''ABC's Wide World of Sports'' is an American

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

s anthology television program that aired on ABC from April 29, 1961 to January 3, 1998, primarily on Saturday afternoons. Hosted by

Jim McKay James Kenneth McManus (September 24, 1921 – June 7, 2008), better known professionally as Jim McKay, was an American television sports journalist. McKay was best known for hosting ABC's '' Wide World of Sports'' (1961–1998). His introd ...

, with a succession of co-hosts beginning in 1987, the title continued to be used for general sports programs on the network until 2006. In 2007, ''Wide World of Sports'' was named by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' on its list of the 100 best television programs of all time. Weekend sports news updates on sister radio network ABC Sports Radio, operated by Cumulus Media Networks, continue to be branded under the similar title ''ABC's World of Sports''. The program also lent its name to an athletic facility at

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

, the

ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a multi-purpose sports complex located in the Walt Disney World, Walt Disney World Resort, in Bay Lake, Florida, Bay Lake, Florida, United States, near Orlando, Florida, Orlando. The complex includes ni ...

– which was originally known as Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex from its opening in 1997 (one year after

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

acquired ABC and an 80% stake in

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

) – until 2010.

History

Origins

''Wide World of Sports'' was the creation of

Edgar Scherick Edgar J. Scherick (October 16, 1924 – December 2, 2002) was an Emmy-winning American television executive and producer of television miniseries, made-for-television films, and theatrical motion pictures. Life and career Scherick was born i ...

through his company, Sports Programs, Inc. After selling his company to ABC, he hired a young

Roone Arledge Roone Pinckney Arledge Jr. (July 8, 1931 – December 5, 2002) was an American sports and news broadcasting executive who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise t ...

to produce the show. The series' April 29, 1961 debut telecast featured both the Penn and

Drake Relays The Drake Relays (officially the Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom) is an outdoor track and field event held in Des Moines, Iowa, in Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University. Billed as ''America's Athletic Classic'', i ...

(who hosted the program for most of its history) and

Jesse Abramson Jesse P. Abramson (March 3, 1904 – June 11, 1979) was an American sports writer. Biography Abramson was the founder of the New York Track Writers Association. Jesse Abramson Award is named after him. Between 1924 and 1964, he wrote for the ''N ...

, the

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

writer for the '' New York Herald Tribune'', broadcast from

Franklin Field Franklin Field is a sports stadium in Philadelphia, United States, at the eastern edge of the University of Pennsylvania's campus. It is the home stadium for the Penn Relays, and the University of Pennsylvania's stadium for American football, foo ...

with

Bob Richards Robert Eugene Richards (born February 20, 1926) is an American retired athlete, minister, and politician. He made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956. He ...

as the

field reporter In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

. Jim Simpson called the action from Drake Stadium with

Bill Flemming William Norman Flemming (September 3, 1926 – July 20, 2007) was an American television sports journalist who was one of the original announcers for the ABC Sports show '' Wide World of Sports''. Biography Early life Born in Chicago, Illin ...

working the field. During its initial season in the spring and summer of 1961, ''Wide World of Sports'' was initially broadcast from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

on Saturdays. Beginning in 1962, it was pushed to 5 to 6:30 pm, and later to 4:30 to 6 pm. Eastern Time to allow ABC affiliates in the Eastern and

Central Time Zone The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordina ...

s to carry local early-evening newscasts.

Successful spin-offs

In 1961, ''Wide World of Sports'' covered a

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thou ...

event in which Roy Lown beat Pat Patterson. The broadcast was so successful that in 1962, ABC Sports began covering the

Professional Bowlers Tour The Professional Bowlers Tour, also known as Pro Bowlers Tour, is a broadcast of the Professional Bowlers Association that aired on ABC from 1962 to 1997. In the telecasts, sportscaster Chris Schenkel and the graphics displayed during the show ...

. In 1964, ''Wide World of Sports'' covered the Oklahoma Rattlesnake Hunt championships; the following year, ABC premiered outdoor program ''

The American Sportsman ''The American Sportsman'' is an American television series that aired from 1965 to 1986 on ABC which presented filmed highlights involving the program's hosts and celebrities participating in hunting and/or fishing trips along with outdoor recre ...

'', which remained on the network for nearly 20 years. In 1973, the '' Superstars'' was first televised as a segment on ''Wide World of Sports''; the following year, the ''Superstars'' debuted as a weekly winter series that lasted for 10 years.

Athlete of the Year

In 1963, ABC Sports producers began selecting the Athlete of the Year. Its first winner was

star

Jim Beatty James Tully Beatty (born October 28, 1934 in New York, New York) is a former American track and field athlete and North Carolina politician. He is best remembered as the first person to break the four-minute mile barrier on an indoor track, when ...

for being the first to run a sub-4-minute mile indoors. Through the years, this award was won by such now legendary athletes of Muhammad Ali,

Jim Ryun James Ronald Ryun (born April 29, 1947) is an American former Republican politician and Olympic track and field athlete, who at his peak was widely considered the world's top middle-distance runner. He won a silver medal in the 1500 m at the ...

Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong ('' né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005 after recovering fr ...

Mario Andretti Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian-born American former racing driver. One of the most successful drivers in the history of motorsports, Andretti is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, t ...

Dennis Conner Dennis Walter Conner (born September 16, 1942) is an American yachtsman. He is noted for winning a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and three wins in the America's Cup. Sailing career Conner was born September ...

Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996 ...

and

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

. The award was discontinued in 2001.

The end of ''Wide World of Sports''

In later years, with the rise of cable television offering more outlets for sports programming, ''Wide World of Sports'' lost many of the events that had been staples of the program for many years (many, although not all, of them ended up on

, a sister network to ABC for most of its existence). Ultimately, on January 3, 1998, Jim McKay announced that ''Wide World of Sports'', in its traditional anthology series, had been canceled after a 37-year run. The ''Wide World of Sports'' name remained in use afterward as an umbrella title for ABC's weekend sports programming. In August 2006, ABC Sports came under the oversight of ESPN, under the relaunched banner name

ESPN on ABC ESPN on ABC (formerly known as ABC Sports from 1961 to 2006) is the branding used for sports event and documentary programming televised by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. Officially, the broadcast network retains ...

. The ''Wide World of Sports'' title continues to occasionally be revived for Saturday afternoon sports programming on ABC; it was used during the 140th Belmont Stakes as a tribute to Jim McKay following his death in June 2008, and in 2017 it was used for the revival of the ''

Battle of the Network Stars ''Battle of the Network Stars'' is a series of competitions in which television stars from ABC, CBS and NBC would compete in various sporting events. A total of 19 of these competitions were held between 1976 and 1988, all of which were aired b ...

''. Most of ABC's sports programming since ''Wide World of Sports'' ended as a program has been displaced from ABC and moved to ESPN; the cable network began producing its own anthology series on Saturday afternoons in 2010, '' ESPN Sports Saturday'', which consists of

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

originally featured on ESPN's '' E:60'' and '' 30 for 30'' programs, and a modified version of the ESPN interactive series '' SportsNation'', titled '' Winners Bracket''.

Format

Sports featured on ''Wide World of Sports''

''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 Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...

jai-alai Jai alai (: ) is a sport involving bouncing a ball off a walled-in space by accelerating it to high speeds with a hand-held wicker ''cesta''. It is a variation of Basque pelota. The term ''jai alai'', coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also oft ...

, firefighter's competitions, wrist wrestling,

powerlifting Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight single-lift effo ...

, surfing, logger sports, demolition derby, slow pitch

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

, barrel jumping, and

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

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 Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are m ...

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

and track and field competitions were also regular features of the show. Another memorable regular feature in the 1960s and 1970s was 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.

Firsts

''Wide World of Sports'' was the first U.S. television program to air coverage of – among events – Wimbledon (1961), the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

(highlights starting in 1961; a longer-form version in 1965), the

NCAA Men's Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

(1962), the Daytona 500 (1962), the U.S. Figure Skating Championships (1962), the first color broadcast of the Monaco Grand Prix (

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

), the

Little League World Series The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children—typically boys—aged 10 to 12 years old, held in the Eastern United States. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the Wor ...

(1961), The British Open Golf Tournament (1961), the

X-Games The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island ...

(1995) and the Grey Cup (1962).

Introduction

The program's introductory sequence was accompanied by a stirring, brassy musical fanfare (composed by Charles Fox), set over a

montage Montage may refer to: Arts and entertainment Filmmaking and films * Montage (filmmaking), a technique in film editing * ''Montage'' (2013 film), a South Korean film Music * Montage (music), or sound collage * ''Montage'' (Block B EP), 201 ...

of sports clips and accompanying narration written by Stanley Ralph Ross and voiced by McKay:

"The thrill of victory ... and the agony of defeat"

The melodramatic introduction became a national

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

that is often heard to this day. While "the thrill of victory" had several symbols over the decades,

ski jumper Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the fina ...

Vinko Bogataj, whose dreadful misjump and crash during a competition on March 21, 1970 was featured from the early 1970s onward heard over the sentence "...and the agony of defeat", became a hard-luck hero of sorts, and an affectionate icon for stunning failure. Previously, the footage played with that phrase was that of another ski jumper who made a long, almost successful jump, but whose skis lost vertical alignment shortly before landing, leading to a crash. Later in the 1990s, an additional clip was added to the "agony of defeat" sequence after Bogataj's accident: footage of a crash by

Alessandro Zampedri Alessandro Zampedri (born 3 October 1969 in Brescia) is an Italian race car driver. He started three Indianapolis 500s (1995, 1996, and 1997). Racing career Zampedri was seriously injured in the 1996 Indianapolis 500, suffering severe foot a ...

Roberto Guerrero Roberto José Guerrero Isaza (born 16 November 1958) is a Colombian-American former race driver. He participated in 29 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 23 January 1982, becoming the first Colombian to start a Formula One Grand Prix. Wi ...

and

Eliseo Salazar Eliseo Salazar Valenzuela (born 14 November 1954) is a Chilean former racing driver. , he is the only Chilean to have participated in a Formula One World Championship. He made his Formula One debut on 15 March 1981, and ultimately contested 37 r ...

during the

1996 Indianapolis 500 The 80th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 26, 1996. This was the first Indy 500 contested by the Indy Racing League, under the overall sanctioning umbrella of USAC. It was the third ...

showed a car flipping up into the catch fence. The "oh no!" commentary that accompanies it, however, is dubbed from commentary by

Benny Parsons Benjamin Stewart Parsons (July 12, 1941 – January 16, 2007) was an American NASCAR driver, and later an announcer/analyst/pit reporter on SETN, TBS, ABC, ESPN, NBC, and TNT. He became famous as the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, ...

of Steve Grissom's crash in the 1997 Primestar 500 (part of the NASCAR Winston Cup series). Bogataj's mishap is also commemorated in Rich Hall's book ''

Sniglets A sniglet () is an often humorous word made up to describe something for which no dictionary word exists. Introduced in the 1980s TV comedy series ''Not Necessarily the News'', sniglets were generated and published in significant numbers, along wit ...

'' as "agonosis", which is defined as "the

syndrome A syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms which are correlated with each other and often associated with a particular disease or disorder. The word derives from the Greek language, Greek σύνδρομον, meaning "concurrence". When a sy ...

of tuning in on ''Wide World of Sports'' every weekend just to watch the skier rack himself."

Announcers

Hosts

(1961–1998) * Becky Dixon (1987–1988) *

Frank Gifford Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Foo ...

(1987–1993) *

Julie Moran Julie Moran (née Bryan, born January 10, 1962) is an American journalist, television host, and sportscaster. She was the first female solo host for '' Wide World of Sports'' following in the footsteps of first woman co-anchor Becky Dixon. She ...

(1994–1995) * John Saunders (1995–1996) * Robin Roberts (1996–1998)

Event announcers

;Play-by-play * Tim Brant *

Howard Cosell Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

* Becky Dixon * Chris Economaki *

* Terry Gannon * Frank Gifford * Curt Gowdy * Keith Jackson * Jim Lampley * Jim McKay * Al Michaels * Julie Moran * Brent Musburger * Paul Page * Bud Palmer * Jerry Punch * Robin Roberts * John Saunders * Chris Schenkel * Al Trautwig * Steve Zabriskie ;Reporters * Chris Economaki *

* Keith Jackson * Jim Lampley * David Letterman * Stirling Moss * Sam Posey * Jerry Punch * Jody Scheckter * O. J. Simpson * Lynn Swann * Al Trautwig * Lesley Visser * Rodger Ward * John Watson (racing driver), John Watson * Jack Whitaker ;Analysts * Donnie Allison * Chris Economaki * Phil Hill * Ned Jarrett * Fred Lorenzen * Mickey Mantle * Cheryl Miller * Don Meredith * Stirling Moss * Sam Posey * Bill Russell * Jackie Stewart * Rodger Ward

International versions

Canada

From September 19, 1964 until the late 1980s, a Canadian version was aired by the CTV Television Network. Licensed by ABC, the CTV broadcast included a mix of content from the American show, and segments produced by CTV and its affiliates.

Australia

In Australia, the Nine Network produced its own version from 1981 to 1999 and from 2008 to 2016, ''Nine's Wide World of Sports'', which has since become the all-encompassing brand for all of Nine's sport coverage. It was also originally a sports anthology series, but also featured professional sporting competitions. It, along with Nine's cricket (sport), cricket coverage, also inspired a series of parodies, released as audio albums by Billy Birmingham, under the nom-de-plum of The Twelfth Man.

Mexico

A program partly inspired by the U.S. version, known as ''DeporTV, El Ancho Mundo del Deporte'' (''DeporTV, the Wide World of Sports'') debuted on XHDF-TV, Canal 13, at the time the Mexican government's public television channel (which later became Imevisión) on January 6, 1974. The program continues to air on Imevisión's successor TV Azteca, becoming one of the longest-running programs in the country. It was hosted by José Ramón Fernández (journalist), José Ramón Fernández from its inception until 2006, and is currently hosted by Antonio Rosique, Luis García Postigo and Christian Martinolli. The program "El Ancho Mundo del Deporte" was aired in Monterrey Mexico in the state government owned Canal 28 from 1985 to 1991. This was possible in an exchange with Imevisión since the NFL national broadcast in Mexico for that national network was originated in Monterrey (Fernando Von Rossum Garza and Jose "Pepe" Espinoza). The hosts in the Monterrey version of "El Ancho Mundo del Deporte" were Javier Hector Gutierrez, Rubén Pizarro, Alejandro Campos, Martha Vigil and Carlos Gutierrez.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom's ITV (TV network), ITV network produced its own Saturday afternoon ''Wide World of Sports'' in 1965, but within six weeks renamed it to ''World of Sport (British TV programme), World of Sport'', which ran until 1985.

References

External links

*
Jump The Shark – ''Wide World of Sports''
{{authority control 1961 American television series debuts 1998 American television series endings 1960s American anthology television series 1970s American anthology television series 1980s American anthology television series 1990s American anthology television series American Broadcasting Company original programming ABC Sports American sports television series Black-and-white American television shows Sports telecast series Peabody Award-winning television programs Wide World of Sports (American TV series),