond show?

Have not?

Oh? The joy coming from the stage was infectious. I want to be like that. I want to be like I want it just to be the great every night i'm on on the I want to be the greatest night of my life. I want to be like Neil Diamond right, and then the last one was Robert Plant. Robert Plant wasn't afraid of anything. He was going to take on every rhythm, every texture, every he was going to explore music posts led Zeppelin. I remember seeing a quote, one of those inspirational quotes in the training room at Ottawa, no journey truly begins until you can no longer see dry land. And I wanted that to be my every year. So I get this Olympic Old medal, I come back to a parade. I trained in relative isolation. So now I go from being you know, this guy's tracing eights on my own to being in a parade and Larimer Square five thousand people if packed, and the governor's wife is there, and the mayor's there, and it's like, I don't know how to do any of this stuff. And so I survived that thinking Wow, this is really fun and parties it's like yay. I's like toast the down yay. And then I get called into the governor's office and I discovered Colorado right, Governor Colrade Lamb, Governor Lamb, and he couldn't make it. He had other things he had to do. On the paray day so his wife represented, but she was a cancer survivor. And I went to his office and I'm in a jacket and tie thing. It's a photo op because they all are right yeah, and he sits me down, excuses everybody, and we just I'm sitting across the desk from me. He said, seemed like a nice young man. I was like, thank you. He goes, no, my wife told me yesterday you had some time to visit. And I go, she's a great lady, and he goes, yes, she is. And I just felt like I needed to pour into you a little bit. And I go okay, and he said, look, have you ever heard of the hometown hero syndrome? I said no, and he goes, well, hometown hero syndrome is basically this. You're the captain of high school football team. You're the quarterback, you throw a bomb at the end of the game to win the state championship, and you get carried off the field on seemed shoulders, and you expect the rest of your life to be that way. He goes it just isn't. I want you to enjoy the fruits of your labor, but I also want you to know that it's not always going to be like this, There'll be a day when nobody celebrates your accomplishments anymore. And I was like, I'll never forget this moment. And it was so generous, and it was so kind, and it was so wise. And the next thing I did was I spoke at the Paralympic banquet in Denver, Colorado, which was at a hotel basically across the street where I just met the governor, and I walked in with my medal, you know, and all these athletes, blind, without legs, every possible obstruction you can imagine, had the same metal I did. But I'm able bodied, and I was offended that I would think that anything I ever did was worth anything. And so my own big old metal lived in a brown paper bag at the bottom of my underwaar door for eight years until I could figure out a way to get rid of it. I couldn't wait to get rid of it. It offended me in every possible way. There's so much I want to experience, there's so many things I want to do. To get stuck in this moment would be a crime, It would be obnoxious. So at the end of that eight years, I was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, and the museum reached out to me and they said, hey, would you like to leave anything here at the museum, you know, as part of your induction. I go everything, and I go to me. I go everything from my first little silver medal in nineteen sixty eight in the sub juvenile pre men competition. Everything, and they took everything, and it's all there, and so I don't have to I don't have to get stuck. And I had no idea what any of that meant until you know, I meet my wife. She brings me into my face. When I really started digging in and building my understanding of who I am in Christ, I realized that those things are idols, and idols are things you worship instead of who you really should be worshiping. And that was already in me back then, before I ever dedicated my life to the Lord. And it was remarkable. I can look back and I can start connecting dots now in different ways that it was always. I was an unintended, unwanted child. My mother saw me through, brought me into the world and put me up for adoption. I was given incredible sacrificial parents who gave me the foundation I needed to kind of step into the next and every single step of the way, God was there, Jesus was there, and I didn't know until I just sort of looked up. And the second I looked up, I realized it's all connected. And for anybody out there that's watching this, it's going through cancer. And I can tell you that it was the hardest period of my life next to losing my mom. But it was important and it made it possible everything I get to do today. I wouldn't have met my wife had not had cancer. I wouldn't have my children had I not had cancer. So how do I look at that as a curse?

Right?

And then looking at my son, aid and the day he was born, his feet were here, his head was here. I never saw flesh of my own flesh before. I'm looking into my eyes and it's like, wow, that's miraculous. All the other stuff is activity.

Your gift wasn't skating. It's gratitude.

I like that. I'll take that.

You should.

Every decade has its own identity, like zero to ten. It took forever, how long as they're intent took, Yeah, it took forever. And all these things happened, like you know, you're you get out of diapers and you go into pre school, and then you're in school, and then you turn ten and it's like double digits. And then from ten to twenty, lots of really cool things happen. You know, you start, you know, you go through puberty, driver's license, you know, you turn eighteen, you graduate high school, you go to college, and then twenties it's like, oh, game on. Now you've got to start asserting your identity and on you independence and everything. And then from thirty to forty, it's like the cement starting to set on your life and you kind of understand he or maybe you start a family, maybe you're and you kind of know who you are and what your place is of the world. And then forties is like I can finally be comfortable in my own skin. The key to the fifties I learned was when you get out of bed in the morning, take advantage of it, because that's as good as you're going to feel for the rest of your life.

Thanks.

And then the sixties is such a remarkable decade of pure gratitude in every situation. It's like thank you, Laarden, Like I I'm here and I'm able to do things, and and I've made all these friends, and I've got all these experiences and I can just look back on it on just take a breath and go that was This has been such an incredible ride that it's just pure gratitude. So yeah, it's a superpower, I guess, and thank you.

For that listening to your message and hearing. I mean, you've gotten to be so many different places and see so many different things, and you've had bad things happen. You've obviously had a lot of good things happen, but at the same time, you've shared the journey with so many other people, Like I'm talking about my nephew getting to play hockey and have that experience in large part because of what you put.

Forward hours that's the predators and well but you but.

You've been big, you know, to get kids skating in different ways, just to have normal people enjoy I mean Amy wants to take go to scott Hamilton's skating school.

Yeah, I was looking at classes today. Our adult program is spectacular.

It's all.

It's all I've wanted to do. No, it's our dull program is spectacular. We got great coaches. It's really remarkable. I'm from three to I think our oldest learned escape. Personally, I'm probably in their eighties, and it's just like it's fun, you know. And a lot of parents are put their kids in hockey. The kids want the gear and they want there, but they go straight into the house league. And it's like, would you put your your child in soccer if they didn't know how to run? No, probably not let them come to us. I was with when my son was playing house league. I was talking to one of the dads and I go, how you liking all this? He goes, oh, it's so much fun. He just doesn't know how to stop. And I go, that's that's a fun issue. And I go, you know, we do learn to skate Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday in Antioch and I go put them in a class. We do a whole hockey. There's a whole hockey kids in there. They get to wear their gear, they get to do all their things. The next Tuesday, his son was in the class and he learned how to stop both ways, and just the the self esteemed you could just see the joy just erupted, and it's like that's the stuff I mean, I'll do this forever. I mean, it's kind of been my happy place. You know, they are busy. I was doing other things, and now I'm kind of like, we're re kind of inventing what this getting academy looks like, and we're we're going to send off for the kids going to sectionals. And it was it was a lot of kids going to sectionals now and so many of them started took their first steps with us. Now they're competing at that level.

Well, that's what I'm talking about, because the thing about sports is there's such a joy when you find your thing. You know, for my son, it wasn't football, it was running cross country. Good for you find your thing. I mean, if you get that, it just makes such a difference. And by offering more things, it's huge. This part of the country was one of the first places in the South to play soccer. They started playing soccer in Middle Tennessee, you know, pretty competitively in the seventies, way before other places. That's good, man, what joy is good? Why not?

Why not? I remember my first days on the ice, you know, I had to do this supplement that I hated because it takes to like chalk right, you know, the only thing to keep your meal alive, you know, all that stuff, And so I wouldn't drink anymore. I kept telling my mom I was going into the bathroom to drink it. I just dump it down the sink and a little in my think it's like I got caught.

It makes me feel better about him, Yeah, it really does.

So they our family physician lived about three doors down, and he came over and we my we he has to drink this stuff, and he won't do it anymore. I said, I'm not going to drink this stuff anymore. So they put a tube up my nose and down my esopagiss and so they feed me this supplement through the tube. I never had to taste it again. It's like game on, let's go. So when I went to the first skating class I ever went to, I had a tube coming out of my nose taped to the side of my face. The end was over my ear, and I was like one hundred and twenty, well, kids, And it's like after a few weeks, I realized that I could do something as well as well kids.

And I was like, huh.

And then after a few more weeks, I realized I could skate as well as the best athletes in my grade. That was always the littlest. I was always the sickest, I was always the weakest, I was always thestiest. Right, I finally found something that gave me that taste of self esteem, and I just became a rank rap. You know, we're all sports fans.

You know.

We love to we love to watch, we love to cheer, we love to do all these things. And behind every single one of these athletes is you know, you look at every Titan, a family sacrificed. Oh yeah, for that person to be on that field doing something at a level they never dreamed possible. Being a sports fan is like the greatest thing ever. My wife is loves sports, loves sports, so we you know, we sit and watch football together and it's it's really I hate when the football season ends. So yeah, you know, but again it's like my you know, I'm a huge hockey fan. I'm a huge Predators fan. When I get to go to the Olympics, that's my only night out usually is going to a hockey game because Olympic hockey. Like I was at the all the USA Games in nineteen eighty, I went to all of them. Wow, and it was really fun and the Russia game was electric, and then every Olympics I just try to find a way to go to Finland. Sweden is my favorite because they're such nice people, but they really hate each other on the each other on the ice.

Hey Titans fans, with a Kroger Boost membership, you'll score big with double fuel points, free delivery and lots more. Go to Kroger dot com slash boost for details. Kroger Official grocer of the Tennessee Titans.

Tighten Up Home is at the forefront of all that we do. It's why we're so committed to caring for the places and spaces in which we work and live. Ashley the Official Furniture Provider of the Tennessee Titans. So this is the otp pregame. So we have five questions, Yeah, and it was Amy's.

Keep them short.

I promised so that it was Amy's idea to make the five questions the five topics about scott Hamilton and French November twenty fourth, Bridge Stone Areta get your ticket. There's an after party there.

It's so good. It's such a great event. And you know what's wild is we haven't still built our audience like we need to in order to sustain.

Well after this. Oh yeah, honestly will be there.

We're the only people in the world that could do this event, like this event can happen anywhere else, and it's only performed once ever, and then the next year is totally different. Last ye, right, this is eight last year's nineties country. This year is Christmas and it's gonna beautiful. It's gonna be amazing.

Okay, it's always good. Topic one, does Scott Hambleton skate at the Scott Hamilton and Friends Holiday Spectacular.

I have not performed. I did a little step out one year, but I never say never. I replaced never with I can't imagine a scenario that would allow.

However, however, however, however, that topic two, Scott Hamilton is the most famous person at Scott Hambleton and Friends. Who is the second most famous person this year?

Oh my goodness, you've got Kirk Brown and coming back. You caught your Gordieva coming back, who's won two Olympic gold medals. Beautiful, amazing skater a large ball day. I mean, what he does on social media is incredible. So you see Wine ins. Yes, pretty big deal, a really big deal. I mean, Stephen Curtis Chapman just went into the ground. He's an Opry member. Now got Chip Beeston. I always try to make sure that the show is populated with familiar names, faces and abilities.

Topic three. The Titans play in Houston earlier that day on November twenty four.

No reason not to be at the show, by the way, Oh, there's plenty of.

Times, plenty of time, plenty of time.

Remember, celebrate the victory and then get down town.

And here's what's really important. You can always listen to the fourth quarter on the radio.

There you go, Titans Radio, Tights Radio for you.

One four to five zone in Nashville. So will you give the Titans a shout out after we beat the Texans?

Oh? Man, they beat the Texas absolutely.

Topic four, who's your favorite musical guest at Scott Hamilton and Trentz.

Sitting down backstage before rehearsal of the Wretha Franklin was really cool. Gosh, yeah, it was really cool and she loved figure skating. We had Kenny Loggins, huge Kenny Loggins fan, Michael McDonald. It's like Peter Sitterra it's like Amy Grant. It's Vince did the show in Cleveland one year and he almost killed me. The guy is hilarious. But it was all these people. Wisa Minelli did the show there one year. It was like Royalty had come on our stage. Cindy Lauper was booked to do so and she walked in and she goes, where am I. Hi, Cindy, I'm Scott. You're welcome. She goes where am I. I realized that her management probably didn't tell her she was doing a skating show. And I go, well, this is my annual fundraiser for cancer. We've raised tens of millions of dollars and would you like to meet some more skaters because I needed to hook her because I was going to lose her. And she goes shure and I go, Sidney, this is Dorothy Dorothy Hammel and Cindy's eyes went like that and she nice to meet you guys. Guys, we have a precarious situation here. I need everybody's cooperation. It was hilarious. So we've had all these huge artists, these big moments, and it's just been spectacular.

Last one, Okay, how do you buy tickets? To the Scott Hamilton and Friends Holiday Spectacular.

Ticketmaster Bridge Son Arena, box office, Scottcares dot org. Now we turn bridge Son Arena for all of you that haven't been to the show. We turn it into a theater. The glass goes away, we cover the boards with black, We put two rows of seats on the ice, and then everything just it's seamless, so there's no barrier between the audience and the ice, and it's magic. If you've never seen skating live in front of you before. Have you ever been to a skating event libry perhaps? Have you been close to the ice?

Uh? Not particularly? No, I didn't get that were the.

Speed, the athleticism, the explosive nature of skatable. It's so much fun to do these things with my friends and contemporaries and heroes.

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Visit snickers dot com slash Rookie Mistakes for details. We have to sort of wrap uph Yeah we can. Don't don't leaf you stay. You've got to stay. You've got to be a part of this. We have to get ready for the game on Sunday against the Vikings. So it's now time. Ah, there we go for the key ingredients of the game delivered by Little Caesars. Key number one for the I think this weekend at east Side Stadium. Turn up the heat. After back to back games with four sacks, the Titans defense did not record a sack in Los Angeles. The Titans pass rushers need to get back to their nasty ways and turn up they eight on Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold. Key number two. Keep feeding Calvin Calvin Ridley. That is, Ridley has twenty catches on thirty two targets for three hundred yards in the last three games and has been making big plays So the Titans offense is it faced with driving the football over and over again.

Scott Hamilton's try here, it's crazy and just power.

For the man. Finally, the Titans must keep track of Justin Jefferson wherever he goes on Sunday. That's key number three. It's going to be up to the cornerbacks, the safeties, the nickelback, the linebackers, you name it. No one Titans player will slow Justin Jefferson on Sunday. It will take the entire back seven to make it difficult.

Little Caesars is the official pizza partner of your Tennessee Titans. Download the Little Caesars app and get your favorites delivered today. Delivery fees do apply, all right, right, Scott Hamilton, Which, oh boy, mayonnaise.

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Look at this, Scott Hamilton, What a pleasure to have you with a Scott Hamilton and Friends Holiday Spectacular November twenty fourth, Bridgestone Arena, Get your tickets again.

This is our seizure event that does more to fund cancer research than anything else we do all year, so we're really, really really hoping that this is our biggest invest year ever. It's remarkable that this event has an opportunity to save lives and I always say the greatest gifts given are to those that will never know the origin of that gift, and so we fund research. Larry Einhorn was the research scientist that saved my life. Testicular cancer had five percent survival rates fifty years ago. Thanks to him, they're ninety five percent twenty seven years later. I'm still here. My mom never had a chance. Now maybe through this research, the next person facing that particular cancer does. So we really encourage everybody if you're a cancer survivor if you want to honor somebody in your family that's gone through cancer or is going through cancer. The best place to be is where there's hope, and there's hope with us, and we are truly trying to change the world forever and for the better.

You are you have joined us, will thank you for Scott Appleton and Aby Wells I Mike Keith, thanks for joining us for the otp pregate