Among the many marginally successful adaptation of radio programs to television, there was at least one program format boosted the new visual medium: sports. Fans previously relegated to just imagining the action as described by radio sportscasters could now witness the event for themselves, pitch by pitch in baseball, blow by blow in boxing and stride for stride in horse racing. The broadcasters caught on to the appeal of televised sports, often employing their newest technologies in covering the events.

On this day, July 14, in 1951, the Columbia Broadcasting System broadcast the first color television coverage of a sports event – the Molly Pitcher Handicap horse race from Monmouth Park Jockey Club, Oceanport, N.J.

Just four years later, during a Canadian Broadcasting Company broadcast of a hockey game, producer George Retzlaff turned to another new technology, the kineoscope, which allowed the recording and replaying of live TV. During a break in the action, Retzlaff used the kineoscope to show an event that happened a few minutes later, thus forming the first ever instant replay on television.