Large fundraising projects, volunteers and leadership were legacy of ’96 Olympics

The bold, gold headline in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer exactly 20 years ago today read: “USA! USA!”

The picture that dominated the front page showed the United States softball team on the podium, gold medals around their necks, bouquets of daisies raised high in the air and the American flag in the center of it all.

It was a moment in time — a snapshot, if you will.

It was also a statement, as Team USA won the first-ever Olympic softball competition in historic Golden Park. As the Olympics get ready to start this week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, softball is no longer an Olympic sport, in part because of the U.S. domination of the event.

But that gold medal ceremony foretold positive changes that would take place in Columbus over the next two decades.

“If it hadn’t been for the Olympics, I don’t believe we would have the can-do spirit that exists in Columbus today,” said retired Columbus State University President Frank Brown.

That spirit spawned large capital fundraising campaigns that benefited local arts and cultural organizations and propelled the establishment of a downtown CSU campus.

Former Ledger-Enquirer Publisher John Greenman took control of the newspaper nine months before the games began in July 1996. He saw the momentum that was generated out of an event that filled Golden Park for 10 days in July 1996.

“When the Olympics in Columbus were so successful, it caused the leadership community that I was just coming to know to express enormous confidence in Columbus,” Greenman said. “Columbus could do anything it wanted based on the success of producing a terrific Olympic experience.

“Imagine doing something very big — and putting on the Olympics in a town the size of Columbus is very big — then you work at it, you plan, you raise the money, you make smart decisions, you harness a lot of volunteers, you do all of that and then the Chicago Tribune (writer) said among all of the Olympic experiences he had had in Georgia, the best was in Columbus.”

Greenman was referring to Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Verdi’s dispatch from Golden Park the night the United States defeated China in the gold medal game.

“Tickets are available to a lot of other high-profile sports up in the big city, but there wasn’t a seat to be had Tuesday night in Golden Park,” Verdi wrote. “Maybe there’s a place for pure Olympic ideals, after all, even if it is 120 miles from the big hustle.”

He didn’t stop there, praising Golden Park.

“This 8,500-seat jewel by the Chattahoochee River is unscarred by the itchy fingers of Olympic commercialism,” Verdi continues. “There isn’t a single corporate insignia along the outfield fence, nary an advertisement is carved into the green grass, and Nike isn’t sponsoring either foul pole.”

Verdi’s words were pure validation.

“It was, ‘Wow, we did it. Let’s do something else and let’s do something else and let’s do something else,’” Greenman said. “... It was a confidence booster unlike any other.”

What the Olympic success created was a shared vision around big stuff, including massive fundraising campaigns for the Columbus Challenge and CSU. Each effort, launched in the wake of the Olympics, generated more than $100 million in public and private funds.

The Columbus Challenge concluded in 1998 and raised more than $101 million for the construction of the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, Columbus Symphony, Columbus Museum, Springer Opera House, Liberty Theatre, Historic Columbus Foundation, Port Columbus and the Coca-Cola Space Science Center.

Greenman tells a story of how people outside Columbus began to notice what was happening in the Chattahoochee Valley. He and then-editor Mike Burbach were in Miami making a presentation to the executive group of Knight-Ridder, the company that owned the Ledger-Enquirer. In that room was David Lawrence, then-publisher of the Miami Herald, a sister paper. There was a slide in the PowerPoint presentation that showed Columbus had raised $43.5 million at that point for the arts.

“David Lawrence raised his hand and said in his sort of imperious way, ‘John, I think there is an error there, shouldn’t it be $4.35 million? I say that because we are doing a campaign like that here and we have only raised $23 million,” Greenman recalled. “I said, ‘No, David, there is no error. Not only is the $43.5 million correct, this slide is dated and it’s now up to $60-something million.’ These people were astonished that a market the size of Columbus could raise that kind of money for arts, culture and history organizations. Astounded.”

Out of that effort also grew the downtown Columbus State campus and a massive community buy-in of the hometown college. Between 2001 and 2005, the CSU Foundation raised $100 million.

“The Olympics completely changed the attitude,” said retired Synovus Chairman Jimmy Yancey, a CSU graduate who led the capital campaign to support the state university. That event gave us the confidence to do a lot of other things.”

There were many leaders in the culture shift, including former Mayor Frank Martin, who was in office when the city landed the venue but was back practicing law by the summer of ’96. W.C. Bradley Co. Chairman Bill Turner was a crucial player in the Olympics, Columbus Challenge and CSU capital campaigns.

Ten years ago, the impact of the Olympics and what was happening was obvious. Many thought Columbus might become “The Softball Capital of the World,” with one major tournament after another. Despite building a new stadium, that never happened.

What happened was an attitude adjustment.

“I think the Olympics were responsible for creating a ‘we culture’ in Columbus rather than a ‘me culture,’” Turner said in a Ledger-Enquirer story 10 years ago. “When it was over, people were asking, ‘What are we going to do next?’”

What also grew out of the games were leaders and volunteers.

Carmen Cavezza surfaced as a critical civic and community leader, a role he still plays. In summer 1994, Cavezza, less than two weeks after retiring as a three-star general and commanding Fort Lewis, Wash., returned to Columbus where he had commanded Fort Benning in 1990 and 1991.

He took over another army, one of volunteers two years away from the monumental task of hosting an Olympic venue. The softball complex at the center of it was under construction, as was a new Civic Center, and Golden Park was a minor league baseball stadium.

Carter Berry, also retired military, was one of the more than 1,000 volunteers activated to staff the Olympics and the events leading up to it. An old lieutenant colonel with special operations experience, Berry drove vans used by the Olympic teams. At times, he watched with amusement as Cavezza led a very different army than the one they had left.

“If Carmen Cavezza was in charge, it couldn’t help but be successful,” Berry said. “But he was in a brand-new world. He couldn’t fire anybody — all he could do was ask for stuff. He couldn’t even give orders.”

Berry, who still volunteers today as the clock operator for the Columbus Cottonmouths hockey team, gives an example of Cavezza’s leadership style on the civilian side.

“One day, the U.S. team would not drink water out of the big coolers,” Berry said. “I saw him take money out of his own pocket and send someone to buy bottled water. He did a lot of things like that.”

Cavezza can look back on that experience and laugh.

“I created a military-style command structure,” Cavezza said. “I used to call the leaders of that my warlords.”

And with good reason.

“We would sit around a table, decide what we were going to do, get a direction, then they would walk out of the room and do whatever the hell they wanted to do,” he said. “They were just like a bunch of Chinese warlords. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t a bad thing. It was a really good thing. ... We didn’t care how you did it. Just do it and do it right.”

One of the legacies of the Olympics, according to Cavezza and others, is that the volunteer base created two decades ago still exists today. Volunteers at the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center, Springer Opera House, RiverCenter for the Performing Arts and many other places were involved in the Olympics.

“I am right in the middle of it now here at the Infantry Museum,” said Cavezza, who is chairman of the National Infantry Foundation. “I will see people out in the museum volunteering and they will say, ‘I was with you in ’96.’”

And they were. One of those was V.A. Holman, a loaned executive from Columbus electronics payment processor TSYS. She was responsible for operations that included health and safety, volunteers, tents and toilets.

“The Olympic spirit not only brought out the very best in the athletes but in the communities where the event was held,” Holman said. “There was an immense pride in being involved in something so global and aspiring. Columbus was at its very best for the ’96 Olympics and the volunteer corps was one of the most dedicated and passionate teams across all the Olympic venues.

Holman also agrees the Olympic effort propelled Columbus to a new height.

“I think hosting the Olympics was the stimulus the city leaders needed for creating a vision of a future Columbus that is the thriving city we see today,” she said.

After the games were over, Cavezza helped organize the Sports and Events Council, which still exists today and recruits athletic events to Columbus and its venues. He then became city manger before going to CSU to start the Cunningham Leadership Development Center. He is now 78 and is leading an effort to retire the debt incurred in the construction of the Infantry Museum.

Brown, the retired CSU president, said Cavezza’s more than two decades of civic, governmental and educational leadership was also one of the lasting legacies of the Olympics.

“When Carmen took over Columbus in ’96, he got a good, quick lesson in military versus non-military leadership and he adapted,” Brown said. “But when the city manger’s job opened up, he was a natural fit.”

To Cavezza, the legacy is broad.

“I am most proud of the fact that we pulled it off — and it was virtually flawless,” Cavezza said. “Our reputation around the state, even among the Olympic communities, acknowledged how well softball went here. That was a great accomplishment.”

This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 8:22 PM with the headline "Large fundraising projects, volunteers and leadership were legacy of ’96 Olympics."