of war, an obstacle course, and a dunk tank. Some of the specials also featured other events, such as golf, kayak racing, three-on-three touch football, or Frisbee. Cosell conducted short interviews with the participants between events, and was seen laughing, joking, and clearly enjoying himself throughout each show. Of Cosell, the program's supervising producer Bill Garnet said in an interview, "Cosell loved doing the show . . . He used to say, 'I’m the biggest star out here. They all want to be around me!' But he loved doing the show." Actor LeVar Burton, who participated in 1977 and 1978, spoke warmly of having interacted with Cosell, describing his experience as "...a great joy and one of my fondest memories. It’s like being heckled by Don Rickles, you know? Having Cosell insult you or even just mention your name was the Holy Grail for me." Cosell hosted all but one of the nineteen specials, including the final episode which aired in 1988. In 1977, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. Criticism of boxing Cosell denounced professional boxing during the broadcast of a November 26, 1982, WBC heavyweight championship bout between titleholder Larry Holmes and a clearly outmatched Randall "Tex" Cobb at the Astrodome. The fight was held two weeks after the fatal fight between Ray Mancini and Duk Koo Kim, when Kim died shortly after the fight. Cosell famously asked the rhetorical question, "I wonder if that referee [Steve Crosson] understands that he is constructing an advertisement for the abolition of the very sport that he's a part of?" Cosell, horrified over the brutality of the one-sided fight, said that if the referee did not stop the fight he would never broadcast a professional fight again. Major boxing reforms were later implemented, the most important of which allows referees to stop clearly one-sided fights early in order to protect the health of the fighters. In amateur boxing, one-sided fights would be automatically stopped if one fighter had a score considerably higher than his opponent. Hitherto, only the ring physician had the authority to halt a bout. Another change was the reduction of championship bouts from fifteen rounds to twelve rounds by the WBC. (The fatal blows to Kim were in Rounds thirteen and fourteen.) The WBA quickly followed suit, and the IBF did so in 1988. Cosell did not cut off ties with the