The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat

Today I'm celebrating ABC's Wide World of Sports series

ABC's Wide World of Sports debuted in 1961 originally as a summer replacement series, but became the first year-round weekly sports series on network television. For ninety minutes each Satursday afternoon, it provided a showcase of sports around the globe for the American fans. It proved that there is more in the sports world than the NBA, NFL, and MLB. It included traditional Olympic sports, like figure skating, skiing, gymnastics, and track and field competitions. However, it also included other competitions, such as auto racing, soccer, surfing, cliff diving, body building, bowling, boxing, hurling, rodeo, curling, jai-alai, lumberjack competitions, firefighter's competitions, demolition derby and fishing tournaments. It also included offbeat sports like barrel jumping, arm wrestling, and baton-twirling. Did you know that Muhammed Ali made over 60 appearances on the show, the most for any athlete? The show also featured the stunt motorcyclist Evel Knievel on the show. In seven episodes on the show in 1973-1976, Evel Knievel attempted to jump 50 stacked cars, 11 Mack trucks, 13 Mack trucks, a Canyon, 13 double-tiered buses, 7 Greyhound buses, and 14 Greyhound buses, successful on five of the seven attempts. You can see a video about Evel Knievel's years on Wide World of Sports on YouTube.

I'm not the biggest sports fan in the world. However, I can fondly remember watching auto racing events on ABC's World Wide of Sports with my Dad. I can recall being glued to the tv watching the daredevil Evel Knievel. I held my breath as I watched them dive off the cliffs to the water below. I was amazed that they would televise arm wrestling events on national TV. I also still enjoy the offbeat competitions, like the lumberjack sports when they're televised.

In 2007, ABC's Wide World of Sports was named by Time Magazine as one of "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME." You probably recall many thrills of victory, but no one could likely forget the "agony of defeat" while watching that poor ski jumper. The opening of that show is still famous today:
Spanning the globe... to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… this is ABC's Wide World of Sports!

You can see a short video of the show's closing which highlights many of sports covered.

As posted on YouTube by Chelonia


Image credits: sixties60s.com and irememberjfk.com