When he was 16 years old, David Matlin stood in a television truck in Detroit and told the astonished ABC production crew that the sportscaster on the air, Howard Cosell, was wrong.

Cosell had just made reference to Reggie Jackson’s mammoth All-Star Game home run off the Tiger Stadium light tower coming in 1972 and Matlin had the temerity to immediately challenge him on it, saying it was 1971.

“Are you sure?’ ” the director asked.

“I was there when it happened, so I knew,” Matlin said. The director quickly prevailed upon Cosell to make the correction.

Born in Honolulu to a then-general manager of the Hawaii Islanders, Matlin observed a lot while trailing his father, Lew, a 40-year professional baseball executive, through stops in Vancouver, Canada, Seattle, Milwaukee and Detroit.

It was an up-close and hands-on education — everything from handing out bats on bat day to changing numbers on the scoreboard — that has helped prepare him to run the most furious four-day sports gauntlet in Hawaii, the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic and the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. 

Beginning Sunday and running through Christmas, Matlin will oversee 10 teams playing 12 games over two venues on national TV.

“And, then, I’ll go home (Christmas) night, say ‘hi’ to everyone for a little while and pass out,” Matlin said.

Matlin, a 49-year old Michigan graduate who worked for the Houston Astros and UH, has been involved with the Hawaii Bowl since its 2002 inception and the Diamond Head Classic since its 2009 inaugural. The past six years have been as executive director of both events for Charlotte, N.C.-based ESPN Regional Television, the owner and operator.

Friends like to joke that Matlin only works four days a year, but the reality is much different. “We start gearing up in February, setting the teams up, getting everything lined up,” Matlin said. “If I could do it all in four days, I’d be the smartest guy in town. But, I’m definitely not.”

Instead, “it takes a year-round effort by so many people here and in Charlotte, our staff, the committees and supporters who assist us in so many ways,” Matlin said.

The Hawaii Bowl challenge this season has been exacerbated by the absence of hometown Hawaii, the planned anchor, for a third consecutive year, forcing the event to try to find the best available draw. That meant doing some horse trading to get outside the contractual framework of the Mountain West vs. Conference USA agreement, to secure Oregon State of the Pac-12 for a matchup with Boise State.

Even when he took his daughter to check in as a freshman at Notre Dame this year, Matlin managed to work in meetings with Fighting Irish officials. It was lobbying that nearly paid off last week when Notre Dame considered an appearance in the Hawaii Bowl before ultimately choosing to play in the New York Yankees-owned Pinstripe Bowl in the Bronx.

But, then, when you’ve grown up in the business of sports, you learn to always keep your avenues open.