Dan Lovett, a former abc13 KTRK Houston sports anchor who rose to prominence with ABC Sports, sat down with KHOU 11's Jason Bristol to discuss his latest book 'Deadly Number$: The Suffering Seven.'
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First, they discussed a wide range of topics, including his early career, favorite athletes to cover, and memorable moments calling games.
Early in his career, Dan Lovett found himself broadcasting for the Houston Oilers during a difficult time for the team. They only won two games in two years. This was when he joked that he had started drinking double vodka tonic cocktails but said that owner Bud Adams did make one smart decision.
Lovett says he became friends with some athletes he covered, including AJ Foyt, Elvin Hayes, Sam Huff, Jean-Claude Killy, and Arnold Palmer. This was not a common practice for sports broadcasters at the time, Lovett explained, but he believed it gave him a better understanding of the athletes he was covering.
Some of the most memorable moments in Lovett's career were covering Evel Knievel's attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon and working with legendary broadcaster Howard Cosell, who stiffed Lovett for a four-dollar cab ride to a White House function.
The book 'Deadly Number$: The Suffering Seven' is a work of fiction that Lovett wrote over a period of seven or eight years. It's about seven people who all hold winning tickets in the biggest lottery in American history, but none of them can collect their winnings. The characters in the book are all named after streets in Houston. The winning lotto numbers come from the jerseys of Houston Astros players who helped win the 2022 World Series.
According to Dan Lovett, film companies have been interested in adapting the book into a movie.
