Always the
Entrepreneur
Life & Arts
As the world looks toward the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, writer Sarah Notton meets
Peter V. Ueberroth, whose pioneering leadership led to the huge success of the 1984 Olympic Games and a host of other sporting and business accomplishments
Then-U.S. Vice President George Bush Senior at a World Series baseball game with Peter in 1984. Image credit: Getty
Peter Ueberroth is a man of many achievements — a high-level sports and business executive, an entrepreneur, and a true pioneer. Now in his 80s, Peter remains an active and innovative leader. But with the Paris Olympic Games fast approaching, it’s appropriate to begin our look back over his life story with the event that put him on the world’s stage: the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games.
It was July 28, and more than 92,655 spectators were gathered for the opening ceremony. A gloriously blue sky offset the dazzling white arches of Los Angeles Coliseum. What followed was a show packed with memorable, televisual spectacle: the electrifying sight of a flying man powered by a jet pack landing on the stadium’s ground; 84 white baby grand pianos playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in unison; and that iconic, barrier-breaking moment when Gina Hemphill, granddaughter of the great Olympian Jesse Owens, passed the torch to Rafer Johnson — who lit the cauldron high above the Coliseum.
Briefly addressing the red, white, and blue-swathed crowd was Peter Ueberroth, the president of the Los Angeles Olympics Organizing Committee (LAOOC). A successful entrepreneur who had built one of America’s largest travel companies — First Travel Corporation — from scratch, he had now been propelled onto the global stage. Peter would be indelibly written into the history books as someone who reset the model for the modern Olympic Games in terms of financial success and breaking down gender and racial barriers.
“I think I said 17 words,” recalls Peter. The International Olympic Committee had rules specifying that he had to announce the opening of the event, but in truth he preferred to hand it over to International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch, and then quietly disappear to sit in the crowd with his family.
A Lifetime of Achievement
Almost 40 years later, I am meeting with Peter at his Newport Beach offices. The walls are adorned with mementos that reflect his life and work: several Olympic torches, a photo with longtime friend Warren Buffett, and commemorative bricks from the Rebuild LA campaign.
Married to Ginny for more than 60 years and a father of four, Peter is a charming and sprightly 86 years of age. Work is still very much part of his life: he comes into the office every day to check on his various business interests with his faithful dog, Maggie (rescued near his farm in Idaho) at his side. As someone who rarely gives interviews, he is refreshingly reticent about recounting his significant achievements.
Yet his resume is impressive: college athlete, entrepreneur, philanthropist, baseball commissioner, Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1984, co-owner of Pebble Beach Golf Links . . . but it is the epithet “the man who saved the Olympics” that most remember.
Asked about his expectations for the hotly anticipated 2024 Olympics, Peter says: “The Paris Olympic Games will be an incredible success — it can’t help it.” So, what was it in his own character that helped drive the Games forward back in 1984? “There is no talent; I can’t sing!” laughs Peter. “I don’t really have any unusual skills, but what I did do was try and make an unusual situation that would, for the next four weeks — and for the next few years — have a reputation of ‘wow, wow, wow . . .’”
Peter’s response underplays the enduring impact of the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games. The event generated an unprecedented surplus of $232.5M, and the proceeds were plowed back into sports development in the United States together with the creation of the LA84 Foundation, which still distributes funds for kids in sports in underserved communities and generates income 40 years later.
Mike McKee, former CEO of The Irvine Company, who served as a member of the legal team during the preparations for LA84, underlines Peter’s impact: “Under his guidance, the 1984 Olympics achieved a historic milestone, marking the first time in decades that the Games operated without a deficit,” he recalls. “Peter’s remarkable leadership was duly acknowledged in 1984 when Time magazine honored him as Man of the Year for his pivotal role in rescuing the Olympic movement.”
Los Angeles was also a pivotal moment for women’s sports inclusion and participation. Exclusively female disciplines of synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics made their debuts, while barriers were broken for women’s long-distance running with the inaugural women’s marathon, won by the United States’ Joan Benoit. Peter recalls how 54% of his organizing team were women and notes that, “without question, the Olympics changed the situation that women shouldn’t really work. It changed in our country. It showed women that ‘I can do that, I’m going to raise my hand.’”
Peter Ueberroth, sports and business executive. Image credit: Alamy
December 2023 (Volume 23)
Peter would be indelibly written into the history books as someone who reset the model for the modern Olympic Games
Arnold Palmer, Dick Ferris, Peter, and Clint Eastwood
By Sarah Notton
What made the staging and subsequent financial success of the Los Angeles Olympic Games so monumental were the challenges that had to be overcome. The Olympic movement was in the doldrums following the hostage crisis of Munich 1972, the financial disaster of Montreal in 1976, and the boycotts of Moscow 1980. To make matters worse, popular opinion in the United States was against the Olympic Games — there was a belief that hosting them would bankrupt LA — and public funding was denied. It would take an almost Herculean effort to turn things around.
Ultimately, a series of key decisions spearheaded by Peter proved the doomsayers wrong. In line with his innate entrepreneurial spirit (his first job was delivering newspapers at 14), Peter opened a bank account with just $100 of his own money, then asked for a refundable deposit from five TV networks who would eventually bid for rights, which generated interest for operating expenses.
With an original goal of $368M to produce an Olympic Games of the highest quality, sponsorships were limited to a total of 30 and the team saved on marketing costs by ensuring sponsors promoted the Olympic Games themselves. In his biography, Peter recounts the first bidding war between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, with Coca-Cola emerging as the winner. “All those zeros — boy, did I love those zeros!” The sale of TV rights followed, with ABC paying $225M — a record-shattering amount.
Another turning point was the establishment of the torch relay. Ignoring the doubts of his own team, Peter pushed for a national torch relay beginning in New York. His gut instinct was proven correct. “We showed them that even the Olympic Games coming by for half a day in their city could be the biggest fundraiser they’ve ever had.” And so, the excitement built up across the nation.
However, even in these pre-social media days, the intense criticism in the run-up to the Olympic Games resulted in a significant personal toll for Peter and his family. “It got so bad, then the relay had momentum and people were reading that people were celebrating and then all of a sudden, boom! The doubters wanted to come back in.” He laughs, “They were too late, there wasn’t room for them.”
He sums up the experience with characteristic understatement. “It all worked.”
Leaping the Hurdles
On the cover of Time magazine in 1983 and 1985
Sports have played a crucial role throughout Peter’s life and career. The mentorship of his water polo coach, Ed Rudloff, helped Peter gain a college scholarship at San Jose State University. He is as humble about his accomplishments back then as he is about his later achievements, joking: “The good thing about water polo is that if you want to brag you’re a water polo player, it doesn’t work!” But he also acknowledges that the scholarship changed his life. It was at San Jose that he met Ginny, too.
A lifelong baseball fan, he was appointed commissioner of Major League Baseball immediately after the LA84 Olympics (he is diplomatically coy about his favorite team) before returning later to the Olympic movement as chairman of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in 2004–08.
In 1999, when a new opportunity arose, Peter’s first call was to Bill Perocchi, the former CFO of DoubleTree Hotels where Peter previously served as co-chairman. They then teamed up with longtime friends: Dick Ferris, his partner in the hotel business and the former CEO of United Airlines, Clint Eastwood, and golf legend Arnold Palmer. Together, they led an investment group that acquired Pebble Beach Resorts, including the world-famous Pebble Beach Golf Links, and brought it back into American ownership.
He continues to golf regularly, and Pebble Beach has been a true passion project. “It’s as beautiful a place to have a golf course as I’ve been able to find,” says Peter.
At one point on the boards of as many as 17 major Fortune 500 companies, including Hilton, Coca-Cola, and Bank of America, Peter continues to invest in ventures including golf course chain PGA WEST via his venture capital investment business, The Contrarian Group. The firm takes its name from Peter’s own lifelong tendency always to bypass popular fashions in favor of following his own judgment. He also recognizes the importance of giving back and since 1984, the Peter and Ginny Ueberroth Family Foundation has been quietly donating to organizations that are making a difference in their communities.
Stephanie Quesada is a partner at The Contrarian Group and has worked with Peter for 20 years. She says: “Peter possesses a remarkable ability to identify and collaborate with individuals who are ideally suited for the task and he surrounds himself with exceptional people, giving them authority and ownership.” Peter himself sums up his approach to running the firm as: “There’s nobody here who thinks they work for me — we work together.”
Debra Duncan, former board chair of the LA84 Foundation, recalls her own experiences of working alongside Peter back in 1984: “His leadership was ever present. Everyone knew Peter and everyone was under his spell. We all relied heavily on him for guidance, as we were all relatively green and unprepared for the huge task that lay ahead.”
She adds: “I have had the good fortune of working on many Olympic Games since 1984. But, as good as most of the leadership has been elsewhere, there’s never been another Peter Ueberroth. He somehow motivated his staff to do the impossible. He convinced us we were all important and essential for the goal of a successful Games to be achieved.”
And that is Peter Ueberroth in a nutshell: a highly effective yet collaborative leader who’d rather sit quietly in the stands than bask in the glory of his achievements.
His advice to the organizers of the LA Olympics in 2028? “Be humble.”
Knocking It Out the Park
Peter and Ginny Ueberroth
“It’s as beautiful a place to have a golf course as I’ve been able to find”
“Peter’s remarkable leadership was duly acknowledged in 1984 when Time magazine honored him as Man of the Year for his pivotal role in rescuing the Olympic movement
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