This Day in History: 1969-07-23

On this day in 1969, the very first Pot Black broadcast was shown on BBC2 as one of the first sports shows ever on colour television. Pot Black was a snooker tournament designed especially for television. One match of just one frame was shown every week for a few months. The Pot Black tournaments continued annually on to 1986, but by then, they had been somewhat overtaken by the overall developments in snooker. There is no doubt, however, that Pot Black has been extremely important to the promotion and popularity of snooker as it is known today.