When RTÉ gave us a Sports Stadium all to ourselves!

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

It may be hard to fathom in this era of saturated coverage on satellite television but there was a time pre-Sky when even those of us in single channel land had our own little smorgasbord of sport to wallow in of a dreary Saturday afternoon.

Sports Stadium was an admirable undertaking in an era when any form of live sport was a more difficult proposition than it might be, given the speed of technological advancement, today.

Back then it was Brendan ‘Legs’ O’Reilly – the stylish former international high jumper – sat in front of a glorified sheet of chipboard bearing the Sports Stadium logo that looked like a running track designed by a man in the throes of a fit.

Brendan was smooth in an era and made a staple diet of horse racing, rallying and cross-country athletics seem like it was Super Sunday on Sky.

Because it wasn’t just technology that was poorer back in the seventies and eighties; it was the amount of sport that was actually available to broadcast live in the first place.

Grand when the Triple Crown was up for grabs; that was a couple of enthralling live afternoons in the company of Fred Cogley.

And equally, there was the latter stages of the FA Cup to look forward to, at a time when live Premiership games weren’t even a pipedream.

In fairness there were intermittent deals with the English FA for live league matches every couple of seasons, but for the most part it was left to Legs and his cohorts – supreme pros like the mellifluous Liam Nolan, Noel Reid or Bill O’Herlihy – to turn a sporting sow’s ear into the proverbial silk purse.

There were regular features like Gaelic Stadium with the irrepressible Mick Dunne or Soccer Stadium which offers a nod in the direction of the League of Ireland as well.

But the miracle really was that they found enough to sustain five hours of live and recorded sports coverage to fill a full Saturday afternoon.

Of course Grandstand was doing the same thing in the UK, but with a lot more resources and material at their disposal – and even then, that too ran its course when the satellites started buying up all the rights.

The radio equivalent was the wonderfully-titled Airs and Races, which did just what it said on the tin – played music between horse races.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.