The Best Athletes And Sports of The 1980s
When I was growing up I learned my sporting mentality from the top heroes across a multitude of top international athletes
When I think about my favorite sport and then my favorite player I get both excited and confused.
Because sport fuels my passion and thinking about what is my favorite sport brings flickers of memories of great games and performances across a variety of sports.
It’s the same when I think about great players.
Picking only one of each is challenging.
Growing up in Ireland meant that I was exposed to our national games of hurling and Gaelic football both locally and nationally. And during the 1980s there was no multi-channel television. Instead, a household was lucky to have a fuzzy BBC and Channel 4 received by a dodgy aerial now and then where you may see a bit of soccer, rugby, and horse racing.
But most of what we watched came from our home channel of Radio Telifís Éireann (RTÉ).
From those two channels, we had a wealth of sport shown on Saturday and maybe a live game on Sunday during the summertime.
Every Saturday we were treated to what was then an English first division game of football. As Liverpool had a few Irish players like Ronnie Whelan, Ray Houghton, Steve Staunton, and John Aldridge playing for them they were the team to follow. And they were a great team too so it wasn’t hard to watch their red jerseys and their silky skills.
For me, during those early years, football and Gaelic games were what I loved to watch.
And through a sports-mad boy’s eyes, teamwork was a big thing that I loved to see.
Liverpool had a tradition of passing the ball between them and it wasn’t unusual to see all eleven players touch the ball before an attempt of goal would be had. It even pushed me to buy regular magazines about them and football in general so I could learn more about the players and ideas about how the game was played. From there I learned that they practiced by doing one and two touch five aside games between themselves so they could pressurize one another at close quarters.
That would make the 11 a side game much easier to play when they played with much more ease and control over the ball.
And it was great to watch too.
Now and then there would also be a programme about other sports and sporting greats.
Annually you’d have the Tour De France.
And when I was very young I was treated to watching my fellow Irish man Stephen Roche hold on to the yellow jersey as he rode into Paris on the final day of the great old race in 1987.
It was an amazing achievement and one that got me and my friends to race everywhere on our bikes every day.
But even he wasn’t my favorite at the time. Fellow Irish man Seán Kelly took that honor as he had consistency and was known as a sprinter which excited me. I loved his style because to me Kelly had real grit and tenacity.
Of course, that’s around the time I learned about Eddy Merckx and his incredible record of winning the Tour De France five times. I remember watching a programme about him and I was inspired by his excellence.
Then there was tennis and annually the grass court at Wimbledon was broadcast on television and it was to be looked forward to as well.
With stars like Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Martina Navratilova, Gabriela Sabatini, Boris Becker, and Steffi Graf all lighting up the screen during my early years I was primed for a lifetime of watching the sport to see who could beat their many records.
And the day, when Captain John Ledingham jumped the big wall in the Dublin horse show live on television, proved to me that sport made many things possible in life.
Then there were the Olympic Games.
Every four years I was exposed to new sports and new stars.
And it fascinated me.
From Coe, to Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Greg Louganis, and Mary Lou Retton the scene was set for a lifetime of following the exhibition and enjoying the human effort that’s on show.
Then when the world cup rolled around Maradona, Platini, Careca, Klinsmann, Baresi, Gascoigne, and Milla lit it up for me.
And there was Magic Johnson in basketball along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Larry Bird who showed me what was possible.
David Campese, Johnathon Davies, and Noel Manion pop into my mind when I think of rugby from those days too.
All of those sports and names roll off my tongue from my memories of the 1980s.
They’re all before I reached ten years of age.
But they’re not the only ones I watched and learned from. There were other sports and other stars that I saw here and there too.
I could write about them for hours and how they had such a positive impression on me.
Sport back then, and now, showed me what was possible.
For a boy, it was all about how far could I go, how high could I jump, how fast could I go, how long could I survive and who could I beat.
The possibilities were endless and the probabilities meant that the future was bright and exciting.
That’s why sport will always be part of what I see as the excitement in life even when I reach my later years and am somewhat confused about my old age and what other thoughts are in my mind at that time!
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