2015 highlights - Classic TV Sports blog

The blog just completed its fourth year. For the benefit of newer readers, here is a summary of some posts that I've chosen to spotlight from 2015 (in chronological order):

1. a review of the Al Michaels book You Can't Make This Up 
2. details on the fascinating story of how Verne Lundquist made his CBS debut in 1982
3. setting the record straight regarding misleading media reports which suggested that 2015 would be the first time that Dick Vitale had not been assigned to a Duke-UNC telecast on his network
4. a chart of how many strokes CBS showed by player during the final round of the 2015 Masters (along with similar shot track summaries for the Players Championship, the US Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship)
5. a retrospective on the innovative TV drama Hill Street Blues which also covers the sports connections from a few of the actors
6. a 17-minute CBS Radio clip from the broadcast of Super Bowl 1
7. some examples of an athlete/analyst from one sport who worked as TV analyst for a different sport
8. original ABC footage of the infamous TC Chen double hit chip shot from the 1985 US Open
9. an intriguing look back at a young Jim Nantz working as an NBA analyst (yes, analyst!) for the Utah Jazz in the 1980s
10. video of longtime NY Mets announcer Bob Murphy calling a 1982 regional college football game on ABC
11. an overview of the TV coverage during the early years of the MLB League Championship Series (1969-75)
12. the history of cases where a TV network demoted its #1 play-by-play announcer for a particular sport

For more, check out the top posts from 2014, the best of 2013, and highlights from the debut year of 2012.

Thank you for reading and following. Look for more sports broadcasting history posts in 2016.

2014 highlights - Classic TV Sports blog

The blog is celebrating its third birthday. For the benefit of newer readers, here is a summary of blog highlights from 2014 (in chronological order):

1. Kevin Burkhardt joined a rare list of announcers who called an NFL playoff game in their debut season
2. a look at the longest lasting announcer duos on national TV networks
3. rememberances of the 1974 ACC Tournament title game on its 40th anniversary
4. a chart of how many strokes CBS showed by player for the final round of the 2014 Masters (along with similar shot track summaries for the US Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship)
5. a summary of consecutive season streaks for 3-man TV announcer booths
6. a retrospective on the classic TV sitcom Get Smart spotlighting some of the sports-themed episodes
7. a peek inside the pages of a 1980 edition of The Sporting News
8. a look at the single season NFL TV record that Jim Nantz and Phil Simms each wound up breaking in 2014
9. the 1974 debut of the football sideline reporter role (with video of entire ABC telecast)
10. video of Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier calling a Muhammad Ali heavyweight title bout on CBS in 1976
11. original NBC telecast of the first game of the 1973 NLCS called by Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek (video)
12. the story behind the last time an NFL game went untelevised

If you want more, check out the best posts from 2013 and highlights from the debut year of 2012.

Thanks for reading and following. Stay tuned for more classic TV sports content in 2015.

Tribute to a pioneer in sports broadcast history research

As one who researches sports TV history, I was deeply saddened to learn of the recent death of John Moynahan - a true pioneer in this field. I only "knew" John electronically through message boards, but consider it an honor to have crossed paths and shared research notes with him. He was a huge contributor to the ongoing historical sports TV/radio research which is posted on the forums at 506sports.com (a.k.a. the506). And some of my blog posts build upon research information which John originally provided.

For a deeper understanding of John's impact, here is a tribute from Tim Brulia, contributor to the506 and lead historian of the Gridiron Uniform Database.

Those of us who are interested in the history of sports broadcasting lost a huge contributor to the cause. I learned about the passing of John Moynahan when I received a Facebook post from his daughter on his page that stated she "would miss him very much". Since words to this effect can be deliberately vague, I decided to contact her directly via Facebook, and she confirmed the news that John indeed did pass away in his sleep "Sunday night." John was 72.

To me, John was the "Godfather of Sports Broadcasting History". To say John had done his "homework" on the subject is indeed an understatement. I first connected with John in June 2006 via the defunct DBS Forums when I and fellow forum member "Godhorn" began compiling listings of NFL commentator crews assigned to specific telecasts. I think the listings were for 1970. John went by the handle "jtgrace1". He posted that we had done nice work, and then listed a whole bunch of crew assignments that we didn't have and said he'd be willing to help out for other seasons. With this potential lead, I contacted him in a hurry. He said we could compare lists. I sent him my spreadsheets first. He said "not bad, but let me show you what I have". He emailed me a slew of documents on old "Symphony" spreadsheets. Once I was able to open them up, my mind was blown. He had telecast information going back to the advent of television with announcer crews as far back as 1939. It was incredible. There were some gaps and a few errors, but about 90% of it was documented and confirmed.

In addition to this goldmine, John had equally exhaustive information for MLB, the NHL (including the fabled Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts) and the NBA. He also had loads of information on college football and to a lesser extent college basketball. Not just network telecasts, but in the case of the professional sports, he had amazing information on each team's radio and local television commentator crews back to the inception of the respective mediums. I daresay no one alive had amassed this much information.

How did he acquire all of this goodness? In our many email exchanges, he told me that he had visited countless libraries across North America. Major city libraries, college libraries, smaller libraries, the libraries at each of the "Big 4" Halls of Fame in Canton, Cooperstown, Springfield (MA), and Toronto. Not to mention contacts with team publicity directors. He told me that he supplied several teams in various sports with his lists of their radio/TV commentators for use in their media guides.

He also shared with me that he attended hundreds of games in all of these sports across North America, and had season tickets to many teams at once. At one point at his home in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul, he had 10 satellite dishes of varying shapes and sizes in his yard. He would log every game televised with their announcer crews, so that if one took the night off for whatever reason, he would note it along with the substitute, if one was needed. He also amassed a massive sports collection, mainly of publications, like yearbooks, programs and media guides. These he later sold off on Ebay.

Eventually he had his satellite dishes dismantled, but was still able to keep track of updates via the forums at the506.

When he made posts on the506, it made all of us like Jeff, me, and others who have an interest in this subject, take notice. Many were astonished at all the knowledge and information he passed on to us. But John was just as eager to learn from those of us who had some gems that he didn't unearth himself. He was willing to acknowledge that he made a few errors in his research, but was more than willing to correct his documents as soon as he found the right info.

I said in a comment on my Facebook page that he taught me more about a field I thought I knew a lot about in the nearly eight years that I knew him than in my whole life combined up to that point. And it's true. John also gave me the impetus to expand my thirst for research. He said that his favorite place for research was the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, DC. I took him up on that tip and sure enough, I have been fortunate enough to be able to supplement his research with a few nuggets of my own, thanks to the services of the LOC. And I owe it all to John Moynahan. I consider myself very fortunate to have known him. I am very sure many of my peers would agree.

Well put, Tim.... And, RIP, John.

New URL and twitter handle for Classic TV Sports blog

I retitled the blog as Classic TV Sports and changed to a custom URL of http://www.classicTVsports.com. All bookmarks and links to the old URL will automatically redirect. I still plan to cover other aspects of historical sports media, but the primary focus has always been on the TV end, so I chose a simpler name to be more in tune with that.

I also changed the twitter handle to @classicTVsports for consistency with the blog renaming.

2013 highlights - Classic TV Sports blog

Today marks the 2-year anniversary of this blog. For the benefit of newer readers, here is a summary of blog highlights from the past year (in chronological order):

1. remembering the 1973 ACC Super Sunday college basketball telecast which launched Billy Packer on the national scene
2. a retrospective on the iconic 1968 UCLA Houston basketball game called by Dick Enberg
3. recalling the infamous Tom Brookshier "Evidently" interview during postgame of Super Bowl 6
4. a look back at the 1975 ABC variety show hosted by Howard Cosell
5. debunking a false claim made by an NBC press release regarding Olympic TV coverage
6. documenting the history of #1 analyst demotions by TV networks
7. complete TV coverage history of the Masters (1956-present)
8. reviewing the late night and tape delay NBA playoff era on CBS
9. complete TV coverage history of US Open golf (1954-present) - plus similar listings for the British Open on US TV (1962-present) and the PGA Championship (1958-present)
10. revisiting the Howard Cosell guest appearances on the ABC sitcom The Odd Couple
11. going inside the pages of a 1976 PRO! NFL game program
12. chronicling the history of daytime major network sports telecasts on weekdays
13. a collection of firsts and lasts from the NFL TV career of Pat Summerall
14. summarizing consecutive season streaks for network TV announcers and the record held by Don Criqui

For even more, see the best posts from the debut year 2012.

Thanks for your interest in the blog and check back for more in 2014.

Best of 2012 - Classic Sports TV and Media blog

I started the Classic Sports TV and Media blog on 12/30/2011, so yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of this site. For the benefit of newer readers, I decided to summarize some highlights from the first year of the blog. So here are my choices for the top 12 entries from this blog in 2012 (in chronological order of posting):

1. recalling the day in 1982 when CBS pulled an analyst out of the stands to call an NCAA tournament game (with video)
2. analyzing the myth about 3 consecutive buzzer beaters during the first weekend of the 1981 NCAA tournament
3. a detailed three-part series on the history of the TV coverage of the NCAA tournament from 1969-present
4. looking back at the Rick Barry "watermelon grin" comment during the 1981 NBA Finals (with video)
5. remembering the classic New York Mets broadcast team of Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy, and Ralph Kiner (with video)
6. a complete history of US TV coverage of the Ryder Cup from 1959-present
7. a summary of how ABC and Keith Jackson handled conflicts between the baseball playoffs and college football
8. recalling the magic of the ABC Monday Night Football Halftime Highlights narrated by Howard Cosell (with video)
9. exploring the baffling myth about 1969 Alabama - Ole Miss being the first prime time college football regular season telecast
10. introducing the first pairing of Pat Summerall and John Madden in 1979 (with video)
11. providing a look at the first ESPN college basketball telecast in 1979 which was also the TV debut of Dick Vitale (with video)
12. documenting the first game that Dick Enberg and Billy Packer called together in 1974

Thanks for reading and following. I have more content planned for 2013.

Research tools

Here are various sources I have found helpful in researching sports TV history and in constructing historical TV schedules and announcer assignments:

Online newspaper/magazine archives

• Historical newspaper digital archives such as Proquest, Newsbank, and Factiva. Many public and school libraries offer online access to one or more of these databases. Check with your library for the appropriate URLs and logon details.

• Google News Archive has a collection of archived newspapers, some of which are free. It also provides subsets of the "paid" content in the free search results.

• The SI Vault is a fascinating collection from the archives of Sports Illustrated, but the magazine has has a relatively small amount of coverage in the area of broadcasting.

Original game footage

• Youtube contains a large volume of original game clips. While the majority of the content is quite recent, the site does have a sizable amount of footage from the 1990s and 1980s, a fair amount from the 1970s, and some from earlier years.

• ESPN Classic replays a number of original game telecasts (mostly college football and basketball from ABC or the ESPN networks.). Regional sports networks such as MASN, conference networks such as BTN, and league owned networks such as MLBN, NFLN, NBATV, also rebroadcast older games.

• TV4U has a relatively small inventory, but some truly classic material including a 1956 college basketball game called by a then 27-year old Keith Jackson.

Miscellaneous

• Regular Google searching can provide useful information. For example, some sports DVD/tape trading sites list announcers.

• Many official college web sites contain archived game notes with TV/radio announcer information. 

• I've also received great assistance from other researchers on the Sports Broadcasting History forum at the506.

ClassicSportsTV on Twitter

For links to new blog posts and DVR alerts on classic sports programming, follow @ClassicSportsTV on Twitter.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Classic Sports TV and Media blog!

I grew up at a time when sports telecasts in color were still a big deal, when many areas of the USA would get only a single baseball telecast per week, when the college basketball regular season was a non-entity on national TV, when Curt Gowdy was the dominant network TV voice and Howard Cosell was the most controversial figure in the industry. Since then, the sports media business has undergone enormous changes.

While I've seen a lot of televised sports since the late 1960s, my interest goes far beyond simply watching the games. I've always paid attention to who is in the broadcast booth and how they call the action. I've also been quite intrigued by the scheduling decisions made by TV networks (starting times for games, number of telecasts per season, and announcer assignments) and how these factors have evolved over time.

I always enjoyed reading sports TV columnists such as Jack Craig and Rudy Martzke as well as books by broadcasters and others in the TV sports business. I recorded some original telecasts with a VCR and have saved others on DVD from networks such as ESPN Classic. In recent years, I've researched various aspects of history of sports on TV and learned many things I never knew or had forgotten.

I hope to use this blog to share:

• commentary on significant telecasts
• memories of classic broadcasters
• reviews of books on the sports business
• retrospectives on sports magazines
• alerts on upcoming rebroadcasts and documentaries
• observations on other topics in sports media