[BillyMac]

"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!"

This announcement, narrated by Jim McKay, introduced ABC’s Wide World of Sports, televised on Saturday afternoons for over 20 years. The latter phrase has fixed itself in the American popular imagination. And while the images used to accompany the introduction changed over the years, if you watched this popular sports program during the 70s, you might remember one particularly dramatic piece of footage, illustrating not victory, but defeat. The image is striking. A ski jumper begins his descent down the slope preparing for his lunge into space. For an instant we see his body taut, straight, aerodynamically inclined over the skis at a perfect angle, like a human arrow. Suddenly, something goes dramatically wrong, his knees cave in, the skis cross and the once rigid form of the skier is limp as a starfish tossed by a wave. He spins and bounces down the jump, cartwheeling through colored banners and hay bales until he crashes over the side of the jump and out of the frame.

I miss those Saturday afternoons. Thank you Jim McKay.