USD Football 1992

Television has not always been the media force in college football that it is today.

BYTOMSLEAR "Science has scored a touchdown at the kickoff offootball by television. So sharp are the picwres and so discerning the tele– photo lens as it peers into the lineup that the televiewer sirs in his parlor wondering why he should leave the comforts ofhome to watch a gridiron battle in a sea ofmud on a chilly autumnal afternoon. There is plenty ofaction on the gridiron and that is why football is classed as a 'natural' for the camera." -New Yo rk Times critic Orrin E. Dunlap, 1939 Dunlap was easily impressed. At the Fordham-Waynesburg State game early that fall, just before th e war put the nascent telev ision technology on hold, cove rage by NBC consisted of an announcer and a single cameraman. There was no concept of ·'production." College football games, or television coverage of any sport for that ma11er, were not pro– duced. Rather. the camera simply took an unpretentious seat among the crowd, its function limited to serving as, well, a cam– era-no more, and very often, much less. What Dunlap witnessed resembles Tom Slear, a freelance writerfrom Maryland. a11dfreque111 co111ributor to Touchdown Illustrated, says, "Hi Mom!"

today's electronic extravaganzas about as much as a desktop computer, complete with color graphics, suggests a manual typewriter. The sole camera passed on fuzzy shots of the ball carrier while sound effects were limited 10 the ramblings of the play-by-play announcer, who occasionally had to create passes and laterals in order to prevent the viewers from realizing just how badly the cameraman was faked out. Then, of course, there was the question of how many viewers were tuned in. In 1939, there were 300 sets. tops, in New York City. Elsewhere in the country. the numbers were even more anemic. During the War, television production went into a deep freeze. Consequently, by 1946, the number of sets nationally had increased to only 7,500. That same year in Yankee Stadium, Army played Notre Dame for the national championship before a crowd of over 74,000. "If Yankee Stadium had a million seats," proclaimed Biff Jones, Army's athletic director, "we would fill it for this game." Television couldn't guarantee a clear picture or a big audience. When games were televised, the players very often didn't know it, or didn't care. Radio was the staple for play-by-play: the newspaper for recapitulation and analysis; and the stadium for viewing. Television back then

TOUCHDOWN ILLUSTRATED