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3 unusual facts about Wide World of Sports


FSU Flying High Circus

The Florida State University Circus has been seen on "CBS Sports Spectacular," "ABC's Wide World of Sports," "On the Road" with Charles Kuralt, NBC's "Real People," "PM Magazine," and ESPN.

Steve Zabriskie

He also called baseball games for ABC and the California Angels and covered track-and-field for CBS and various Wide World of Sports events for ABC.

Wide World of Sports

ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, an athletic complex located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, formerly known as Disney's Wide World of Sports.


1961 FA Cup Final

The telecast was shown in its entirety in the United States by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) on Wide World of Sports two weeks later on May 20.

1966 Indianapolis 500

The race was carried in the United States on ABC's Wide World of Sports.

Australia II

The achievement was underscored when Australia II was awarded the ABC Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year for 1983.

Bill Toomey

A graduate of Worcester Academy and the University of Colorado, Toomey was named ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year in 1968.

Bonnie Blair

Blair won several prestigious awards, including the 1992 James E. Sullivan Award, the 1992 Oscar Mathisen Award (being the first female winner of this award), the 1992 ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year, and Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, along with Johann Olav Koss, in 1994.

Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship

The championship was the first surfing event to be broadcast on a regular basis by ABC's Wide World of Sports.

Julie Moran

Before joining ET, she co-hosted NBA Inside Stuff with Ahmad Rashad and later replaced Frank Gifford as host of ABC's Wide World of Sports.

KTVF

While primarily a CBS station, KTVF also served as secondary affiliates for ABC from 1971 to 1985 (when it aired some of ABC's top-rated shows like Marcus Welby, M.D., Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Three's Company, and Eight is Enough as well as Wide World of Sports, Super Bowl XIX and the Academy Awards) and NBC from 1985 to 1996.

Oberstdorf

The American Broadcasting Company's Wide World of Sports inadvertently featured Oberstdorf when Vinko Bogataj fell during the ski jump in 1970 and became "The Agony of Defeat".

Supermoto

Supermoto has its origins in the 1970s where ABC’s Wide World of Sports was the highest-rated sports show in the United States.

Swamp buggy

ABC's Wide World of Sports featured the mud madness in a national television special and Hollywood stars like Gary Cooper were seen in Naples riding Swamp Buggies.


see also

Greg Otterholt

As an athlete, Otterholt has been seen on television's Wide World of Sports for ski racing, played for the World Cup Soccer Tournament with the U.S. Amputee exhibition team, and appeared in the pages of Golf Digest after hitting a "one-handed" hole in one.