Sports Challenge

Infobox Television
show_name = Sports Challenge


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genre = Game Show
creator =
writer =
director = Glenn Swanson, Jerry Hughes, Gary Brown
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presenter =
starring = Dick Enberg
voices =
narrated =
theme_music_composer = Patrick Williams
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producer = Gerry Gross Productions
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runtime = 30 minutes (including commercials)
channel = Syndication (1971-1979)
CBS Weekends (1973)
picture_format = NTSC (480i)
audio_format = Monaural
first_run =
first_aired = January 23, 1971
last_aired = September 1979
preceded_by =
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imdb_id = 0198243
tv_com_id = 16898

Sports Challenge was a sports-centered game show that aired in weekly syndication from 1971 to 1979. A separate version aired briefly on CBS Weekends from May 20, 1973 until September 9, 1973.

Dick Enberg was host. Johnny Gilbert, Art James, and John Harlan announced.

Format

"Sports Challenge" featured two teams of three athletes, each of whom represented a sport or a team of the past (or present, depending on who the producers were able to book).

Main Game

Four rounds were played. In each round, a film clip was shown, and a toss-up question would be asked about or pertaining to the clip. The first team to buzz in with a correct answer earned 20 points and a chance at scoring more with two 10 point "free throws". If no one answered correctly on the first toss-up, the free throws became toss-ups.

After the fourth round, one final film clip was shown, and the question that followed it was worth 30 points.

Bonus Biography

After the 30 point question, the "Bonus Biography" was played. A silohuette of a famous athlete was shown on-screen, and would have 60 seconds (originally 90) to figure out who it was based on clues given by announcer Gilbert (although Enberg later took this over). The team that answered this correctly earned one point for every second left on the clock.

Whoever was in the lead after the Bonus Biography won the game, $1,000 worth of Voit sporting goods for a charitable organization of their choice, and $1 for every point they scored.

At one point in the series, if neither team figured out the athlete in question, said athlete won a new car.

The winning team returned the following week to face a new set of challengers.

Notes

*The team of Tommy Henrich, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle (New York Yankees) set a record for winning the game 8 consecutive times. This record was tied once before the show left the airwaves in 1979.
*"Sports Challenge" has aired in reruns on ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPN Classic.
*The show's theme throughout its run was an instrumental version of "Get Back" by Pat Williams, from his Verve Records album "Heavy Vibrations"; a different theme was briefly used during the 1976 season, but was quickly dropped.