Department of English, University of Louisville Phone: (502)852-6770 or (502)852-6801. Fax: (502)852-4182. I'm old enough to remember when all this started. I do think, as another SCREEN-L note suggested, that part of it was to attract more women to the audience. Part of it also was that in 1960 when Americans knew even less about sports other than football, I think the network had serious doubts about the interest of the events themselves. That's why ABC (on Wide World of Sports) gave us "the human drama of athletic competition." They also brought in Jim McKay at that point--he was always the worst of them about this to me, esp. in '72 when the Israeli athletes were killed. It's no accident, I'm convinced, that his previous job was as host of DIVORCE COURT. Speaking of WIDE WORLD, does everyone remember the ski jumper crashing on "the agony of defeat"? Someone told me that one of the late night TV types (Letterman I think) said that recent investigations had implicated Tonya Harding in that footage. bitnet tbbyer01@ulkyvm; internet [log in to unmask] Thomas B. Byers Department of English/University of Louisville Louisville KY 40292