What is the greatest sports theme music of all-time?
With the return of “Roundball Rock” to its rightful place for the NBA on NBC coming in 2025, we asked our readers to grade some of the iconic and memorable sports themes through the years on broadcast television. Each theme was able to be graded on a scale of 1-10 over the past few days as scores of votes came in.
From a list of almost 40 nominations taken from our staff and social media, we can now present to you the final, official, never-to-be-questioned, debated, or duplicated list of the Top 25 Sports Themes of All Time.
25) Sunday Night Football – Waiting All Day for Sunday Night
Sunday Night Football made a splash in 2006 as the NFL shifted its premier network primetime game of the week from Monday nights to Sundays to complete a full day of football. To go along with the debut on NBC, the network adapted the classic rock anthem “I Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett into “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night.” Over the years the song has been performed by Pink, Faith Hill, and currently Carrie Underwood. While not the official SNF theme (more on that later) it’s become synonymous with the broadcast.
24) NBA on ESPN (2010s)
There aren’t the warm, fuzzy feelings around ESPN’s coverage of the NBA like there might be with Inside the NBA and TNT or the NBA on NBC because there isn’t that defining element that can be attached to the coverage. Whatever did define it, like Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson’s longtime partnership with Mike Breen, is now gone. The NBA on ESPN had decent theme music for much of its run, but unfortunately it was changed in 2022 to a tune that fans enjoy about as much as Stephen A. Smith dedicating NBA Countdown to a Knicks pregame show.
23) 2010 World Cup on ESPN
The 2010 World Cup on ESPN has long been viewed as some of the best sports television ever from the quality of coverage to the announcers to the studio shows to the theme music. You can’t help but be uplifted by this song that was perfect for the first-ever World Cup in Africa.
22) NFL on NBC (1980)
I’ll admit, when this nomination came in on social media, I thought to include it in the nominations as a joke just to see if people would actually listen to it and give it some love. But it is indeed real. And it is spectacular. How could you not love the marriage of the NFL and a classic disco theme song? If that isn’t enough to warrant making the top themes of all time then what possibly could?
21) Wimbledon on NBC
While there are a couple of different Wimbledon themes on NBC that could have been nominated, we went with the one here played over the closing credits and used as music throughout the tournament. It’s a classic tune that brings back so many good memories from over the years. The song is called “World Champion” by Keith Mansfield.
20) Baseball Tonight on ESPN
Speaking of bringing back good memories, there was once a time when ESPN would dedicate several hours each week to America’s Pastime. We may never have those times back again, but the Baseball Tonight theme can at least remind us that highlight shows were once a thing before the age of TikTok.
19) Hockey Night in Canada (Classic)
The honor of the oldest and longest-standing theme on our list goes to the classic Hockey Night in Canada instrumental theme has been used for decades north of the border. The song composed by Dolores Claman became so loved that it has been called “Canada’s second anthem.” In 2008, the theme was purchased by CTV (Bell Media) from its longtime home at the CBC to be used in perpetuity.
18) MLB on Fox
It’s almost hard to fathom that we are now fully in our second generation of the MLB on Fox as Joe Buck has passed off the baton to Joe Davis. But one constant that has remained is the MLB on Fox theme music… unless you count that bizarre period of time when Fox made their NFL song the theme music for everything. That was totally weird.
17) NFL on CBS (Early 1990s)
The NFL on CBS has been through several different themes over the years. But this one from the early 1990s is the best of the bunch, marking some of the prime years of John Madden and Pat Summerall and the final years of the network hosting the NFC package of games before losing it to Fox Sports and claiming the AFC package from NBC a few years later.
16) This Week in Baseball (1980s)
Another classic theme from yesteryear for a show that was influential in its heyday is from This Week in Baseball. TWIB was a mainstay for decades and was originally hosted by legendary Yankees announcer Mel Allen from its launch in 1977. It was ultimately canceled by Fox in 2012 as highlights became more ubiquitous first on SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight and then on social media.
15) ABC College Football (1990s)
College football has gone through a total transformation over the last several years. And the loss of great rivalries and entire conferences can make us yearn for a different time. The classic ABC college football theme of the mid-1990s can’t help but bring to mind the great Keith Jackson and a time period in the sport that was cherished.
14) Sunday Night Football (instrumental)
When it comes to sports themes, getting iconic composer John Williams to compose one for your broadcast is like calling Michael Jordan to win a one-on-one pickup game. The energetic, dramatic Sunday Night Football theme “Wide Receiver” has endured since the property began in 2006 and is the perfect complement to the pop culture intro listed earlier.
13) NBA on TNT
Unless Warner Bros. Discovery can legally force the NBA to accept its matching rights for the Amazon contract, this is our last year with the NBA on TNT. That naturally includes Inside the NBA, but also its longtime popular theme song. While most sports fans know about the history of “Roundball Rock” and John Tesh, you may not know the NBA on TNT music is from Trevor Rabin of the rock band Yes, known for their hit “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”
12) NHL on ESPN
You know a theme song is beloved when it makes a triumphant return whenever a network wins back the broadcast rights to a sport that they once aired long ago. It’s not just true with the NBA on NBC, but also with the NHL on ESPN. When Bristol won the NHL back in 2021 for the first time since 2004, it made it a point to announce that their iconic theme was coming back too.
11) Monday Night Football – All My Rowdy Friends
The second primetime pop culture football theme and the predecessor of NBC’s “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” is the Monday Night Football intro from Hank Williams Jr. The original “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” was a Top 10 hit for Hank Jr. on the country charts back in 1984 but it had a second life as the MNF theme from 1989 through 2011. That’s when Williams was dumped by ESPN after Bocephus compared President Barack Obama to Hitler. Nowadays that’s enough to get you on the ticket for Vice President.
10) One Shining Moment
The song that closes every NCAA Tournament on CBS is one of the great traditions in sports broadcasting as “One Shining Moment” plays over highlights from March Madness. It was originally written and performed by David Barrett and made its debut in the 1987 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament for CBS. While multiple artists have performed the song, the one by Luther Vandross has become the one that is currently used and widely acknowledged as the definitive version.
9) Wide World of Sports (Classic)
There may be no greater line in sports broadcasting than Jim McKay’s famous, “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.” That sentence formed part of the introduction to ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which ran for over three decades as the definitive sports anthology program. Like many shows on our list, it reached the end of its journey as more and more channels and platforms became available for 24/7 sports viewing. But before the days of ESPN+, Peacock, and others, Wide World of Sports was your pathway to the sporting world. Because of its influence and longevity, it was named to Time’s 100 greatest TV shows.
8) The Masters
The most peaceful and tranquil theme in all of sports belongs to The Masters. Hearing that piano and strings over a blooming Augusta National signifying the dawn of spring is something special. Hall of Fame songwriter and singer Dave Loggins (who also wrote “Please Come to Boston”) wrote the tune in 1981 after a visit to “Augusta.” The song was introduced for the first time to Masters viewers by Curt Gowdy in 1982 and the instrumental version (yes, there are lyrics!) has been used ever since.
7) NFL on Fox
When Fox Sports won NFL rights in the early 1990s, it was a complete shock to the broadcast television ecosystem. In many ways, landing the NFL gave Fox the needed boost to legitimize it as a major broadcast network. And the theme music was going to be an important part of that. As the story goes, Fox Sports exec David Hill wanted “Batman plays football” and the theme by Scott Schreer has accomplished that now for 30 years.
6) SportsCenter (1990s)
While SportsCenter is still going strong at ESPN, there’s no doubt that our changing media ecosystem means it doesn’t quite have the cultural impact that it did a generation ago. Nostalgia for SportsCenter‘s glory days isn’t just about the great anchors and immortal catchphrases, but also the theme music from John Colby. “Dadada, dadada” has been around in some form for 30 years, with fans preferring the version from the golden age of the program that debuted in 1989.
5) CBS College Football
This theme is widely known as the song for the SEC on CBS as the conference dominated the college football landscape for much of the 2000s. However, the unnamed theme composed by Lloyd Landesman has been the soundtrack for college football on CBS going back as far as 1987 and will be used as CBS fully picks up Big Ten games this season.
4) Olympic Theme
The most famous John Williams sports anthem is known and recognized the world over as one of the most distinctive themes in sports or pop culture. The “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” was originally composed for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and has stood the test of time ever since. Williams has gone on to create more songs for various games throughout the years, but the Olympic fanfare has been his trademark and his greatest sports theme.
3) Monday Night Football (Classic)
The opening notes of the Monday Night Football theme “Heavy Action” are enough to give you goosebumps and have been an iconic part of the franchise for decades. But did you know that the theme song wasn’t originally meant for American audiences? It was originally composed in 1970 by Johnny Pearson and was used for BBC’s Superstars. Although it was used as early as 1976 as music for various occasions, it didn’t officially become the MNF theme until 1989.
2) March Madness on CBS
March Madness is all about upsets. So it’s fitting that the biggest upset in our list of the Top 25 Sports Themes comes with the CBS NCAA Tournament theme all the way up in the number two slot. The popular theme by Bob Christianson was first selected by CBS in 1992 after winning a contest for new music for March Madness. And it has been the anthem for everything we love about March Madness ever since.
1) NBA on NBC
“Roundball Rock” by John Tesh is the definitive sports theme of our times. It’s so beloved and so iconic that the return of the NBA on NBC is hyped up largely because of the theme song. But what’s fascinating about “Roundball Rock” is that Tesh has licensed it out many times over the years beyond the NBA on NBC. In fact, in recent years Fox Sports has used it for college basketball and the song even made a brief cameo for All Elite Wrestling. But in truth, those usages pale in comparison to what it could be and should be. It’d be like using the Olympic Fanfare for rock skipping on ESPN: The Ocho. There’s simply never been a better match and a better theme than Tesh’s signature paired with the NBA on NBC.
