The recent thread regarding how bad ESPN has become got me thinking about all the sports that I've watched throughout my life. I think today's younger viewers are lucky in the sense that there is such a large amount of sports to watch on TV, but the quality is not that great. While reminiscing about old sports shows, my mind wandered to ABC's Wide World of Sports. Anyone who is younger than their late 20's probably won't be able to relate, but how awesome was watching that show every Saturday afternoon? Remember the intro music, Yaz - "Don't Go" and repeatedly hearing about the "Thrill of Victory" and seeing the "Agony of Defeat" (ski jumper crash)? At least every other Saturday, we would get to see some West German ice skater attempt to jump 50 or 60 barrels lined up on some frozen lake. The occasional Evel Knievel appearance was also a great thrill. The worst part about the show was also the best part and that was the lack of sports. There was not a lot of coverage, but the detail of the coverage, no matter what sport it was, was incredible. Thinking of that show brought back some great memories of when I was younger and would sit down with my dad and watch this show every weekend. Great memories...I just wonder if young kids today will be able to say the same thing about ESPN and their spelling bee coverage. Long live (the memories at least) Howard Cosell and ABC's WWoS!
Yeah...he did most of the broadcasting, but I thought that Cosell did make an occasional appearance...I could be wrong, it was a loooong time ago and I can barely remember what I did yesterday.
On ESPN classic awhile back I caught Howard covering a Harlem Globetrotters game for WWoS. Absolutely hilarous, and not something I could imagine a contemporary sportscaster EVER doing.
