30 FOR 30 SHORTS: CUTTHROAT; FROM HARLEM WITH LOVE (TV)
Summary
This asset contains two programs in this series of short sports documentaries presented by ESPN about important people and events in athletic history. The first segment focuses on Clint Malarchuk, the Canadian hockey goalie who suffered a memorably gruesome injury on March 22, 1989 while playing for the Buffalo Sabres when another player's skate sliced his neck, severing his carotid artery. The players, spectators and commentators all reacted with shock to the bloody scene, and Malarchuk vividly recalls his sense that he was dying. Thanks to his coaches' fast action, however, he survived and was taken into surgery after losing a third of his blood supply. Though he returned to the ice eleven days later, he began "spiraling down" emotionally, suffering from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, and eventually retreated to a horse ranch in Nevada. He experienced a breakdown after hearing about Florida Panthers player Richard Zedník's very similar injury, and his wife Joanie describes witnessing his 2008 suicide attempt in which he shot himself in the head, though he again survived. He was eventually diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from the 1989 incident and spent six months in a psychiatric facility, and now speaks out publicly about mental health issues while also working as a goalie coach for the Calgary Flames.
In the second segment, Jerry Saperstein, son of Harlem Globetrotters founder Abe Saperstein, talks about his father's determination to bring his "razzle-dazzle" basketball team to the Soviet Union in the midst of the Cold War. Former team members Joe Buckhalter, Meadowlark Lemon and Charles "Tex" Harrison talk about the challenges of playing for segregated American audiences as an all-black team and comment on their "secret weapon," legendary player Wilt Chamberlain. Saperstein finally secured an invitation to play nine games in Moscow, and the players recall receiving stern orders not to jeopardize the tenuous U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations with any "controversial" comments, noting that they were tailed by KGB agents upon arrival. Their success and fame conflicted with the Russian propaganda about America's racist policies, and when they arrived at the "dark, drab" arena on July 6th for the first game, they managed to entertain the non-demonstrative audience with their playful showmanship. Nikita Khrushchev himself arrived and greeted the team, awarding them with the Athletic Order of Lenin and a monetary prize, though they were not permitted to take the currency out of the country. Chamberlain even engaged in a drinking game with some locals, and Khrushchev's son Sergei comments that the games were helpful in showing both countries that they were "all human beings." Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ESPN
- DATE: November 30, 0200
- RUNNING TIME: 0:24:29
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 114741
- GENRE: Sports; Biography; History
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Sports
- SERIES RUN: ESPN - TV series, 2012-
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Blue Moon Brewing Company
CREDITS
- For "Cutthroat":
- Terry Clark … Executive Producer
- John Dahl … Executive Producer
- Connor Schell … Executive Producer
- Daniel Laikind … Producer
- Dan Silver … Producer
- Steven Cantor … Producer, Director
- Carolina van der Mensbrugghe … Co-Producer
- David Cho … Consulting Producer
- Dan Fierman … Consulting Producer
- Clint Malarchuk … Interviewee
- Joanie Malarchuk … Interviewee
- Richard Zedník
- For "From Harlem With Love":
- Brian Latt … Executive Producer
- Dustin Callif … Executive Producer
- Oliver Fuselier … Executive Producer
- Danielle Peretz … Executive Producer
- Josh Gold … Executive Producer
- Teri Wagner Flynn … Executive Producer
- John Dahl … Executive Producer
- Connor Schell … Executive Producer
- Bill Simmons … Executive Producer
- Krista Saponara … Producer
- Dan Silver … Producer
- Allie O'Brien … Associate Producer
- David Cho … Consulting Producer
- Dan Fierman … Consulting Producer
- Chris Kaliszewski … Digital Producer
- Matt Ogens … Director
- Charlie Short … Writer
- Tom Morello … Narrator
- Sergei Khrushchev … Interviewee
- Jerry Saperstein … Interviewee
- Joe Buckhalter … Interviewee
- Meadowlark Lemon … Interviewee
- Charles "Tex" Harrison … Interviewee
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Abe Saperstein
- Nikita Khrushchev