Sportsworld (U.S. TV series)

Last updated
Sportsworld
Also known asNBC SportsWorld
Genre Sports anthology series
Created by Chet Simmons
Presented by (see section)
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 14
Production
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 60 minutes to 3 hours
Production company(s) NBC Sports
Release
Original network NBC
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
Original release 1978 (1978) – 1992 (1992)

Sportsworld (also known as NBC SportsWorld) is an American sports anthology television program which aired on NBC on Saturday afternoons from 1978 to 1992.

United States federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Anthology series radio or television series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each episode

An anthology series is a radio, television or book series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each episode or season. These usually have a different cast each week, but several series in the past, such as Four Star Playhouse, employed a permanent troupe of character actors who would appear in a different drama each week. Some anthology series, such as Studio One, began on radio and then expanded to television.

NBC American television and radio network

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial terrestrial television network that is a flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with additional major offices near Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. The network is one of the Big Three television networks. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network", in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting. It became the network's official emblem in 1979.

Contents

Format

The program presented a wide variety of lower-profile and offbeat sporting events, in the same fashion as ABC's Wide World of Sports , and was generally scheduled to air during the winter and spring following the college football season.

American Broadcasting Company American broadcast television network

The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of Disney–ABC Television Group, a subsidiary of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional major offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank, California.

<i>Wide World of Sports</i> (U.S. TV series) television series

ABC's Wide World of Sports is an American sports anthology television program that aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) from April 29, 1961 to January 3, 1998, primarily on Saturday afternoons. Hosted by Jim McKay, 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 on its list of the 100 best television programs of all-time.

College football collegiate rules version of American/Canadian football, played by student-athletes of American/Canadian colleges and universities

College football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.

Bowling

The series covered several professional bowling events throughout its run that were not broadcast as part of the Professional Bowlers Tour on ABC. From 1984 to 1991, it had its own series called The PBA Fall Tour. Jay Randolph and Earl Anthony served as commentators.

<i>Professional Bowlers Tour</i> television series

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 would refer to the show as "The Professional Bowlers Tour", possibly to disambiguate from the NFL's use of the term "pro bowler" when referring to players who were selected for the Pro Bowl—an event also televised on ABC for many years.

ESPN on ABC is the brand used for sports event and documentary programming televised on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. Officially, the broadcast network retains its own sports division; however, for all practical purposes, ABC's sports division has been merged into ESPN Inc., the parent subsidiary of cable sports network ESPN that is majority owned by ABC's corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, in partnership with the Hearst Communications.

Jennings "Jay" Randolph, Jr. is an American sportscaster whose career has spanned more than fifty years.

From 1988 to 1990, bowling had its own version of the Skins Game called The Bowling Shootout. Four bowlers (three pros and one amateur in the 1989 and 1990) competed. Each frame had a designated value and to win, the bowler on the floor must be the only one to strike, spare or have most pin count to claim the prize. A two-player tie meant all tied, but all players bowled regardless (where there was a game within a game). If it was still tied after the 10th frame, the players would go on to a one ball roll-off. The bowler with the highest monetary prize won the Shootout. In addition, the bowler who threw the most strikes (the game within a game) won a boat. Marshall Holman (who moved on to the roll-off in three consecutive tournaments: with Mark Roth in the 1988 Muskegon, Michigan and the 1989 Reno, Nevada Shootout, and the 1990 tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey) won all three boats. Brian Voss (who moved on to the roll-off in the 1990 tournament, alongside Holman) was the only bowler to win a frame with a spare.

Marshall Holman is an American sports broadcaster and former professional bowler. He was known for his flamboyant success on the PBA Tour throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Nike sponsored Holman.

Mark Roth is an American retired professional bowler. He is known for being the first bowler with a "cranker" style delivery, which is used by many modern bowlers, as well as his accuracy in converting spares. He is also known for being the first professional bowler to convert a 7-10 split on national television.

Muskegon, Michigan City in Michigan, United States

Muskegon is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, and is the largest populated city on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan. At the 2010 census the city population was 38,401. The city is the county seat of Muskegon County. It is located at the southwest corner of Muskegon Township, but is administratively autonomous.

CART

SportsWorld aired the CART/PPG Indy Car World Series from 1979 to 1990, serving as the exclusive home of the series during its first four seasons. The Indianapolis 500, which was sanctioned by the United States Auto Club (USAC), was televised by ABC Sports.

Champ Car Defunct North American open wheel auto racing organization

Champ Car was the trade name for Open Wheel Racing Series Inc., a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2003 to 2008.

Indianapolis 500 Auto race held in Speedway, Indiana, United States

The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race is an automobile race held annually at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. The event is held over Memorial Day weekend in late May. It is contested as part of the IndyCar Series, the top level of American Championship Car racing, an open-wheel open-cockpit formula colloquially known as "Indy Car Racing". The name of the race is often shortened to Indy 500, and the track itself is nicknamed "the Brickyard", as the racing surfacing was paved in brick in the fall of 1909.

United States Auto Club Auto racing sanctioning body in the United States

The United States Auto Club (USAC) is one of the sanctioning bodies of auto racing in the United States. From 1956 to 1979, USAC sanctioned the United States National Championship, and from 1956 to 1997 the organization sanctioned the Indianapolis 500. Today, USAC serves as the sanctioning body for a number of racing series, including the Silver Crown Series, National Sprint Cars, National Midgets, Speed2 Midget Series, .25 Midget Series, Speed Energy Formula Off-Road, TORC: The Off-Road Championship, and Pirelli World Challenge.

NASCAR

SportsWorld aired the fall race in Charlotte [1] from 1979 to 1981 and the Winston 500 from 1983 to 1985.

Charlotte, North Carolina Largest city in North Carolina

Charlotte is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population was 859,035, making it the 17th-most populous city in the United States. The Charlotte metropolitan area's population ranks 22nd in the U.S., and had a 2016 population of 2,474,314. The Charlotte metropolitan area is part of a sixteen-county market region or combined statistical area with a 2016 census-estimated population of 2,632,249.

On-air staff

Hosts

Mike Adamle was one of the first, and one of the longest-running hosts of the program. Dick Enberg also appeared regularly during the series' early years.

Other commentators

Notes

    Related Research Articles

    Ten-pin bowling sport

    Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned in a tetractys at the far end of the lane. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll of the ball.

    Candlepin bowling

    Candlepin bowling is a variation of bowling that is played primarily in the Canadian Maritime provinces and the New England states of the United States.

    The TVS Television Network, or TVS for short, is a syndicator of American sports programming. It was one of several "occasional" national television networks that sprang up in the early-to-mid-1960s to take advantage of the establishment of independent television stations and relaxation of the AT&T Long Lines usage rates.

    <i>NBA on NBC</i> US television program

    The NBA on NBC is the branding currently used for presentations of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by the NBC television network in the United States. NBC held broadcast rights from 1955 to 1962 and again from 1990 to 2002. During NBC's partnership with the NBA in the 1990s, the league rose to unprecedented popularity, with ratings surpassing the days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the mid-1980s.

    Perfect game (bowling)

    A perfect game is the highest score possible in a game of bowling, achieved by scoring a strike in every frame. In bowling games that use 10 pins, such as ten-pin bowling, candlepin bowling, and duckpin bowling, the highest possible score is 300, achieved by bowling 12 strikes in a row in a traditional single game: one strike in each of the first nine frames, and three more in the tenth frame. Because a strike counts as ten pins plus any pinfall in the next two balls, 30 points are possible in a given frame. In current frame scoring game, 10 strikes in a row means perfect game.

    Chris Schenkel sportscaster

    Christopher Eugene Schenkel was an American sportscaster. Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and baritone voice.

    The PBA Tournament of Champions is one of the four major PBA bowling events. The inaugural event, held by the PBA in 1962, featured all 25 PBA Tour title-holders to date, and was won by PBA Hall of Famer Joe Joseph, who had qualified for the tournament only four events prior. In 1965, the tournament featured all champions since the 1962 event, before officially becoming an annual event in 1966. From 1965 to 1993, Firestone Tire sponsored the Tournament of Champions. From 1965 until 1994, the tournament was contested at Riviera Lanes in Fairlawn, Ohio near the long-time Firestone World Headquarters in Akron, Ohio. In a notable opening match at the 1967 Tournament of Champions finals, Jack Biondolillo rolled the first-ever nationally televised 300 game. Oddly, Biondolillo would only tally a 188 score in his next match, before being eliminated in his third match with a 172 score. Biondolillo's feat was not matched until 2015, when Sean Rash rolled the TOC's second televised perfect game in the second match of the stepladder finals. The tournament has also seen a pair of televised 299 games, by Don Johnson (1970) and Mika Koivuniemi (2011). The 2011 event also featured the lowest-ever game bowled in a nationally televised PBA event as well as the largest pin differential in a PBA match, when Koivuniemi defeated Tom Daugherty in the semifinals, 299–100.

    NBA Inside Stuff is a television program airing on NBA TV and previously aired on NBC for many years, then on ABC, featuring behind the scenes activities of NBA players. The program also includes features on fitness and fundamentals of basketball. Previously hosted by Ahmad Rashād and Summer Sanders, the show is now hosted by former NBA star Grant Hill and Kristen Ledlow.

    The NBC television network's in-studio pre-game coverage for their National Football League game telecasts has had a rather inconsistent history in comparison to other pre-game shows. The following is an overview of the various titles and formats relating towards NBC Sports' NFL pre-game coverage.

    Make That Spare was a fifteen-minute bowling program that aired on ABC from October 8, 1960 to September 11, 1964.

    The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for ten-pin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, 4,300 members worldwide make up the PBA. Within the membership, a small percentage of the bowlers compete on both a national and international level, forming the PBA Tour.

    Nelson "Bo" Burton Jr. is a professional ten-pin bowler, PBA Hall of Famer, and former longtime analyst for the Professional Bowlers Tour on ABC Television. He is the son of Nelson Burton, Sr., who himself was a successful bowler in his day, competing with the likes of Glenn Allison and Billy Welu. Bo compiled 18 titles on the PBA Tour, including two major championships, and earned $763,782 (USD).

    Major League Baseball: An Inside Look was a pregame show for NBC's Game of the Week telecasts. It featured one-on-one interviews with the players, and other on-going news and notes relating to Major League Baseball. The program, which was generally 15 minutes long, ran from 1979-1989. An Inside Look typically took place either on-location at the "A" Game of the Week broadcasting site or simply from NBC's studio in New York City.

    The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the PBA membership consists of almost 4,300 members worldwide. Members include "pro shop" owners and workers, teaching professionals and bowlers who compete in the various events put on by the Association.

    Rob Stone is a sports commentator for Fox Sports. He has covered various sports including Major League Soccer, NCAA and NFL football, and both ESPN and currently Fox's coverage of PBA Tournament Bowling, both alongside color commentator and PBA Hall of Famer Randy Pedersen.

    <i>Bowling Revolution P-League</i>

    Bowling Revolution P★League is a series of women-only bowling tournaments, developed solely for television. Entry into these tournaments is limited to selected members of the Japan Professional Bowling Association (JPBA), and amateurs who have qualified via open auditions. The show airs throughout Japan on BS Nittele (BS日テレ).

    Bowling on NBC is a presentation of professional ten-pin bowling matches from the PBA Tour formerly produced by NBC Sports, the sports division of the NBC television network in the United States.

    2016 is the 57th season of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. There were 26 singles title events, two doubles title events, and two team events on the 2016 schedule.

    References

    1. ↑ "Dale Earnhardt wins in Charlotte on NBC". NBC Sports History Page.
    2. ↑ "Len Berman". WNBC . NBCUniversal. He also hosted "Sports Fantasy," a program that aired on NBC 4 and NBC's "Sportsworld" from 1985-1990, giving the fans the opportunity to act out their sports fantasy with their favorite athlete.
    3. ↑ "Charlie Jones biography". ESPN . While at NBC, Jones described 28 different sports, including golf, Wimbledon tennis, figure skating, and numerous events for NBC's "SportsWorld."
    4. ↑ "Ahmad Rashād biography". National Basketball Association . Rashad’s broadcasting career began in 1983 when he joined NBC Sports as an NFL commentator and host for NBC’s SportsWorld
    This page is based on this Wikipedia article
    Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
    Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.