I used to love getting the US ATCS tv stations out of NY state. Universal Sports was awesome, 24hr a day amateur sports, then NBC bought it and I moved.
For a time, free OTA Universal Sports was probably my most watched channel. Then, as you say, NBC bought it and most of the content moved to cable channels or behind online paywalls at NBCSports. The NBC Olympic Channel captures the vibe of the old station pretty well if it's available to you. I know YouTube TV has it.