The 1977 introduction to ABC wide world of sports.
Being that it is winter Olympic time again I was
thinking back to winter Olympics of the past. To me it seemed
that the Olympics were a bigger deal back then. It was the height
of the cold war. Super powers competed on a world stage to prove
who had the best system of government.
The other factor is that this is before cable TV. So most of us
only had 4 or 5 channels to choose from. If you were tired of
the other 3 shows on TV that night, the Olympics was kind of a
refreshing change.
In 1972 I was 3 years old, and I can’t remember any thing
about the winter Olympics in Sapporo Japan. The 1976 winter Olympic
at Innsbruck Austria, I don’t really remember much about
that one ether. But I can remember vividly the 1980 winter Olympics
at Lake placid New York were the us hockey team beat the Russians
for the gold medal.
The other thing I can remember from those days before cable TV
is the agony of defeat which you could see every weekend on ABC
wide world of sports.
The Olympic games have started again. I am reminded every even
numbered year about the pomp & ceremony of international sports.
I get to watch competition that I have not seen, or cared about
in 4 years. I watch young athletes from all around the world who
I have never seen, or know anything about compete for Olympic
glory and gold. Frankly after a few hours of it I am bored.
The part of the winter Olympics that I dislike the most is subjective
sports, like figure skating. Any sport that chooses the winner
by a vote from a panel of judges is flawed. It is just as bad
as the collage football bowl system.
However the modern Olympics did start with lofty goals. In the
late 1800s a European by the name of Baron Pierre de Coubertin
was inspired by the ancient Olympian ideas, and wanted to revive
the games. So he did what most European intellectuals are good
at. He formed a committee in 1894 and named it the International
Olympic Committee or (IOC).
The first Olympiad was held in Athens Greece in 1896, the second
one was held in Paris France in 1900, and the third Olympic games
was held in the heart land of the united states in 1904 at St.
Louis Mo.
Today the IOC is a financial juggernaut generating hundreds of
millions of dollars from corporate sponsors, television revenue,
and bribes from want to be host cities.
Part one of the 2008 Science fiction movie
classic Space Boys
The Tiger Woods long winded apology.
OK sport fans the world’s number one golfer is back. He
is not only back but he came back with a 13-minuet long mea culpa
that was covered on live TV around the world. The content of the
apology was scripted, not well written, and got bogged down with
other messages that Tiger wanted to get out.
The apology would have come off a lot better if he could have
kept it more focused and let’s say to about 3 or 5 minuets
long. But over all he got done what he probably wanted to do.
And that was to prove to his critics, sponsors, and to the world
that he can command a worldwide audience when ever he wants to.
In fact he even upstaged the Olympics.
This little news conference will make a lot of money for a lot
of, newspapers, magazines, Internet bloggers, and especially TV.
The power of Tiger Woods is not in his short game around the greens.
But in his ability to get millions of people to stop what they
are doing, and to watch him.
