NFLN to "re-broadcast" Super Bowl 1 on Jan 15

<UPDATED 1/10/2016 - A story in the NY Times confirms that this "re-broadcast" will consist of NFL Films footage and the original radio call rather than the discovered tape of the original CBS telecast.>

According to online listings, NFL Network plans to "re-broadcast" the original Super Bowl on Friday 1/15 at 8pm ET. While I have seen no press release providing any details, here is the entry on the NFLN online schedule for this 2-hour program:

"Super Bowl I Re-Broadcast Event" - NFL Films presents the first ever re-broadcast of Super Bowl I on the 50th Anniversary of the game. Featuring special guests and never before seen footage, see the game that started it all when the Kansas City Chiefs of the AFL squared off against the Green Bay Packers of the NFL.

while the DirecTV program guide describes it as follows:

Super Bowl I - The Lost Game

The re-broadcast of the game that started it all on the 50th Anniversary of the game featuring Kansas City Chiefs of the AFL against the Green Bay Packers of the NFL.

Both listings incorrectly call this the "50th anniversary". 2016 actually marks the 49th anniversary of the January 15, 1967 game.

The use of the terms "re-broadcast" and "Lost Game" along with the claim of "never before seen footage" suggest that this airing might include (at least in part) the discovered tape of the original CBS telecast which was restored by the Paley Center, but which has never been available to the public. If that is indeed the case, this should be an awesome presentation, but I have seen nothing to confirm this. On the other hand, the reference to NFL Films might mean that this production will be similar to what ESPN did for the 1958 NFL Championship game back in 2008 where they intermixed film footage with modern interviews and essentially created a simulated re-broadcast.

Either way, I am surprised to see this program show up on the various guides without any press release from NFL Network. Another oddity is that as of last night, these schedules were listing this program as lasting 3 hours instead of 2.

NFLN to debut 5 new episodes on historic NFL drafts

One of the best aspects of NFL Network is its focus on documentaries. Last year, the network launched a fascinating series Caught in the Draft which spotlighted the 1964 draft on the 50th anniversary and followed up with episodes covering the 1974, 1984, 1994, and 2004 drafts. This week marks the return of that concept as NFLN will profile the drafts for each year ending in "5" from 1965-2005.

The new season debuts on Thursday April 2 at 9 pm ET with an episode on the 1965 draft and the intriguing battle between the NFL and AFL for new talent. The series continues with new episodes in that same timeslot for five consecutive weeks with several replays scheduled. Leading into the season premiere, NFLN will re-air the 1964 episode on 4/2 at 8 pm ET and that pattern will continue each week which is great news for anyone who missed any of the showings from last year.

This promises to be another excellent series produced by NFL Films. Check out the trailer for the 1965 episode.

Error in ESPN documentary on Max McGee TD in Super Bowl 1

ESPN aired an impressive documentary last night which spotlighted the four photographers who have worked each Super Bowl to date. The program Keepers of the Streak provided great stories from photographers John Biever, Walter Iooss, Mickey Palmer, and Tony Tomsic on their experiences in covering this event and the massive changes they have seen in media coverage, access, and logistics since the early years and how technology has changed their profession.

Surprisingly, this otherwise excellent episode contained a blunder regarding the first Super Bowl. Around the 9 minute mark, the show covers the halftime scene from Super Bowl 1. After that, the discussion turns to how the Packers began to pull away from the Chiefs in the second half on a 37 yard touchdown pass to Max McGee. This segment which is accompanied by NFL Films footage of that TD leads into the story of how an end zone photo taken by Iooss from that play become the cover image for the next edition of Sports Illustrated.

One problem: The McGee 37 yard TD which was the subject of the SI cover photo occurred in the first quarter of that game putting Green Bay up 7-0, not in the second half. McGee did score another TD of 13 yards late in the third, but the video footage on the documentary during the narration of this alleged third quarter sequence was definitely from the first quarter TD pass.

I highly recommend this documentary for the great storytelling and iconic photos. If you missed the show, ABC will replay it at noon ET on Sat 1/24 while ESPN2 has a scheduled re-airing at 7 pm ET on Thu 1/29.

Upcoming MLB postseason replays on ESPN Classic

With a new baseball season on the horizon, ESPN Classic will replay many classic World Series and LCS games over the next few weeks (primarily from the 1980s and some from the late 1970s). The menu features a number of telecasts which have never before appeared on ESPN Classic.

Here is a sampling of the upcoming lineup:

• 1976 ALCS (Yankees-Royals) game 5
• 1979 World Series (Pirates-Orioles) games 5 and 7
• 1980 NLCS (Phillies-Astros) game 5
• 1981 World Series (Dodgers-Yankees) games 3, 4, 5, and 6
• 1984 NLCS (Padres-Cubs) games 1, 4 and 5
• 1985 World Series (Royals-Cardinals) games 2, 4, 6, and 7
• 1986 ALCS (Red Sox-Angels) games 4, 5, and 7
• 1986 NLCS (Mets-Astros) games 3 and 6
• 1988 NLCS (Dodgers-Mets) game 4

And here is a link to the complete schedule.

Remembering the 1974 ACC Tournament championship game

Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most memorable and significant games in college basketball history. The 1974 ACC tournament final in Greensboro pitted NC State against Maryland with the eventual national champion Wolfpack prevailing in overtime 103-100.

The telecast started at 8:30 pm ET on Saturday 3/9/74 and was produced by the Chesley network which held the ACC TV rights. The legendary duo of Jim Thacker and Billy Packer were the announcers. Chesley had featured a matchup of the same two schools for his 1973 and 1974 nationally syndicated Super Bowl Sunday ACC telecasts. For the 1974 ACC title game, Chesley again provided syndication to other parts of the country. I remember watching it in the NYC market.

ESPN Classic will replay this historic telecast on Monday 3/10 at 7:30 am ET. (The quality of the footage is quite good. Unfortunately, the last few minutes of the game and the OT session did not survive.)

This game had it all:

• Star power: Five future top-13 NBA 1st-round draft picks (David Thompson, Tom Burleson, Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, and John Lucas) were on the court that night. 
• Drama: In 1974, only conference winners could play in the NCAA Tournament and the ACC used a conference tournament to decide its champion, so this was a winner-take-all matchup of teams ranked #1 and #4 in the nation. 
• Excitement: The contest featured high-level end-to-end action. Many historians consider it the greatest ACC game of all-time.

After the heartbreaking defeat, the Terps chose to decline an NIT bid. This game prompted the NCAA to relax the one-team-per-conference limit and expand the tournament in 1975.

One scheduling aspect which may sound strange to modern fans is that the NCAA Tournament started that same afternoon. It was only a 25-team event at the time with certain conferences getting pre-determined byes into the Sweet 16. During the telecast the broadcasters discussed the NCAA Tournament bracket and the fact that the ACC champion was slated to play the winner of the Providence-Penn opening round game which was being played the same night. Similarly, UCLA and USC played a regular season game that night for the Pac-8 title with the winner slotted into the Sweet 16.

College basketball was essentially a regional game and would not get a regular network TV package until two seasons later. 1974 was the first time that Chesley televised the entire ACC Tournament. Packer was in his third season on the ACC TV games. One week later, Packer worked his first NCAA Tournament serving as the NBC analyst for the East Regional.

Here is a brief clip about this historic game:

A look back at the 1964 Clay-Liston closed-circuit telecast

Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of the 2/25/1964 heavyweight boxing match in Miami between challenger Cassius Clay (now known as Muhammad Ali) and defending champion Sonny Liston.

Theater Network Television, Inc (TNT). produced the closed-circuit telecast of this fight and carried it live at 10 pm ET on a Tuesday night. The announcers on that telecast were Steve Ellis and former heavyweight champion Joe Louis. The production was shown in over 350 theaters and arenas throughout North America. TNT also made the telecast available via satellite to Europe on a tape delay of a few hours.

ESPN Classic will replay this telecast on Tuesday 2/25 at 7 pm ET (with three repeat showings at two-hour intervals).

Per newspaper reports from 1964, tickets for that theater telecast ranged from $4 to $10 (compared to $20-$250 for those who attended the fight in Miami). More than 1.1 million theater seats were available across the USA. Many of the locations were movie theaters including some drive-ins. The telecast was also offered in some large capacity stadiums such as the Los Angeles Sports Arena and Cobo Hall in Detroit. And some community pay-TV networks provided an in-home feed for $3.

Theaters had to agree to provide non-racially segregated seating in order to stage the telecast. Some theaters in the south refused to agree with that contract provision and therefore could not show the event.

The match was also broadcast live by ABC Radio with Les Keiter handling the play-by-play and Howard Cosell contributing commentary between rounds and conducting interviews. Ex-boxer Rocky Marciano and active pro football star Jim Brown were also part of the radio broadcast crew.

This clip begins with the weigh-in and then contains the original TNT telecast of the fight starting around the 2:22 mark.



The telecast seems rather primitive even by 1970s standards, but it is great that such original boxing TV footage exists from a time period where relatively little survived from the major team sports. The production contained multiple awkward sequences. In round 3 after a flurry from Clay (around the 20:25 mark), you can hear a few bizarre incomplete statements from Ellis and then about 20 seconds of "dead air" before he resumes the blow-by-blow. As round 7 is about to begin around the 36:10 mark, Ellis exclaims "They might be stopping it!" and tells Louis to go up to the ring. But then the telecast leaves viewers hanging with almost 90 seconds of images with no announcer audio before we finally see Ellis and Louis together in the ring. Ironically, during this period of silence, you can see Cosell getting a radio interview with Clay before the TV crew is able to do so. During the chaotic post-flight scene, Ellis and Louis often spoke simultaneously. Whenever Louis appeared on-screen, he seemed to go out of his way to avoid looking at the camera.

Here are some clips which include portions of the original radio broadcast. This one covers the first round with Keiter calling the action.



And here is the finale with the radio audio starting at 0:48 on the clip. Once the match ended, the radio broadcast seemed to upstage the TV production as Cosell definitively told listeners about the match result, and then landed interviews with both fighters while TNT never aired any words from Liston. You can also see how quickly Cosell was able to get into position to talk to the new champion while TNT fumbled around.

BTN documentary on 1973 Ohio St-Michigan tie game

The Big Ten Network debuts a documentary on the 1973 Ohio State-Michigan football game at 7 pm ET on Saturday 11/16. Both teams entered that contest unbeaten, but the game ended in a 10-10 tie leaving the two teams tied for the league championship. The 60-minute documentary titled Tiebreaker also focuses on the controversial vote by Big 10 athletic directors to determine which school would represent the conference in the Rose Bowl. The documentary sounds awesome. The BTN also plans a few re-airings.

The BTN provided a preview clip of the film:



and here is a portion of the original ABC telecast of that game. ABC carried it nationally on 11/24/1973 with Chris Schenkel and Duffy Daugherty in the booth.

Firsts and lasts from the NFL TV career of Pat Summerall

NFL Network profiles the legendary Pat Summerall on the latest edition of the documentary series A Football Life. The hourlong documentary debuts Tuesday at 9 pm ET with many replays scheduled.

Summerall had a unique career in the NFL TV booth, beginning as an analyst in 1962 on CBS where he eventually ascended to the lead analyst position alongside the likes of Ray Scott and Jack Buck. Midway through the 1974 season, he shifted to play-by-play and formed a memorable tandem with Tom Brookshier as they called 108 games together over 6.5 seasons. In 1981, he started a 22-year run with John Madden including a move to Fox in 1994. Altogether, Summerall worked 400 games with Madden as his lead analyst with 171 of these coming at Fox. In 2004, Summerall filled in for 4 weeks on ESPN Sunday Night Football as Mike Patrick was recovering from a heart attack.

Here is a look at key first and last telecasts of Summerall's career in the NFL TV booth from the research listings at 506sports. (Note: I am not considering preseason telecasts.)

CBS analyst years

  first NFL game: 9/16/1962 Giants @ Browns on CBS (with Chris Schenkel)
  first postseason game: 12/26/1965 Colts @ Packers tie-breaker playoff (with Scott and Chuck Thompson)
  first game with Scott: see 12/26/1965 game above
  first primetime game: 9/10/1966 Colts-Packers (at Milwaukee) - (with Scott and Thompson)
  first game with Buck: 11/24/1966 Browns @ Cowboys
  first Super Bowl as booth analyst: 1/14/1968 SB2 Packers-Raiders (with Scott)
  last game as booth analyst: 10/20/1974 Giants @ Redskins (with Buck)

CBS play-by-play years

  first game in play-by-play role: 10/27/1974 Redskins @ Cardinals (with Brookshier)
  first postseason game in play-by-play role: 12/22/1974 Redskins @ Rams divisional playoff (with Brookshier and Bart Starr)
  first Super Bowl in play-by-play role: 1/18/1976 SB10 Steelers-Cowboys (with Brookshier)
  first game with Madden: 10/14/1979 Falcons @ Raiders (3-man booth along with Brookshier)
  first game as a duo with Madden: 11/25/1979 Vikings @ Buccaneers (link with video of opening to this telecast)
  last Super Bowl with Brookshier: 1/12/1980 SB14 Steelers-Rams
  last game with Brookshier: 1/11/1981 Cowboys @ Eagles (NFC Championship)
  first game after the Brookshier split: 9/20/1981 Saints @ Giants (with Hank Stram)
  first game with Madden after the Brookshier split: 10/4/1981 Cowboys @ Cardinals
  first postseason game with Madden: 12/27/1981 Giants @ Eagles wild-card playoff
  first Super Bowl with Madden: 1/24/1982 SB16 49ers-Bengals
  last CBS game with Madden: 1/23/1993 49ers @ Cowboys (NFC Championship)

post-CBS years

  first Fox game with Madden: 9/4/1994 Cowboys @ Steelers
  last game with Madden: 2/3/2002 Super Bowl 36 Patriots-Rams
  first Fox game without Madden: 9/8/2002 Cardinals @ Redskins (with Brian Baldinger)
  first game on ESPN: 9/12/2004 Chiefs @ Broncos (with Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire)
  last game on ESPN: 10/3/2004 Rams @ 49ers (with Theismann and Maguire)
  last NFL game: 12/9/2007 Rams @ Bengals on Fox (with Baldinger)

Summerall was a versatile broadcaster who CBS also used on basketball in both the play-by-play and analyst roles. He worked as an analyst alongside Don Criqui on ABA telecasts in the early 1970s. For the 1973-74 season, CBS installed him as the play-by-play voice on the NBA where he called regular season games with Elgin Baylor and the Finals with Rick Barry (after the network fired Baylor during the playoffs). CBS also used Summerall on play-by-play during the first weekend of the 1985 NCAA Tournament where he called games with Larry Conley.

He was the longtime voice of tennis on CBS calling many US Opens with Tony Trabert. And he was the lead announcer on CBS golf telecasts for many years primarily alongside Ken Venturi. Summerall also called some college football as he worked several Sun Bowl games with Brookshier in the late 1970s and handled play-by-play for four Cotton Bowl games on Fox (his final network TV assignments).

ESPN documentary on 1970s ABA Spirits of St Louis

The latest installment of the fantastic ESPN 30 for 30 series focuses on the legendary Spirits of St Louis ABA franchise. The 60-minute documentary Free Spirits debuts Tuesday 10/8 at 8 pm ET on ESPN with several replays scheduled on the ESPN family of networks. The ESPN video site has a preview clip of this episode which I am greatly anticipating.

On the court, members of the Spirits included:

• Marvin "Bad News" Barnes - one of the most talented players and colorful characters of the era
• Moses Malone - member of the Basketball Hall of Fame
• Steve "Snapper" Jones - who became a longtime NBA television analyst
• Mike D'Antoni - future NBA coach
• James "Fly" Williams - also one of the players profiled in the tremendous 1970s book Heaven is a Playground by Rick Telander

The team's assistant general manager was Rudy Martzke who later became the sports TV columnist for USA Today. To fill the radio play-by-play role, Martzke hired Bob Costas who was fresh out of Syracuse University. Not surprisingly, Martzke and Costas are among the interview subjects in the documentary.

Here is Costas with the radio simulcast call of part of a 1976 Spirits game against the Kentucky Colonels. His broadcast partner is Arlene Weltman - wife of team president Harry Weltman.



Finally, the Silna brothers who owned the franchise negotiated perhaps the greatest financial contract of all time during the NBA-ABA merger.

For more about the history of the ABA, check out the fabulous book Loose Balls by Terry Pluto and a website devoted to remembering the wild 9-year run of this upstart league.

Golf Channel documentary - 10th anniversary of Annika in PGA event

To mark the 10th anniversary of Annika Sorenstam playing in a men's PGA Tour event, Golf Channel is airing an original documentary to chronicle her appearance at the Colonial. The 30-minute program Go Annika will debut on Wed 5/22 at 9 pm ET with multiple replays scheduled. While Annika was not the first woman to complete in a PGA event, she was the first in 58 years and the first one to be televised in doing so.

The Thu/Fri rounds of that 2003 tournament were televised by the USA Network which showed every one of Sorenstam's shots. USA Network actually came on the air at 9:58 am ET that Thursday to start with her opening drive. The TV crew on USA Network for the event included Bill Macatee, Peter Kostis, and Patty Sheehan. Annika's participation in the tournament produced record ratings on USA Network for a PGA Tour event.


Despite missing the cut, Annika also figured prominently in the CBS weekend coverage which added an hour of Saturday coverage to spotlight her performance. David Feherty who was also on the telecast team that weekend is among the interview subjects for the documentary.

The Golf Channel site has a preview clip.

Here is an interesting look back at previews of the TV coverage from 2003 newspapers: Richard Sandomir in the NY Times and Rudy Martzke in USA Today. And here is how Larry Stewart of the LA Times reviewed the opening round TV coverage.

Season 3 of Feherty show on Golf Channel

The new season of the entertaining Feherty show debuts Monday 2/25 at 10 pm ET on Golf Channel with special guest Jack Nicklaus. The unique show hosted by CBS golf analyst David Feherty is well worth a season series recording on the DVR.

Other interview subjects for season 3 include Phil Mickelson, Colin Montgomerie, plus many with a connection to broadcasting including Jim Nantz, Paul Azinger, and Bob Knight. My favorite past episodes featured others who also had a TV background such as Ken Venturi. Johnny Miller, and Lee Trevino.

Here is a preview of the Nicklaus show:

NBCSN four-part series on Business of the NFL

NBC Sports Network is launching a four-part series on the Business of the NFL which chronicles the business decisions throughout its history which led to the explosive growth of the league. Part 1 of the Star Spangled Sundays series documents how the NFL used television to significantly boost the popularity of pro football and overtake baseball as the #1 sport in the United States. This initial 60-minute episode Rise of a Colossus debuts on Tues 1/8 at 10 pm ET with multiple replays scheduled.

The interview subjects include the following from a TV perspective: Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Don Ohlmeyer, David Hill, and Steve Bornstein.

The subsequent episodes in this series (subtitled Brand NFL, Labor Pains, and Super Sunday) will premiere each Tuesday in January on NBCSN.

CBS special on NCAA tournament - 75 Years: Behind the Mic

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the NCAA tournament, CBS has an interesting array of special programming planned. The celebration kicks off when CBS airs 75 Years: Behind the Mic on Sat 12/29 at 2 pm ET. This show is hosted by Greg Gumbel and features many announcers who have called the tournament over the years including Dick Enberg, Gary Bender, Jim Nantz, and Bill Raftery. It also contains a special segment on the 1992 Duke-Kentucky regional final with Verne Lundquist and Len Elmore who called that memorable contest.

CBS Sports Network will also replay this episode multiple times.

UPDATE: This show also includes a nice tribute to the great Al McGuire. Props to CBS for incorporating some original NBC tournament footage into the mix. And while Billy Packer does not appear, the other announcers discuss his contributions to this event.

ESPNU presents SEC Storied documentary on Sam Bowie

The next episode of the ESPN Films series SEC Storied chronicles Kentucky basketball player Sam Bowie and his injury plagued career. Bowie is best remembered for being drafted #2 by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1984 NBA draft, one slot ahead of Michael Jordan.

The documentary Going Big debuts on Thu 12/20 at 9 pm ET on ESPNU with many re-airings scheduled. For DVR purposes, note that the premiere episode follows a live basketball game so plan accordingly. You can also catch replays of earlier installments of SEC Storied including:

• Herschel Walker (legendary Georgia running back)
• 40 Minutes of Hell (Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson)
• Croom (Mississippi State football coach Sylvester Croom)

Here is a preview clip. (Note: I'm not exactly sure what Jack Ramsay means when he says that Portland should have packaged Clyde Drexler and the pick to get a center and then drafted Jordan. It sure sounds like he is double counting the draft pick.)

NFLN documentary on The Immaculate Reception

The final edition of the NFL Network series A Football Life focuses on the controversial Franco Harris touchdown near the end of the 1972 Steelers-Raiders divisional playoff game which came to be known as The Immaculate Reception. The special even includes a former director of the CIA performing a frame-by-frame analysis of the play. NFLN is premiering the documentary on Wed 12/19 at 8 pm ET with many replays scheduled.

This episode includes commentary from many players from that game. However, a striking note from the press release confirms that John Madden who coached the Raiders in that game declined the chance to be a modern interview subject.

Madden refused to be interviewed for the special because the play still draws so much emotion from him forty years later.

The preview clip on the NFL Films blog does contain a 1980s interview with Madden.

During a Monday Night Football game in 2002, on the 30th anniversary of the play, Madden did talk about it with Al Michaels, but sounded uncomfortable during the discussion.

NFL Network documentary on Marcus Allen

The latest installment of the NFLN series A Football Life profiles Hall of Fame running back Marcus Allen. The one-hour documentary premieres on Wed 12/12 at 8 pm ET and will be replayed multiple times. Broadcaster Al Michaels is among the many interview subjects. The NFL Films site contains a preview clip.

The episode includes footage from an interview that Michaels conducted with Allen which aired during halftime of a 1992 ABC Monday Night Football game. During that interview, Allen spoke out in quite strong terms about his acrimonious relationship with Raiders owner Al Davis.

ESPN 30 for 30 Bo Jackson documentary

The next edition of the fabulous ESPN 30 for 30 series chronicles the legendary Bo Jackson who achieved success in both MLB and the NFL. Jackson actually played both pro sports from 1987-1990 before a severe hip injury cut short his athletic career. His fame also exploded via the "Bo Knows" Nike advertising campaign.

The ESPN Films production is titled You Don't Know Bo and premieres Sat 12/8 at 9 pm ET with multiple replays scheduled. The ESPN site has a trailer for this film.

NFL Network documentary on Barry Sanders

The next edition of the must-see NFL Network documentary series A Football Life profiles the career and life of Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders. one of the most electrifying talents to ever take the field. The NFL Films site has a preview clip. This 60-minute episode debuts on Wed 12/5 at 8 pm ET on NFLN with several re-airings planned.

Upcoming schedule for this series:

• December 12 – Marcus Allen
• December 19 – The Immaculate Reception

NBCSN documentary on Earl Campbell

The NBC Sports Network is presenting a documentary which profiles Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell. After an outstanding career at the University of Texas, the "Tyler Rose" burst onto the NFL scene with the Houston Oilers in 1978. I still vividly recall his dominating performance in a Monday Night Football game that season against Miami.

The one-hour documentary titled Still Standing: The Earl Campbell Story premieres on Tue 12/4 at 11pm ET. Note that NBCSN  has a live college basketball game leading into this time slot, so plan accordingly if setting your DVR (or record one of the many scheduled re-airings).

The list of interview subjects includes longtime ESPN broadcaster Ron Franklin who was the radio play-by-play voice of the Oilers when Campbell played there.

NFL Network documentary on John Riggins

The next installment of the fantastic series A Football Life on NFL Network profiles the colorful Hall of Fame running back John Riggins. This one-hour documentary premieres on Wed 11/21 at 8 pm ET with several replays scheduled on NFLN.

This preview clip looks intriguing. So does the upcoming schedule:

• December 5 – Barry Sanders
• December 12 – Marcus Allen
• December 19 – The Immaculate Reception