Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Jeff Zachary, King of the Steadicam By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, November 9, 2023 - 1:49 pm
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It isn't very often that a child who finds themselves in front of the camera becomes enraptured by what is going on behind the camera, but that is what happened to Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Jeff Zachary who, as a child, appeared in Armour hot dog commercials.
I was more intrigued by the behind the scenes and shooting it, he recalls.
That intrigue at a young age resulted in a Hall of Fame career as Zachary is considered one of the all-time-great Steadicam operators. He was the first person to bring Steadicam to NFL coverage, Super Bowls, PGA Golf, MLB All-Star Weekends and the Home Run Derby, the Kentucky Derby, FIFA World Soccer Finals, college football starting in 2006 at the BCS Rose Bowl Championship Game, the XFL, and the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethons. And he also was an innovator, creating specialty camera systems as well as playing a big role in 3D handheld, Steadicam and hard camera rig designs.
I was always intrigued with adding lateral movement to a shot, says Zachary of his love of running a Steadicam. I was always thinking about if I could get 20 yards in front of the receiver so that when the ball drops in near me, I can take off and make it to the goal line with them, providing a lateral stabilized tracking shot.
Zachary says he is grateful for Director Craig Janoff deciding to incorporate the Steadicam for the National Anthem and game coverage at Super Bowl XXXIV as it then led to Don Ohlmeyer and Drew Esocoff incorporating the Steadicam for the whole next NFL season. In turn, Esocoff and Fred Gaudelli, tapped it for the next 17 years for Monday Night Football and then Sunday Night Football.
I am grateful for allof their support as well as the support of Hall of Famer Dick Ebersol, Mark Lazarus, Ken Goss, Mike Sheehan, Sam Flood, Mike Meehan, Pierre Moossa, John Roche, Tim DeKime, Diane Solomon and Rob Hyland, he says. XFL Director John Gonzalez would also embrace Steadicam.
Initially I was allowed on the sidelines, then onto the field, but only to the numbers, he says. Then after good behavior' then to the huddle then to the endzone. Getting to that point took time and the trust of the NFL.
Zachary has received 11 Sports Emmys, often working at some of the most important events in sports history. Among the highlights of his 47-year career as a camera operator and Steadicam operator are working the Ali vs. Holmes fight in 1980; FIFA World Cup Finals 1994; 26 NBA All-Star Games/Slam Dunk Contests; 12 Super Bowls; 15 Kentucky Derbys; 13 MLB All-Star Home Run Derbys; U.S. Open Golf; Indy 500; 36 years of ABC's Monday Night Football, ESPN's and NBC's Sunday Night Football, Fox NFL, CBS NFL, and TNT NFL; 25 Pro Bowls; World League Football, XFL, NFL Network's Thursday Night Football, and the College Football Association (CFA); F1 Las Vegas 1982 and F1 Phoenix 1989; nine Presidential Inaugurations; presidential debates; Democratic and Republican Conventions; four Olympics; 33 years of boxing; 7 Ironman Triathlons; The Masters, The Ryder Cup, and NCAA Final Four in 3D; X-Games; World Figure Skating; The Skins; the Goodwill Games; and two America's Cups. He has also been an operator and producer on nine 3D feature concert films.
For me, it all starts when a director, producer, and executives invite me to join them for their productions and to be able to experience some memorable moments, both in sports, historical events, and in film, he says. Without those invites, I don't have the opportunities in my career that I am so grateful to have experienced.
Key moments in Zachary's career included in 1987 when ESPN Director Marc Payton and Producer John Wildhack asked him to join the Sunday Night Football package; in 1991 when Ken Aagaard, then working for NBC Sports, asked him to use the Steadicam for the first time on a live broadcast on a vehicle mount for the Moscow Peace Marathon; in 1992 when ABC's Craig Janoff and Producer Kenny Wolfe asked him to join Monday Night Football; and working with legendary Director Roger Goodman with ABC on Super Bowl half time shows, Rose Bowl parades, Presidential inaugurations and funerals, and the Oprah Winfrey special with Michael Jackson. Zachary continues to this day to work on high-level historic and special events with Director Jeff Winn. And then there were 26 years working on the NBA Slam Dunk contest with Director Lonnie Dale and Producer Peter Lasser.
Says Gaudelli: Jeff is one of the finest camera operators I ever worked with. He has many qualities that earned him induction to the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, but none larger in my book than creating a position that didn't exist and then turned into a mainstay camera on all major sports telecast.
Lighting the Spark
It was a few years after the Armour hot dog commercials, in 1969, that Zachary's future career came into sharper focus. His family was living in Las Vegas and his mother, Joyce Wilson-Zachary, took him to The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon.
Susan Anton was singing and I told my mother, I want to do that!' and she then asked, being a singer herself, be a singer?' and I said, To be a cameraman, says Zachary. Zachary watched the floor monitors and the big screen on stage and what the camera operators were focusing on. He was intrigued.
I was seeing the line cut when they were coming in and out of breaks, he says.
Zachary's formative years had several kismet moments, like attending the telethon or, getting a Super 8 film camera with a Slow Motion Feature at 12 years old. And in the seventh grade another teacher, Stan Johnson, asked if Zachary and some classmates want
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Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Jeff Zachary, King of the Steadicam By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
