Being transported on Saturday afternoons “around the globe” as a child living in a small West Virginia town in the 1960s and 1970s impacted me in a way that I never realized until later in life. As the 2024 Olympics approach, my mind travels back to those days and the variety of sports being displayed. But as a young child, experiencing what the world had to offer was a Saturday staple! I can still visualize and hear the announcer.
Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!
Saturday mornings, of course, were always full of cartoons, The Lone Ranger and The Three Stooges. But on those afternoons, I “visited” places like the gyms of Russia, the slopes of the Alps, the cliffs of Mexico and the beaches of Hawaii. Unlike today’s abundance of hundreds of television channels, only a handful of options were available.
If you are not from the Baby Boomer or even the GenX time frame, ABC's Wide World of Sports is an “American sports anthology television program that aired on ABC from April 29, 1961 to January 3, 1998, primarily on Saturday afternoons.” This was more than just a typical sports show - it truly taught me about different global locations and about a variety of sports. I believe this is what instilled my love for tennis and ice skating. It also expanded my knowledge of world geography as much as it did sports’ lingo and information.
For me, it was more than just watching who was winning and losing athletic events. I looked forward to be transported every Saturday afternoon. Probably more so in the winter - because warm weather days were spent outside playing - I was transported to exotic places to observe cliff diving and surfing. My bucket list for traveling as an adult was definitely influenced by this television series! Our trips to the grassy courts of Wimbledon to the moon-like landscape of the grueling Ironman Triathlon of The Big Island of Hawaii to the cliffs of the Pacific Coast of Mexico were all appealing because I felt drawn there to experience them in person. I suspect that is what made my trips to those places feel familiar - even the first time I visited them!
It makes me sad for the younger generations who can “pick and choose” what they watch instead of allowing themselves to experience new shows, places and events that expand their knowledge base. What young people today are educated on unfamiliar sports and to sporting terms like those of us raised on The Wide World of Sports? Does anyone even watch weight lifting or know what “clean and jerk” means? The Olympics have certainly exposed people to the luge, bobsleds and skiing’s giant slalom, but watching those winter events in different far away locations every week provided more educational and geographical insights.
Not that this is about the evils of cable and streaming or about a generation that only focuses on the here and now, but I am thankful for the broad base of what Wide World of Sports shared with those of us who had limited viewing options; all of that surely educated our generation in a way that lives on with us.
Note: I was unaware of the “firsts” offered by Wide World of Sports until I did a quick check - even more reasons to love it!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_World_of_Sports_(American_TV_program)
