50 years ago this week the Wide World of Sports debuted on ABC:
“Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport. The thrill of victory, and agony of defeat. The human drama of athletic competition. This is ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”
Today ESPN’s SportsCenter ran through their list of the 10 best Wide World of Sports moments:
- Unbridled winning the 1990 Kentucky Derby
- Richard Petty’s 200th (and final) win in 1984; notable for Petty’s post-race celebration with Ronald Reagan, the first time a sitting US president attended a NASCAR race
- In 1975, German magician Ralf Bialla catching a bullet in his teeth
- In the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Brandi Chastain scored the championship game-winning penalty kick
- In 1974, Mohammed Ali knocking out George Foreman in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle”
- Pele’s final game in 1977, scoring in the second half
- In 1999, Lance Armstrong won the first of seven straight Tour de France victories
- Evel Knievel’s 1974 attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in a rocket
- The 1973 World Heavyweight Championship in Jamaica, in which Joe Foreman knocked out Joe Frazier, leading to Howard Cosell’s famous “down goes frazier!” call
- In the 1970 Ski-flying Championships in West Germany, Vino Bogataj’s crash which became the cornerstone of the “thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat” video intro