Sunday, November 3, 2024

1984 torch carried through Long Beach will be on display at Legends for Olympics kick-off party

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Legends, the Belmont Shore sports bar staple, will host an Olympics kick-off and watch party as the opening ceremony from Paris will air on Friday, July 26, at 9AM. Even cooler? They will have the 1984 Olympics torch, which bore its way through the streets of Long Beach—particularly the stretch of 2nd Street in Belmont Shore—on display.

The 2024 Olympics kick-off party at Legends: What to know

Legends and the Belmont Shore Business Association will be hosting a kick-off and watch party for the opening ceremony as it is aired live from Paris this Friday at 9AM. Mayor Rex Richardson and former Olympians calling Long Beach home will also join the festivities.

Legends already boasts an impressive collection of sports memorabilia—and that includes Olympic memorabilia, including the very torch that passed along 2nd Street in 1984 when Los Angeles was hosting the Olympics. 

“With the largest and most screens in Long Beach, attendees won’t miss a second of the exciting Olympic action,” said co-owner Eric Johnson. “We can’t think of a better way to kick off the 2024 Summer Olympics than by inviting Mayor Richardson, our local Olympians, and our community to join the festivities.”

The story of Legends in Long Beach is, well, legendary

The legend of Legends Long Beach, one of the city’s most respected and certainly its longest-operating sports bars, goes a bit like this: Then-owners John Morris and Rams football player Dennis Harrah were in a bar in Long Beach when the big football game of the evening came on. 

Unlike the convenience of cable at its beginnings and the seamlessness of streaming nowadays, the bartender had to grab the rabbit ears—an awkward wire contraption that caught the signals of television waves—and attach them to the bulky TV set.

Watching the bartender, the pair of businesses had a particularly radical idea: Screen sports outside of not just the homes of people and a handful of bars but removed entirely from the unsteady reality of home antennas.

Determined to assure their patrons that they wouldn’t have to depend on a faulty antenna, they invested in massive satellites installed on the rooftop of 5236 E. 2nd Street in the Shore for the opening of Legends in the spring of 1979.

The result? Long Beach’s first formal sports bar.

“It’s quite wild to think about because this was long before cable,” current co-owner David Copley told me for a profile feature on the space back in 2022. “They had these massive, 12-foot-diameter dishes on the roof, and initially, they were getting direct feeds off the station. No commercials or anything— so when it went to break for everyone else at home, folks at Legends were quite literally getting the unedited feed of athletes and coaches—so they were cursin’ and whatnot for the crowd here,” said current David Copley. “Again, it was pretty wild.”

It is the perfect precursor to 2028, when Long Beach will be an essential part of the L.A. Olympics

The display of the torch and the celebration of the Paris Olympics are the perfect segue into what will be unavoidable four years from now: the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics and its impact on Long Beach.

Long Beach is investing $747M into the 2028 Summer Olympics—something that has been argued as detrimental to most cities as they don’t see their investment returned. However, rather than heavily focusing on permanent athletic infrastructure that is likely to be unused regularly post-Olympics, the City of Long Beach has decided to invest in infrastructure, right-of-way, cultural spaces, and development meant more for the residents than the Olympics itself.

We have a full, comprehensive list of everything being planned and proposed. Click here for the article

Legends is located at 5236 E. 2nd St..

Brian Addison
Brian Addison
Brian Addison has been a writer, editor, and photographer for more than a decade, covering everything from food and culture to transportation and housing. In 2015, he was named Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club and has since garnered 25 nominations and three additional wins. In 2019, he was awarded the Food/Culture Critic of the Year across any platform at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards.

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