From the Newsroom -- Tony Dodero

Many of you may remember Michael Lawler. He’s the Newport Beach

attorney who has an, er, uncanny knack for getting into big events.

He’s been to the Super Bowl, the NBA finals and has gotten into the

Academy Awards ceremonies a few times. He’s climbed the Matterhorn and

Mt. Kilimanjaro and traveled to 35 countries around the world.

So when a phone caller mentioned to me that Lawler had some great

stories to tell about the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, I gave this

local legend a ring to hear the details and ask why he goes out of his

way to be a spectator to history.

“Life is short and uncertain,” Lawler said. “You can’t just be sitting

on the couch and watch everybody else cheering.”

If it wasn’t apparent before, Lawler leads a charmed life. With no

plans in place, he’s able to have the times of his life, time and time

again.

For someone like me, who has to make lunch plans weeks in advance,

it’s hard to fathom being so successful at such a moment’s notice. But he

is.

“This was a last-minute decision,” Lawler said. “We had no place to

stay and no tickets.”

Or course, that all changed quickly.

After his wife, Kathleen, and daughter, Kellie, declined to go along,

Lawler enlisted his sons, Brian and Scott, for the journey and hopped in

the car on a February Friday evening and headed east to Salt Lake City.

While he had managed to get a client of his to lend him the room and

board needed in the way of a home in the town of Sandy, just south of

Salt Lake City, they still didn’t have any tickets, nor any idea that

they would be able to see any Olympic events.

But as you can surmise, they wound up on a whirlwind seven-day Olympic

venture that would make many drool with envy.

On Sunday, the third day of the trip, they did a little bit of their

own skiing and snowboarding at Snowbird, catching an aerial competition,

an autograph session with Olympian Johnny Mosely and a parade at the

Olympic Plaza downtown later that evening.

The fourth day, the trio was up early for a train ride and horse-drawn

sleigh to Soldier Hollow where they caught the Biathlon event, a

combination of cross country skiing and shooting. Later that day they

were able to get tickets for the women’s bobsled and pairs figure skating

events. The bobsled tickets would prove to be a coup.

In between visits to the set of the Today Show and Olympic pin trading

and posing for a photo with the Swiss Curling team, the Lawler clan

managed to nudge next to history in the making yet again, giving a hug to

and snapping photos of Vonetta Flowers and Jill Bakken, the pair who made

history by winning a gold medal in the women’s bobsled event.

“It was so neat to be there and hug an Olympic champion,” Lawler said.

“It was a great thrill to be at the finish line.”

There was more to come. One son managed to give a high-five to NBC’s

Today Show host, Katie Couric, and another got into the NBC Green Room,

where bobsledder Flowers was waiting to appear on television.

They ran into Kevin Costner, the family of gold medal figure skater

Sarah Hughes and speed skater Derek Parra, who let the elder Lawler hold

his silver and gold medals.

They packed up to leave later that day and headed to Provo to watch

the ice hockey competition between the Czech Republic and Russia.

While inside the arena, they sat in the front row to watch the Russian

team warm up for the match, expecting to be tossed from the seats as the

game got going.

Guess what? That never happened. Turns out the seats were those of the

NHL commissioner, whose plans to attend that game fell through. If that

wasn’t enough luck, Lawler convinced a Russian player to give him a piece

of a broken stick for a souvenir.

One last Olympic thrill came when his sons were able to stand behind

the French pair figure skater gold medalist as she was being interviewed

for TV. As the interview rolled, Lawler looked up at a nearby Jumbotron

and saw his boys standing in the background, so he snapped a photo.

I asked Lawler how this compared to some of the other big events he’s

witnessed over the years. With the time he had in Salt Lake, you can

imagine how he answered:

“The Olympics are the pinnacle.”

***

The streak of newsroom tours continues as a group of Tiger Cubs from

Irvine stopped in a couple weeks ago. Making up Den 6 were Frankie

Aguilar, Christian Lloyd, Austin and Eric Mendoza, Gunnar and Slade

Robinson, and Michael and Steven Terranova. Hope they enjoyed our den.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you

have story ideas or concerns about news coverage, please send messages

either via e-mail to o7 tony.dodero@latimes.comf7 or by phone at

949-574-4258.