Monday, October 9, 2000
An inside view of 1996 Olympic Games
For more than three years while driving to work, UGA alumnus Richard Yarbrough, managing director of communications for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, taped his thoughts on whatever current activity was taking place. Then, on the way home, he taped whatever happened that day. The tapes included strategies ACOG was facing--the Centennial Park bombing, the gay rights battle in Cobb County, the state flag, the city of Atlanta, internal disputes, external problems and the competing needs of local, state, federal and international relations.
Yarbrough was responsible for governmental relations, both federal and state, and consequently had frequent personal contact with top members of the Clinton administration, and with members of Congress. He had responsibility for worldwide media relations, press operations and ancillary responsibility for security. As a senior staff member, he reported directly to Billy Payne, ACOG’s chief executive, and spent endless hours with him and other senior staff, dealing with a host of issues.
And They Call Them Games is Yarbrough’s story. It is a unique, no-punches-pulled, inside view of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.
Past president of the National Alumni Association, Yarbrough is currently a trustee of the University of Georgia Foundation and Executive in Residence at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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