#Wayback Wednesday: Dan Le Batard, 19, tackles sports trivia on Boardwalk
Recently, Dan Le Batard, co-host of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (M-F, 10 a.m.– 1 p.m. ET on ESPN Radio and ESPNU), had to relive a memory he probably never planned to revisit.
Back in 1988, ESPN produced a quiz show called Boardwalk and Baseball’s Super Bowl of Sports Trivia. The program featured 32 college teams from across the country, was taped in Orlando, Fla., and was hosted by none other than Chris Berman.
Last week, The Le Batard Show referenced his appearance on Boardwalk and Baseball. Soon, a listener found one version of his cameo archived on the Internet and the video was incorporated into a Le Batard Show segment.
Front Row asked our Media Technologies colleagues to find the actual 25-minute show video in the ESPN archives. Thanks largely to their efforts, Front Row has produced the video at the top of this post. It’s a condensed montage of Le Batard’s best moments – he answers one auto racing question correctly – as he represents Miami in a duel against Oklahoma.
Le Batard said he hasn’t had the opportunity to speak with Berman about the day, but “I left an answering machine message for him once suggesting that he [nickname] my favorite player, Dave Winfield, the ‘Dave Winfield Fly Rule.’ He did not.”
Front Row asked Le Batard, who also is host of Highly Questionable (M-F, 4:30 p.m., ESPN), about the Boardwalk and Baseball experience.
What’s the backstory of you appearing on Boardwalk and Baseball?
They were looking for representatives from schools and I was the campus newspaper sports editor so they asked me to form a team. We were a bad team. I was our worst player.
How did producer Mike Ryan come across the clip?
We were talking about it on the radio one day and a listener found it because the listeners are always scouring the globe with search parties looking for ways to mock me.
What’s your favorite part about the video?
How terrible I was at answering trivia and how frustrated I pretended to be about being too slow with the buzzer because I didn’t know the answers.
Taylor Garrett produced the video above. Read the original press release regarding Boardwalk and Baseball below.
