“Sports Challenge” – the coolest sports game show of the 1970’s

Here’s the scenario. Three legends from a professional sports team go up against three legends from another professional sports team. And in the end, one team emerges victorious.

With what method do they battle? Golf? Bowling? Lawn darts at 30 paces?

Nah. We’re talking trivia here.

Such was the concept of Sports Challenge, a weekly quiz show in which three players from one team matched up with three players from another team in a battle of brains, with Dick Enberg as the host. Enberg would show a clip from a famous sporting event, then offer the teams a chance to answer some trivia questions about that event. And in the end, the final bonus round would involve how well both teams identified a specific sports legend from a serious of vague clues, with the winning team receiving prize money for a charity, and the losing team receiving a smaller amount of prize money for THEIR charity.

Bro. This show slaps hard. Check out the 1970’s fashion with the massive flared collars and the couch-cushion sports jackets. Check out the grainy slow-motion film footage with Dick Enberg recreating the game-event calls as if they were live. Bro, there’s Mickey Mantle playing trivia!

Yow. I need some serious filters on my sunglasses after seeing Dick Enberg’s sports coat.

Here’s an episode that features the Boston Celtics – including Bill Russell, Red Auerbach and John Havlicek – against the Washington Senators, whose manager at the time was a guy named Ted Williams. Yes, THAT Ted Williams.

Holy crap, there’s an episode featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers going up against the Milwaukee Brewers. Excuse me, I’m going to need about 20 minutes here.

Sports Challenge ran throughout the 1970’s, and was later rebroadcast when the nascent Classic Sports Network (later ESPN Classic) needed some filler programming.

I should note that Mattel also created a series of Sports Challenge toys, including a mini-record player that featured Dick Enberg describing how each superstar rose from obscurity to greatness. The one thing I remember about this toy was that the disk featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had Dick Enberg recreating highlights and calling Abdul-Jabbar by his original name of Lew Alcindor. Yeah, took a while for me to understand that Lew Alcindor and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were one and the same.

But yeah, I need this show back on the air. Like right now. I want to see the Kansas City Chiefs – oh, let’s pick Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid – go up against, oh, let’s say the Milwaukee Bucks of Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez and Giannis Antetokuonmpo. Maie it happen, somebody!