USA Olympic boxer Tim Dement, a Bossier City native, will be the featured guest Saturday afternoon at 2 for a free Olympic Glory program at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum in Natchitoches, to share his memories of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
Dement will take questions and talk in the museum’s Atmos Energy Gallery. Admission is free beginning at 1 o’clock. The museum is located facing the traffic circle at the north end of Front Street.
He competed in the flyweight division at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Dement, a 17-year-old underdog, beat Bobby Hunter during the 1972 Olympic trials in the flyweight class, shocking the world and becoming a favorite of ABC Television’s Howard Cosell.
In Munich, Dement finished ninth overall at the 1972 Olympic Games, losing his second bout to Calixto Pérez. He became a Bossier Parish sheriff’s deputy and has retired after a long law enforcement career, but remains active as a coach and mentor in the Shreveport-Bossier boxing community. He was recently involved in hosting the USA Boxing Association Championships held in Shreveport.
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum is bringing four world-class Olympians to the museum as part of a month-long lecture series called “Olympic Glory.” The program will inspire conversations about the role of sports in American culture and how the values of discipline, determination, sportsmanship, teamwork, respect, perseverance, and doing your personal best mirror the values necessary to achieve success in everyday life.
“Olympic Glory” is supported through a Rebirth Grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and the Friends of Louisiana Sports and History (FLASH). The four-part series will involve interviews between Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Chairman and FLASH president Doug Ireland and Dement, along with two more Olympians from Louisiana. The programs began last Saturday with two-time Olympic medalist Hollis Conway, who grew up in Shreveport and lives in Lafayette.
On May 22, Baton Rouge volleyball icon Danielle Scott (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics) is the featured guest. The series concludes May 29 with Alexandria’s Warren Morris, the LSU baseball legend who medaled in the 1996 Atlanta Games a few weeks after hitting the walk-off home run giving the Tigers their 1996 College World Series championship.
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum, 800 Front Street, Natchitoches, is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. Normal admission, not charged for programs like the Olympic Glory series, is $6 for adults, $5 for students, seniors, and active duty military, and free for children six and younger. For more information, visit LaSportsHall.com.
PHOTO: Tim Dement (at right, in white USA gear) is shown competing in the 1972 Munich Olympics.
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