The 15 Best Sports Theme Songs of All-Time

Sports theme songs are typically generic. Usually they aren’t, for instance, as memorable as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme. Chances are you probably haven’t even paid much attention to them.

But a select few transcend the generic “orchestra-with-an-electric-guitar” feel and become truly memorable. They’re not the kind of songs you’d download, but if you hear them you’re likely to remember exactly where they come from.

Just listening to a short snippet of these songs can bring back a flood of memories from some of the most iconic playoff performances to those Monday night miracles that become the stuff of legend. One day after you were flooded with #TBT, we're bringing you The 15 Best Sports Theme Songs of All-Time.

This is the music they cut to when Charles Barkley makes an inappropriate joke. The NBA has been doing games on TNT since 1989 and has always used some variation of this song. Composer Trevor Rabin slightly modified the tune for the 2010-11 season and has kept it this way ever since.

ESPN began broadcasting baseball in 1990, and has kept its baseball theme virtually unchanged since then. Baseball Tonight uses similar music for its theme.

If you had a dollar for every time you heard this song in the fall, you’d probably have enough to pay Albert Haynesworth’s contract off. CBS has used this song, which was composed by Los Angeles electronic group E.S. Posthumus, on its NFL coverage since 2003. It remains the soundtrack to insightful Phil Simms commentary.  

Once there’s no football on Sunday afternoons, basketball becomes the next best thing. And this song is the soundtrack to all of your early football-less Sundays—not to mention the NBA Finals and the entire NBA playoffs.

When Disney picked up the rights to the NBA ahead of the 2002-03 season, NBA on NBC composer John Tesh offered to let the company use his theme on the new telecasts. Disney declined, and decided to go with a new theme. They have since settled on this one.

Anyone that knows college football knows that there’s no better conference than the SEC. There was a point in time a few years ago that the top couple of teams in the SEC could have probably played competitive games against the bottom of the NFL. CBS has broadcast the SEC since 1996, and has used this song for much of the run.

Even if you’re not a country music fan (which is probably about 99 percent of Complex’s readership), you have to admit that Big & Rich's hit goes great with college football.

ESPN has used the song since it was released it in 2005 and it has remained a fixture on one of its most popular shows. Further proof that college football and country music are as synonymous as co-eds and 11 a.m. keg stands.

This song brings back memories of summer Saturdays as a kid, coming in from the pool or playing wiffle ball to watch your favorite team play on national T.V. Not having responsibilities was awesome, wasn’t it?

Fox used this song on its MLB broadcasts from 1996-2007, before switching to a more orchestrated one in 2008. They used the more orchestrated one until Fox made its football theme its baseball theme too in 2011. This move was widely panned, and Fox bought back the orchestrated theme in 2014.  

This one is the most underrated theme in sports history. It doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

When NBC picked up the rights to Sunday Night Football in 2006, it wasted no time in creating a grandiose theme song. After P!nk sang the theme in ‘06, NBC went with Faith Hill for the next six seasons. Carrie Underwood took over for Faith Hill in 2013, but Hill’s version was the best, as it thrust the “I’ve been waiting all day for Sunday night,” line into popular culture.

You know there’s a big game when this song comes on.

This song has become synonymous with Olympics coverage ever since ABC began using it in 1968. However, the song itself was actually not originally composed for the Olympics—it was composed a full ten years before ABC began using it for its Olympic coverage.

NBC originally eschewed the song during its first Olympics broadcast in 1988, but bought the song back in time for the 1992 games.

If this doesn’t make you want to start a “USA” chant, I don’t know what will.

What’s more 90’s than the NBA on NBC?

Aside from maybe Zubaz pants, nothing.

John Tesh composed this song for NBC, who played it over 12,000 times during its decade-plus televising the Association. Part of what makes this song so great is that its tenure on NBC coincide with the NBA’s golden age: All six Michael Jordan titles, Tim Duncan’s first ring and the Lakers’ three-peat. No sport may experience an era as fantastic as that again.

In addition to being an anthem for 90’s sports fans, “Roundball Rock” has made several appearances in pop culture as well. Nelly sampled it for his song “Heart of a Champion” in 2004 and it was the subject of a Saturday Night Live sketch in 2013. Tesh is now a rich man because of this song, as he has made six figures from royalties.