Episode list

The rise and fall of USC Trojans football during Pete Carroll's coaching tenure.

This documentary explores the story of the Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz and their turbulent relationship to the eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont.

Examines Bill McCartney and his sometimes-controversial mixture of football and evangelicalism as Colorado Buffaloes head coach in the 1990s, including a national championship.

Explores the years that Evander Holyfield spent trying to arrange his first fight with Mike Tyson.

A behind-the-scenes look at the Buffalo Bills' four trips to the Super Bowl during the early 1990's.

One of the greatest football teams ever assembled, the 1985 Chicago Bears were a team of big talent, big egos, and big success. This documentary explores that success and the players behind it, as well as the questions surrounding the lack of a repeat performance.

A documentary examination of the accusations of sexual misconduct against the Duke University lacrosse team that were ultimately found to be baseless

In the mid-1990s, Orlando was the center of excitement in the NBA. The young franchise, led by mega-stars Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway, beat the mighty Bulls en route to the 1995 NBA Finals. While it was clear Orlando was a dynasty in the making, the Magic's moment on top was never fully realized.

There's a special place on the southern shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. Known as Cleveland, it is the site of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the home of the Indians, the Browns and the Cavaliers. But it's also the home of an agonizing losing streak. Of all American cities that have at least three major sports franchises, Cleveland is the only one that has failed to win a championship in the last half-century. Those sports teams, and the hearts they've broken over and over again, have inspired a different name for the city, and the title for this 30 for 30 film: Believeland. Directed by Ohio native Andy Billman, this evocative documentary will take you on a trip that goes back 50 years and captures the seminal ups and downs of the once-thriving metropolis - Superman, after all, was created there. Despite the economic and athletic misfortunes, and the T-shirt that reads "God Hates Cleveland," the people still believe and worship Jim Thome and Jim Brown and LeBron James. But they also can't forget Edgar Renteria and John Elway and Michael Jordan, the men who extinguished their dreams of a long-awaited championship. Painful as it is, Believeland is a celebration of faith, a testament to how much sports mean to Cleveland, and how much Cleveland means to sports.

When former New York Mets superstars Dwight "Doc" Gooden and Darryl Strawberry were good, they were great. They were the biggest stars on a team that captured the imagination of New York City and won the 1986 World Series. But when life spiraled out of control for both men, they broke the hearts of Mets fans. The pitcher and the power hitter look back on the glory days of the mid-80s and the harrowing nights that turned them from sure Hall of Famers into prisoners of their own addictions.

They were the most popular fraternity on the campus of college basketball in the early 1980s. Led by a Nigerian soccer player named Hakeem Olajuwon and a lightly recruited hometown kid named Clyde Drexler, the University of Houston Cougars not only electrified the NCAA Final Four with three straight appearances (1982-84), but they also helped transform the game itself. In this 30 for 30 film, director Chip Rives brings back the high-flying circus act under ringmaster Guy V. Lewis and spins a tale of true greatness and crushing heartbreak. But while exploring that larger narrative, Rives also focuses on the disappearance of enigmatic role player Benny Anders and the lasting brotherhood that compels teammates and 1981-82 co-captains Eric Davis and Lynden Rose to try and find him after more than two decades of mystery.

The popular but polarizing former golfer John Daly is the subject of the latest in ESPN's 30 for 30 series.The documentary covers his career and subsequent struggles.

On October 15, 1988, Notre Dame hosted the University of Miami in what would become one of the greatest games in college football history. It was tradition vs. swagger, the No. 4-ranked Fighting Irish versus the No. 1-ranked Hurricanes, one coaching star, Lou Holtz, versus another, Jimmy Johnson. But the name still attached to the contest came from a t-shirt manufactured by a few Notre Dame students: "Catholics vs. Convicts." In this 30 for 30 documentary, director and narrator Patrick Creadon (Wordplay, I.O.U.S.A.) doesn't just look back on the epic game. He explores the deeper narrative as a Notre Dame senior at the time, a close friend to the young men in the middle of the "Catholics vs. Convicts" controversy (Joe Fredrick and Pat Walsh) and a fellow classmate of the player behind center for the Fighting Irish (quarterback Tony Rice). The coaches and players open up about the fight that started the game, the highly debatable calls that are still being talked about and the insensitive aspects of the irresistibly popular t-shirt. As compelling as the tale of Notre Dame's dramatic victory is-even losing quarterback Steve Walsh calls it "a helluva ballgame"-the backstory is just as riveting.

A bold challenge, a fearless experiment and ultimately, a spectacular failure. In 2001, sports entertainment titans Ebersol and McMahon launched the XFL. It was hardly the first time a league had tried to compete with the NFL, but the brash audacity of the bid, combined with the personalities and charisma of Ebersol and McMahon and the marketing behemoths of their respective companies - NBC and WWE - captured headlines and a sense of undeniable anticipation about what was to come. Bringing together a cast of characters ranging from the boardrooms of General Electric to the practice fields of Las Vegas, "This Was the XFL" is the tale of - yes - all that went wrong, but also, how the XFL ended up influencing the way professional team sports are broadcast today. And at the center of it all - a decades long friendship between one of the most significant television executives in media history and the one-of-a-kind WWE impresario. This film will explore how Ebersol and McMahon brought the XFL to life, and why they had to let it go.

The life and career of John Calipari, one of the most polarizing figures in modern college basketball, weaving his story around that of his 2015-16 Kentucky team.

This entry in ESPN's 30 for 30 series looks at the origins of the rivalry between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s that revived - and saved - the NBA.

The 1984 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers cause a nation to take sides.

The rivalry between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers continues, after the 1984 NBA Finals and the likes of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson retired.

Mike Francesa and Chris Russo's 'Mike and the Mad Dog' radio show ruled afternoon sports talk from the New York studios of WFAN 660 for 19 years-not bad considering they didn't think they'd last 19 days together. Even though they both brought Long Island accents and encyclopedic sports knowledge to the microphone, they were distinctly different personalities who often clashed on and off the air. But when all was said and done, they changed sports radio forever.

The rise and fall of football superstar, George Best.

In the fall of 1988 a Texas high school fielded the football team that many consider the greatest ever, yet chances are good you have never heard their story. What Carter Lost is not about the team immortalized in Friday Night Lights - it's about the team that beat them. It's about the year Dallas Carter dominated Texas high school football, never losing a game, but walked away with little more than an asterisk in the state's history books. It's about the legal battles that accompanied every Carter playoff game, the string of inexplicable crimes that forever altered six players' futures, and the community that rallied to support its team, only to find itself tarred with scandal. In the tradition of the best 30 for 30 documentary features, What Carter Lost is a story about the intersection of forces bigger than any game - except for football in Texas.

Two weeks into the 1987 season, the NFL's players went on strike. For the first time in the history of professional sports in the United States, replacement players would take the field. Crossing the picket line to play in the NFL changed their lives, but not in the way they'd expected or hoped. The moment they crossed the picket line, they were no longer athletes; they were scabs. By the end of the strike, Washington stood alone as the only replacement team to go undefeated- ultimately setting up returning strikers for a triumphant run at a Super Bowl. For those replacements, the experience of 1987 should have been a badge of honor. Instead, it became a scab that never healed.

The unlikely rise and sudden fall of boxer Tommy Morrison.

Documentary following the life & career of 16 time world champion Ric "The Nature Boy" Flair.

A look at the tumultuous relationship between coaching legends Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick.

The previously untold, behind-the-scenes story of CNN Producer Robert Abbott's investigation into Bob Knight's Indiana University basketball program. The investigation ultimately led to Bob Knight's firing after 29 years at IU.

The life of NFL legend Junior Seau, from his upbringing in a Samoan immigrant family, through his path to NFL stardom, to the sudden end of his life in 2012.

This documentary chronicles one of the greatest sporting upsets in history, when James "Buster" Douglas handed Mike Tyson his first-ever defeat. Tyson was the 42-to-1 favorite, with most fans and pundits absolutely sure that he was invincible. But Douglas, motivated by personal tragedy, fought the fight of his life.

The story of how Deion Sanders played an NFL game for the Atlanta Falcons in between two MLB games for the Atlanta Braves in a twenty-four hour window.

A portrait of the Dominican immigrants of New York in the '80s and '90s, as seen through a loving family whose youngest son, Felipe Lopez, became the top ranked high school basketball player in the nation and was hailed as 'The Dominican Michael Jordan'. Lopez's prospects seemed limitless. Embraced as an immigrant hero, then cast aside as an American failure when he did not live up to the enormous expectations, Felipe Lopez would eventually find happiness not as a basketball player, but as the man he was always meant to be.

In May 1977 Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman to attempt the Indianapolis 500.

The eye and mouth-opening tale of Takeru Kobayashi, the native of Nagano, Japan, who won the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest six consecutive times, and Joey Chestnut, the American who emerged to dethrone the Japanese legend in 2007 and become the face of the sport. It's a story that's at turns outrageous and poignant, exploring the origins of the careers of Kobayashi and Chestnut, every bite of their head-to-head battles, as well as the no-holds-barred promotional efforts of Major League Eating, the organization that oversees the contest. It may well be a sport like no other - but as the film reveals, the competition was as real as anything you'll ever see on a field of play.