Its first winner was track and field star Jim Beatty for being the first to run a sub-4-minute mile indoors. In 1963, ABC Sports producers began selecting the Athlete of the Year. In 1973, the Superstars was first televised as a segment on Wide World of Sports the following year, the Superstars debuted as a weekly winter series that lasted for 10 years. In 1964, Wide World of Sports covered the Oklahoma Rattlesnake Hunt championships the following year, ABC premiered outdoor program The American Sportsman, which remained on the network for nearly 20 years. The broadcast was so successful that in 1962, ABC Sports began covering the Professional Bowlers Tour. In 1961, Wide World of Sports covered a bowling event in which Roy Lown beat Pat Patterson.

Eastern Time to allow ABC affiliates in the Eastern and Central Time Zones to carry local early-evening newscasts. Beginning in 1962, it was pushed to 5:00 to 6:30 P.M., and later to 4:30 to 6:00 P.M. ĭuring its initial season in the spring and summer of 1961, Wide World of Sports was initially broadcast from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. Jim Simpson called the action from Drake Stadium with Bill Flemming working the field. Jim McKay (who hosted the program for most of its history) and Jesse Abramson, the track and field writer for the New York Herald Tribune, broadcast from Franklin Field with Bob Richards as the field reporter. The series' April 29, 1961, debut telecast featured both the Penn and Drake Relays. After selling his company to ABC, he hired a young Roone Arledge to produce the show. Wide World of Sports was the creation of Edgar Scherick through his company, Sports Programs, Inc. The program also lent its name to an athletic facility at Walt Disney World, the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, which was originally known as Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex from its opening in 1997 (one year after The Walt Disney Company acquired ABC and an 80% stake in ESPN) until 2010. Weekend sports news updates on sister radio network ABC Sports Radio, operated by Cumulus Media Networks, continue to be branded under the similar title ABC's World of Sports.

In 2007, Wide World of Sports was named by Time on its list of the 100 best television programs of all time. Hosted by Jim McKay, with a succession of co-hosts beginning in 1987, the title continued to be used for general sports programs on the network until 2006. ABC's Wide World of Sports is an American sports anthology television program that aired on ABC from April 29, 1961, to January 3, 1998, primarily on Saturday afternoons.

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