American Broadcasting Company, ABC's ''Wide World of Sports'' was intended to be a fill-in show for a single summer season, until the start of fall sports seasons, but became unexpectedly popular. The goal of the program was to showcase sports from around the globe that were seldom, if ever, broadcast on American television. It originally ran for two hours on Saturday afternoons, but was later reduced to 90 minutes. Usually, "Wide World" featured two or three events per show. These included many types not previously seen on American television, such as hurling, rodeo, curling, jai-alai, firefighter's competitions, wrist wrestling, powerlifting, surfing, Lumberjack, logger sports, demolition derby, slow pitch softball, barrel jumping, and badminton. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Grand National/Winston Cup racing was a ''Wide World of Sports'' staple until the late 1980s, when it became a regularly scheduled sporting event on the network. Traditional Olympic sports such as figure skating, skiing, gymnastics and track and field competitions were also regular features of the show. Another memorable regular feature in the 1960s and 1970s was La Quebrada Cliff Divers, Mexican cliff diving. The lone national television broadcast of the Continental Football League was a ''Wide World of Sports'' broadcast of the 1966 championship game; ABC paid the league $500 for a rights fee, a minuscule sum by professional football standards. ''Wide World of Sports'' was the first U.S. television program to air coverage of – among events – Wimbledon Championships, Wimbledon (1961), the Indianapolis 500 (highlights starting in 1961; a longer-form version in 1965), the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship (1962), the Daytona 500 (1962), the U.S. Figure Skating Championships (1962), the Monaco Grand Prix (1962), the Little League World Series (1961), The Open Championship, The British Open Golf Tournament (1961), the X-Games (1994) and the Grey Cup (1962).

1960s

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970s

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980s

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990s

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

Notes

On January 3, 1998, long time ''Wide World of Sports'' host Jim McKay declared that ''Wide World of Sports'' was canceled; the hour and a half of all sorts of sports was replaced by a studio host introducing single event broadcasts such as the Indianapolis 500, Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, horse racing's Triple Crown, and the United States Figure Skating Championships, national and World Figure Skating Championships, World Championships in figure skating.

1999

2000s

2000

*January 30 – Before Super Bowl XXXIV, Wide World aired The Road to the Super Bowl which chronicles the 1999 NFL Season produced in association with NFL Films. *July 23 – Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to complete a career grand slam by winning the 2000 Open Championship. *August 5 – In what turned out to be the last NASCAR race broadcast on Wide World of Sports, Bobby Labonte won the Brickyard 400 at an average speed of over 155 miles per hour with only 2 caution flags.

2001

*June 9 – The Colorado Avalanche captured their second Stanley Cup championship over the New Jersey Devils in 7 games and Ray Bourque finally got his championship in what turned out to be his last game. *September 16 – preempted due to 9/11

2002

*May 26 – In one of the most controversial finishes in the history of the Indianapolis 500, Helio Castroneves won 2002 Indianapolis 500, his 2nd Indianapolis 500. Paul Tracy passed Castroneves on the last lap while a crash occurred at another part of the track, but it was ruled that Tracy did not completely overtake Castroneves before the yellow flag was raised, making Castroneves the winner of the race.

2003

*January 26 – Before Super Bowl XXXVII, Wide World aired the Road to the Super Bowl which chronicles the 2002 NFL Season produced in association with NFL Films.

2004

*June 7 - In Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, Wide World cameras captured the Tampa Bay Lightning beating the Calgary Flames 4-3 to capture the first of 3 Stanley Cup Champions the Lightning would have. Brad Richards of the Lightning was named the Finals MVP.

2006

*February 6 - Before Super Bowl XL was played, the Road to Super Bowl XL was aired recapping the 2005 NFL Season produced in association with NFL Films. *July 23 – Playing in his first Major Golf Championship since his father Earl Woods passed away, Tiger Woods fought off three of the world's best golfers including Chris DiMarco to win the 2006 Open Championship by 2 strokes at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club.

References

Sources

*Highlights
''Wide World of Sports'' Highlights -- 1960s

Episode list for ''ABC's Wide World of Sports'' (1961)

''Wide World of Sports'' broadcasts
{{Boxing on ABC Lists of anthology television series episodes, Wide World of Sports (American TV series) History of sports broadcasting, Wide World of Sports (American TV series) Wide World of Sports (American TV series), Events broadcast on Wide World of Sports (American TV series)