Still, many events (or sports TV shows) from my childhood are missing and I'd watch them if they were on now.
It's not just barrel jumping and cliff diving on "Wide World of Sports," (although I'd watch those). It's not just start-up leagues like the World Football League, United States Football League, American Basketball Association and others (although modern alternative leagues would make sports better if they tried to compete with, rather than supplement, the existing leagues). And it's not even TV trash shows like "Battle of the Network Stars," (which, if it aired now, would feature no one I recognize).
Every year, I watch "ESPN Ocho," when the ESPN networks feature dumb sports like the Excel championships, pillow-fighting competitions, beer mug-holding championships and more. But I still miss some sports that should exist but don't.
For instance:
The Superstars. This is at the top of my list, a show launched in 1973 to match elite athletes against each other in sports they didn't play professionally. You'd see NFL stars, NBA stars, baseball stars, boxers, track athletes and golfers compete in bike races, obstacle courses and weightlifting. It felt like a real way to determine the best athlete and allow people to show how good (or bad) they were outside their area of expertise. We saw Lynn Swann hurdle the obstacle course high-jump bar! We saw Joe Frazier nearly drown in a pool!
Major network events. The era of big exotic sports events came back briefly during the COVID-19 pandemic when Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning played golf against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady to break the ice for sports on TV. Back in the day, there were a lot of major events on networks, often at night. Heavyweight championship fights. The famous Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs tennis match. Now that I think about it, it was mostly heavyweight championship fights involving Muhammed Ali. Perhaps I just want boxing to matter again.
The International Race of Champions. This was an auto racing series in which the drivers competed on different types of tracks in cars set up identically by a single pit crew. It combined drivers of Indy cars, NASCAR, sports car and sprint cars. The series was important on TV through the late 1970s and survived until 2008 (although I didn't watch any races for the final 25 years). In an era when more people are watching Formula 1 races, wouldn't you like to see Max Verstappen drive against NASCAR and Indy drivers? I would.
Motorcycle Racing on Ice. This was a "Wide World of Sports" staple, with motorcycles featuring small spikes on their tires. It seemed super dangerous, but I never saw anyone wreck, let alone get run over by a spiky tire. Still . . . it was thrilling.
Motorcycle jumps. If you're younger than 45, this seems impossible, but there was an era when much of America turned in to watch a man in a red-white-and-blue uniform jump his motorcycle over a series of buses. Or cars. Or the fountain at Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas. Or launch a rocket over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. Evel Knievel's jumps were 90 seconds of drama at the end of 90 minutes of buildup. I'd watch them now.
The lesson? Sports is great on TV. And nostalgia can even make dumb things (motorcycle racing on ice? Joe Frazier swimming in "The Superstars?") seem great.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
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