Inside the 1987 Pan American Games with Milt Thompson

so 26 Americans go into Cuba when before like no one was going even if you know that your life has got some ending points to it what are you going to do in between there the Cuba USA baseball game out of old Bush Stadium was one of the most remarkable events in this this entire city when you think about the entirety of the Pan-American games what are you most proud of from South bin to Evansville and everywhere in between this is get in the show focused on the hoer state and the incredible stories happening here today I'm Nate spangle found of get Indiana and I

will be your host for today's conversation today I'm joined by Milt Thompson now Milt is a sports entertainment entrepreneurial and business attorney here in Indianapolis Milt is a Civic leader philanthropist and the recipient of the coveted Whistler award which is the city of indianapolis's highest honor for a citizen uh Milt has literally done a little bit of everything and I'm so excited for this conversation we're going to be talking about the 1987 Pan-American games that were hosted here in Indianapolis Indiana's road to the global state P then we're going to round It Out by talking about the capital Improvement board and a few of milt's

other favorite organizations here in Indiana Milt welcome to get in well thank you so much Nate it's a pleasure to be here man you have that that uh deep radio voice you're you're built for this more for the radio face I had I've had a dozen television shows and several radio shows and it seems as if they continue to want me to do radio and less television so I think it says something about my face Ah that's what my grandpa always said you have a perfect face for radio exactly right um well man you've just done a little bit of everything and as I've done

my research and our good friend Roger is also in the room over here and and he made the introduction in the first place like that you've done some serious stuff in your days man I've been very very fortunate blessed um to be involved with organizations and people and opportunities that just seem to have fall my way now um it doesn't come without being hard work and and I'd like to attribute some of that to um being courageous enough to take steps that perhaps other people wouldn't take uh and it came through in a time when there were serious issues relative to the color of one's

skin uh and whether or not uh you're equipped uh for example in high school uh I was a quarterback I was a quarterback in then a junior high team that uh was undefeated and three middle schools came together to get to the high school team and what High School North Central High School let's go Panthers go Panthers yes sir but my dad said before we went he said uh you're the best quarterback in the state of Indiana said oh well that I'm glad you think so he said that's the reason why I don't want you to go to North Central I said what do you

mean North Central is the biggest school in the state if I'm going to go be there and all the all the other parents and their their their kids you know I'm their leader they want me to be there so uh he said well I I think that something will happen that they won't let you be quarterback in north central I'll send you to rebuff I'll pay the extra money for tuition so it we not become down to a matter of issues he was just trying to give me a heads up I said D come on this is 19 1971 it's 1971 come come on man

what are you talking about the baseball team we had our summer program in the cony ma league and U obviously from the same school and we were really progressing pretty fast um and progressed to the point where uh we were going to win in the summertime the uh go to the state championship and then the National Championship uh we're playing baseball against Don gullet uh you know who goes on with the Cincinnati Reds and he's played with Wilson fre out of Lex Kentucky and we're going to play against these guys and it just so happened that um the tournament would go over the first three

unpadded days of practice for the football team there it is I elect to stay on the baseball team because I was a starter the other quarterback whose dad who's I love the man I love the situation behind but his dad was a a counselor in the school happened to be my counselor in this in the school at North Central and um and he of course was not starting in baseball so he decides to go back to the unpadded practices well when I we finish up our tournament and this from the same school you know and you getting Championship experience that'll that'll that'll really help you

in football well I get there and Coach says you're not the kind of leader we need what do you mean I'm not the kind of leader you mean I'm on our our our school's team in the summertime and we're we're succeeding says well you know you should probably probably be here if you're going going to be the leader from the very beginning that makes no sense to me but anyway um I just go on and I'm just not really feeling it so ultimately um my dad and I said mil you've got scholarships opportunities you can go almost anywhere in the country you want to go

you can do these kind of things and you don't need to have your senior year you're in your North Central counterpoints you got music scholarships uh you're the youngest person you know to be in counterpoints and and you got all of these things what is counterpoints it's the top show choir wait you were on the baseball team on the football team and you were in the show choir the top show choir yeah man what doesn't this guy do well I don't know back then uh it was not um not cool because you either a jock or you were nerd right yeah in the music department

whatever I don't know if it's that different today well I that was kind of the perception uh except around me and my friends call us a nerd if you want to but we're going to kick your ass right exactly right uh so so this this notion of breaking down barriers right it's something from the beginning right you're talking about in high school like whether it's the baseball team the football team north central bbff like you ended up going on to play college baseball and could have had a very very bright career did you go to was it whittenberg whittenberg University right which is wild right

like you think D3 dreams baby well um back then um D3 didn't wasn't so much uh for baseball baseball we played we played IU Dayton you know we played the bigger schools oh no way because the the economics of baseball were different back then then U the economics of baseball were they didn't take college players you know that you were it was 17 years old you go through the minor league system and they invest money into you um you know um I was drafted uh you know by the Baltimore Orioles and and you were drafted yes sir and you said nah I'm cool I'm going

to go be a lawyer well it's a longer story than that Nate but not withstanding all that the thing is in terms of breaking barriers um it so happened that uh all of the black kids on the football team they all quit the team before first game except two one was the leading halfback and he quit before the first game after the jamere and the other his dad was a shop teacher in in the school and therefore wouldn't let him quit the team wait and this was before your freshman year no this is before my senior year wow at North Central and this is 19

74th time 775 75 No 7 no no you're right 1971 1971 High School 1971 was your senior year 72 was my senior year okay um we just had our 50th reunion recently congrats on that um so how many kids started the team how many kids of color oh we probably had 20 and by the time senior year came around just just the shop just the shop teacher kid left everybody else left this because their parents said mil Thompson's our leader and if he's not going to be your leader he's just undefeated seasons in the past well we think that he should we don't want you

to play under a situation like that did they all join the baseball team with you they weren't good enough Fair all right uh well you're talking about breaking down barriers all these things so you've done you've done a ton but one of the big Cornerstone pieces was the General Council for the Pan-American games in 1987 about breaking down barriers uh I mean bringing this massive uh you know multiport I don't know festivity you know Championship competition to Indianapolis right uh I mean were there 47 countries 42 I believe 42 countries um hemisphere yeah right and how how many days did that last 17 Day event

17 days 42 countries in Indianapolis uh I mean that's just like a lot of moving pieces and bringing the world or half of the world to Indianapolis is huge for our city huge for our state take me through that process and some of the challenges that you faced along the along the journey there sure the percursor to a lot of that was um called in by Jim Morris who's at head of Lily endowment at the time and mayor hudnut at the time were saying that hey there's a default with another country um to host the Pan-American games we think we in Indianapolis are equipped after

hosting the sports festival that we would have the opportunity to host these Pan-American games wait what was the sports festival it was it later called the Olympic Festival after we had it but it was countries uh it was the the in-country domestic program for multiport event so it's like a Pan-American games but just for United States okay so like divided in regions the national track meet basically National track meet but National every other event too all multi multiports okay would have everything from rowing to equestrian to shooting to all the other and so we got to host that here in Indianapolis pre 197 yes because

there was a fault yeah we have that event and because we had the organizational experience when there was a default I believe it was Ecuador we were called in and so we're we're going going after this event and what were kind of like so was it because hey we did really well at the you know the national what was it called sports festival we did really well at the sports festival it makes sense like what who just wakes up one day and say you know what we really want to get the Pan-American games well there is a city committee which were a few folks just

a generation ahead of me um our our city leaders and they would always kind of get together uh you hear about the old smoke field rooms of the people really making decisions behind the scenes you know don't don't move the curtain that guys back there but those guys uh were very very serious about a deliberate Sports strategy this all followed the 1979 amateur sport 1978 amateur sports act yes which was like I you're going to know you're going to know the the facts but I know it's like we declared we were going to be the amateur sports capital of the world right and the aou

was located here in Indianapolis and they're going to break up the Monopoly of the aaou and have individual um a sports so that they could be competitive on their own right under antitrust laws so United States gymnastics United States basketball United States traffic and field become their own sport they would have to dve their own revenue and be able to create more opportunities for themselves so the city fathers at the time U part of these folks we were talk talking about we're saying look um let's do these Pan-American games let's get them under our belt and then uh when they break up the Monopoly these

group a sports after the residual of the aou will go on to be Olympic sports then they'll be their own governing bodies and what will we do here in Indianapolis what we'll do in Indianapolis is we'll go after the largest metal Sports induce them including some uh money from Lily endowment uh will induce them to come and have their headquarters here so now when you think class forward to 2024 you know we have USA football USA Gymnastics USA Gymnastics you USA Track and Fields still located here and and we've had all of these going at the time we had USA rowing we had USA canoe

and kayak maybe you've heard of this little company called the NCAA like they're also headqu here NCA is located here there's a there's a ton of sports here so that's a long story too and itself but how we were able to get them to come here and where were they at before the NCA yeah you're located in in Overland Park uh Kansas Kansas that's what I yeah that's what I thought so all the stuff we're we're going to be the amateur sports capital of the world fast forward uh what eight years from there then we end up getting the Pan-American games when did when did

this kind of get on your radar and how did you get like kind of pulled into this well I got got got the call um that they needed some pre um um opportunity meetings to take place one of them is with Caba which is the Western him feres basketball Federation and if you think back of ' 87 what was the multiport event prior to Indianapolis the 1984 Olympics which were held in Los Angeles and Peter yubero and and what have you but anyway oh yeah I remember like it was yesterday if you recall the 1984 Olympic games um they succeeded the 1980 Olympic Games at

that time the Olympic Games winter and summer were held in the same um quadrum two years two years before they were all held in the same year so the 1980 Summer Olympics were held in Moscow okay and the um the Miracle on Ice was held in Lake plet for the winter in 1980 these were both 1980 events so it was 1980 1980 and then 1984 1984 yes so when did they split those up 1984 and that's when they began to split right after that okay there's a lot of things that happened in that whole split and it's a pretty incredible uh ride once we kind

of got uh when that um well you know that the 1980 Moscow games were boycotted by the United States and the Western block because of the Afghanistan Invasion by the Soviet Union and uh that means that only we just weren't going to participate President Jimmy Carter says we're not going to go we're not going so our our Olympic athletes did not go to the Olympic Games in Moscow and that was Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics that the Summer Olympics in 80 the Winter Olympics were held and they they still had because they were held in Lake Placid they still had the Russian team came to

for for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid think about that 1984 the next multiport event is going to be boycotted by the Eastern block that means no Soviet Union that means nobody in in the the Slovak company countries uh Cuba even more importantly is part of the Eastern block because of their communistic state so they're in the Eastern block but they're in the Western Hemisphere right okay so this is this is like a new level of so so like the political climate and this like the global climate in 1987 like not as I would say that you know like you think there's there's for

the most part everyone's involved in the Olympics it feels like I mean you know Min it's like a you know a band here there for you know cheating blood doing whatever Small Things yeah yeah just little things there but like the the climate in 1987 this is pre the fall of the Soviet Union like things are not like everyone's not just like buddy buddy and Friends well that was largely the reason for our trip to Havana Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro so let's talk about that you how old are you in 1987 uh probably in my early 30s you're in your early 30s you

get a call from you know the Smoke Filled back rooms that the powers that be in Indianapolis they're like milk we got a job for you yeah and the job was to go and do some shuttle because if we're going to have a panamerican games our Western financing requirements would mean that we would need to find out when basketball was going to be before we negotiated a uh negotiated a contract for for television and that would be on the sat on that Sunday afternoon the last day of the games where you would have the the basketball tournament okay because that was like that's the money

maker that's the money maker or at least we thought would be the money maker U because it's it's the biggest event so you get so so you're going to Cuba to negotiate before that okay before that we're going to go to South America so they called me and Mark miles oh yeah yeah Mark miles who's now head of what was his job at the time he was President well he was doing lots of things but just left being the head of the association of tennis professionals and uh and uh have been engaged in some political things but um he he and I were called and

would we would we go to South America which we' go go down to uh Argentina go to um M Devo Uruguay do some shuttle diplomacy to see if we can persuade Kaba to change their rules change their rules from around Robin play to final medal play so that we could predict when the United States would play in the gold medal game for basketball so that we can negotiate a better television deal so that was the reason for going to but we had to talk about only competition couldn't talk about politics or how much money we would gain if we needed to do that now you

got to picture this because of the boycott of the Olympics in uh Los Angeles what's the next multiport event 1987 Pan-American games what would we look like playing Uruguay every night how many tickets would we sell how many sponsorships would we sell the white elephants in terms of the facilities that we were having the the whoer Dome and and uh marks Arena and all these places things like that uh who's going to go and watch that kind of competition so it became very obvious that we had to somehow persuade the Cubans to break away from the boycott come to the United States and participate in

our Pan-American games so that was mission two after we were able to get the basketball so you got all the basketball stuff figured out you're like you know what we're gonna we're going to have the final game Sunday Championship all that fun stuff they're like all right mil we got another job for you yes and they're like you got to go to Cuba to negotiate with like the guy the guy the guy Fel C the guy and you have to understand Elliot Abrams came we were going to take 26 people down for a delegation and we kind of matched up what we were going to

down there to participate in in addition to some brown paper baged U money for tundo uh for for their television rights yeah people went to jail for that in Salt Lake by the way but they didn't this was legitimately authorized we taking literally brown paper bags of yeah so take me take me through that like you say yep I'll go do this and you hop in a plane and you're like all well no it was a whole delegation so we had our our panamerican games organizing committee which was an unincorporated division of the sports Corporation until we became our own Corporation Called paxi panm games

10 PX piece um that became our our our corporate name um we' come back from those various things and the jobs for the general councel were up and um I was asked to interview for that along with my good friend Tom eckelson we were uh both asked to interview for that and we became general counsel vice presidents of corporate development just fancy for raise the money all the money for the games through kind contracts sponsorships uh suppliers ships licensing program which was another significant thing that I can get into a little later if you want um but I uh we kind of divided up responsibilities

in terms of what's legal side fundraising side all the career kind of things that we would do uh Tom did most of the back and forth to New York work on television deal whether or not we're going with lurar whether we're going to go with uh CBS Television which we ultimately had to deal with CBS Television uh I was in charge of the licensing and sports festival they you buy goods and you resell goods and things wrong with that is you you don't have enough Goods or you got too many Goods uh yeah so and they they did about a couple hundred thousand dollar worth

of Revenue well here we decided we're going to get into a full-blown licensing program 17-day event and have over 400 products and and licensing where we ended up with um well over $2 or3 million worth of Licensing reeven Revenue so um we decided to get into that uh but somewhere between there and where we were when you landed from South America is a trip to Cuba that i' love to dive in so you and the delegation committee you did the delegation uh you have a brown paper sack of money and you're heading to Cuba for for a separate reason the other reason was to go

persuade um the Cubans to actually come to the United States so I mean talk to me about how that works like you you touch like you fly over there you over the inter the international Olympic uh committee allows us to do International negotiations although we had no diplomatic relationships with Cuba at all which means they sent our state department Elliot Abrams at the time came and did a briefing with us before we would go down there and said we really don't want you to go down there we guys just don't understand the political tension that's happening right now the Diplomatic pouches are being held up

in Washington DC C by uh by the by the Cubans uh and our intersection in in Switzerland intersection being held up from Washington pouches it's it's not it's not a good idea that you go down there because this is not safe it's not safe it's not a good idea but we said no we're going because we have to go under because we love sports under under the egis of the international limber committee they said well we're going to have to brief you before you go so they take 13 it's like waiting for high school cut list you know for be on the basketball team you

know and well you're 13 you're essential Personnel so you can go on this and then we're going to match you with 13 members of the national press so we had you know Christian sence monitor Chicago Tribune the CH Washington Post and all what was the thought behind that why did you need to be match with a member of the press well we just had members of the press that we were going to go because this this is international news you know delegation from the United States going to Cuba to talk about Pan-American games because Cubans are so into sports they thought that the Americans stole

those Pan-American games when they became open for a bid Fidel Castro's on a record speaking all well into the night about the those Western greenos at the United States are stealing the games from us again they're always stealing from us taking from us so he wasn't in a very good mood for us to go down there and say will you come to our games you don't have part of the whole deal was quit proquo if we get the 87 games well you you can probably host the 92 games or 91 games 91 games yeah 91 games in Cuba um uh and and so there was

a little bit of quick proquo in our conversation lots of details went by that so once uh we so you're in the room with Fidel Castro oh absolutely like I think that you're just like that's just so casual like that's crazy well it's been a long time ago now but uh I mean what this is 19 okay how many years before the game 1986 um and this is before the Iron Curtain had fallen yeah so and that's 91 right yeah so we so we are we are uh going to take Charter flight down their team members of the national press our 13 person delegation or

on a 1943 DC3 I don't know what that means it's an old airplane warhorse I'm telling you wait 1943 this is that's like a 40y old exactly exctly so we're we're taking that well on the way back we had 19 39 DC3 by the way and those things leak oil you know out of their engines and and my seatmate was Phil jamasi from the Chicago Tribune and we're we're sitting on this plane as we're going down there first of all we landed Miami and you know the Cuban Nationals they were just going if you see him you kill him for us if you see him

you kill him for us you know they were really really you know kind of anti their families wait they're talking about Castro oh absolutely quick pause in the action to introduce you to VAR vodka the cleanest tasting vodka ever Straight From the Heart of Indiana now this isn't just any vodka it uses an innovative pressure filtering process that reduces bite burn and aftertaste now I'm not usually a vodka guy but when I first tried barkeep I asked them if they meant to make a vodka that didn't actually taste like vodka surprisingly they said yes barkeeps soda flavors means you'll taste the ingredients in your cocktail

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US citizens a year were going into Cuba none zero none so there may been some diplomats back and forth to the in intersection but the fact that like are these largely uh US citizens for the 13 I mean 13 we were all so 26 Americans go into Cuba when before like no one was going exactly oh wow okay and they they're telling you that if you see Fidel castra you need to kill him well that's what the Nationals were who were servicing the airplane you know take they knew where we were going because it's a charter flight and they knew what the r were so

they were like where did you fly from uh where Miami so from Miami how how far is that flight it's supposed to be it's really a short flight yeah you know it's probably a um 30-minute flight well of course it flies so low that they had to fly around so would they wouldn't look down we wouldn't look down on concentration camps uh you know literally making sure that we kind of maneuvered around oh my cuz you could see down you can see down on the ground okay so you get off the plane and what's like your thoughts well first well they your advised don't give

up your passports your um War and Peace books at home oh man if you see him it'll be the last day you're there after your 9 11 days that you'll be there if you see the Castro it will be then wait you were staying for 10 91 yes or 11 days yes and if we see if we see him it'll be the last day that we're going to be there so in the meantime we've got all things lined up you know and said if you do meet them don't show them your hands and blah blah blah all these things that we could and couldn't do

um but while we were there they would have a press conference every morning Mark miles would deliver um be on the a press confererence and and and uh Fidel's brother Manuel uh who became president ultimately uh they were there and and I remember one day uh I think I ended up solving an international incident but uh we were there and we were told to you know kind of immersed in Spanish should speak Spanish only speak through the interpreters just so there's no mistakes well um we were there was a lot of Buzz and and the our press were there and and we were in there

listening to this press conference and they that's they said uh well um which is typical is the president of the next games if they're going to over the 90 991 games that they would come to the country and get the flag in the torch and bring it to the to their country so the real question was is Fidel Castro going to come to the United States you know that wasn't going to fly right um but um but Manel says in one of these press conferences in kind of broken broken English Spanish trying to speak both at the same time and and andone says well um

would the president coming to uh to United States to get the torch and he says um no because your your US senators um they wouldn't stand for that you know you're two US senators quail and Luger oh Dan quail and and and Luger uh and and he said oh their views are scal vice president of of Cuba is calling two United ther screw balls this this trip is about to be over right and I'm noticing every the press scribbling down stuff on their pads and I couldn't figure out what it was this before microwave and Technology could get things there immediately whatever so so no

one tweeted it not no there was no no such thing as that uh barely internet connectivity or kind of things even so so you guys all think that the the vice president of Cuba is calling these these Senators screw balls well at least the uh press did now here's what happened they kept us segregated on our buses okay the Press bus and our delegations bus well so this happened after this particular uh conference it was held in a one of their big gymnasiums and our delegation was going to go upstairs and begin some negotiations in one of their conference rooms well it was one where

Tom was going to handle the general counsel stuff so I I was really curious because playing outside in the gymnasium was the Cuban women's volleyball team against the East German volleyball team so I'm going I can't miss this so I go down i' kind of leave the delegation they going up to a room and I come down there and start watching this event next thing you know I really didn't notice but our delegation marched out and they marched out without me so here I am on the Press bus and I'm hearing them talk I'm remember Kathleen Brennan who now writes you know she at the

time she was at the Washington Post she writes for USA Today and and all the sports um stories but um um they they were on the bus Pablo bakis who was our our state department guy they were on there scribbling I said what are you guys talking about what are you telling about they said well this press conference this morning they called two US senator screw balls and I go Pablo what's what was this all about he says he didn't say screw balls he said the reviews are uh inscrutable oh I said I get back there immediately go to the van Libra hotel where they

drop the off and I get our delegation I call Mark miles I called Sandy nap I called Tom Egon I call all over the the Brain Trust and Larry Conrad and who else are that trip and say this is a problem guys we may have to get out of here a lot sooner than we were anticipating getting out of here well they finally got it taken care of uh and only one place in the United States press did it actually hit it was the morning piece of the Washington Washington Post had a small little column of saying that this was then was an error so

but it didn't get to any of the other Publications so we kind of so no one got called screw balls we got Ser served kind of save international incident uh well so the rest of the trip was um being somewhat indoctrinated by them you know we we don't have any we don't smoke and we don't um drink alcohol and you know do all those kinds of things here and and they would take so we go to the hospital they don't smoke in Cuba isn't like the famous thing a cigar cigar yeah so anyway uh you know it's like we're in public health inititive no sugar

right sugar cane and the tobacco one things you do have nothing else you don't have so anyway we're going to to the hospitals and they were showing about how you know our kids are killing each other and AIDS was beginning to raise its head and all kinds of issues going on you guys don't take care of your people we take care of everything we've got full employment so they began their little brainwashing tour and then they take us to a baseball game which is the baseball is a passion was Baseball part of the Pan-American games oh absolutely the Cuba USA baseball game out at Old

Bush Stadium was one of the most remarkable events in this this entire city in 1987 at at the games CU played the United States played them twice because we beat him in the preliminary round which was shotard around the world Abbott the the one arm pitcher played for the United States and we had wait we had a one-arm pitcher yeah only one one hand pitcher yeah and he played the major leagues Abbot uh but anyway we go through uh watching the baseball game they stopped the game in the seventh inning and it almost like Reggie Jackson version of him comes up into the stands we're

sitting down I'll never forget the pictures I still have photos of this I can show you sometime um but we're sitting in the exact same place when President Obama was there at the game when he was starting to normalize relationships with with uh with the Cubans uh under his term we were sitting in those same seats seats and I got fixures they come in they start uh there's Mark miles they're giving gifts and things like that um during the game after we go there they take us to their Sports manufacturing facilities and they're talking about how they'll be B to handle the games in 991

and we're a little bit skeptical cuz the the the U venues were not nearly as pristine as something that we'd be used to but then you know that had the St Stevenson who was the uh the big time boxer who they were talking about will you fight mammad Ali one day and and of course Roberto wano who happened to be M liaison and happened to be the administor of sport there he was the former 800 400 meter world champion uh in in track and field uh and ended up being my counterpart when they when they ultimately came here but anyway uh we go to the

sports manufacturing facility and we're watching and testing uh you know various uh uh capitalistic principles against some of their uh communistic principles and we they're they're weaving baseballs over here and we' go to the women who weaving baseball at the table if you make more balls over here than the ones over there do you get more pesos than they get over there a you know it kind of funny anyway we we we're walking out and we hear in Spanish why won't those Gringos allow to get good that good Ash wood from Southern Indiana and Jeffersonville for our base baseball players I'm going wait a minute

that's a trade embargo question we weren't briefed on this so I push Tom Tom says I don't worry about it so I go and I start telling Pablo bakas I said what's this all about I said don't worry about Happ so I get the entire team the executive team together and I said they're talking about not getting wooden baseball bats in fact I done my own little research but I I didn't have we didn't have Google okay but anyway um they would import aluminum baseball bats from Eastern Pennsylvania up to Canada and have them flown down to Cuba so they would have aluminum baseball bats

so the players were using aluminum baseball bats because they couldn't good get good Louisville Sluggers and things like that just couldn't get them and I'm going wow wow I didn't know this was an issue nobody knew was issue they said Milt don't worry about it it'll never come up I said okay it'll never come up well here we go we're at the Tropicana Club the last night drinking their rum and I think was Chief F goes gosh I wonder uh who makes their run I said just one person makes their run it's all nationalized whatever it is uh and and next thing we know we're

just sitting there 2:00 in the morning time we were also told that if if Fidel cast is going to meet you it's going to be U very late at night he's nocturnal guy all of a sudden one of the guards that have been kind of around us comes up says you put everything down come with me right now I'm like oh my goodness drop everything we had right there on the table get up they start marching our delegation they leaving the the Press there even the women I remember saying I'm leaving her purse and everything there they kind of March us out back behind the

alley Down single file almost like execution style I'm like holy moly we're not going to make it back to the United States they're going to kill us for whatever we did wrong but anyway um they've got two uh escort motorcycles on the outside of this bus Manuel sitting in the front seat of the of the bus they start Meandering down through old old vanana no commercial signage except for one a a couple days before me L Conrad Sandy and then We snuck out well there's no sneaking out they were following us everywhere but We snuck out and went to a videos where um where Hemingway

actually was known to have food so they had a nice commercial sign I've got I got photos of it I can show it to you at some point um but anyway we walk in so they get into the bus and meand her around next thing you know we're coming up up this hill and there's revolutionary Palace holy moly so um Manuel shows his face to the guard wave us on in they knew exactly what was going what was happening and coming in research on all of us we were told if you meet him don't don't ask him any questions he's the only one going to

answer questions work through the interpreters don't do anything untour so we they put all 13 of us in one elevator and we go up like to the fourth floor and it's the only place on the entire Island where air conditioning worked but still 1958 orate furnishings and things like that and I'll never forget we walk in Sandy NEP says I need to use a restroom you know so whatever so this is about out in the hallway what they showed her to the ladies come back what seemed like maybe an hour it was probably about 10 minutes and this door opens up you know Life Magazine

look magazine all the magazine you see this Fidel Castro he's in his green fatigues he's only like 5'9 he looked like he was s feet tall he walks in his his uh fingernails were polished his deep receding eyes that kind of penetrate right through you you can see where the little Charisma and he kind of patch on the shoulder things like that and he would be talking to you says how's your how's your stay been you know what else are we going to say been a great stay really good I love it here a great place food's good no smoking or drinking for us but

anyway um he says well normally I would take you to my office but delegation is too long so we'll just go to my conference room so we here we go execution Style again one by one into the into the conference what was his opening line like what did he like you walk in door opens and he goes holda Migos what's up welcome uh is it solemn is it like are you are the are the hairs in the back of your neck standing up a little bit we're I couldn't say we weren't nervous uh I can't speak for everyone but I mean I was a little

nervous yeah this is an encounter that we only had anticipated but we weren't 100% prepared for we just had various protocol rules we had to follow 30 years later uh at the anniversary of it I think Bill Benner on inside Indiana um they uh they call Mark and Sandy and say will you guys come on and talk about um the panm games and your trip to uh to Cuba they said no you need to talk to mil Thompson and because the entire time of our 90 minutes with Fel Castro almost most of it was him and he talking baseball and and something about baseball bat

so we walk so so we walk in we sit down on on the conference table Mark is in the primary seat s's next to him um see then I'm on one side and Tom Nicholson's on the other side in terms of general counsel and we were told then The Interpreter that had been with us the entire time for them gets up right in the middle of a sentence with of his welcome gets up out of his seat and in walks a very beautiful West Indians type woman whose personal interpreter sits down right next to him and picks up the conversation in perfect inflection and perfect

conversation in terms of interpretation so now we're just waiting What's happen we're supposed to respond to our area if we ask a question so we begin um begin talking about um you know the the sea level of Indianapolis can they get a port of entry in Indianapolis and not in Miami they were very very very concerned about that they want to know about security they want to know about the food they wanted to know about the color of the gymnastics mat so they would match their uniforms with the uh rhythmic gymnastics me I mean that kind of detail that they were very very interested I

can't imagine a world leader caring about the color of gymnastics maps well sometimes it be like that those were those were questions that they they were he he was asking to like the leader of Cuba Fel Castro is asking yeah I really want know sport is really important to them yeah okay that's fair and especially baseball but I mean all these other sports were very very important to them boxing team members and if they were going to send their people wanted them to be represented well and safe and if you know it was not at the time where defections were still prevalent they were very

concerned about defections so they're very concerned they send their best gymnast their best baseball players over and all of a sudden they're on the Yankees exactly you got it they were concerned about that then he turns to me calls me comrade Sportsman comrad uh oh there goes my political career CER Sportsman says uh who are the best pitchers in Major League Baseball that's my one question I'm out of here this good I got got this I said Roger Clemens and Fernando Valenzuela said you won't believe this but he's got one hand no that's different guy but Roger Clemen Fernando Valenzuela he punches Al Toro Toreno

and says he says oh he's Mexican he's not Cuban uh about about the Valenzuela so I said so and you know Ted Turner had already given him a large satellite so he was watching uh baseball all the time uh because you know he tried out for the Washington Senators Fidel Castro did oh yeah yeah he was a baseball player you look you look up a little history here we'll take you back in the day Man cast your TR yeah when Batista was still in charge before uh you know patista was our friend and Fidel great take over patista you know and normalize Cuba well it

turned out to be even a bigger and worse dictator so so after I answer that question I said I'm going to be done so he starts asking other questions these other questions of other people like that 10 minutes later I'm thinking I'm out of here he goes comrade Sportsman why your major league baseball players use aluminum baseball bats they want to know what the story is about these bats I'm going this is a trade of Virgo question how am I going to answer this next thing know everybody's looking at me they're staring at me what's milk going to say so I was a young trial

uh room lawyer and I kind of learned how to use think fast on my feet and next thing I know I just took a deep breath and I said Mr President in my opinion the biggest difference in Major League Baseball is with the ad of the artificial baseball service and with additional addition velocity off of aluminum baseball bat with our big strong and Macho players it would make it a dangerous sport stroked his beard turned and I think he had to accept that cuz what did he want to get you to say we're stopping them from getting the best equipment for for them you know

because of our some trade embargo because we can't trade with them they've got to go through Loops so he's like why do they use the little Slugger right why do they have the wood B cuz yeah okay I'm following now so trade barg and I had to answer it in in in in sports terms couldn't talk about uh uh political issues yeah so didn't do so so anyway this dialogue goes on and on about baseball and it's really me and Fidel and and the other 13 other 12 members are just kind of like okay mil's talking baseball I guess he's found his buddy so after

after 90 minutes we're finally out he says hey you want to go have a catch that would have been a story holy smokes after we have a cigar yeah right and need some some sugar cane so how does it end how does it wrap up do you feel like it's in a good spot we in a good spot we we kind of knew the things were kind of done so they take us back out into the to the waiting room and uh and the members of national press had showed up so he's going to do an impromptu it's 3:00 in the morning going do an

impromptu press conference with him and talk like that and so um they're starting asking some questions of him and I remember is was either one of our delegation I can't remember I don't think it was me that asked the question but well you're you're an athlete uh um you know if you were to join the Cuban team uh when you make your visit what sport would you participate in he says the team shooting team do you laugh at that or do you just go okay whatever you say bro he says he says he'd be on the team team shooting team yeah and and another one

the Cuban shoo another followed up the question with uh how do you train we understand that you're anal that you swim a lot and things like that and he he goes oh I've had a few excursions in the mountains do you laugh at this and and one of the members said we understand that you had um an AIDS case here you know was just really kind of finding its its Menace on Society at the time and he said oh there's a New York dancer here once but we eliminated it these are not comments that you are equipped to rece and respond to other than kind

of like gag reflex you know how are we going to deal with that so they ended up kind of having that conversation so um that's a little little bit of my legacy and you're sitting there just like oh I'm I'm comrade Sportsman I'm yeah he says i' be on the the Cuban shooting team and you're like do you have a lot of experience no I didn't say that no what I did so they said don't do not ask this man any questions okay so I'm think we're going to get out of there without any questions before we go out into the lobby room and of

course I can't I'm I'm going to write this book called mil and Fidel so I can't hold myself without asking a question for the freaking book right so I go uh Mr President and they're going like mil we're almost out of here keep your mouth shut and I go what do you think about the designated hitter rule yes ask him a baseball what did he think he said you know I'm a baseball purist but my countrymen love offense therefore it's an okay Rule and there's that there is the the DH Fidel Fidel approved otherwise I wouldn't have told you you'd have to go get my

book in in borders and just called Milton Fidel uh not true yeah right it yeah it would be like uh in memor in memory of Bill right like asked too many questions of Fel Castro so Advan forward there we are for that summer they're they're in they're in in in when did you get the when did you get the announcement that they would be in like before you left yeah before we left we kind of knew that they would and you know higher than my pay grade conversations um um you know made the determination that they would have their delegation there but they' have to

have all these area safeguards and got the Port of Entry and we've got you know usia we've got the state department where were they staying at in in the athlet village they wanted to know about it the athlet village was at Fort Benjamin Harrison and uh I remember negotiating four Mondo tracks one at Fort Benjamin Harrison one that went in Hydraulics that was in uh the hooer doome the other one at National Institute of fitness and Sport the other Mondo tracks Mondo tracks the fastest tracks in the world where where we had World track field championships okay and another one at Carol Stadium um where

they had those big TR and this big fellow from Italy comes up to our offices one day and was demanding from me the money until we got them directed down to the fourth s accounts payable is down low okay so they say they're in things Advance you know then this becomes the next the next big issue that uh that came up with the Pan-American games is these are you know half the world is involved so obviously you know you're in charge of capital development or what was it uh corporate development Cor raise the money so who doesn't want to get there you know we saw

it with Lily in the Olympics this past year right National stage International stage we had automobile dealers and all kinds of sponsors and suppliers and the licensing program was huge and and uh having dealers and concessionaires and just a lot of cottage learning from our people inun 40,000 volunteers oh wow 40,000 that became our secret sauce for all of Indianapolis and the growth of our the volunteers yep uh Alison mton talked about you know 12,000 volunteers for the Super Bowl uh all the yellow shirts and the single day employees at Indianapolis mot Speedway yeah but you were talking about before before we kind of got

rolling right that the the sites were set a little bit higher right like this is a global event like everyone wants to be a part of from a marketing and sponsorship point of view yes not from a uh interest point of view in terms of sport um because there was a lot of interest um you know they they were U their boxing team was pretty pretty good um they were concerned about their safety in fact one of the questions that they asked was who's doing the closing ceremony at the time we didn't know it turned out to be gloryia estan Cuban during the closing ceremony

they the Cuban team set did not get up and dance like everybody else did she like defect well she was already here um I think she's second generation oh okay okay she's Cuban Heritage and and they're like yeah not for us not for us really so so anyway um a lot of things happen on the ground operationally I have a little pager and you know and things like that and I happened to one night me being kind of on duty and I'm at the uh Convention Center watching team handball I was like what this this sport I this is really fascinating to me you basically

take the last guy on a basketball team and you put him on a team handball team you take the the 14th man from the basketball right then you put them on team handball team and these guys are great and they're running with the ball and and throwing it into a net I mean it's like team handball I never heard of it but you I learned a lot during that period of time and this is after I'm taking care of a quarantine with horses coming in for the equestrian and and going down to camp adury and up to Lake Michigan for the yachting events and and

I mean we kind of took over the state and all that but I'm sitting here watching this team handball and my Pedro goes off and says you need to get next door to the convention center the boxing venue I said what do I need to go to the boxing venue for so I get up walk around the corner to the who's your Dome all of a sudden I see we got a green room set up over there with Dr blank and Baker and he's taking care of people and we'd already kind of made some determinations well they're Wheeling out a guy in gurnie already and

he's bloody pulp and he's yelling press conference press conference press conference the guy on the gurnie yes he Cuban national and they were down there heckling the boxers the Cuban boxers those are the wrong people to heck you need to get to the handball room immediately sir they beat the and you know the guy was yelling press conference and I'm going to Dr blanker he needs medical attention right now doesn't he so yes they wheel him off into the Green Room we go back there and settle the guy down and said you know he says you know I want to file Char you were one

harassing these people get out of here but anyway um that became uh you know International kind of deal you know the the human boxers come out of the stands and come into the F and beat you know when we do that when we do that we got we got mice at the palace the palace all over again no doubt about it wow okay so getting getting sponsors and getting interest right two sides of the marketplace there right getting attendees to come to Indianapolis right hard or getting sponsors Global sponsors the sponsorship deal was probably the hardest but then we got State money Federal money usia

money um who was like the title sponsor like who was the big dog there was no no title sponsor but we had several presenting sponsors and and um you know um Lily the the newspapers did some advertorials which they never do they wouldn't sell advert sell advertising we don't give it away you know and uh so came RCA uh was was a big one and some other kind of local folks that we had here did that and huge thank you to our friends at Greeks Pizzeria since 1968 Greeks have been serving up Delicious Pies all over Indiana from Fort Wayne to Crawfordsville down to Bloomington

and everywhere in between Greeks p area is all over the state you need to go check out the video I posted of Mike Cole now Mike owns the Greeks in zionville he ran the M race marathon in Columbus and broke the World Record for fastest marathon while holding a pizza it was a spectacle it was super awesome the man crushed it he ran a three hour and 15minute Marathon while holding a pizza that's faster than I run my normal Marathon it was an insane feat to witness give yourself a break for making dinner tonight pull out your phone go to GS pizzeria.com and find the

store nearest you order a large pepperoni you're going to be a her for your significant other your kids whoever they are they're going to love you there's a reason they've been in business for 55 years they know what they're doing when it comes to Pizza go check out Greeks pizzeria.com when you think about the entirety of the Pan-American games what are you most proud of that we pulled it off I learned years later when I was a member of the capital Improvement board but how you count economic impact is completely different than the facts of making dollars and cents I'm not sure that Allison covered

it when you when you chatted with her but the Super Bowl did you talk about economic impact that the city would have and visit Indie has their own formulas we kind of talked about it when Leonard was on and like you know Allstar Weekend it's like yes there's a certain amount of like dollars and cents but there's also like the marketing about it well if you think about the Super Bowl if you're going to advance to that big event that we had here by the way Mark miles um the three largest events in Indianapolis he he was over the top of all three of them

Phantom games the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 in the Super Bowl oh wow so so he knows the thing you're true about big events my high school buddy oh wait no he went to North Central yeah yeah he's one year ahead of me look at that W think talk about just two local guys just making a big impact well it wasn't just two there there there are others oh tons so economic impact right that's we're so but counting dollar for dollar if you think about the NFL the NFL is for guess what the NFL everything has them is free their media press rooms all

they're part of the package you can't sell those hotel rooms because they get them for free so when at the capital Improvement board level when we add up at the end we're listening to reporters talking about well you guys obviously made money did not make money the when you're talking about um dollar Ford dooll investment versus return in real dollars not in terms of investment dollars and return on investment in returns of like you know the state invests $10 million to bring the panamerican games here they did not make $10 million I don't know what the real numbers are you you you you you get

the drift but I learn that until you know spending my some tenure at at Capital Improvement board which and then you learned like hey based on all these other factors and the you know the this and the that effect in in the in the in the pipeline of business and how I was on visit Indies board for a long long time uh and in the touris and tomorrow board for a long long time uh when asked to go to the uh Capital Improvement board I was asked first to go to the Bond Bank board so I sat on the Bond Bank board and uh when

from the Bond Bank um they asked when they had a uh they wanted to move some chairs around ask if I would go to the capital Improvement board so I went to the capital Improvement board and and uh well let's talk about that I don't I I keep hearing specifically when I'm in conversations with you and Roger about the capital Improvement board the CIB yeah what is what is that quasi government Rel Rel and explain it to us in terms of like people that aren't super political and don't know a ton about the inner workings of how government happen capital um possessions always going to

need of improvements okay so things owned by the state or the city the city things owned by the city and quas owned by the state if you're talking about so what are the big if you had to say like hey the big things that are owned by the state the top Lucas Oil Stadium owned by the state or owned by the cityis city but there's some State interest in it because there are some State dollars in it um I'm on the Indianapolis Indians board Victory Field um you know so when there was lease negotiations between CIB and Victory Field field um I I had to

step out of both rooms I mean you know that didn't stop people from speculating and say nothing like the so so so are the biggest assets that the city owns these stadiums those events these stadiums yes and the parking garages and so the city owns Lucas Oil Stadium and Rents It to the Colts or how does that work are they the landlord leases leases it we're the landlord CIB is the landlord so Ur is paying rent to the city of Indianapolis for that call a dollar a year a rent I mean including the naming rights Revenue negoti don't they know about real estate investing 101

okay so all that was happening we built the Lucas Stadium still owing on the bonds for the whoer Dome that we blew up okay I'm interested here so you're talking about bonds I mean you they sold bonds to hooers to build I'll tell you one story about Market Square Arena okay I'm negotiating venues for Pan-American games right and then go over and negotiate a good deal with the people at uh Margaret Square Arena and uh and I get to the U to the government officials they say well did you get terrorism Insurance it doesn't like in 1985 I'm going terrorism what what is that if

you notice Mark Square Arena was built over the top of two streets on Market Street and in a bowl kind of and it and had open area where the parking garage were you could drive your car right into the parking garages right underneath Market Square Arena no problem right it worked out great for a long time until the guy says do you from the from the state department he says well did did you get terrorism insurance I going are you kidding what what is that I didn't know so we had to do do our research again so there we are we find out the KK

up in up in uh Fort Wayne Uh could actually do terrorism Insurance just before anybody was even knew what Terror was um you know May maybe some a few things in byut or whatever it is but there was really nothing that we would were afraid of so wait I never knew what this Arena totally looked like it like you could literally Drive underneath it absolutely and you did I mean I would make it get terrorism Maur too like but now now with our mentality of Terror we it never crossed our mind that somebody 1985 yeah nobody's going to drive a car under there they said

was drive a car under there and have a bomb I said why would anybody do that you know I'm serious I'm for these I'm going why would anybody do that yeah no there's no would do that yeah of course several years later we blow it up ourselves kind of so so when you talk about the capital Improvement board yes so this is how many people sit on it and what are they in charge of and what are the big initiatives being pushed there and what's going on with the what's going on with the soccer stadium is that is that Capital Improvement the reason why I

knew that the original one wasn't going to be built if through he after Mr gone to the to the uh state legislature to try to get a lot of money and and but he had never even talked about competition because he' never been before the capital Improvement board at the time so I kind of knew that wasn't going to go anywhere and they offered him UL some money for Carol Stadium and the money for Carol Stadium um didn't allow for uh a developer to develop around it so he turned that deal down and the most recent deal I know a little bit about it ind1

spot was not going to work so this is the Hort spot now though no no no 11 Park the original spot there that was built over a cemetery or an old Cemetery reason why I knew it wasn't going to work there and why people were asking me about that development I also set as chairman of the board of Crown Hill Cemetery that'll do it Crown Hill Cemetery had were called because of possible remains and would we be helpful in identifying The Remains and then taking them to Crown Hill for for interment well they find out there's more than just a few bones even find a

complete full mummy and so I knew with our uh historic preservation people and groups we have an African-American group and and um there was so they were just saying there's no way they never build over that so the mayor had to have an out so he got his out um with uril and started to work down the path of the what was going to happen at the heliport of course um urel's top financer Fort Wayne billionaire comes in and buys up land right yeah maybe you've heard of our friend Chuck yeah yeah Chuck says hey I like that Hort where it is cuz I can

just ZIP down from Fort Wayne in my sweet copter which I love I think it's sick I love these helicopter more importantly my analysis with the other um journalist around who asked my opinion as if my opinion counts anymore but it's not in the cards they say why is it in the cards I said if you look at Sports Development uh on the rest belt just go down Highway 70 and get our comparable size cities Cincinnati Kansas City St Louis just drive down Highway 70 and top of these cities they can only support two major league sports two major league sports city hockey you got

we have basketball football here can't can't do baseball I was ahead of the major league search committee when we thought we could drop the antitrust exemption and then go after a major league team for baseball for baseball yes we even talked before we built um Victory Field and I was holding out why don't we just do subjacent support sufficient enough that we can just build up uh the tiers cuz it's comparable Major League Stadium but for a seating capacity in hypothetically I lost the argument oh Ted B said Milt if we ever get Major League Baseball we'll start all over and build a new stadium

much smarter man than me uh well Randy said on the podcast it's like a major league team's not our cards just I mean you had Cincinnati right there St Louis down the road there's there there's a two in Chicago there's a 60 mile radius rule for that who knows what rin's going to do he might not be there but anyway REO I did see some like people saying the potential for an M MLS team could be like if one moves you know like if Louisville because they have a do they have a Louisville is is that Nashville Nashville Cincinnati Chicago um it's not in the

cards um you know when he tried to switch gears and go to the Hort over there and you got people against the hel oh I lied Louisville is not in the MLS they're in the same USL same thing as big you got it you got you got it it's not going to happen when they went there and of course a couple television stations called me up and said I remember your prediction when you were on our show you said it's not going to happen he said that's what they just decided that you Indianapolis is not in the list for expansion I said that mean it's

not gonna happen I interviewed on um Emma broadcasting Jeff sman yeah his own his stations he owns and he had really you know leveraged himself on that Seattle Mariners ownership and and I started talking to him about Major League Baseball cuz you know I was on the major league me and Danny dson headed up the late Danny danelson headed up the Major League Baseball search committee and we had identified AR andatti instead of Dave Elmore in terms of expansion versus buying an existing franchise and and doing and Marge shot said over our her dead body um you know was that going to ever happen but

Jeff M said we can't support it from a population point of view man we had him on the show and he talked talked about his time owning Seattle mhm they were they were at that point before they bought that team they were winners nothing but winners they were just like everything they did printed money they get out there they bring in all these innovative ideas and he's honest with it that like they struggled based on this like how much Seattle as a city just like didn't embrace it and didn't love baseball and they couldn't get them out to the stadium they lost their basketball team

too you know now they're trying to get one back and know though they're their women's team is yeah they only have one they have one professional team the the the super I mean the Seahawks but they used to have three yeah well the Mariners still yeah so they have two two they have two but they had three lost their bask and he said it was really hard and then like he sold it end up selling it to like Nintendo or the owner of Nintendo or whatever like they can afford that whole landscape has changed I mean the ownership portfolios have changed from individuals to families

to Partners to limited partners to investment banker firms um well I think that's one thing about the Indians it's super interesting is that it's all a community owned right largely shareholder like shareholder by the you know not not not traded pink sheet yeah we can't just go buy we can't just go buy stock but there are like there are community members like just civilians out here that own like you own a stock of the Indian a couple shares a share you own a singular share of the Indians but you know what our Shares are worth now right we did a stock 30 grand we did

a stock was twice that 60 yeah uh we did a stock Redemption uh we thought we were going to get to um sub chapter S status um what does that mean if you were than 34 investors um but nobody want to give up no I mean you want a piece of a baseball team uh well so we're redeeming stop left and right I mean you know from 15,000 to 20,000 to 25,000 to 30,000 people still want to hang on to their sh the Dividends are good though so you you understand it didn't start it was like a buck or something like when they first said

$5 $5 ended up exting that back to the state so those are useless shares people call up from time to time asking about those those shares oh wait those don't those didn't mean anything no you put them in a frame yeah there you go so where did the real sharers get like divvied up at well just a few uh unur the few that we could redeem back we would buy back for the club and team the schumacker family owns uh the majority got you okay because I was like and and uh I was like thinking through that and I remember that originally you could like

buy a share if you like mailed in five bucks or something like that which we had Rand lowski on Grant Randy just won the nice award as a executive of the year in minor league baseball way congrats Randy friend of the podcast there we go we're really really proud of Randy heck yeah I love that well I know we we kind of getting close on time we've been we've been ripping for a little while if you had to talk about though you know all the things that you do like what are what are a few of the initiatives or one or two of them that

um that mean the most to you and what are ways that the community can support those well one they can't support is primarily my International negotiations and the uh minerals building um business did not see that one coming nickel and lithium so you're working in international Tanzania and with with a couple of major companies here locally and uh working on getting them into mineral getting battery production for the AV Marketplace I mean that's huge and we've got um uh diplomatic status and that could make a huge impact here in in Indiana right you getting raw materials sure okay sure well we we've got access and

we believe we're about to close a deal so I may be headed back to uh Africa shortly that's not one that anybody can really just like milk yeah we can't just like like And subscribe to help to help with ra raw mineral harvesting right but uh I I have started a new Venture called executive athletes International and uh we provide services for former athletes and former Executives uh into their new life of of however it is um that they want on a speaking circuit or writing a book I've got a new book coming um by the way um what's the book called no your Strike

Zone oh the baseball theme continues absolutely know your Strike Zone your Strike Zone think about that my book and and my book is is a series of of uh 10 of the top 50 shows that I did for my television show okay so uh chapter one I think is going to be on tamaa Catchings talking about how how she she went about it got got one on Gary Brackett and his life and travail another one on Ray Tolbert and how it is so when you say know your Strike Zone uh what I think about that right is like knowing where you can where you can

fit the ball at as in a kid as a kid I remember my little coach Thompson I was a first ball swinging I don't care where the ball is see ball hit ball I was going to swing no matter where it is he said you're going to be a good hitter one day but you got to know your strike zone so I thought about that baseball is a game of failure so if you're really used to doing better than 50% and winning you're in the wrong sport Okay so even if you begin to perfect your craft and you say okay I know my Strike Zone

I know my strike zone I'm going to be safe more often than not if I do hit know my Strike Zone I hit when it's in the strike zone and you know your Strike Zone you've got it covered and there comes a spinning curve ball right in the strike zone and you miss it this is loaded and you're not Freeman in the bottom of the ninth inning and and a fast ball right down the middle and you freeze and you just take it you miss it even if it's in your shk Zone how many times do you freeze and don't follow through on what it

is you're doing so what do you do even if you know your Strike Zone even if you know you're in a game of failure even if you know that your life has got some ending points to it what are you going to do in between there how are you going to manifest and give that forward I love that that's powerful so so you'll be able to scope out that book when we we'll let you know when we get yeah know your Strike Zone I love it so between initiatives with minerals overseas locally writing a book uh you've just done so much and you've just been

a staple in the Indianapolis and in Indiana and broader community at large and I think that this is just like one part I feel like we're going to have to get you back on to talk about talk about the nil and my view of Amer Sports and one quick last um penm game story yeah um that final game on Sunday afternoon ended up being the United States versus the Brazilians I'm giving the medals out to the silver medal game okay than and I'll be handed out to whoever the second team is other than the United States so happened that that was the last time there

was a non-dream team playing in a basketball game David Robinson Rex Chapman Denny crumb was the coach Brazil kicked our behinds that Sunday afternoon there in Margaret Square Arena 1987 USA did not win did not we did not win the gold medal in basketball in fact I'm taking silver medals over and trying to get David Robinson to bend down to put the metal on they're looking at me like man go get that metal I said hey you should won and back in the back in in under the locker room Oscar Schmidt was just rolling around like a 5-year-old kid just so happy that they uh

um beat beat uh um the United States but after that you know when when when they said no more college kids we're we're going pros and you had and then they brought in the real deal and it was like it's been game over it's game over if you notice and you're trying to give you're trying to give these guys their medals they're like get out of here get out of here man this is silver medal you don't want to do that but any I've got picture we with the silver medals so anyway but you found a trash can full of those yeah dude we're not

taking those I don't think they got rid of them right they're somewhere hanging around there if you have a if you have a silver medal from the 1987 panm games hit us up we'd love to see that thing you got it um okay we rounding it out we have a few questions that I always like to ask the guests so the first one this question is brought to you by our friends at or Fellowship they're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young Business Leaders across the state M what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self uh I wish I knew now um

what I thought I knew then I wish I knew now what I thought knew right those are song lyrics I thought I knew everything at 22 you know I was I was a good student and uh was versatile in in music and in athletics and and and I figured that I I just couldn't do anything wrong right wrong wrong and I feel like that's so like the sooner the when you're 22 you need to keep the ambition and don't let don't let that like hunger to go out and do stuff like die but also realize that you don't know and there is there is power

and wisdom and being there is a point to check your ego and say God I got a lot to learn I love I would learn a lot more I think that's been a GameChanger last like two or three years of my life uh I've realized that one if I'm the smartest person in the room that I'm in I'm in the wrong room in the wrong room right and two it's like spend time learning and like even if it's about the most random things right whether it's uh lithium mines in Tania or or like you know the the PanAm games that were hosted in 1987 like

I find it so fascinating right and I just find that there's so much you can pick up and as soon as you stop being like I know everything there is to know like the world opens up for you well just just think about the people you've talked about there have been guests on your show show all these people are smarter than me I don't know about that right like I mean yeah Fair like but but these are these are people who made changes that that you even consider me as in the same breath with them is is sometimes not even easy to take but uh

I I recognize my limitations I think that's a very humble approach I do believe that you are everything is not in the Dr Zone by the way right man I mean you've crushed it and I think that it's cool to be I say as seasoned as uh as mil is and to still have that that who your humbleness right there uh I think that's super special so what passion and ambition yet I I'm I hope I'm not done I I I think 70 is the new howy 31 I'm 27 27 Oh My godness Roger Roger hey if I've uh if I've accomplished uh half the

things that you have by the time I get to be my 70s I'll be like damn well 27 I was um I was was um married 26 and graduated from law school the prior year and was trying cases as a Maran County prosecutor and you did what was it 100 cases undefeated something like that do they say undefeated is that thing it's like a sports term undefeated with our astonishing record of 100 no in cases well as a prosecutor that's you know you pick your cases that you try as a supervisor I'm going to win oh yeah well so um all right we have the

same questions I asked everyone at the end of every show first question is MIL what's something the world needs to know about Indiana that we are way way way more um than what we used to be called as Indi no place were way more than a um corn fuel with a race track the middle of it um one thing is about I'd mentioned it earlier on our secret sauce is 40,000 volunteers showed up in 1986 before the Pan-American games we really didn't need to recruit any more volunteers we needed to find something for volunteers to do when you think about it the volunteers here are

not just a cottage industry they have learned how to put themselves in position to lead not only this city and state but this country if you think about BigTime gigs think about Jack swbi who's athletic director in Notre Dame for all those years came right out of our toage think about FR Fred glass who was the um you know the athletic director at IU for a long time and where' he get his toage right here in terms of this the the work that we we've had and then I always think about when you talk about volunteers when you talk about the NCAA uh you talk

about Mr Shaheen when he uh literally when we were shuttling people from NCA back and forth he was a volunteer driver holy and he ends up on CBS Television administering the final four so there you go right it's like early on learn that's what when people ask me all the time how do I we ran a program called uh uh how do you um how do you get a job in sports because there's so much Supply very little Demand right and and people would do it for free right but the conclusion is is the best way to have a job uh get a job in

sports is to have a job in sports oh okay yeah right so hey I'll show up and I'll drive people around or do whatever do whatever it takes and but don't just do it to be doing it I did it to be connected with people I found a damer baseball association because that could be around people uh high school and and basketball football coaches started a television show from nothing so that I could have a recruiting Advantage when I got into my agency business representing professional athletes you know and I end up you know with the Ray tolberts and the Jimmy Thomas's and the and

and the DEA shrimps and the Rick Smiths I knew you were going to say de shrimp I love that um okay mil what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana I'm a I'm a strong believer in our Park systems we' got some wonderful state parks I'm chairman of the board of the Indiana State Gaming Commission oh where's your property of choice uh all of them we don't care where you go just go to one was just out in uh the Tero the new one out there phenomenal there you go great spot uh final question for the day mil who is a hoer that we need to

keep on our radar someone who's doing big things Kay Clark heck yeah have you met her I have not it's on the list she's that she will be sitting in that seat maybe we'll be more in an elevated status by then your status is good bro yeah I love it but I would love to talk about yeah you have the basketball side but it's like I want to know she's the next Market mover oh we used to talk about you know Michael Jordan moving markets um you know Muhammad Ali sitting out for three years still moving markets I mean she's done huge things I just

had Alison barara on we were talking about and and Indiana and Indianapolis specifically I guess all of Indiana is positioned to be the epicenter for women's sports uh globally well that there are two significant efforts going on about that and one of them with my company uh executive uh fetes International uh is LIN St James um I had represented her a little bit back in her racing days and now we're um working on the behind the scenes to get a full full length movie presented oh boy within for her heck yeah yeah and and and then we also have so we have the Indie ignite

coming to town which is the volleyball team will be on the North side uh Alison new the marll project and everything going on up in that that leadership and Development Center up in Northwest Indiana so I mean we're definitely positioned to make some big moves when it comes to uh women's sports and I'm excited to uh Julie ragdale has been back kind of behind some of that and she left her General council's role at um at strata and helped us start the Indianapolis Indians Charities um program uh do you go to swing I I I didn't cuz I was away well it it was canceled

this year because of rain or whatever but I've heard that that's one of because everyone has their thing our inal year was last year yeah and and Randy and his team really working hard to be able to use that beautiful facility that we have and we've invested a lot of money in that facility um and that's one difference in the capital Improvement board that that that Capital Improvement board actually operates lucasv Stadium the na Indians manage and operate Victory Field m Pacer sports and entertainment have the contract with Civ to manage and operate uh gamer Fieldhouse one is run completely and staffed by I mean

Eric newberger um works for the capital Improvement board running uh Lucas Stadium um Pacer Sports entertainment they have their own management contract the more you know and and what the Colts want the Pacers want they think there's parity we got to have that if you're going to put a new concession stand over there well you need to fund a uh a renovation over here but nice well Mill I appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to educate us on all the I mean some amazing things that have happened in Indianapolis and the things that continue to uh unpack and and just like the history

and knowing like I think learning about Capital Improvement board learning about the PanAm games just helps us to make it a you know a better community and and know what's going on going forward so I appreciate you I'm sure this will not be the last time we have you in the chair and uh yeah just thank you well thank you Nate uh I love your Venture I love the influencers uh that you've already gathered and and uh you're going to blow it up man um 20 are you serious seriously yes sir good Lord have mercy I I was blessed to have my daughter U my

real Superstar uh came in town for a couple of uh days uh this past week and it was good to be with her um where she live fulltime she lives in in Upper Maryland Delaware she's the um doctor lawyer run the transplant Lab at NYU hey hey yo and I post on Instagram for a living it's like some people have crazy cool jobs but you want to know something that um it really it really kind of got me a little bit she is two weeks older than LeBron James that's crazy wow and they've both accomplished a ton there you go she does well but I

don't think she's done LeBron James kind of well LeBron well hey mil appreciate you and we'll talk appreci thank you for listening to this episode of get in if you liked what you heard make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast this show was made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater whether you're trying to start your own podcast or looking to take your show to the next level make sure you check out sweetwater.com for all your creator needs if you want exclusive behind the-scenes content on all things Indiana make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok @nate spangle

thank you for being part of what makes the hooer state so amazing we'll see you next week here on get in