A college basketball game, ill-fitted for a major domed stadium? It’s become common place today when TV wants to facilitate who should be declared the next NCAA champion.
In 1968, that awkward template was stumbled upon with some trepidation, in a place no longer the eighth wonder of the world, with seats too far away from the action and beamed to the nation through a patch-work syndicated TV feed that was still adding affiliates, commercial spots and viewers as it was taking place.
A half-century later, the matchup of No. 1 UCLA, on a 47-game win streak, and No. 2 Houston on Jan. 20, 1968 is still referred to as the “Game of the Century,” a true made-for-TV event put on by Eddie Einhorn’s TVS broadcasting company that pitted giants Lew Alcindor and Elvin Hayes inside the still newish Houston Astrodome.
It was not just the first regular-season college basketball game deemed worthy of a nation-wide audience, and not only set a record for the sport with more than 52,000 in attendance, most of whom couldn’t see much, but it ignited a sport in a way that only Dick Enberg, called upon to do play-by-play for it, could most aptly describe.
“That was a booster game into the stratosphere,” he said about 10 years later, engaged at the time to call the Michigan State-Indiana State game featuring Magic Johnson and Larry Bird for NBC, another seminal moment for the sport. “But the launching pad for the incredible popularity of college basketball on television, I believe, started right there in Houston, close to NASA. That really shot the rocket into the sky.”
Last November, in an opera house on the University of Houston campus, Enberg was joined on a panel discussion with former Houston players Hayes and Don Chaney, as well as CBS college basketball studio analyst Seth Davis, who compiled a compelling John Wooden biography in 2014, to re-educate people about the importance of that event. Houston alum Jim Nantz, who will be doing his 28th NCAA college basketball championship games this April, was the moderator.
The whole thing was recorded and is the foundation of a special presentation, “History in the Astrodome – 1968: UCLA vs. Houston” at 6 p.m. Monday on CBS Sports Network, repeated through the week, and a perfect way to celebrate the anniversary.
Yet it’s also a bittersweet moment, taped about six weeks before Enberg’s passing at age 82 last December. To see him so vibrant and sharp and poetic about that game, which he calls the “most important” thing he ever called, creates a whole near aura around it.
“It’s still difficult for me to get my mind around the fact we were all part of what will be his last TV show … it’s such a powerful thing,” said Nantz, in Foxboro, Mass., to call the Patriots-Titans NFL playoff game for CBS on Saturday night.
“The Friday night we taped that show, I was in between a Thursday night and a Sunday NFL game (for CBS), and Dick wanted to get back home for the Breeders’ Cup, but the show ran long and he was such a great sport and said, ‘That’s OK, I’m having a great time,’ and stayed over to fly out the next morning.
“To think about the symmetry of this: His first and ‘most meaningful’ broadcast was UCLA-Houston, where the nation was eyewitness finally to his magical prose, and now, he’s looking back on it 50 years later, and then he’s gone … How does that work?”
Enberg had just turned 33 and was a few years in doing the UCLA basketball games for KTLA-Channel 5 (shown tape delayed at 11:30 p.m.) when Einhorn agreed to have him call this game paired with colorman Bob Pettit, the soon-to-be Basketball Hall of Famer. Einhorn, based in Chicago, put up a reported $27,000 in rights fees for the game, cleared about 120 TV stations across the nation, including KTLA. But, like the first Super Bowl, there is little video evidence of it remaining, making it a sort of Holy Grail search to find the game footage intact.
Nantz was 8 when it was played and admits he doesn’t recall watching it. But as a UH student who became the public address announcer at Cougars’ home games when Guy Lewis was still the coach, and helped campaign to get Lewis voted into the Basketball Hall, Nantz said he has always had “a tremendous awareness and appreciation” for what happened.
But then, on that Nov. 3 night, listening to Enberg recall the details, “that gave this idea to look back 50 years tremendous credentials,” said Nantz. “He was as sharp that night as he was in the prime of his career. Every time we asked Dick a question, he fired back the most eloquent answer as if he was sitting at his keyboard. I always marveled at his command of the language. He loved and savored every moment.”
Dan Weinberg, CBS Sports’ executive vice president for programming, came up with the show’s idea, with the help of Houston native and producer Chip Rives. Emilie Deutsch, who runs the features and documentaries for the network, said the topic “was a natural thing to look back upon as something we prioritize and treasure. And it’s an amazing thing that Dick would be doing his last national broadcast on the topic of his first national broadcast. He was so invested in this story, telling stories in the green room, so animated.”
Enberg, by the way, was also wearing a cast that November night on his leg, having recently ruptured an Achilles tendon while playing tennis.
Consider that on this coming Saturday, Jan. 20, there will be more than 100 college basketball games played across the country, and in Los Angeles, nearly half are accessible on TV or video streaming – CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, Fox, FS1, the Pac-12 Net, the Big Ten Net, the SEC Net, the ACC Net, NBCSN and CBSSN, plus ESPN3 online and all sorts of conference-owned and managed platforms.
But on Jan. 20, 1968, only that one regular season game was televised, as a test, and it passed. A book on the subject, “How March Became Madness,” out in 2006 by Einhorn and Ron Rapoport, traces the entire TV success of the NCAA Tournament to that day in Houston. It includes a DVD narrated by Enberg called: “The Game That Changed College Basketball.”
“We take it so much for granted now,” said Nantz, who will be back home at Pebble Beach to watch Monday’s documentary and see it edited for the first time. “Maybe we’re not even sure what game we’re watching (as we flip around). But not on that night.”
MEASURING MEDIA MAYHEM
WHAT SMOKES
* Filling a hole that had been open since the July firing of Jamie Horowitz over sexual harassment allegations, Fox Sports shifted Mark Silverman from head of the Big Ten Network over to president of national networks to oversee all programming, production, marketing and digital for Fox Sports, FS1 and FS2 starting Tuesday at the L.A. offices. The Chicago-based Silverman has been the first and only president of the BTN since it launched 11 years ago, and he will continue to oversee the channel that is 51 percent owned by Fox (the other 49 percent by the Big Ten) and also operated by the media company. Will Silverman systematically disassemble all that Horowitz did during his reign? That’s open to debate.
* As ESPN starts the process of replacing Jon Gruden as the main analyst on “Monday Night Football,” the network said it will have current studio analyst Matt Hasselbeck join Sean McDonough on the Jan. 28 Pro Bowl telecast in Orlando, Fla. “The process for determining our new Monday Night Football booth is already underway,” said Stephanie Druley, ESPN senior VP of events and studio production. “We are looking at both internal and external candidates and expect to have a decision made this spring. This is one of the most high-profile and attractive positions in all of sports broadcasting so we want to take our time to ensure we make the best decision.” Recently retired Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians is reported to be a viable candidate for the job. Want a three-person booth? One openly campaigning for himself to be added to the crew is Stephen A. Smith, who could be the closest version to a Howard Cosell-type figure that might actually spark renewed interest in the franchise, unlike the outside-the-box hirings in the past like Dennis Miller or Tony Kornheiser.
WHAT CHOKES
* As the NBA’s Orlando Magic announced the hiring this week of former WNBA Sparks star Lisa Leslie as its new pre- and post-game analyst for its Fox Sports Florida regional outlet, the question is begged: Why could neither the Lakers nor Clippers – or even the Sparks — thought enough of her to do the same? All those reps with KABC-Channel 7’s Rob Fukuzaki on the local NBA post-game shows, as well as work for ESPN, NBC and Turner Sports, have paid off for the one-time Morningside High and USC star whose retired number hangs in Staples Center.