Monday, May 17, 2010

May 17, 1939: On air

NEW YORK - Sports and television seem like a natural pairing. Most of the memorable sports moments I've been writing about live on forever because people remember watching them as they happened, and every year, the most-watched television program in America is the Super Bowl, the one day where nearly everybody can agree on what to watch.

Televised sports in America started on May 17, 1939, when experimental station W2XBS in New York televised a baseball game between Columbia University and Princeton University. Two cameras were placed in to Baker Field in New York - one on the third-base side and one high above home plate - while Bill Stern called the play-by-play for Princeton's 2-1 victory.

The first game couldn't have been too enjoyable an experience for people watching. The low-tech cameras couldn't pick up the ball as it traveled from the pitcher to the batter or even after it was hit, and the swinging of a bat looked like a paper fan. The people who did get to see the broadcast - there were only about 400 televisions in New York at that time - had to peer through a four- or five-inch screen to see the game. Not exactly conducive to big parties.

The Columbia-Princeton game was a test run of sorts for the channel that would become WNBC, as televisions were a big promotion at that year's World's Fair. That summer, a double-header between Brooklyn and Cincinnati was shown as part of the World's Fair exhibit, representing the debut of professional sports on television.



HONORABLE MENTION
May 17, 1875: LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In front of 10,000 spectators, 15 3-year-old thoroughbred horses raced a mile and a half on this Saturday afternoon, with Oliver Lewis jockeying Aristides to victory in the inaugural Kentucky Derby. The distance has changed, the racetrack has grown, and the race has grown in stature, but the Derby has been run every year since then, one of the longest-running traditions in American sports.

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