The First Televised Sporting Event

NBC broadcasted the first ever televised sporting event on May 17, 1939. It took place at Andy Coakley Field where Columbia University’s baseball team took on Princeton’s baseball team. One camera was used to film the game. The camera man stood on a wooden platform looking over the field. This game was used as an experiment to see if a live game could be aired on live television. There were not many viewers because only about 400 televisions were owned at the time. The televisions only had a black and white picture. The experiment worked and Princeton won the game by a score of 2-1. Later in the year, a MLB game and college football game were aired live on television by NBC. This was the beginning of live sporting events on television.

http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=3738874

The Origin of Surfboards

The first surfboards were made in the early 1900’s and used by lifeguards. Back in the early 1900’s, people knew that wood floated. They made the first surfboards out of solid wood. Some of the boards weighed as much as 100 pounds and were as long as 16 feet. As time went on, surfboards got smaller and weighed less. In the 1950’s, surfboards weighed 50 pounds and were 10 feet long. In the 1980’s, surfboards weighed 15 pounds and were only 5 feet 2 inches long. They were made out of foam and fiberglass. This is when people began to use surfboards to have fun. People began doing tricks on surfboards and competitions began to pop up around the world.

http://library.thinkquest.org/3205/Surf.html

The Origin of Snowboards

The first snowboard was believed to be made in 1929 by a man named M.J. “Jack” Burchett. He used a wooden plank, clothesline, and horse reins. It was very basic. Later, in 1965, a man named Sherman Poppen came up with an idea. He lived in the Rocky Mountains. Poppen put two skis together and gave the toy to his daughter as a present. His wife called it the Snurfer. It had a rope in the front for riders to hold. It only took ten years for one million Snurfers to be sold. Others eventually began making their own versions of snowboards.

http://www.sbhistory.de/hist_in_the_beg.htm

The Broad Street Bullies

The Philadelphia Flyers of the 1970’s were known as the Broad Street Bullies. The hockey players on the team played very rough. Most of the players on the team had long hair and a lot of teeth missing. There were fights in almost every game. Other teams were scared to come to Philadelphia and play in the Spectrum. The Flyers won the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975 because of their physical play. The Broad Street Bullies also played a game against the Russians on January 11, 1976. The Russians were known as the Red Army and were supposedly the best team in the world. They played a few teams in the NHL and went undefeated. Their last game was in Philadelphia against the Flyers. The Broad Street Bullies came out hitting and checking hard. The Russians left the ice because of the Flyers hard hitting. The Flyer’s owner told the Russians that they would not get paid if they didn’t play. The Russians came back out and the Flyers continued to pound on the Russians. The Flyers won the game 4-1. The Broad Street Bullies are known for their physical style of hockey.

http://www.flyershistory.com/cgi-bin/hm.cgi?006hm

Mike Schmidt

Mike Schmidt was the best third baseman to play for the Philadelphia Phillies. He started his career in 1972. Schmidt played every game of his career in a Phillies uniform. He hit 548 homeruns and helped the Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals in the 1980 World Series. The World Series MVP was awarded to Schmidt. This was the first time that the Phillies won the World Series. Schmidt retired in 1989 and was eventually inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1995. He will be remembered as one of the best players in Phillies history.

http://baseball.wikia.com/wiki/Mike_Schmidt

Miracle in the Meadowlands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzUHvg6QbaU

The Miracle in the Meadowlands occurred at the end of a football game on November, 19 1978. The Philadelphia Eagles were playing against the New York Giants in New York. The game was late in the fourth quarter with only a few seconds left. The giants had the ball and the lead. The Eagles had no timeouts to stop the clock. All the Giants had to do to win the game was run out the clock. Instead of kneeling the ball, the Giants tried to run the ball and ended up fumbling. Herman Edwards, from the Eagles, picked up the fumble and scored a touchdown to win the game for the Eagles. The final score was 17-12. This game showed everyone why kneeling the ball at the end of a game is better then running the ball. There is more of a chance to fumble when running the ball. This is why teams with leads late in games kneel the ball today.

http://www.steinersports.com/herman-edwards-autographed-11-19-78-miracle-in-the-meadowlands-b/w-horizontal-8x10-photograph

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDy8BqEuyE

The video proves the difference between video back then and now. The video shows how basketball games and sports in general were video taped back then. You can see the video was in black and white and not in color like it is today. There also was just one camera angle and not multiply angles like it is today. There also was just one camera at a game and not every game was televised.