Sports Challenge
| Sports Challenge | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Game Show |
| Directed by | Glenn Swanson Jerry Hughes Gary Brown |
| Presented by | Dick Enberg |
| Narrated by | Johnny Gilbert Art James John Harlan |
| Theme music composer | Patrick Williams |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Gerry Gross Productions |
| Running time | 30 Minutes (including commercials) |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndicated CBS Weekends (1973) |
| Release | January 23, 1971 – September, 1979 |
Sports Challenge was a sports-centered game show that aired in weekly syndication from 1971-1979. A separate version aired briefly on CBS Weekends from May 20 to September 9, 1973.
Dick Enberg was host. Johnny Gilbert, Art James, and John Harlan announced.
Format
Sports Challenge featured two teams of three athletes, each of whom represented a sport or a team of the past (or present, depending on who the producers were able to book).
Main Game
Four rounds were played. In each round, a film clip was shown, and a toss-up question would be asked about or pertaining to the clip. The first team to buzz in with a correct answer earned 20 points and a chance at scoring more with two 10 point "free throws". If no one answered correctly on the first toss-up, the free throws became toss-ups.
After the fourth round, one final film clip was shown, and the question that followed it was worth 30 points.
Bonus Biography
After the 30 point question, the "Bonus Biography" was played. A silhouette of a famous athlete was shown on-screen, and the teams would have 60 seconds (originally 90) to figure out who it was based on clues given by announcer Gilbert (although Enberg later took this over). The team that answered this correctly earned one point for every second left on the clock.
Whoever was in the lead after the Bonus Biography won the game and $1,000 worth of Voit sporting goods for a charitable organization of their choice. The losing team received $500 worth of Voit sporting goods for charity. Each participant also received $1 for every point their team scored.
The winning team returned the following week to face a new set of challengers.
Notes
- The team of Tommy Henrich, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle (New York Yankees) set a record for winning the game 8 consecutive times. This record was tied once before the show left the airwaves in 1979.
- The show's theme throughout its run was an instrumental version of "Get Back" by Pat Williams, from his Verve Records album "Heavy Vibrations"; a different theme was briefly used during the 1976 season, but was quickly dropped.
- Episodes were taped at the KTLA/Golden West studios in Los Angeles (known today as Sunset-Bronson Studios), with the exception of some shows taped at Metromedia Square.
Episode Status
Sports Challenge is believed to be completely intact; ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPN Classic have all aired the series in the past, and presumably own any format rights along with the episodes.
