The (Heartbreaking) Sports TV Movies of My Gen X Youth

Little Mo, Alex: The Life of a Child, Brian's Song, The Terry Fox Story...Coco's US Open win made my brain go places.

Hi hi.

Thank goodness I got to actually watch Coco Gauff’s epic US Open win on Saturday—and without giving Bob Iger and Disney an extra dollar. Because that could have gotten ugly over at my place.

Spectrum (smartly) sent a link that told me that some app called Fubo TV exists and also streams ESPN. A seven-day free trial later and I was screaming at my TV like a large portion of the country. And I remembered to cancel because apparently Monday Night Football will make some people come back to the table and my full lineup of terrestrial cable channels has been restored.

Boy, was that a fun ride that looked like it was going to be decidedly less so in the first set. But girlhood fall continues!!!! I just love Coco so damn much and even more so because she’s like, fuck yeah I’m gonna film some TikToks right now.

Let 19-year-olds be 19-year-olds!!!!!

@cocogauffus open champ

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This graphic was everywhere online after her big W and it made me think of Maureen Connolly, like instantly. Because that’s my addled mind for you.

espnw

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If you don’t know (lol, who does???) Maureen “Little Mo” Connolly was an American teenage tennis phenom in the early ‘50s, so well before the Open era. But in 1953, she won all four Slams during one season. Like she was legit legit. Her career was cut tragically short because of a riding accident when she was just 19. A cement mixing truck frightened her horse. She was thrown and suffered a really terrible fracture in her leg.

Now I may be an elder, but I was obvs not alive when all of this was happening. It is still burned into my brain because I was deeply obsessed with the television movie about this woman’s life called Little Mo, which originally aired in 1978. It used to be on A LOT when I was a kid. Or at least that’s how I remember it. The scene where she gets hurt haunts me still.

Yes, that is Casey Kasem’s voice in this promo.