NOSTALGIA never gets old. Like climbing to the top of a tall building simply to peer back down at the spot on the ground you just vacated, most of us share an almost inexplicable fascination with poring intensely over events from the past the further we move away from them.
Moments that at the time barely lasted an hour in the memory banks somehow evolve into hugely consequential events in our lives when we revisit them some five, 10 or 20 years later.
“Remember that time when……”
“Well, no, but seeing you’re showing me pictures of it I can now just about remember being there and will happily join in with this communal show of sentimentality.”
This sense of wistful yearning only afflicts those beyond a certain age. The young, busy living in the moment, have no urge to linger on moments that have been and gone.
Granted, they have fewer milestones to reflect on in the first place.
But having listened to our three chatting endlessly to their friends online all week – an enduring audio delight for everyone else in the vicinity – there has been nary a mention of FIFA games played last month or any teary reflections on a particularly memorable Roblox encounter from yesteryear.
For the rest of us, though, stripped of the vitality of life and aching – literally – for more vibrant days, there is nothing better than revisiting an era when of most of us had more hair and money and substantially less round the midriff.
Music fans dust down vintage vinyl and reflect on memorable concerts gone by. Old television series are re-run ad nauseam as content fillers – is Friends ever not on our screens?! – while book lovers gleefully revisit classic tomes time and time again.
Nothing does nostalgia as wholeheartedly and unashamedly as sport, however. It was the former US Chief Justice Earl Warren who, reportedly, once said that he always turned to the sports pages of a newspaper first as they chronicle man’s triumphs rather than failures. And we never stop recounting those moments of glory over and over again.
Even in the midst of a normally packed sporting schedule, there has always been room for a trip down memory lane at the merest hint of a significant milestone appearing on the horizon.
Now, staring at weeks and months without any live sport to occupy and entertain us, we have rushed to fill that chasm with as much retro footage as can be possibly mustered together.
And people are lapping it up in their droves. Perhaps that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given the only real alternative for a fix seems to be e-sports.
There has to be a line drawn somewhere and watching footballers play video games is definitely on the wrong side of it, although hearing about a St Mirren player losing a last-minute equaliser and then the subsequent replay did at least induce a comforting sense of familiarity.
But the gaping television schedules and lack of online content has allowed broadcasters and clubs to go big in their offerings from events from the distant past.
It is almost impossible to resist. And so the other night I found myself still slumped on the sofa at 1.30am, beer in hand, watching an entire four-hour re-run of a baseball game from 16 years ago.
Knowing the result and the key highlights did remove most elements of suspense and drama although it was still cheering to have the time and opportunity to review such an iconic match. Although, just like in 2004, I fell asleep before the end.
Every sport is at it now. Footage that has been locked up in dusty vaults for years is being dusted down and given a platform to educate and inform a new audience.
The BBC are re-running classic Scottish Cup finals in full with an accompanying Twitter feed to enhance the viewing pleasure, while the SPFL have been similarly digging out classic encounters and giving them another spin. (And just like in 2010, I managed to miss yesterday’s replay of St Mirren 4 Celtic 0. I’ll catch it in full one of these days.)
And the nostalgia-fest is getting bigger with every announcement. With Euro 2020 now postponed until next summer, ITV plan on filling that gap in their schedule by replaying every game in full from Euro 96.
Scots fans may wish to skip through the agonising defeat to England and the glorious failure in the final group
game to watch England’s
semi-final with Germany, this time safe in the knowledge that – spoiler alert – football didn’t come home after all by the end.
For those with the time and the inclination, hours can be whiled away watching re-runs of classic cricket contests, riveting rugby games and great golf tournaments.
It will never be the same as watching live action but reminiscing about the past is doing a decent stand-in job for the time being. We need it now more than ever.
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