Alongtime member of the York Sports Night committee, George Trout wanted to take advantage of the 2012 Olympic Games in London to remind York countians that dozens of Olympic stars and champions have participated in York Sports Night over the years.

But I screwed that up by having dental surgery last week, just as the Olympic Games were winding down.

If it was a good idea last week, however, could it be any less a fine idea this week? After all, the goodwill built up by the Olympic Games is still hanging on the sports horizon.

When I spoke to Trout early last week, he reminded me that there were literally dozens of names associated with the Olympics who also were part of the York Sports Night program.

Of course Trout knows and remembers this stuff because he rubbed elbows and had conversations with every one of them. Plus, he's got every York Sports Night program ever printed.

So he looked it up just to be sure.

"Everyone thinks the York Sports Night show is just a baseball or football show," Trout said. "It's a lot more than that."

York Sports Night got its start in 1964 -- that's 48 years ago, and counting -- and one of its first guests was an Olympic legend. A legend then, a legend still.

I'm speaking, of course, about Jesse Owens, the hero of the 1936 games -- they were held in Berlin, Germany, in front of Adolph Hitler -- when he won gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, the broad jump and as a member of the 400-meter relay team.

The Olympians-in-York list grew from that monumental start. In no particular order, it includes: Nadia Comaneci, a gold-medal gymnast in 1976 and 1980; Bart Conner, a gold-medal gymnast on the parallel bars; Linda Methany, an American gymnast on the 1964 and 1968 teams; Joe Dube, a bronze medalist as a weightlifter in the 1968 Olympic Games; Vera Caslavska, a gymnastics gold-medal winner from behind the Iron Curtain; and Julie McNamara, a gold-medal-winning gymnast in 1984.

Add to the list: Matt Biondi in 1989, a five-time gold-medal swimmer in the 1988 Olympics; Donna de Varona, a winner of two gold medals in swimming in the 1964 Olympics; Steve Mormando and Peter Westbrook, Olympic fencers; Suzanne McConnell, a member of the 1988 women's basketball team; Janet Evans, a gold-medal swimmer in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics; American cyclist Mark Gorski; and Jim Hartung, a gold-medal winning gymnast at the 1984 Olympics.

And let's not forget one of the most beloved names in U.S. Olympic history -- Jim Craig, the goalie on the gold-medal winning American ice hockey team in 1980. He came to York in 1988.

Oh, and there's one more I wouldn't want to miss: All-everything swimmer Michael Phelps, eventual owner of 22 Olympic medals, 18 of them gold, participated in York Sports Night in 2001, when he was just 15 years of age. York got him before he became crazy-famous, but it did get him.

That's probably not a complete list, but it's more or less what Trout gave me off the top of his head in about five minutes.

And it doesn't include York County's homegrown Olympians: Linda Myers, a two-time participant in the Olympics as an archer; Whitney Metzler, a member on the 1996 Olympic swimming team; and Scott Strausbaugh, winner of a gold medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics as a slalom canoer.

Not a baseball or football player on the list.

So Trout was right on the money.

All that glitters might not be gold, but if you happen to find yourself at York Sports Night, it could be.

"There are a lot of reasons to attend York Sports Night," he said, "but over the years, we've had our share of Olympians on the program, too. It's just one part of what's made Sports Night so successful."

Sports columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch columnist, run Thurs days. E-mail: lhick s@yorkdispatch.com.