Joan Jett and Lita Ford wishing Leif Garrett would leave them the fuck alone…
 
It was…. THE SEVENTIES… and all that implies…

Sure it was a sleazier time, but on the surface, it was a more innocent time as well…. How else to explain why/how jailbait rockers, The Runaways, would be invited to participate in ABC’s prime-time special, The Rock ‘N Roll Sports Classic which aired on May 3rd 1978? They needed some nubile teenage girls in shorts, I suppose,  and Freddie Fender just wasn’t going to cut it in that department. A young Lita Ford running provided some… uh, bounce and… production value to the proceedings (I was 12 years old when this aired, with a poster of the Runaways wearing lingerie on my bedroom wall. You can bet I was watching when this was originally transmitted!).

Unsurprisingly, the “neon angels on the road to ruin,” half the ages of the rest of them for the most part, kick some major ass here.

The special was a musical version of the popular Battle of the Network Stars specials. Participants included The Jacksons (Michael swam in the relay race and ran the 60 yard dash), Tanya Tucker, Earth Wind & Fire, The Commodores, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Leif Garrett, Rod Stewart, Boston, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Kenny Loggins, Sha Na Na, Seals and Crofts, Anne Murray and others.