50 States in 50 Days

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On Sunday, July 17, 2005, ESPN's SportsCenter debuted a segment called "50 States in 50 Days." Each day, for 50 days of the summer of 2005, a SportsCenter anchor traveled to a different state to discover anything and everything sports and what that particular state had to offer: people, history, and events - from the large scale (such as the Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry in Massachusetts featured on the first night because it is so well-known) to the much more obscure (such as cardboard boat racing in Arkansas); the latter being needed to fill out states with no obvious pro or college sports candidate during the series' late-summer run. The purpose of "50 States in 50 Days" was to "celebrate the uniqueness of each of our 50 states", as Kenny Mayne stated on Day 11 in Montana. It was also essentially a follow-up to ESPN's 25th Anniversary celebrations in 2004, this time celebrating America's sporting pastimes.

50 States in 50 Days was sponsored by Coca-Cola Zero, Bud Light, and American Express.

"50 States in 50 Days" began in Boston, Massachusetts on July 17 and ended with its final stop in Washington, D.C. on September 5, which was the 51st day (added at the end of the series, see below).

[edit] Daily locations

A day-by-day schedule of the 50 States event, with the names of the anchors if available:

[edit] Notes/trivia

  • The segment was also called "SportsCenter Across America".
  • The theme music was Canadian singer Bryan Adams' song "Open Road" from his album Room Service.
  • The segments from Louisiana did not air as part of the 11:00 p.m. show on August 28, nor on the next day's re-airings, due to the approach of and preparations for Hurricane Katrina.
  • On the February 22, 2006 edition of the ESPN2 morning show Cold Pizza, fill-in host Tom Rinaldi, who interviewed Cal Ripken, Jr. in the Maryland segment of "50 States in 50 Days", asked Ripken the same question he had asked him during the segment: "What is the state sport of Maryland?" The answer, to which Ripken incorrectly responded on the Maryland segment as well as on Cold Pizza, was jousting.
  • The September 1st and 3rd editions coincided with the season premiere of ESPN's college football coverage, which featured Steve Spurrier's first game as coach at South Carolina.
  • Originally Washington, D.C. was not included in the 50 states in 50 days, but was added at the request of the DC mayor, Anthony Williams.
  • The blueberry-pie eating contest that aired from Machias was also featured in promotions for X Games 7 in 2001. The pie crusts in those ads were shaped in the form of the letter "X."

[edit] External links

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