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“Uh, oh, there’s a skunk! What do we do if it sprays?”

That was a worried shout heard in 1984 as the Olympic archery competition was getting ready to start at El Dorado Regional Park in Long Beach.

This story about how a skunk possibly could have canceled or, at least delayed, the archery event has been lost in time. But it was revived by David Loveless, a longtime Press-Telegram reader who had just read a recent story in the newspaper about the history of the Olympics in Long Beach dating back to 1932 and how that history is being celebrated in the newest exhibit of the Historical Society of Long Beach,

But the story did not mention anything about a skunk.

Loveless remembered it because he was there as the owner of DL Concessions, which was serving food at the archery range, located on Spring Street near the 605 Freeway. He shared his story, figuring I might enjoy “this bit of trivia that very few know about the 1984 Olympics.”

Here’s his story as he told it to me.

“The venue at El Dorado was set up with temporary concession stands directly behind the bleachers for spectator viewing,” he said. “DL Concessions employees were restocking and setting up one morning when everything at the venue came to a stop! A skunk was hiding under a wood pallet used to keep supplies off the ground inside one of the concession stands.”

Could it have wandered over from the Nature Center, which is opposite the archery range on Spring Street?

“Every person responsible for operational integrity immediately sprang into action,” he said. “Even contingency plans on doing everything from temporarily moving the venue to canceling the event that day were considered.

“Obviously, the concern was the odor that would be released by the skunk if it felt threatened,” Loveless added. “It was also obvious that this skunk had to be removed somehow.”

Skunks, of course, are notorious for their anal scent glands, which they can use as a defense weapon by spraying potential attackers. The spray can travel as much as 10 feet and can be smelled by humans as far as 3.5 miles away.

Long Beach Animal Control was called and offered two solutions, Loveless said.

“One was to coax the skunk out from under the pallet and capture it as is done for dogs and cats,” he said. “But they were almost certain the skunk would release its odor and cancel the event. The second option was to euthanize the skunk, but there was no guarantee that this would prevent the skunk from spraying.”

Still, after much discussion, the latter option was chosen, Loveless said.

Slowly and carefully, the Animal Control officer, using a long stick with a rag soaked in some kind of chemical euthanized the skunk.

“Everyone was happily relieved when the skunk passed away peacefully without releasing its odor,” Loveless said.

Spectators who had been waiting and unable to enter the venue were finally allowed in.

“Archery competition for that day began 10 minutes after the official scheduled start time,” he said. “It was the only event out of the many of 1984 Olympic events to miss its start time. Only in Long Beach could this small piece of Olympic trivia happen with such an amazing and successful result.”

The archery competition, which had its debut at the 1900 Olympics in Paris, went off successfully from Aug. 8 to 11, 1984, with 109 men and women competing from 35 countries.

Darrell Pace, age 28, of the United States won the gold medal for the men. He took a 13-point lead after the first day of the four-day competition — and strolled to an easy victory. He also won gold at the 1976 Montreal Games.

Seo Hyang-soon, a 17-year-old high school girl competing in her first major archery event, became South Korea’s first woman to bring home a gold medal. Her outstanding achievement immediately made her a household name in her home country. She moved to the United States in 2004, where she teaches Olympic archery at her sports academy school in Irvine.

It seems that South Korean archers have been successful ever since. They’ve racked up the most medals at Olympic archery events since 1984.

My wife, Pat, and I knew nothing about the Olympic archery competition, but we thought it would be fun to take our young daughters, Kelly and Katie. Using the Olympic lottery system in place in 1984, we were able to score four tickets for the archery finals on Aug. 11.

It was a warm and sunny day when we walked through El Dorado Park from our nearby home to the archery venue. We hardly recognized the place, as it was so colorful and festive. Pat remembers vivid turquoise and magenta colors, which, sadly, no longer show in our faded photos from the day.

As Kristy Hutchings wrote in her Press-Telegram story on the history of the Olympics in Southern California, the 1984 Olympics was the origin of “festive federalism” created by the Olympic Committee and designers Deborah Sussman and Paul Prezja.

“(They) created the look of LA84,” the story says, “the vibrant oranges, magenta, blues and yellows now synonymous with the Games.

“One key way the 1984 Olympics achieved its success, of course, was through branding,” the article adds. “Rather than focusing on the nationalistic overtones of past Olympics – such as employing America’s red, white and blue colors – the architects of LA84’s look took on anentirely different approach.”

As fun as it was to be at a colorful Olympic event, we didn’t stay until the end. Like in golf, we learned that the audience at an archery competition is expected to be quiet so as not to distract the archer. Try telling that to our 7- and 4-year-old daughters.

Long Beach, this time around, has been tapped to host quite a few events at the 2028 Olympics — but archery is not one of them. It’s going to be at the modern Dignity Health Sports Park, home of the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer, in Carson. Let’s hope no stray skunk invades that venue.