1972 Olympics on ESPN Classic

[Conor Dary]

This week ESPN Classic is showing 3 half hour shows from ABC's 1972 track coverage, with one on Shorter's marathon win, one on the 100 debacle and another that includes Wottle's 800.

I remember watching them all live. Still amazing that Robert Taylor was able to run as well as he did in that quarter final on no warmup.

[user4]

Everytime i watch Wottle in that 800m final I think to myself, what in the world is going on in his head as he jogs back there some 20 yards back at 300m.

[tm71]

i have been watching it. i was only 18 months old when those games took place. i had seen parts of the documentaries on spitz, the basketball final and the tragedy in the village in the past, but not some of the other events. jim mckay did a decent job calling the track and field races. certainly better than anything uncle tom hammond could muster !

[sprintzfan]

Hey Conor I came here tonight to check and see if you guys knew about this. And I had you in mind specifically. I figured if anyone here was interested in it, it would be you. Based on age and your apparent interest in a variety of things historical. (Zapruder film, Neil Armstrong etc..)

Last night was the first night I caught them doing Track. Saw earlier ones on Olga Korbut and stuff but noTrack. Another Track one comes on in 3 hours.

Take it easy. Glad everyone here has been informed about it.

[Conor Dary]

The marathon, which was 40 years ago yesterday, was fun to watch again. I thought the telecast was kind of quaint. Chris Schenkel, who knew zero about marathons, calmly describing the race as it goes through a park. Jim McKay was enthusiastic and then the over caffeinated Erich Segal is humorous.

The part where Shorter and Segal are on a jog discussing Shorter's life was interesting. Especially when his father comes up in the conversation and weird, in light of what we now know what their relation was really like.