The first college basketball game on ESPN was not the often cited Dick Vitale debut

40 years ago today, Dick Vitale made his debut on ESPN as the analyst on the 12/5/1979 Wisconsin @ DePaul game with Joe Boyle on play-by-play. Over the years, many sources have cited this as the first-ever college basketball telecast on ESPN which was launched three months earlier. But was it really the first?



For example, a Sarasota Herald Tribune article from 2018 stated:

On December 5, 1979, ESPN broadcast its first college basketball game, DePaul versus Wisconsin, and Vitale, fired a month earlier as head coach of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, provided the color.

A story on the Detroit Titans official site discussing the court named after Vitale said:

Vitale sat courtside for ESPN’s first-ever NCAA basketball game – Wisconsin at DePaul on Dec. 5, 1979

Even the bio on Vitale's own website makes this incorrect claim:

Vitale called ESPN’s first-ever NCAA basketball game – Wisconsin at DePaul on Dec. 5, 1979 (a 90-77 DePaul win)

I have to admit that this blog relied on such sources and made the same claim in 2012.

However, the Vitale TV debut was not the first college basketball game on ESPN. I found a 12/3/1979 article from the New York Times archives which reviewed some of the programming from the prior weekend on the new cable network and showed that ESPN televised at least five college basketball contests before the 12/5 Vitale appearance:

11/30

St. John's vs Oral Roberts
Michigan St. vs Princeton (this was a semifinal doubleheader from the Joe Lapchick Memorial Tournament)

12/1

Valparaiso @ Notre Dame
St. John's vs Michigan St. (Lapchick Tournament final)
Yale @ Connecticut

Some references to the Wisconsin @ DePaul game claim that it was the first "major" college basketball telecast on ESPN. Here is an ESPN bio of Vitale

Vitale called ESPN’s first-ever major NCAA basketball game—Wisconsin at DePaul on Dec. 5, 1979

However, the 12/1 Lapchick Tournament title game featured #16 ranked St. John's against reigning national champion Michigan St., so that claim of first "major" seems faulty.
I also found an interestingly worded reference in the 2015 book Every Town is a Sports Town by former ESPN president George Bodenheimer:

Dick Vitale did the very first national basketball game that ever aired on ESPN (a DePaul victory over Wisconsin).

I'm not sure what to make of the "national" qualifier on this statement as I believe all ESPN programming at that time was "national" (at least across the subset of cable system that actually carried the network at that time).

According to my research, the only college basketball game during the 1979-80 season which took place prior to 11/30 was the Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic which was televised by TVS. So that fact combined with the above NY Times article appears to confirm that the St. John's vs Oral Roberts matchup (which opened the Lapchick doubleheader) was the first-ever ESPN college basketball telecast.

Shot chart from NBC Sunday Open Championship telecast - 2019

I tracked the strokes televised by NBC during the Sunday round of the Open Championship. I started tracking at 8am ET to provide a comparable time period to the other majors I have tracked. NBC televised 389 strokes during the tracking period. This total includes 46 shots that NBC aired as part of its Playing Through feature during 13 of the commercial breaks. The last putt dropped at 1:09pm resulting in a rate of 1.26 strokes per minute which was down slightly from the 2018 Open, but was up over the previous two 2019 majors.

NBC showed strokes from 23 different players during the tracking period with eight golfers being covered for at least 23 strokes. Those eight accounted for 85% of the televised shots. NBC televised every stroke from winner Shane Lowry and all but one from runner-up Tommy Fleetwood (skipping only a tap-in on hole 11). That final pairing accounted for 45% of all televised strokes. Third place finisher Tony Finau was only covered for eight strokes. The highest finisher not shown during this period was Robert MacIntyre who was part of a tie for 6th.

I also counted the number of televised strokes by hole during the tracking period. Hole #1 (43 strokes) was featured most frequently by far as no other hole received more than 27 shots. On the flipside, the 15th hole was covered for just 10 televised srokes.

This is the sixth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to prior majors, see this summary table which contains links to all of my shot charts since 2014.

Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finisher not shown during the tracking period) followed by the hole-by-hole breakdown:

Player	Shots shown	Finish	Pairing
Tommy Fleetwood	73 (of 74)	2	1
Shane Lowry	72 (of 72)	1	1
Brooks Koepka	41	T4	2
Rickie Fowler	38	T6	3
Justin Thomas	28	T11	11
Lee Westwood	27	T4	4
Jordan Spieth	26	T20	6
JB Holmes	23	T67	2
Jon Rahm	10	T11	5
Danny Willett	9	T6	4
Henrik Stenson	9	T20	6
Tony Finau	8	3	5
Justin Rose	8	T20	3
Patrick Reed	3	10	11
Matt Kuchar	3	T41	7
Matthew Fitzpatrick	2	T20	12
Stewart Cink	2	T20	25
Dustin Johnson	2	T51	18
Tyrell Hatton	1	T6	13
Ryan Fox	1	T16	23
Ernie Els	1	T32	21
Dylan Frittelli	1	T32	8
Mikko Korhonen	1	T63	18
Robert MacIntyre	0	T6	17
others	0
total	389

Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 = final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.

Hole number	Televised shots
1	43
2	22
3	14
4	19
5	22
6	16
7	23
8	22
9	14
10	27
11	23
12	27
13	18
14	16
15	10
16	21
17	25
18	26

Shot chart from Fox Sunday US Open telecast - 2019

Once again, I tracked the shots that Fox televised during the Sunday round of the US Open. The final pairing teed off at 5:30pm ET, so I started tracking at 5:00 to provide a reasonable comparison to the other majors I have monitored.

I counted 317 shots during the tracking period. The final putt was holed at 9:31 resulting in a rate of 1.17 strokes per minute. This was down from the 1.24 shown by Fox during the 2018 US Open.

Fox showed 68 strokes from winner Gary Woodland skipping only a tap-in on #13. Fox aired 66 from runner-up Brooks Koepka, covering all but tap-ins on holes 7 and 16. Justin Rose had the most televised strokes (70). That trio accounted for 64 percent of all the televised shots during the tracking period. Fox showed 21 golfers playing strokes during this period with seven players getting coverage for at least 10 shots. The highest finishers not shown during the period were Matthew Fitzpatrick and Danny Willett who were part of the tie for 12th.

Fox went commercial-free for the final 49 minutes of play.

I also tracked the number of televised strokes by hole during the tracking period. The 18th was featured most often (34 strokes) by a sizable margin. Hole 3 received the fewest televised shots (11).

This is the sixth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to prior majors, see this summary table which contains links to all shot charts since 2014.

Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finisher not shown during the tracking period) followed by the hole-by-hole breakdown:

Player	Shots shown	Finish	Pairing
Justin Rose	70 (of 74)	T3	1
Gary Woodland	68 (of 69)	1	1
Brooks Koepka	66 (of 68)	2	2
Louis Oosthuizen	28	T7	3
Rory McIlroy	21	T9	3
Xander Schauffele	11	T3	8
Adam Scott	10	T7	8
Chez Reavie	8	T3	2
Viktor Hovland	7	T12	16
Tiger Woods	5	T21	15
Jon Rahm	4	T3	6
Dustin Johnson	4	T35	10
Henrik Stenson	3	T9	6
Matt Kuchar	2	T16	4
Graeme McDowell	2	T16	5
Francesco Molinari	2	T16	11
Jordan Spieth	2	T65	20
Chesson Hadley	1	T9	4
Matt Wallace	1	T12	7
Patrick Reed	1	T32	24
Brandon Wu	1	T35	10
Fitzpatrick/Willett	0	T12
others	0
total	317

Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 =  final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.

Hole number	Televised shots
1	21
2	21
3	11
4	18
5	15
6	20
7	16
8	19
9	16
10	17
11	15
12	21
13	15
14	18
15	14
16	13
17	13
18	34

Shot chart from CBS Sunday PGA Championship telecast - 2019

I tracked the strokes televised by CBS during the Sunday round of the PGA Championship. I counted 321 televised strokes from the 4th round. This total includes nine shots that CBS aired on its Eye On The Course split screen feature during four of the commercial breaks. This resulted in an average of 1.14 strokes per minute which was much lower than the 2017 PGA, but the same rate as the 2016 telecast.

CBS televised 73 strokes by winner Brooks Koepka, skipping only a tap-in putt on hole 7. The network aired 67 strokes from runner-up Dustin Johnson, bypassing his tap-ins on the first two holes. Jazz Janewottananond received the next most frequent coverage (39 strokes) but was not shown after hole 13.

Nine players received coverage for at least 10 shots. Late in the round with so few players in contention, CBS shifted into a mode of primarily showing just Koepka and DJ. Overall, CBS showed 20 different golfers playing strokes, but eight of these were for a single shot. The highest finishers not shown at all by CBS were four of the six players who tied for 8th (Matt Kuchar, Shane Lowry, Adam Scott, and Gary Woodland).

I also tracked the number of televised strokes by hole. The 12th was featured the most (25 strokes) with holes 3 and 11 receiving coverage for 24 shots each. CBS devoted the fewest televised strokes to the 14th and 16th holes (only 10 shots each).

CBS made a very questionable decision to interview DJ while Koepka was hitting an important layup shot on the 18th from what appeared to be a tricky lie. CBS also made a blunder after the final group completed hole 5 when it displayed a scorecard graphic for Harold Varner III showing him making a bogey on hole 6 (which he had not yet started!) and showing his overall score at E when he was still at -1. Jim Nantz, apparently reading from the incorrect graphic, rattled off Varner's run of poor scores including the phantom score from the 6th hole.

This is the sixth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to other majors, see the summary table which contains links to all of these charts since 2014. (Note: I was busy during the Sunday round of the 2018 PGA and never compiled that chart, but I have a DVR copy of that telecast and may get to it eventually.)

Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finishers not shown on the telecast) followed by the hole-by-hole breakdown:

Player	Shots shown	Finish	Pairing
Brooks Koepka	73	1	1
Dustin Johnson	67	2	3
Jazz Janewattananond	39	T14	2
Harold Varner III	34	T36	1
Matt Wallace	23	T3	4
Jordan Spieth	22	T3	6
Hideki Matsuyama	17	T16	3
Patrick Cantlay	16	T3	5
Rory McIlroy	10	T8	16
Luke List	6	6	2
Jason Day	3	T23	15
Rickie Fowler	3	T36	7
Sung Kang	1	7	7
Erik Van Rooyen	1	T8	6
Lucas Bjerregaard	1	T16	9
Lucas Glover	1	T16	9
Webb Simpson	1	T29	21
Kiradech Aphinbarnrat	1	T41	14
Francesco Molinari	1	T48	22
Zach Johnson	1	T54	22
Kuchar/Lowry/Scott/Woodland	0	T8
others	0
total	321

Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 =  final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.

Hole number	Televised shots
1	22
2	21
3	24
4	21
5	20
6	12
7	13
8	12
9	19
10	23
11	24
12	25
13	16
14	10
15	14
16	10
17	14
18	21

Shot chart from CBS Sunday Masters telecast - 2019

For the sixth time, I tracked the number of strokes that CBS televised per player during the Sunday round of the Masters. The telecast began at 9am ET (after tee times were moved earlier to beat the storms) with players grouped in threesomes. I counted a total of 450 televised strokes. The final putt dropped at 2:27 resulting in an average of 1.38 strokes per minute which was slightly less than the rate of the 2018 Masters, but still the third highest of all major tournaments I have tracked since 2014.

CBS covered 69 of the 70 strokes from winner Tiger Woods (skipping only a tap-in putt on hole #1). Francesco Molinari actually received coverage for 70 shots. His final score of 74 included two penalty strokes, so CBS only bypassed two of his shots (a layup on 15 and his tee shot on 17). Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau were spotlighted for 59 shots each. Those four players accounted for 57% of the televised shots.

The highest finisher not shown by CBS was Aaron Wise who finished 17th. CBS televised strokes from 26 players during the Sunday round and 11 golfers were covered for at least 10 shots.

I also tracked the number of televised strokes by hole. Once again, the 18th was featured the most (38 strokes). Hole #5 was featured second most often (33 strokes) while the 14th hole received the fewest televised strokes as CBS only aired 14 shots there.

This is the sixth year that I have compiled these televised shot charts. For comparison to prior majors, see this summary table which contains links to all shot charts since 2014.

Here is the complete shot chart (including the highest finisher not shown on the telecast) followed by the hole-by-hole breakdown:

Player	Shots shown	Finish	Pairing
Francesco Molinari	70 (of 72*)	T5	1
Tiger Woods	69 (of 70)	1	1
Brooks Koepka	59	T2	2
Tony Finau	59	T5	1
Xander Schauffele	36	T2	3
Ian Poulter	28	T12	2
Patrick Cantlay	24	T9	5
Webb Simpson	14	T5	2
Rickie Fowler	12	T9	4
Dustin Johnson	10	T2	4
Jason Day	10	T5	7
Phil Mickelson	8	T18	6
Jon Rahm	7	T9	6
Matt Kuchar	7	T12	3
Bubba Watson	7	T12	7
Jordan Spieth	7	T21	8
Alvaro Ortiz	4	T36	16
Justin Harding	3	T12	3
Justin Thomas	3	T12	6
Rory McIlroy	3	T21	14
Louis Oosthuizen	3	T29	4
Viktor Hovland	3	T32	12
Thorbjorn Olesen	1	T21	5
Bryson DeChambeau	1	T29	13
Patrick Reed	1	T36	17
Alex Noren	1	T62	22
Aaron Wise	0	17	11
others	0
total	450

* Molinari took 72 "shots" plus two penalty strokes for a score of 74

Note: The Pairing column reflects the tee time groupings in reverse order, so 1 =  final pairing, 2 = next-to-last, etc.

Hole number	Televised shots
1	23
2	29
3	21
4	23
5	33
6	22
7	23
8	27
9	28
10	22
11	19
12	22
13	18
14	14
15	31
16	26
17	31
18	38

Unusual Fox announcer assignment for NFL playoffs (not seen since 1980)

The network which has the late Sunday afternoon window on NFL Divisional Playoff weekend almost always sends its #1 announcer crew to that game. This time slot traditionally obtains the highest ratings of any NFL playoff weekend and networks typically assign their top broadcast team to the game expected to draw the best TV rating.

However, this weekend, Fox has the late Sunday slot (Eagles-Saints), but is not using its #1 team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on that game. Instead, Fox is sending its #2 announcer team of Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis to New Orleans. Fox is using Buck and Aikman on the Saturday prime time Cowboys-Rams game despite the fact that Eagles-Saints will almost certainly garner a much higher rating due to its favorable time slot.

The last time a network which had the late Sunday afternoon window chose to send its top announcers to a different divisional playoff game was during the 1980 playoffs when CBS sent its #1 team of Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier to call the early Saturday Vikings-Eagles game and assigned the #2 crew of Vin Scully and George Allen to the late Sunday Cowboys-Falcons matchup.

So the Fox announcer assignments for this weekend represent a situation that hasn't happened in 38 years - and has only occurred three previous times since the 1970 merger.

Here is a summary of the rare cases where a network which had the late Sunday divisional playoff window sent its #1 announcer crew to a different game (all years refer to the NFL season, even when the playoff games were played in January):

2018 - Fox - described above

1980 - CBS - described above

1978 - CBS - #1 team of Summerall and Brookshier called Falcons-Cowboys (late Saturday)
                         #2 team of Scully, Allen, and Jim Brown called Vikings-Rams (late Sunday)

1972 - NBC - #1 team of Curt Gowdy and Al Derogatis called Raiders-Steelers "immaculate reception" (early Saturday)
                          #2 team of Jim Simpson and Kyle Rote called Browns-Dolphins (late Sunday)