Larry Buendorf, who for decades kept the U.S. Olympic Committee safe in a turbulent world, died Sunday in Colorado Springs. He was 87.
Buendorf, a former U.S. Secret Service agent well known for breaking up an assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford in 1975, served as the USOC’s director of security from the early 1990s through his retirement in 2018 — seeing the athletes, team and leadership through the 1996 Atlanta Games bombing, the fraught years after 9/11 and so much more.
His passing marks the end of an era. He was a link to a bygone time at the USOC — now, for that matter, the USOPC.
Boonie, as he was known by almost everyone, was — unequivocally, irrefutably, no question about it — one of the good guys.
Larry Buendorf in advance of the 2004 Athens Games // Getty Images
One of the really good guys.
“He was a stud, man,” said Rulon Gardner, the Greco-Roman wrestler who stunned the world with a gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Games and came back for bronze in Athens in 2004.
“He was a real hero,” said one of the USOC’s former chief executives, Harvey Schiller.
Another, Scott Blackmun, said, “Through it all, Larry was devoted solely to the safety of those in his care, from President Ford to our most unrecognized athletes.
“He was a true and humble believer in the values that formed our nation.”
Born and raised in southern Minnesota, Buendorf graduated from Mankato State. Then came a tour as a Navy pilot in the Vietnam War.
After, in 1970, he started with the Secret Service.
On Sept. 5, 1975, Ford was in Sacramento. The president was supposed to go by motorcade that day to the state capitol for a speech. Instead, he decided to walk. As the president shook hands, Buendorf was positioned at Ford’s left side.
In the crowd, dressed in red, was a member of the Manson family, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme.
Buendorf saw that Fromme had a .45-caliber pistol. He stepped in front of the president and reached out to swat the gun away.
“I hit it, took it out of her hands, pushed her back in the crowd and, of course as we’re trained to do, they covered the president and evacuated,” Buendorf told a Sacramento television station last year.
He also said, “You try to put it into slow motion, and there’s no slow motion about it.”
In Sacramento in 1975 — Buendorf in sunglasses in front of President Ford
Buendorf would stay with the Secret Service for 23 years. Then, the USOC.
“After I interviewed him,” Schiller said, “I knew he was the right guy … he knew everything about security and how to protect people.”
Bill Hybl, a former USOC president, saw the organization through four Olympic Games. He said, “It was exceptional the feeling of confident security the athletes had. Because he was always there and always with them.”
In 1998, Boonie helped plan a trip that would send a U.S. wrestling delegation to Teheran — the first American sports team to compete in Iran in the aftermath of the revolution there nearly 20 years before.
“He set everything up,” the former national teams director, Mitch Hull, said. “It was the greatest trip.”
In 2001, the wrestling world championships were supposed to be in New York. Sept. 11 changed all that. The Greco-Roman piece of the championships was moved to Patras, Greece, one of the first international sports events after 9/11. As Hull said, “I’m not positive we would have gone without Larry.”
One night in Patras, the power went out. “Everybody was extremely sensitive,” Hull said. “He went into security mode. It was really interesting when you see somebody who is good at what they do and what they think.
“… Some of us didn’t even notice the power was out. Larry was immediately in the hallway. It was the idea of somebody who is a professional, a true professional in how they thought about what needed to be done, and done immediately.”
“We were in Patras, Greece,” Gardner said, “and there was a lot of concern and this and that. I won the worlds that year. He was there. He was showing up everywhere. In all the buses. He was such a hoot.”
Gardner added a moment later, referring to Boonie, “I don’t know how he had a normal life. All he did was live on the road with athletes. We have pride. Imagine what was running through his veins.”
Darryl Seibel, a former USOC spokesman, said, “Larry was an American hero, but he was also the most down-to-earth, humble person you could ever meet. The athletes loved him, and he looked after their well-being just as he would the president of the United States. He was a source of calm and confidence, always.”
Rich Bender, executive director of USA Wrestling, said, “It’s safe to say he had an impact on athletes’ performance simply because when Boonie was around [security] was something that not only they — but delegation members — didn’t worry about. Even if they probably should have.
“There were not many things Boonie hadn’t experienced. He lived the life of 10 guys.”
Jim Scherr, USOC chief executive from 2003 to 2009, now CEO of World Lacrosse, said, “Larry was a legend that had not one but two distinguished careers. One as a decorated Secret Service agent and another as head of security for the USOC for 25 years.
“The organization and the athletes were in a safe pair of hands with Larry leading security. He was a colleague for many years but also a friend. A true character who believed in the Olympic movement. He will be missed.”
The house where Dave Ogrean lives is about a quarter-mile away from the Buendorf residence. Ogrean, former executive director at USA Hockey and a USOC board member from 2011 to 2018, spent every Fourth of July for the past 15 years on the back deck at the Buendorf place, having a barbecue and watching fireworks.
“He would always fly the flag off his deck,” Ogrean said. “One Fourth of July, I vividly remember, he had an acquaintance who was a pilot who was going to fly over. Larry knew when he was coming.
“So, Larry got out at the corner of his deck and Larry gave him a salute. And the plane dipped its wings.”
Ogrean said of Boonie: “He was as honorable a guy as I have ever known.”