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.

Rundown of Dick Vitale's college basketball TV partners

This week, ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale is scheduled to call a game with Karl Ravech for the first time. Ravech will become the sixth play-by-play announcer this season to receive a first-ever TV pairing with Dickie V.

After noticing a recent flurry of such first-time pairings, I wondered how many different play-by-play partners have shared the broadcast table with Vitale over the years. So I attempted to compile a list of all play-by-play announcers who have worked with Vitale on college basketball. (Note: I am almost certainly missing some announcers from the early ESPN years as these the hardest to research.)

Vitale called the first college basketball game ever on ESPN back in December 1979 alongside Joe Boyle. Eventually, ESPN paired him regularly with Jim Simpson. In subsequent years, his most common ESPN partners included Mike Patrick, Tim Brando, Brad Nessler, and Dan Shulman. When ABC started carrying college games, he frequently worked with Keith Jackson and later Brent Musburger.

The list is a mix of prestigious broadcasters and lesser-known voices. One interesting name (perhaps surprising to some) is Al Michaels who worked a single time with Vitale (the 1989 Pac-10 championship game on ABC).

I find the pattern intriguing. Starting from the late 1980s, Vitale was acquiring about two new partners per year. Then after 1997, Vitale went without any new partners until 2005 and only picked up three additions to this list from through 2013. However, a few years ago, ESPN installed Jay Bilas as its top analyst to work with Shulman on the highest profile games. This move has resulted in Vitale working with a wide variety of first-time partners in recent seasons (10 since 2014).

Here is the list that my research uncovered (with calendar year of the first such telecast for which I found evidence). Again, note that I am very likely to be missing some names from the first decade.

1. Joe Boyle - 1979
2. Jim Simpson - 1980 
3. Jim Thacker - 1982
4. Fred White - 1982
5. Bob Ley - 1983
6. John Sanders- 1983
7. Kevin Slaten - 1983
8. Mike Patrick - 1983
9. Sam Rosen - 1984
10. Rich Winter - 1984
11. Tim Brando - 1985
12. Jim Kelly - 1986
13. Andy McWilliams - 1986
14. Bob Rathbun - 1986
15. John Saunders - 1987
16. Keith Jackson - 1987
17. Gary Bender - 1988
18. Al Michaels - 1989
19. Roger Twibell - 1989
20. Barry Tompkins - 1989
21. Ron Franklin - 1990
22. Bob Carpenter - 1990
23. Wayne Larrivee - 1991
24. Gary Thorne - 1991
25. Sean McDonough - 1992
26. Brent Musburger - 1992
27. Brad Nessler - 1992
28. Joel Meyers - 1993
29. Dave Sims - 1995
30. Dan Shulman - 1995
31. Dave Barnett - 1996
32. Mike Tirico - 1997
33. Mark Jones - 1997
34. Dave Pasch - 2005
35. Dave O'Brien - 2007
36. Jon Sciambi - 2011
37. Bob Wischusen - 2014
38. Rich Hollenburg - 2014
39. Adam Amin 2015
40. Rece Davis - 2016
41. Mike Morgan - 2016
42. Jason Benetti - 2016
43. Dave Flemming - 2016
44. Doug Sherman - 2016
45. Tom Hart - 2017
46. Karl Ravech - 2017