When I was recently looking for clips of Smokin’ Joe Frazier to pay my respects to the late, great boxer, I came across a 1973 segment of the show Superstars. That program pitted athletes from different sports against one another in a variety of competitions to judge who was the finest overall athlete. It was back in the day before sports stars were routinely millionaires and didn’t mind picking an extra paycheck for a lesser event. Even though it was just weekend network time filler, Superstars was lended gravitas in its inaugural season by Jim McKay, who was just months removed from anchoring the coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.

One of Frazier’s fellow competitors who did not need to make some extra money was race car driver Peter Revson. Revson was nephew of Charles Revson, founder of Revlon, and was heir to a billion dollar fortune. Not surprisingly, he was a dapper guy and something of a New York playboy. I had never previously heard of him and wondered why. It turns out, shortly after this program was broadcast, Revson was killed in an accident during a practice run at the 1974 South African Grand Prix. His brother, Douglas, also a racer, had been killed seven years earlier in a crash.

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“Many times mentioned as the most eligible bachleor in New York”:

• Part 2