While Rich Clarkson now runs a photography and publishing firm in Denver, he is best-known as a photography icon whose work has captured nearly 50 years of intercollegiate athletics.

It is only fitting that Clarkson's firm -- Clarkson and Associates -- administers NCAA Photos. Clarkson himself started out taking photographs of college sports -- while he was just a high-school freshman. Counting this year's event, he has photographed 45 NCAA Men's Final Fours.

"There are so many great games and great performances -- it's so unpredictable," Clarkson said. "It's my most favorite sporting event."

Named one of American Photo magazine's 50 Most Influential Photographers of All Time, Clarkson has not limited himself to sports. He has taken photos for Life and Time, and he has been on the staff of National Geographic.

He was the first to photograph Wilt Chamberlain for Sports Illustrated, and he shot the first Super Bowl in 1966.

Clarkson has photographed eight Olympic Games, organizing all photography for Time at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. He also organized all photography for Sports Illustrated at the 1980 Olympics, and he managed all photography in the Olympic Stadium at the 1996 Olympics.

He has co-authored six books, and he was director of photography for the book "A Day in the Life of America."

Clarkson's diverse projects have ranged from a book tracing the origin of the Colorado River to "I Dream a World," a book and exhibition of portraits of famous black women, now in its 16th edition with sales in excess of 500,000 copies.

His firm also creates exhibitions and manages photography and associated publishing projects for clients such as the Colorado Rockies and the Denver Broncos.

While Clarkson was still a boy, he fell in love with sports and photography, subjects that would remain his passion in the years to come.

In 1935, when he was three, Clarkson's parents moved to Lawrence, Kansas. Both graduates of the University of Kansas, his parents settled in the shadow of the university.

When Clarkson was still a little boy, he played with his friends on the university's Mount Oread, fondly known as the Hill. One of their favorite pastimes was exploring the labyrinth of steam tunnels hidden under the Hill, which connected campus buildings. One day they scampered through the semi-darkness and tried a door that they had never opened. They emerged in Robinson Gymnasium, where the Kansas men's basketball team practiced. It was practice time, and they climbed up the stairs and sat at the end of the floor to watch.

Forrest C. "Phog" Allen, Kansas' legendary basketball coach, soon noticed the youngsters.

"When Dr. Allen called a water break, he came over and started visiting with us," Clarkson recalled. "There was a gentleman in a tweed suit sitting nearby also watching practice, and Dr. Allen said, 'I'd like to introduce you to someone.' And that was how I met Dr. James Naismith."

Also while still a boy, Clarkson began tinkering with a Kodak ABC developing kit he had received for Christmas. It didn't take him long to combine his love of photography and his love of sports.

"Growing up in Lawrence, it was only natural that I gravitated toward sports," he said. "The big event in Lawrence was always sports, and taking pictures got me there in the front row."

By the time Clarkson was a freshman in high school, he was working part time for the Lawrence Journal-World and traveling with the Kansas basketball team. By his senior year of high school, he was photographing Kansas basketball games for several local papers, as well as for The Associated Press and Acme Telephoto, a predecessor to UPI.

"In those days," he said, "I would photograph the first half of the game, race home to my darkroom, process the first-half pictures and rush to catch the Kansas City and Topeka buses with the picture packages. Then I would get back for the final minutes of the game and more pictures."

When it was time for college, Clarkson went to Kansas, but the faculty thought he was too advanced for the photojournalism courses. Instead he majored in news editorial, graduating from the journalism school in 1956.

While still a sophomore in college, Clarkson saved enough money to buy a new camera, which he tested at the Kansas Relays. Photos from that track meet brought Clarkson $250 -- enough to pay for the camera -- and his first photo in Life magazine.

The next year, Clarkson's media-day photos of the Kansas basketball team's newest recruit, freshman Wilt Chamberlain, landed him in the pages of Sports Illustrated, launching a career that's still going strong, even into its fifth decade.