Friday, November 15, 2013

Milestone firsts in college basketball TV history

Tomorrow marks the first ever college basketball game on the Fox network as Ohio State faces Marquette at 1 pm ET with Brian Anderson and Jim Jackson on the call. Here is a rundown of some other first college basketball regular season (including conference tournament) telecasts for various national TV network packages in the "modern era" (which I define as beginning with the syndicated 1968 UCLA-Houston telecast):

first on ABC 
    Sat 12/15/1973, UCLA vs NC State (at St Louis), 5 pm, Keith Jackson, Bill Russell 
        (Note: not part of a package, but a single-game deal arranged by ABC after losing NBA rights)

first on NBC as part of the national package it began in the 1970s
    Sat 11/29/1975, Indiana vs UCLA (at St Louis), 11:30 pm, Dick Enberg, Billy Packer
        (Note: this was a live telecast - the game started at 10:30 local time)

first on ESPN 
    Fri 11/30/1979, St John's vs Oral Roberts, 5 pm, <not sure on announcers>

first for Dick Vitale on ESPN (link to video intro)
    Wed 12/5/1979, Wisconsin @ DePaul, 9 pm, Joe Boyle, Dick Vitale

first on CBS as part of the package it began in the 1980s (split-national coverage)
    Sat 11/28/1981, Michigan @ Arkansas, 4 pm, Gary Bender, Billy Packer
    Sat 11/28/1981, Georgia @ San Francisco, 4 pm, Frank Glieber, Steve Grote

first on ABC as part of the package it began in the 1980s
    Sun 1/18/1987, LSU @ Kentucky, 2 pm, Al Michaels, Joe B. Hall

first on ESPN2 (preseason NIT quarterfinal)
    Sat 11/20/1993, Towson St @ Massachusetts, 7 pm, Dave Woloshin, Jon Albright

first on CBS Sports Network (which was called CSTV at the time)
    Fri 11/21/2003, Wisconsin @ Penn, 6 pm, Carter Blackburn, Matt Doherty

first on ESPNU (Ohio Valley Conference tournament semifinal)
    Fri 3/4/2005, Eastern Kentucky vs SE Missouri St (at Nashville), 9 pm, <not sure on announcers>

first on NBC Sports Network (which was called VERSUS at the time)
    Sat 11/18/2006, California @ San Diego St, 7:30 pm, Tim Neverett, Craig Ehlo

first on Fox Sports 1
    Fri 11/8/2013, Boston College @ Providence, 6 pm, Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery

first on Fox Sports 2
    Fri 11/8/2013, Lafayette @ Villanova, 8 pm, Scott Graham, Tarik Turner

first on Fox
    Sat 11/16/2013, Ohio St @ Marquette, 1 pm, Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson

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