Bradley’s Buzz: 28 years later, we recall Atlanta’s 17 Olympic days

We Atlantans awaited the summer of ‘96 with enthusiasm – we’d spent thousands of dollars on Olympic tickets, some involving sports for which we had limited familiarity – and dread. How would traffic be? How would MARTA do? Would the world come to our city and hate what it saw?

If you were here then, you remember those 17 days and have the pictures to prove it. If you weren’t – and it was 28 years ago, and Atlanta did see a post-Olympiad population boom – here’s how it felt, at least to me.

· We’d had almost five years to anticipate/fret, which gave us time to contemplate every scenario, and still we were surprised. Somehow Billy Payne and ACOG managed to keep the biggest mystery – who’d light the caldron at the Opening Ceremonies – mysterious until the moment itself. Much would happen over those 17 days, but the sight of Muhammad Ali on the tower remains stirring.

· Also memorable: the day after the USA won the team gymnastics gold. Victory was sealed by Kerri Strug’s vault , which she landed on an injured ankle. The next day, as we Bradleys boarded the shuttle bus that would carry us downtown, Penny pointed to Rachel, age 6. She was hopping on one foot. “She’s being Kerri Strug,” my wife said.

· Buses became a major part of Atlanta’s Olympics story. On the one hand, we Atlantans – a citizenry not renowned for embracing mass transit – took to MARTA in a way that amazed even Payne and Co. (Organizers might have mentioned the possibility of traffic jams back to Chattanooga if we DIDN’T take buses/trains.) The scare tactics worked. Atlanta traffic has never been better than it was those 17 days.

· As for the press buses … I mostly avoided those, but I did hear horror stories. Some drivers brought to Atlanta to drive in Atlanta had navigational issues, some so frustrating that frazzled drivers parked the bus by the side of the road and disembarked, never to be seen again.

· The great Atlanta AP writer Paul Newberry tells this tale: An AP colleague boarded a bus after an event at one of the smaller downtown venues. That writer was the only passenger. “Just one more stop,” he was told. Ten minutes later, he noticed the bus was no longer in Atlanta. He asked where that one stop might be. “Athens,” he was told, for Sanford Stadium soccer pickup.

· We’ve forgotten how big Centennial Olympic Stadium was before it was cut in half to become Turner Field. For 17 days, downtown Atlanta had a stadium – capacity: 85,000 – as big as an SEC football venue. Then it became the new home of the Braves. On some of those 17 days, both the ancient Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and the new Olympic edifice were filled for baseball and track/field, respectively.

· Esteemed former colleague Mike Fish warned me to be on the lookout for angry readers when I visited the COS for track/field. It was thought Carl Lewis might lobby his way onto a relay team to win yet another medal. I suggested in print that Charles Barkley, always a good sport, could cede his basketball spot so Lewis could run up and down the court twice and claim still another. Apparently the Lewis family was unamused.

· We also forget how invaluable the four-year-old Georgia Dome was. For the Olympics, the world’s largest curtain divided the massive building into two venues – gymnastics on one side, basketball on the other. Two legendary USA teams – the one with Strug, Moceanu, Dawes and Miller; another with Shaq, Barkley, Pippen and Olajuwon – took gold medals there, though not on the same day.

· The biggest pre-Olympic event: The day before the opening ceremonies, Nike headquarters – the company built one not far from the Ritz-Carlton – was the site of a Shaq news conference. He’d just signed with the Lakers.

· Turner Field is no longer Turner Field. The Georgia Dome no longer stands. We say again: For as much as the Olympics meant to Atlanta, there aren’t many physical memories of those Olympics.

· Centennial Olympic Park is still around, though we can never forget what happened there. Alice Hawthorne of Albany died in the bomb blast. She was 44. Her daughter was injured. We Bradleys were safe at home that Friday night, watching on TV. We had, however, been in the Park the day before.

· Events witnessed as a sportswriter: gymnastics, track/field, men’s hoops, women’s hoops, weightlifting, wrestling. Events witnessed as a paying customer: volleyball, baseball. Times I drove to an event: once, to the closing ceremonies. Items of Olympic apparel I still have: none, having worn out two T-shirts and one ballcap.

The above is part of a regular exercise available to all who register on AJC.com for our free Sports Daily newsletter. The full Buzz, which includes extras like a weekly poll and pithy quotes, arrives via email around 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Go to the AJC.com home page. Click on “Choose from a variety of newsletters” at the top. Click on “Sports Daily.” You’ll need to enter your email address. Thanks, folks.

Get all the news about the Atlanta Braves delivered each morning. Sign up for Braves Report.