Archive
Chronicles Buster Douglas’ shocking knockout of the then-undefeated Mike Tyson at the Tokyo Dome on February 11, 1990.
The life of NFL legend Junior Seau, from his upbringing in a Samoan immigrant family, through his path to NFL superstardom and status as a league icon, ending in his seemingly inexplicable suicide in 2012.
The saga surrounding Indiana University firing coach Bob Knight in 2000.
A look at the relationship between NFL coaches Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. Co-produced with NFL Films.
ESPN’s Ric Flair 30 for 30 ‘Nature Boy’ Gives Revealing Look into Wrestler’s Private Life
The unlikely rise and sudden fall of boxer Tommy Morrison.
During the 1987 players’ strike, the Washington Redskins field a roster of replacement players that goes 3-0 and helps pave the way for the Redskins’ Super Bowl victory. Thirty years on, those players bear the stigma of being dismissed as “scabs” by fans in general and Redskins management in particular.
In any other year, the 1988 team from Dallas’ Carter High School would have gone down as one of the greatest in Texas football history, featuring 28 players who received college scholarship offers, eight of whom would eventually play professional football. Fighting off racial prejudice and a grades controversy — not to mention the team that would overshadow them in book and film (Odessa Permian) — Carter would claim the state title, only to be rocked to their core when six of their players were involved in an armed robbery that changed the community’s reputation to this day.
George Best, Northern Ireland’s legendary star, remains one of the most naturally gifted soccer players ever. Best’s skill and exuberance lifted Manchester United, but his career was over before he turned 29, the result of his battle with alcoholism.
Mike Francesa and Chris Russo, and their “Mike and the Mad Dog” show ruled afternoon sports talk for 19 years. When all was said and done, they changed sports radio forever.
Conclusion of a look at the 1980s Celtics-Lakers rivalry, focusing on the three years after the 1984 NBA Finals, as the teams’ disdain for each other gradually turns to respect while meeting in two more Finals. From filmmakers Jim Podhoretz and Jon Hock.
The Celtics-Lakers rivalry ramps up in the 1984 Finals as a cast of characters–led by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson–who changed the NBA finally went head-to-head for a title. Directed by Jim Podhoretz and produced by Jonathan Hock.
A three-part series, initially airing on consecutive nights, exploring the Celtics–Lakers rivalry, focusing mainly on the 1980s era of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson but also examining the entire history of the NBA through the rivalry. (Parts 1 & 3: 2 hours in length; Part 2: 1 hour in length)
The life and career of John Calipari, one of the most polarizing figures in modern college basketball, weaving his story around that of his 2015–16 Kentucky team.
Two longtime friends, pro wrestling impresario Vince McMahon and NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol (Charlie Ebersol’s father), team to form the XFL, a football league widely ridiculed during its brief run yet also appreciated as a forerunner of modern-day sports broadcasting.
A look at the notorious 1988 Notre Dame–Miami football game and its personal and cultural impact. Creadon was a senior at Notre Dame when the game took place. His roommate that year was one of the people behind the controversial t-shirt that gave the game its name.(2 hours in length)
If professional golf were put to country music, then the song would be about John Daly. Ever since he shocked the sports world by winning the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick 25 years ago, the blond bomber from Dardanelle, Arkansas has been one of the most-popular and polarizing figures in a sport that cherishes its traditions and minds its manners. In this revealing and rollicking 30 for 30 film, directors Gabe Spitzer and David Fine cover Daly’s rise and fall, his redemption at The Open in St. Andrews in 1995, and his struggles with booze, food, gambling, women and depression. They also uncover a person whose story runs much deeper than his motto of “Sip It, Grip It, Rip It.”
A profile of the iconic Houston Cougars men’s basketball teams of the 1980s, fronted by Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, whose explosive play and highlight-making slam dunks earned the team the nickname Phi Slama Jama.
The connection between the lives and careers of former New York Mets Dwight “Doc” Gooden and Darryl Strawberry.
The film shares with viewers some of the highs, lows and most unforgettable moments in Cleveland sports history over the past 50 years. Believeland includes interviews from celebrities, public figures and former athletes with connections to the city.
A look at the Shaquille O’Neal-led Orlando Magic teams of the 1990s and how they fell short of an NBA title.
A documentary examination of the accusations of sexual misconduct against the Duke University lacrosse team that were ultimately found to be baseless
A look back at the 1985 Chicago Bears, a team built on ferocious defense, with big personalities who shuffled to a Super Bowl title. Jim McMahon, Mike Ditka, Mike Singletary, Buddy Ryan and William Perry are among those appearing. Directed by Jason Hehir, with executive producers Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley.
In 1989, the Buffalo Bills were a talented team full of big personalities — including future Hall of Famers Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed. Dysfunction and in-fighting ran as deep as the talent in their locker room., but the team known as “The Bickering Bills” would soon transform themselves into an elite force.
From 1990-1993, the Bills went on an unprecedented run of AFC Championship victories, appearing in a record four straight Super Bowls. Of course, that isn’t what the Bills are mostly remembered for. This is the story of a team that went down in history not for herculean achievement of making four straight Super Bowls, but for losing them all.
Explores the years that Evander Holyfield spent trying to arrange his first fight with Mike Tyson
Examines Bill McCartney and his sometimes-controversial mixture of football and evangelicalism as Colorado Buffaloes head coach in the 1990s, including a national championship.
Explores the turbulent relationship between Olympic wrestling brothers Mark and Dave Schultz and their multimillionaire benefactor, John du Pont.
The rise and fall of USC Trojans football during Pete Carroll’s coaching tenure.
The story of Nick Piantanida, a New Jersey pet store owner and truck driver whose love of parachuting and skydiving puts him on a quest to break the record for the highest recorded parachute jump.
Sonny Vaccaro rose from Pennsylvania steel town roots to become one of the most powerful and influential men in the athletic shoe industry and in basketball.
Christian Laettner helped Duke win two national titles in four straight trips to the Final Four. He had looks, smarts and game. So why has he been intensely disliked by so many for so long?
The story of one of the greatest upsets in sports history has been told. Or has it? On a Friday evening in Lake Placid, New York, a plucky band of American collegians stunned the vaunted Soviet national team, 4-3 in the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympic hockey competition. Americans couldn’t help but believe in miracles that night, and when the members of Team USA won the gold medal two days later, they became a team for the ages.
But there was another, unchronicled side to the “Miracle On Ice.” The so-called bad guys from America’s ideological adversary were in reality good men and outstanding players, forged into the Big Red Machine by the genius and passion of Anatoli Tarasov. There was a reason they seemed unbeatable, especially after routing the Americans in an exhibition the week before the Winter Games began. And there was a certain shame in them having to live the rest of their lives with the results of Feb. 22, 1980.
In the 30 for 30 film “Of Miracles and Men,” director Jonathan Hock (“The Best That Never Was” and “Survive and Advance”) explores the scope of the “Miracle on Ice” through the Soviet lens. His intense focus on the game itself gives it renewed suspense and a fresh perspective. But the journey of the stunned Soviet team didn’t begin — or end — in Lake Placid.
Produced in 2009 by ESPN for its “30 for 30” series, “The U” was a look at all that was good and bad about the rise of the University of Miami’s football program in the 1980s. But that wasn’t the end of the story. “The U Part 2” picks up where the original film left off, with the program trying to recover from the devastation left by NCAA sanctions and scandals that had some calling for the school to drop football. The Hurricanes rose from those ashes to win another national championship, only to face new controversies when a booster used a Ponzi scheme to win favor with the program.
Randy Moss has long been an enigma known for his brilliance on the football field and his problems off it. Sometimes there’s even been an intersection of those two qualities. “Rand University” gets to that crossing by going back to where he came from – Rand, West Virginia – and exploring what almost derailed him before he ever became nationally known for his extraordinary abilities as a wide receiver. After overcoming troubles with the law, losing the opportunities to play at Notre Dame and Florida State and then reviving his enormously promising football career at Marshall University, all that was good and troubling about Randy Moss materialized on the day of the 1998 NFL Draft. Twenty picks were made before the Minnesota Vikings selected him in the first round. Based on what unfolded throughout Moss’s NFL career, the teams that passed on him may have had a mixture of regret and relief.
Major League Baseball has been transformed by the influx of Cuban players such as Aroldis Chapman, Yasiel Puig and Jose Abreu. But a special debt of gratitude is owed to two half-brothers, whose courage two decades ago paved the way for their stardom. “Brothers in Exile” tells the incredible story of Livan and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, who risked their lives to get off the island. Livan left first, banking on his status as the hottest young prospect in Cuba, to defect via Mexico and sign with the Florida Marlins, for whom he soon became one of the youngest World Series MVPs in history in 1997. Staying behind was Orlando, who was banned from professional baseball in Cuba for life because he was suspected of having helped Livan escape. Then, on Christmas 1997, an increasingly frustrated and harassed Orlando left Cuba in a small boat. He was stranded on a deserted island for days before being picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard. Less than a year later, “El Duque” was helping pitch the New York Yankees to a world championship, completing a most unlikely journey for two brothers who rode their arms to freedom and triumph.
In some ways, Barry Switzer and Brian Bosworth were made for each other. The Oklahoma coach and the linebacker he recruited to play for him were both outsized personalities who delighted in thumbing their noses at the establishment. And in their three seasons together (1984-86), the unique father-son dynamic resulted in 31 wins and two Orange Bowl victories, including a national championship, as Bosworth was awarded the first two Butkus Awards. But Bosworth’s alter ego — “The Boz” — was taking over. Eventually, he went on a downward spiral and became known as an NFL bust. In “Brian and The Boz,” the dual identities of Brian Bosworth are examined as he looks back on his life and passes on the lessons he’s learned to his son.
In the early 1970s, America was being torn apart by the war in Vietnam, with racial unrest in the streets and a distrust of the White House. But there was a happier place where men of different backgrounds showed people what could happen when you worked together: Madison Square Garden. “When The Garden Was Eden” (based on the book by Harvey Araton) explores the only championship years of the New York Knicks, when they made the NBA Finals in three out of four seasons, winning two titles. Stitched together by Red Holzman, the previously mediocre Knicks might have seemed an odd collection of characters: a forward from the rarefied air of Princeton (Bill Bradley), two players from the Jim Crow South (Willis Reed and Walt Frazier), a blue-collar guy from Detroit (Dave DeBusschere), a pair of inner-city guards (Earl Monroe and Dick Barnett), even a mountain man from Deer Lodge, Montana (Phil Jackson). But by embracing their differences and utilizing their strengths, they showed the NBA and the world what it was like to play as a team. That they did it on the stage New York City provided made it all that much sweeter.
Soon after Al Michaels and Tim McCarver started the ABC telecast for Game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, the ground began to shake beneath Candlestick Park. Even before that moment, this had promised to be a memorable matchup: the first in 33 years between teams from the same metropolitan area, a battle featuring larger-than-life characters and equally colorful fan bases. But after the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake rolled through, bringing death and destruction, the Bay Area pulled together, and baseball took a backseat. Through archival footage, previously untold stories from players, officials, San Francisco and Oakland citizens affected by the earthquake, and a scientific look back at what happened below the earth, “The Day The Series Stopped” will revisit that night 25 years ago. The record book shows that the A’s swept the Giants, but that’s become a footnote to the larger story of the 1989 World Series.
What happens when you combine “Goodfellas” with college basketball? You get “Playing For The Mob,” the story of how mobster Henry Hill — played by Ray Liotta in the 1990 Martin Scorsese classic — helped orchestrate the fixing of Boston College basketball games in the 1978-79 season. The details of that point-shaving scandal are revealed for the first time on film through the testimony of the players, the federal investigators and the actual fixers, including Hill, who died shortly after he was interviewed. “Playing For The Mob” may be set in the seemingly golden world of college basketball, but like “Goodfellas,” this is a tale of greed, betrayal and reckoning. Ultimately, they both share the same message: With that much money at stake, you can’t trust anybody.
American Greg Lemond helped teammate Bernard Hinault, The Badger, win the Tour de France as teammates. In 1986, it was supposed to be LeMond’s turn, but would it be? It was a turning point in cycling.