American TV series or program
SportsCentury
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Genre
| Documentary
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Written by
| Michael Husain (11 episodes, 2001?2006)
Pat Smith (1 episode, 1999)
Michael Douglas Callan (1 episode, 2001)
Michael Strom (unknown episodes)
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Directed by
| Michael Husain (2 episodes, 2001?2005)
Michael Douglas Callan (1 episode, 2001)
Sean Waters (1 episode, 2006)
|
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Presented by
| Chris Fowler
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Composers
| Geoff Zanelli (8 episodes, 2000?2003)
Gregg Lehrman (3 episodes, 2004?2005)
Robert Leslie Bennett (2 episodes, 2000?2003)
Pedro Bromfman (2 episodes, 2003?2005)
Ramon Balcazar (1 episode, 2000)
Robin Lynn (1 episode, 2000)
Charles A. Wolschon (2 episodes, 2003?2005)
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Country of origin
| United States
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Original language
| English
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No.
of episodes
| 261
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Cinematography
| Jim Grieco (87 episodes, 1999?2006)
Jared Manders (8 episodes, 2000?2005)
Doug Longwill (5 episodes, 2001?2004)
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Running time
| 30?60 minutes
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Production company
| ESPN
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Network
| ESPN
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Release
| January 22, 1999
(
1999-01-22
)
[1]
?
2007
(
2007
)
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|
Beyond the Glory
|
SportsCentury
is an
ESPN
biography
television program
that reviews the people and events that defined
sports
in North America throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Using stock footage, on-camera interviews, and photographs of their athletic lives, who grew up.
In
1999
, ESPN counted down the Top 50 Athletes of the 20th Century, selected from North American athletes and voted on by a panel of sports journalists and observers,
[2]
premiering a new biography highlighting each top athlete every week throughout the year. The episodes for the top two athletes,
Michael Jordan
and
Babe Ruth
, appeared on a special combined edition broadcast on
Christmas Day
on
ABC
. The top two names were announced in no particular order, and the final positioning was announced at the conclusion of the two episodes. An additional list of numbers 51?100 were announced on the ESPN
SportsCentury
website. Themed specials such as
Greatest Games
,
Greatest Coaches
,
Greatest Dynasties
, and
Most Influential Individuals
were premiered throughout the year, as well as six
SportsCenter
of the Decade
programs.
After the initial run was complete, the episodes were rerun at various times on
ESPN
,
ESPN2
and
ESPN Classic
. The original plan for the series was to expand to include #51 through #100. Ultimately, the series featured just over half of the athletes from #51 to #100, and instead expanded to include over 150 other athletes, coaches, owners, personalities, and notable moments in sports history. Acknowledgements were given to athletes that were notable for more recent accomplishments, even if they spent only a small part of their career in the 20th century (e.g.,
Tiger Woods
,
Tom Brady
), or were recently deceased (e.g.
Pat Tillman
,
Dale Earnhardt
). Special subsets of episodes were created revolving around a particular event, including athletes associated with the particular sport. They would typically air in the days leading up to those events. (e.g.,
Winter Olympics
,
golf majors
,
Indianapolis 500
, etc.)
ESPN Classic
began to feature the program with host,
Chris Fowler
, as the highlight of its weeknight prime-time programing, airing five nights a week. After cycling through the entire series several times, and after debuting several new episodes, it was removed as a nightly program. As of 2007
[update]
, reruns of the documentary series airs Monday through Friday at 4 p.m.
Eastern time
. The last original program was that of
Shaquille O'Neal
, which aired in November 2007.
[3]
Controversy
[
edit
]
The final order of choices led to debate, some of which came from the
SportsCentury
camp.
Bob Costas
, one of the series' voters, said, "I had
Babe Ruth
as my number one, but I think the list they came up with was a good one. Everybody more or less deserved to be there." ESPN writer Bud Morgan conceded that the
Secretariat
pick "was kind of controversial because a lot of people took the attitude 'What is a four-legged animal doing on this list?'"
Tony Kornheiser
, whose ballot was topped by Ruth,
Muhammad Ali
and
Michael Jordan
, said, "I can't conceive of how Ruth didn't finish number one. He had the greatest impact of anybody on a sport by far... Michael Jordan didn't have as many championships as
Bill Russell
and didn't score as many points as
Wilt Chamberlain
, and really didn't do anything to advance his sport, so maybe in retrospect I upgraded him a bit too much because the way he performed was so spectacular, and because of television I got to see highlights. They may have overpersuaded a lot of us... Did
Jim Thorpe
get the praise he deserved? Probably not, because there weren't enough people old enough to really remember him."
ESPN anchor
Charley Steiner
said "I think picking [Jordan] number one was a generational decision, not a historical one. Babe Ruth deserved it more."
[4]
Don King lawsuit
[
edit
]
In 2005, Don King and his promotional company, Don King Productions, Inc. filed a $2.5 billion defamation suit against
the Walt Disney Company
, the current owners of ESPN and
ABC Cable Networks Group
, and Advocate Communications, after a documentary alleged that King had "killed, not once, but twice", threatened to break
Larry Holmes
' legs, had a hospital invest into a film that was never made, cheated
Meldrick Taylor
out of $1 million, and then threatened to have Taylor killed. Though the documentary repeated many claims that were already made, King said he had now had enough. King's attorney said "It was slanted to show Don in the worst way. It was one-sided from day one, Don is a strong man, but he has been hurt by this."
[5]
The case was dismissed on
summary judgment
with a finding that King could not show "actual malice" from the defendants, and that King had failed to prove that any of the challenged statements were false. The judgement also pointed out that the studio had tried on a number of occasions to interview King for the documentary, but he had declined; while not suggesting that King had a legal obligation to do so, the court sympathized with ESPN's circumstances on those grounds. King appealed the decision and, 3 years later, the Second District Court of Appeals upheld the summary judgement, but disagreed with the original finding that none of the statements were false. In any case, Judge Dorian Damoorgian ruled, "Nothing in the record shows that ESPN purposefully made false statements about King in order to bolster the theme of the program or to inflict harm on King".
[6]
Recognition
[
edit
]
SportsCentury won a
Peabody Award
in 1999 "for overall excellence in sports broadcasting."
[7]
SportsCentury: Top 50 American Athletes of the 20th Century (Original series)
[
edit
]
SportsCentury: 51?100
[
edit
]
Athlete statistics
[
edit
]
- By sport
- Baseball: 22
- Football: 20
- Track/Field: 12
- Basketball: 11
- Tennis: 8
- Boxing: 7
- Hockey: 6
- Golf: 6
- Horse racing: 5 (2 jockeys, 3 horses)
- Auto racing: 3
- Swimming / Diving: 2
- Speed skating: 2
- Gymnastics: 1
|
- By gender
|
Additional
SportsCentury
episodes
[
edit
]
Athletes
[
edit
]
Coaches, owners, and other personalities
[
edit
]
Games, teams, and other special episodes
[
edit
]
Special episodes
[
edit
]
SportsCentury: Greatest Games of the 20th Century
[
edit
]
"Greatest Games" was a top ten countdown of the best games/matches voted on from a wide variety of team and individual sports.
- "The Greatest Game Ever Played"
? (1958 NFL Championship):
Baltimore Colts
vs.
New York Giants
(1958)
- The Shot Heard 'Round the World
?
Bobby Thomson
's home run (1951)
- Super Bowl III
?
New York Jets
defeat Baltimore Colts (1969)
- Miracle on Ice
?
U.S.A
defeats
U.S.S.R.
(1980)
- "
Thrilla in Manila
" ?
Muhammad Ali
vs.
Joe Frazier
(1975)
- "Ice Bowl
" ?
Green Bay
vs.
Dallas
(1967)
- Game 6 of the
1975 World Series
?
Carlton Fisk
's
home run
(1975)
- Tiger Woods
wins the
Masters
(1997)
- Willis Reed
and
Knicks
beat
Lakers
in
Game 7
(1970)
- Borg
-
McEnroe
Wimbledon
thriller (1980)
SportsCentury: Greatest Coaches of the 20th Century
[
edit
]
"Greatest Coaches" was a top ten countdown of the best coaches voted on from a wide variety of team sports
- Vince Lombardi
- John Wooden
- Red Auerbach
- Dean Smith
- Bear Bryant
- John McGraw
- George Halas
- Don Shula
- Paul Brown
- Knute Rockne
SportsCentury: Greatest Dynasties
[
edit
]
SportsCentury: Most Influential Individuals
[
edit
]
Another top ten countdown special, focusing on influential figures in sports during the twentieth century, namely off-the-field contributors.
- Branch Rickey
- Pete Rozelle
- Roone Arledge
- Marvin Miller
- Kenesaw Mountain Landis
- David Stern
- Avery Brundage
- Walter O'Malley
- George Halas
- Mark McCormack
SportsCentury: The Year in Review
[
edit
]
Also included in the overall production was "SportsCenter of the Decade", a series of six two-hour programs (1900?1949, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s). Each episode was presented as a fictional episode of
SportsCenter
, in the way ESPN would have covered the events at the time (styles, studio/production design, and other various pop culture references).
[12]
Notes
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
Stewart, Larry (January 22, 1999).
"ESPN May Have Best Shows of Century"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
November 16,
2019
.
- ^
"ESPN.com: ESPN's SportsCentury panel"
.
- ^
"SportsCentury Episode list"
. TV Guide
. Retrieved
July 9,
2014
.
- ^
Miller, James and Shales, Tom, Those Guys Have All the Fun, Little Brown & Co., 2011, pgs. 420?422
- ^
"Promoter takes issue with
SportsCentury
piece"
.
ESPN
. ESPN.com news services. January 13, 2005
. Retrieved
March 24,
2021
.
- ^
Gardner, Eriq (July 6, 2010).
"ESPN scores TKO against Don King defamation lawsuit"
.
Reuters
. Retrieved
March 24,
2021
.
- ^
59th Annual Peabody Awards
, May 2000.
- ^
Buzz Bissinger
(June 1, 2015).
"Introducing Caitlyn Jenner"
.
Vanity Fair
. Retrieved
June 1,
2015
.
- ^
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281438/episodes?ref_=tt_ql_6
[
user-generated source
]
- ^
"SportsCentury Episodes - SportsCentury Full Episode Guides on ESPN Classic | TVGuide.com"
.
www.tvguide.com
. Archived from
the original
on 2010-07-26.
- ^
"Sports Century: Bill Veeck"
.
- ^
"ESPN.com: SportsCentury is huge undertaking"
.
References
[
edit
]
Links to related articles
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Executives
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U.S. networks
| Streaming
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Linear TV
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Part-time
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Radio
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International
| Japan
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Latin America
| Panregional
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Brazil
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Caribbean
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Netherlands
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Oceania
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Sub-Saharan Africa
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Co-owned Canadian
sports networks
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Ventures
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Defunct ventures
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Sports broadcasting rights
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Other properties
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Notable personalities
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Miscellaneous
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