As we watch the Olympic Games this year, some of us oldsters lament a sort of innocence and sense of wonder that has been lost in the past half-century.

The first cross-oceanic Summer Olympic TV coverage with abundant portions aired live via satellite was in 1972 in Munich, and they proved almost unbelievably tragic (a massacre of Israeli athletes) and controversial (the Soviet basketball team being given three chances to score the winning points for the gold medal over the U.S. squad). There was a sense of sporting innocence shattered, on live TV from across the globe. But to be shattered, the innocence had to be there to start with.