AuthorJim Flynn is a humorist, writer and novelist. He is available for speaking engagements. To contact email: [email protected] Archives
February 2025
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The Thrill of Victory...and2/1/2025 Vinko Bogatag. There's a household name. Well, not really. But if I say "The Agony of Defeat" it brings up a mental picture, doesn't it? The Vinkster is the ski jumper at beginning of The Wide World of Sports!
The photos above are Vinko coming down the ski jump--then crashing. I watched the video several times before I noticed the second guy in the photo on the right. Bogatag is crashing in the center of the frame, but the dark image on the right is an official who had been standing at the take off point. When Vinko began crashing the official assumed the fetal position to avoid becoming collateral damage. The Vinkster barely missed him. When I mentioned The Agony of Defeat a couple weeks ago in the blog it drew several comments and questions, so I did a little research. -Vinko Bogatag is a Slovenian. -His highest world ranking as a ski jumper was 57th. -He broke his ankle in this accident, and had some other injuries, but after recovering continued to ski jump! -Vinko's incident was filmed in 1970, a time with no world wide television or internet, so Vinko had no idea he was famous in the United States. -He was not paid anything by ABC. They had telecast the original completion and had the broadcast rights. -ABC did invite Vinko to the 20th Anniversary Celebration of Wide Word of Sports in Chicago. -In Chicago, Vinko's car crashed on the way to the event, but he wasn't hurt. -Vinko first began to realize he was famous when he walked backstage to prepare to be introduced and Muhammad Ali asked him for his autograph. -After the event Vinko returned to Slovenia and resumed his quiet life as a landscape painter. I've given it much thought but can't come up with a moral to the story, but I have a couple observations: 1) Could ABC have been any cheaper? They couldn't send this guy a couple hundred bucks every time they showed him crashing? It was the reason people tuned in. C'mon--this is the network that paid the kid who played Urkel. And...as reluctant as I am to say it....ABC paid Howard Cosell. 2) If I had any knowledge of how to make Deep Fake videos, I'd make one of Howard Cosell crashing off a ski jump. Sure to go viral. Be honest---how many times a day would you watch that one? Breaking News! This might not be of interest to blog readers in France, California or Australia, but for you locals: Last week I mentioned a biker bar on Rt 44 in New Hartford. A prominent New Hartford native indignantly pointed out that the biker bar in question is actually in Barkhamsted. I promised a retraction, which I hope heads off a possible lawsuit. Working on the JR Johnson novel. The title is going to be The Final Password. Coming soon. I did a podcast with a guy named Hersh Rephun a couple months ago that just came out. Click here to watch on YouTube if you're interested: https://youtu.be/RN-zHSXsIgY Questions or comments to: [email protected]
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