HBO Archives have announced the newest addition to their clip licensing library, the “Classic Sports” Collection. Comprised of Sports programming from HBO’s earliest broadcast days, this content has recently been transferred from aging 1” and 2” Quad videotape. The majority of this footage has not been since its original live broadcast, and has never been offered for clip licensing before.
When HBO first launched, the majority of the original programming was sports. “We had arrangements in place to produce programming for most major and minor sports. The Classic Sports Collection comes from the diversity of that programming. We are excited to make this memorable footage available to the production community for the first time,” said Robert Zeiss, Vice President, HBO Archives. The footage has been newly transferred from aging 1” and 2” reels that have not been seen for decades. The collection contains basketball, hockey, soccer, gymnastics, boxing, skating, track and field, swimming and diving, wrestling, body-building, bowling, skiing, tennis, rodeo, mixed martial arts and even national horse and dog shows.
Highlights form the collection include basketball Hall-of-Famers, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird from their college days, three-time boxing champion, Alexis Arguello, bowling legend Earl Anthony, all-time tennis great, Martina Navratilova and Olympians Mary Lou Retton and Greg Louganis. One of the more unusual events is the 1979 Gold Skate Classic, the leading roller skate competition of the time.
See a list of events currently available here

• This extensive collection is comprised of a wide variety of professional and amateur sporting events that originally aired on HBO beginning in 1972.
• HBO Archives are currently playing a collection show reel on their homepage