In a thread in the TV Schedules forum, we mention ABC would broadcast a few Division II and III football games every season to satisfy an NCAA contract clause. Not surprisingly, only the team's local affiliates aired these games. What obscure events, either due to the obscurity of the team/sport/contest, have aired on American broadcast TV?
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Most obscure sporting broadcast?
- Thread starter installLSC
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Countless event that were aired on ABC's long-running "Wide World of Sports" would qualify.
ABC also carries a football game or two featuring historically black colleges every season, which I'm sure is also because of a clause in the contract. These games get national carriage but are of interest to few viewers outside of alumni of the schools on the field.
Maybe bowling or billiards would qualify as obscure sports to put on TV.
This wasn't on American TV, but CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario (easily picked up with rabbit ears from Buffalo) would air curling every Saturday when I was a kid in the 70s. Talk about watching wet paint dry. It looked like a fun sport to play but not so much something that would be interesting to sit on the couch and watch on a Saturday afternoon.
Bronx
This wasn't on American TV, but CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario (easily picked up with rabbit ears from Buffalo) would air curling every Saturday when I was a kid in the 70s. Talk about watching wet paint dry. It looked like a fun sport to play but not so much something that would be interesting to sit on the couch and watch on a Saturday afternoon.
Bronx
Curling is hardly obscure in Canada, where the audience CHCH was targeting lived. As for bowling, those weekly ABC shows got great ratings for years and the bowling stars were well known. In the '60s, there was a syndicated show from Akron, Ohio, that featured those top bowlers every week. Many local stations had their own bowling shows (competitive, not "Bowling For Dollars") well into the '90s.
If I remember correctly, ABC's bowling coverage was outrating golf coverage even when it was cancelled in 1996. The only reason it went off the air was demographics.
The early days of ESPN had MANY obscure sports like tractor pulls, professional softball, etc.
Darts was a oft-broadcast filler on Fox Sports Netlets a few years back. Seems a bit obscure to me.
Three words: Australian Rules Football!!!!
Since 1979, it has had various U.S. homes: ESPN, then Prime Network (the family of regional sports networks that is now Fox Sports 1), and then ESPN again (via ESPN3, though one game was on ESPN2). Due to the huge 15- to 18-hour time difference, we see those games in the middle of the night.
And by the way: This is my 1,000th post!!!!
Since 1979, it has had various U.S. homes: ESPN, then Prime Network (the family of regional sports networks that is now Fox Sports 1), and then ESPN again (via ESPN3, though one game was on ESPN2). Due to the huge 15- to 18-hour time difference, we see those games in the middle of the night.
And by the way: This is my 1,000th post!!!!
Over in England, darts is big
So are cricket and snooker (a form of billiards), but they never appeared as filler on an American sports network. I guess the fact that darts has something of a presence in bars and as home recreation in the US, while cricket and snooker are largely the domain of British Empire expats, meant the sport could attract a few eyeballs as odd-hours filler here. But is that bar-and-basement interest enough to take it out of the "obscure" category?
I think I may have the ultimate answer. I was looking up TV Guides from 1970, and a Seattle station aired collegiate swimming--on a Saturday night, no less. And they weren't even big names, but the small Tacoma area schools Pacific Lutheran and U. of Puget Sound.
Each year NBC carries the Southern Classic, live from New Orleans. This is a rivalry game between two historically Black schools, Southern University and Grambling. It gets a wide audience, not in part due to the halftime show. Grambling and Southern have two of the most incredibly talented marching bands in the entire country.
I've actually seen snooker on FSN. Along with that and darts, they've shown (as filler, I would hope) airplane racing. The 2 things I found myself wondering while stumbling upon an air race broadcast--1, how do you decide to be a fan of a particular pilot, and 2, how do you possibly work up enough dislike for a particular pilot to actively root against him? FSN also gives us "In Depth With Graham Bensinger", which while not an actual sporting event, is obscure. (Graham B. bears a kind of spooky resemblance to Keefe Brasselle, so maybe the mob got the show on the air...) Another cable sports net, SportsTime Ohio (now part of FSN, actually) used to show Cleveland All Pro Wrestling, which featured matches between guys who I would guess entered the ring on a dare. And Sting. He was there once. It also gave us the most awesomely bad commercials ever, like this one for Cleveland's favorite donut and cigarette emporium. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m56N32F4OBY
That "Seattle" station was likely Tacoma licensed indie KTNT, now CW KSTW. In 1970 they were still known as "The Tacoma Station", so those two teams would have been logical. Swimming, however, really is not logical so you have me there!
Probably not so obscure in this day and age with extreme sports and such but back in the summer of 1985 I can remember one of the Hampton Roads, Virginia stations ( maybe it was WAVY but I don't know ) airing live coverage of a skateboard championship from Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach. A few days later some letters appeared in the Virginian Pilot newspaper critical of the coverage. Mostly from those who felt skateboarding was "..a waste of time ".."child stuff" but some also didn't like the skaters such as the one who was completely bald, had a beard and sported lots of tattoos and earrings...oh he was skating while smoking a cigarette. Guess that was considered "shocking" for some back in 1985. Today here in Denver I see this sort of thing every day.
people were outraged when ESPN aired a video game tournament, the same channel that airs poker and spellings and aired scrabble tournaments when it launched
Was this back in the 80's ?? The reason I ask is that back in those days many adults hated video games, though they may had played pinball and other similar stuff. I can remember watching the late Christopher Glenn doing a story on 30 Minutes about some town in Texas that had actually passed a law banning anyone under the age of 18 from not only playing video games at arcades but even purchasing them too. Come to think of it I seem to recall an interview with game show host Geoff Edwards saying how TBS and himself had received some criticism over Starcade.
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