Bud Greenspan was the toast of the 27th annual Sports Emmy Awards last night at the Time Warner Center in New York. Greenspan took home a Lifetime Achievement award for his long career of creating compelling sports films, such as Wilma and Four Minutes, and Olympic coverage. Enjoying pre-show nibbles with longtime creative partner Nancy Beffa, the New York-reared Greenspan reflected on the magnitude of his award, and his body of work.
"I’ve done things for the city, the state and the country," said Greenspan, who turns 80 later this year. "I never thought I’d do something for the world. That was for guys like Henry Kissinger."

Greenspan is finishing up an Olympic film from Torino that will air on Showtime, then has set his sights on a film about Larry Doby, who followed Jackie Robinson past the race barrier in Major League Baseball, joining the Cleveland Indians in 1947. “Bud likes to say, everyone remembers who was first, but no one remembers who was second,” said Beffa.

The Home of Jazz was filled with athletic types for the night, from Mary Carillo to Charles Barkley to Cris Collinsworth. But ESPN’s SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott, for one, was not impressed by the star power. Asked who he was most excited to meet last night, Scott deadpanned, “You.” (Then again, we were wearing a pretty sweet suit.) Scott then added, “We’re all equals here, we all do the same thing. I’m here to celebrate what we all do.”

Uh, boo-ya.

By Michael Malone