The Today Show puts Roadtrippers on national stage

By Peter Farrell and Andrew Kulyk

It’s all Mike Harrington’s fault.

Yep, blame Mike. Hang it on him. He started all this. Mike Harrington, sports writer for the Buffalo News and beat reporter for Bisons baseball and college hoops, he is responsible. "Guys, I sold my editor on doing a follow-up article, now that you have finished your road trip. Can you stop by our offices this week so we can talk?" he asked.

And so it began. The News story ran on January 7, front page no less, and the next day all hell broke loose.

The article, titled "Twosomes sports odyssey touches all the bases," got transmitted onto the Associated Press and Canadian Press newswires, and the next day versions of the piece appeared in newspapers across the United States and Canada, and even made the news ticker crawl on the bottom of the screen on CNN. And with the publicity came the calls and emails… "we’d like to interview you," "can you come on our show," "we’re doing a story on Fenway Park and want you on our panel," "we’re with the BBC, do you have 5 minutes to come on in the U.K.?"

They say that in one’s life, everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame, but even we did not expect this… a communication from a researcher from the Today Show, expressing an interest in the Ultimate Sports Road Trip and asking for a return call. The Today Show? THE TODAY SHOW?! Omigosh, we’re talking the big time… Katie… Matt… Rockefeller Center.

And indeed, the Today Show wanted us to speak with Matt Lauer about the Ultimate Sports Road Trip. We agreed to two issues to seal the deal… NBC would get the exclusive, meaning no other national appearances until after our Today Show interview, and the piece would air via satellite from Buffalo.

The next challenge was to find a suitable location to stage the interview, and that part of the process was easy. Where else but HSBC Arena! That was stop number one, the first journey on our road trip, and what better setting to showcase on national television. So that was our recommendation to NBC, and we asked them to call Sabres Executive Vice President Ron Bertovich to get the ball rolling.

Over the next week, the pieces fell into place… a day and time was scheduled, and the day was getting nearer. Now it was 24 hours away, and after a lengthy "pre-interview" with the New York City people, we were told to get a good night’s sleep and report to the arena at 7:15 a.m. A good night’s sleep… yeah, right!

When we arrived at the arena that morning, we were surprised to see the complexity of the set up. There was Joe Guarnieri, Sabres Senior Director of Broadcast Services, on hand since 5 a.m. laying cables and setting up the satellite uplinks. There were not one but two cameramen flown in from New York City, along with Today Show producer Allison Walder. All this for us??!

Allison delivered the first bit of news… Matt Lauer was off that day, so it would be MSNBC’s Lester Holt conducting the interview. The first thought was "What! How could Matt take the day off? Didn’t he know WE were going to be on today?" The next minutes went by quickly… comb the hair, sit in the chairs, sound checks, stand by… Katie is going to give you an intro… give her a wave.

And then at 7:47 a.m. the cue came through the earpiece, and seconds later there was Lester Holt, firing questions from the NBC studios at Rockefeller Center. And there WE were, wearing our Bills and Sabres colors, talking to the nation. The next few minutes were a blur… just stay focused, speak slowly, don’t say anything dumb. It all went by so fast, and just like that, it was over.

Before heading out the door to bask in the glow of the morning’s happenings, we were bestowed one more honor. Joe Guarnieri invited us into the HSBC Arena broadcast center on the ground floor, and he showed us "The Wall", a collection of autographs of notables who have set foot in our arena. This is a part of the building that most fans will never see, and that is a shame, because on "The Wall," the building’s history comes alive. One example… minutes after the Stars scored that controversial winning goal in game 6 back in 1999, ESPN announcer John Saunders stormed into the control booth, grabbed a marker and wrote "you guys were robbed… NO GOAL". Just about every artist, broadcaster, celebrity and more than a few athletes who have come through the arena have signed their names here.

We toured "The Wall" with Joe, and then he handed us our markers. "Sign it… you’re celebrities now," he said. Yes, we added our names, and with great pride. Right here, in HSBC Arena, where the odyssey began, the Ultimate Sports Road Trip would be forever enshrined.

Peter and Andrew have now completed a five-year tour to attend a home game of each of the 121 franchises in the four major sports, and continue their travels across the continent to visit sports venues everywhere. For more information on the Ultimate Sports Road Trip, log on to their website at www.thesportsroadtrip.com.

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