Sporting Witness

The inside and personal story of the key moments from sporting history

World Service,710 episodes

Episodes

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Surfing Mavericks
The Californian who pioneered one of the most famous surfing breaks in the world in 1975
15 Feb 2015,9 mins
The Black Stars of Ghana
How the Ghanaian football team won a famous Africa Cup of Nations victory in 1965
08 Feb 2015,9 mins
The Ice Bowl
How the coldest game in American Football made the reputation of the Green Bay Packers
01 Feb 2015,9 mins
Skating's Battle of the Brians
The 1988 Winter Olympic showdown between American Brian Boitano and Canadian Brian Orser
25 Jan 2015,9 mins
South Africa win the Africa Cup of Nations
How a football victory in 1996 helped South Africa heal the wounds of Apartheid
18 Jan 2015,9 mins
The Harlem Globetrotters in the Soviet Union
How the American showmen won over basketball fans in Moscow during the Cold War
11 Jan 2015,9 mins
FA Cup Giantkillers
How tiny Hereford United won a famous FA Cup victory over Newcastle in 1972
04 Jan 2015,9 mins
The Indomitable Lions
How Cameroon shocked Maradona's Argentina at the 1990 World Cup
28 Dec 2014,9 mins
Wimbledon Pioneers
The women's doubles partnership who broke new ground for Jewish and Black players
21 Dec 2014,9 mins
Signing Michael Jordan
How the Chicago Bulls managed to pick the basketball legend in the 1984 NBA draft.
14 Dec 2014,9 mins
Pakistan's First Women Cricketers
The two Karachi women who blazed a trail for women's cricket.
07 Dec 2014,9 mins
The Dumptruck - King of Sumo
How a Hawaiian-born wrestler stormed the traditional world of Japanese Sumo in the 1980s
30 Nov 2014,9 mins
Tegla Loroupe wins NY Marathon
How Tegla Loroupe became the first African woman to win a major marathon
23 Nov 2014,9 mins
Pele joins the New York Cosmos
Clive Toye's account of Pele's shock move to a US soccer team in 1975
16 Nov 2014,9 mins
Racing the Stasi
in 1964, East German cyclist, Dieter Wiedemann, defected for love and the Tour de France
09 Nov 2014,9 mins
The Three Degrees
How three black players revolutionised English football in the 1970s.
02 Nov 2014,9 mins
John Surtees - Motorsport Legend
Memories of the only man to win the world championship in Formula 1 and motorcycle racing
25 Oct 2014,9 mins
The Curse of the Bambino
How a misfield in the 1986 World Series convinced Boston Red Sox fans they were cursed.
18 Oct 2014,9 mins
British Lions in Apartheid South Africa
In 1974 the British Lions made a famous and controversial rugby tour of South Africa.
11 Oct 2014,9 mins
India's Hockey Gold
In 1948 at the 'austerity' Olympics, newly independent India won gold on the hockey pitch
04 Oct 2014,9 mins
Ryder Cup - The War by the Shore
The bitter clash between the best golfers from the USA and Europe in 1991
27 Sep 2014,9 mins
Ben Johnson
The Canadian sprinter disqualified for doping at the 1988 Olympics
20 Sep 2014,9 mins
The Auld Enemy: Scotland v England
How Scotland's footballers triumphed over the English at Wembley in 1967
13 Sep 2014,9 mins
The D'Oliveira Affair
How the batsman sparked a row leading to the sporting isolation of apartheid South Africa
06 Sep 2014,9 mins
The First Special Olympics
How the first games for athletes with intellectual disabilities was organised in 1968
30 Aug 2014,9 mins
The Grateful Dead Makes Lithuanian Basketball Bronze Possible
Funded partly by the US rock band the new independent nation beat the former Soviet Union
23 Aug 2014,9 mins
The Creation of Ironman
How the most extreme form of triathlon was invented in Hawaii in 1978
16 Aug 2014,9 mins
Fastnet Yacht Disaster
In 1979, a freak storm hit a prestigious ocean race in the Irish Sea, killing 18 people.
09 Aug 2014,9 mins
Milkha Singh - The Flying Sikh
The remarkable life-story of the first Indian runner to win a Commonwealth Games gold.
02 Aug 2014,9 mins
The Boycott Games
The last time the Commonwealth Games were in Scotland many African nations boycotted them
26 Jul 2014,9 mins