Post by 01- PirateDave on Feb 27, 2015 21:55:51 GMT -6
Men's Basketball, Fordham Official Website | 2/27/2015 6:29:00 PM |
Bronx, N.Y. (February 27, 2015) – Seventy five years ago something happened that would change the game of college basketball, though it would take years to catch on. Dick Vitale was himself an eight-month-old diaper dandy when Fordham appeared in the first ever televised college basketball game, a game that would forever shape the world of college basketball.
Back on February 28, 1940, W2XBS broadcast a men's basketball doubleheader from Madison Square Garden. Fordham took on the University of Pittsburgh in the first game followed by a matchup between New York University and Georgetown University. Not many people watched the game as it was estimated that fewer than 400 television sets existed in New York City back then, when a top-of-the-line set, a Clifton, sold for about $600.
The game didn't go well for the Rams, who fell to the Panthers, 57-37, and the fact that it was televised was hardly news, not even getting a mention in The Ram's coverage of the game. But many years later, no one can imagine television without college basketball.
It really wasn't until the 1960's that Eddy Einhorn thought basketball might have a future as a national sport. Before that, national networks had no interest in televising college basketball and there was no ESPN or other regional sports networks. So Einhorn founded the TVS Television Network and started a crusade to get college basketball games on television by speaking with coaches, athletic directors and TV executives.
Even with Einhorn pushing, it was still a slow start. TVS began broadcasting the early rounds of the NCAA tournament even though there was no market for the games. For the first championship game he televised, the matchup between Ohio State and Cincinnati in 1961, Einhorn said he paid the NCAA only $6,000 for the rights, but even at that bargain price he struggled to find any stations outside Ohio and Kentucky to show the game.
Einhorn played a big role in the first nationally televised college basketball game, the Game of the Century between Houston and UCLA in 1968 from the Astrodome, a game that featured UCLA's Lew Alcindor and Houston's Elvin Hayes. But first he had to convince UCLA. The Bruins' head coach, the legendary John Wooden, wasn't high on the idea of televising the game. Einhorn persuaded the UCLA athletic director that it would be beneficial and the athletic director was able to sell Wooden on the idea.
So much has changed in college basketball since that fateful day in 1940. Today there will be hundreds of college basketball games televised all across the country and on the internet, CBS has paid out billions of dollars to televise the NCAA Championship and Dick Vitale has made a name for himself as an announcer. But it can all be traced back to that February day in 1940 when Fordham tipped off with Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden.
Bronx, N.Y. (February 27, 2015) – Seventy five years ago something happened that would change the game of college basketball, though it would take years to catch on. Dick Vitale was himself an eight-month-old diaper dandy when Fordham appeared in the first ever televised college basketball game, a game that would forever shape the world of college basketball.
Back on February 28, 1940, W2XBS broadcast a men's basketball doubleheader from Madison Square Garden. Fordham took on the University of Pittsburgh in the first game followed by a matchup between New York University and Georgetown University. Not many people watched the game as it was estimated that fewer than 400 television sets existed in New York City back then, when a top-of-the-line set, a Clifton, sold for about $600.
The game didn't go well for the Rams, who fell to the Panthers, 57-37, and the fact that it was televised was hardly news, not even getting a mention in The Ram's coverage of the game. But many years later, no one can imagine television without college basketball.
It really wasn't until the 1960's that Eddy Einhorn thought basketball might have a future as a national sport. Before that, national networks had no interest in televising college basketball and there was no ESPN or other regional sports networks. So Einhorn founded the TVS Television Network and started a crusade to get college basketball games on television by speaking with coaches, athletic directors and TV executives.
Even with Einhorn pushing, it was still a slow start. TVS began broadcasting the early rounds of the NCAA tournament even though there was no market for the games. For the first championship game he televised, the matchup between Ohio State and Cincinnati in 1961, Einhorn said he paid the NCAA only $6,000 for the rights, but even at that bargain price he struggled to find any stations outside Ohio and Kentucky to show the game.
Einhorn played a big role in the first nationally televised college basketball game, the Game of the Century between Houston and UCLA in 1968 from the Astrodome, a game that featured UCLA's Lew Alcindor and Houston's Elvin Hayes. But first he had to convince UCLA. The Bruins' head coach, the legendary John Wooden, wasn't high on the idea of televising the game. Einhorn persuaded the UCLA athletic director that it would be beneficial and the athletic director was able to sell Wooden on the idea.
So much has changed in college basketball since that fateful day in 1940. Today there will be hundreds of college basketball games televised all across the country and on the internet, CBS has paid out billions of dollars to televise the NCAA Championship and Dick Vitale has made a name for himself as an announcer. But it can all be traced back to that February day in 1940 when Fordham tipped off with Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden.
good luck to all!