10 More Things We Miss In Sports

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Aug 25, 2009

10 More Things We Miss In Sports

Jim McKay

McKay made his name in the 1960s and '70s anchoring ABC's Wide World of Sports and Olympics coverage, even had a signature journalistic moment akin to Walter Cronkite's breaking the awful news of JFK's assassination. McKay's epic (and Peabody Award-winning) story, of course, was the massacre of 11 Israeli hostages at the 1972 Munich Olympics, which he punctuated with his unforgettable phrase, "They're all gone."

Dodgeball

The sight of those rubber balls rolling out onto the gym floor either made you cringe or salivate at the prospect of flinging one at your classmates.

The NASL

Pele became the marketing face of the North American Soccer League (NASL) when he joined the New York Cosmos in 1975. He led the franchise to the 1977 NASL championship -- his third and final season in the league. The NASL ceased operations in 1985.

Jim Murray

The legendary sportswriter delighted readers of the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> and scores of other papers with his syndicated column from 1961 until his death in 1998, at 78. He was also an SI staffer at one point in his career.

NASCAR cars that look like real cars

How cool were the NASCAR vehicles of the 1960s. Here, in Feb. 1967, Curtis Turner's 1966 Chevrolet (13) goes off the track at the Daytona International Speedway after his engine blew up in the 143rd lap. Also shown are Sam McQuagg (15) of Columbus, Ga., driving a 1967 Mercury, and Tiny Lund (42), driving a 1966 Plymouth.

The Perfect 10 in gymnastics

At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Nadia Comaneci created a stir by performing the sport's first perfect 10, the first time in modern Olympic gymnastics history that the score had ever been awarded. The scoring system has since been changed.

Figure Skating superstars in the U.S.

The sport is currently in the middle of a dry spell, a long cry from stars such as Dorothy Hamill (top left), Peggy Fleming and Scott Hamilton.

The perceived innocence of track and field

What a joy it must have been to see Bob Hayes with the Olympic gold in 1964, on a hard, dirt track in Tokyo. The innocence changed when Ben Johnson failed a drug test after running 9.79 to win the Olympic gold medal in the 100 in 1988. A two-sport star, Hayes was recently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame