20 Biggest Tech Advancements in Sports History

In the beginning, sports and technology didn’t always seem like the most natural pairing. What did you need in baseball other than a bat and a ball? Or in basketball other than a ball and a hoop? How much could you really change? As we’ve seen over the years, though, there’s always room for improvement with our most beloved pastimes. Whether it’s for the purpose of making a good thing great, or fixing a broken system altogther, technology has played a major role in perfecting the sports that we love to analyze and agonize over. Out of all the changes that have been made, though, these are the 20 biggest tech advancements in sports history.

The Shot Clock
Year Introduced: 1954
Sport: Basketball

Before the shot clock was introduced, basketball was struggling to gain any traction as a major, mainstream sport in America. Scoring was low and, much to the fans’ disappointment, teams would often decide to hold the ball and stall once they were in front. After one particularly lackluster contest between the Fort Wayne Pistons and the Minneapolis Lakers ended in 19-18 “victory” for Fort Wayne, the NBA realized that they were going to be in serious trouble unless they made some changes. In 1954, the Syracuse Nationals’ owner, Danny Biasone, introduced the 24-second shot clock after experimenting with the idea during his team’s scrimmages. In 1953, the year before the league adopted the clock, scoring averaged a mere 79 PPG. Thanks to the change, that number jumped to 93 PPG only one year later, and the NBA has never looked back since.

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