If you were one of the fortunate 400 who owned a television set in the New York City area on May 17, 1939, you would have been able to tune into a station called W2XBS to see Princeton and Columbia tussle on the diamond. Or you might not have been able to see too much.
“First Television of Baseball Seen,” was the headline in the New York Times the next day, with the subhead revealing a little more about the quality of what those few, if any, people saw: “Starts With Blur, but Images in Columbia-Princeton Game Clear Later.”
Though what was clear was from the start was television and sports seemed destined to be together. And in the early days, what sports there were on TV – often boxing, baseball, bowl games and the occasional Esther Williams Aqua Spectacle – were either live sporting events or films of those events.
What you wouldn’t find on TV in those days was written series with sports or sports themes. Who wanted…
