World of Sport was a British television show aired from 1965 to 1985. Its rise and fall showed the path of sport at the time. From regional, and local coverage it moved to global broadcasts. In this article, we discuss the World of Sport.
British television in the seventies and eighties would have been incomplete without World of Sport. if you don’t know what it was, then it was a general magazine show about sports. Starting in the mid-sixties by the middle of the eighties it was cancelled. We delve into the World of Sport in the following text.
The Conception of the World of Sport
World of Sport was created to compete with Grandstand on the BBC. This was its show for for sport coverage. Unlike BBC, ITV was regional, and the show compiled footage of sporting events in each region. It would include football and horse racing, along with more niche pursuits.
At one point, ABC who made the franchise lost its license and the show changed to ITV Sport. As it could only be shown at weekends due to its license, a second company known as Thames Television would produce specials for bank holidays. In Scotland, a similar magazine show was aired known as Scotsport, which showed English events but mainly included Scottish football and local sports.
Football on WOS
Football, horse racing, and wrestling were the main topics. At the start of the show, certain sections were dedicated to less televised events. In many ways, this gave viewers a much more rounded view of sports across the country and the globe.
The football section on the show was named On the Ball. This mostly delivered the day’s results. The BBC had the rights to most sporting events. The FA Cup Final was one ITV had. It was shown in competition with the same show on the BBC. There were also occasional England vs Scotland international matches from the Home International Championship. If ITV had managed to get World Cup Football rights, if World of Sport was scheduled to be on that time slot it would present the coverage.
Horse Racing
Horse Racing came under the banner of The ITV Seven, due to it showing seven big races each week. ITV Racing still use this title.
The broadcaster also uses the name for a competition on the show, based on a bookmaker accumulator. This is a type of bet where you have to guess the outcomes of a series of races. The winning amount carries over to the stake of the next bet. You can try them using a bet365 bonus code, so you don’t even have to tune into the television to take part in any competitions. You can choose your own races from a wider selection. They are often known as an acca.
Wrestling
World of Sport was synonymous with British wrestling. ITV held the rights to all the professional wrestling bouts in the United Kingdom. It would air from 4:00 on Saturday for 45 minutes, meaning it was prime time Saturday afternoon entertainment for most families. This made household names of wrestlers. One of the biggest rivalries was between Big Daddy, a fan favorite, and Giant Haystacks, a villain. Another well-known character was the mystical and masked Kendo Nagasaki.
As the eighties progressed, television became much slicker and so did wrestling. Big, brash, bold stars from America arrived with the WWE, and the smoky backrooms of UK social clubs, and its everyday working man wrestlers, could not compete with the US. Some World of Sport stars did make the transition, such as Dynamite Kid and Stephen Regal. However, like everything else in the decade, times were changing, and regional wrestling eventually lost its charm.
Niche Sports
By the mid-1960s, the greater part of what was available to watch or listen to in terms of sport within the UK was broadcast over the BBC. If ITV did not have these sports, it was often discovering different and unusual ways to fill that void. The first segment of the program focused on different kinds of sports both enjoyed locally and appreciated worldwide. Some of the more peculiar television that it put out were water ski racing, NASCAR racing, ice speedway racing, and stock car racing. Stunts were also included in this section, such as stars like Evel Knievel on his motorbike, doing dangerous tricks.
One sport that had a huge push because of its inclusion was ten-pin bowling. This did take the sport to a good portion of the UK, which saw people start searching for bowling alleys where they could take part. Kart Racing also had a similar exposure, and the number of tracks available in the UK began to rise as well.
The World of Sport feels like a dying artefact. Its magazine nature was something quite useful back in the day. New sports and new experiences were presented to people for whom there was no other way of approaching such events. It was a time before there were smartphones or tablets. For a couple of hours once or twice each week, it normally provides the general population an opportunity to escape into the world of sport.
