THE POP EXPOSE – 90’s SPORTS CENTER THE BEST SHOW ON TV!

Story by Mitchell Smith

Hello everybody. Today I’m looking at Sports Center back in nineties. Some would argue Sports Center was better than watching the game. The 3 main anchors Chris Berman, Keith Olbermann, and Dan Patrick made the highlight reals so entertaining. And also Stewart Scott. Maybe I loved the show because it was when I really got interested in sports. I would say right around 1991 I gathered up teams around the country, Michigan was my college team, Niners my NFL, Braves MLB, Suns NBA, and Penguins NHL. There were so many other sports tho, Jennifer Capriati in tennis, USA gymnastics used The Devil Went Down to Georgia as their performing song, and the boys at ESPN still could make golf exciting.

From the belly roll of Boomer’s “He could go all the way” to Pat’s “ Nothing but the Bottom of the Net” the familiar sounds on watching scores, highlights, and the infamous Plays of the Week. It was a great era for sports with dynasties Like Jordan’s Bulls, the Bills who had one of the best teams that never won a Super Bowl, and the Penguins who lost Star Mario Lemieux as he was battling cancer would have won more championships had he been healthy. The crew also covered college basketball during the Fab Five days that shot college basketball into the spotlight and Olbermann’s “From way downtown Bang”, there voices were captivating and their banter was unmatched. It was way more than stats and highlights.

It was a show we didn’t miss on a daily basis. It was like my father never missing the weather forecast or my mother never missing Days of Our Lives. Sports Center was must see TV, and we tuned in every day sometimes watching back to back to back just to make sure we didn’t miss anything. It was so much different than todays world of finding highlights on your phone and being able to replay them over and over. We depended on these guys and they never failed to deliver.