TV Coverage--Announcers and the Harvard-Yale game of 1968

[Europe]

I got the movie Harvard beat Yale 29-29 at the library. I notice a few things.First, there was only one black player that I could see and he was Calvin Hill of Yale, who went on to play with the Cowboys. Yale was actually ranked 16th. But I also noticed that there was only one announcer and no color commentator. It was a pleasure listening to some of the plays during the movie because the announcer just announced the game in a straight forward way with no extra hype. There was no color guy to give useless analysis trying to make himself out to be such an expert. It made me think how irritating it is to watch games today. CBS' coverage of SEC football is the worst. The announcers , Lundquist and Danielson, are terrible with their over analysis and know it all attitude. They constantly show crowd reaction. They have way too many cameras and are constantly switching cameras and the theme song is terrible.

Here is the trailer with a few of the plays show with sound.
http://www.kino.com/harvardbeatsyale/

Highlights but not original game announcer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sveyK5xFHzU

 

[Bronk]

I think you are right about Hill being the only negro on the field that day.

UPDATE: Don Martin, #45 for Yale, was, and may still be, black.

I could be wrong, but wasn't that game a local/regional broadcast and not a national one?

I agree with you about contemporray broadcasters. They overhype and overdramatize to the point of making the whole affair ludicrous. I like Lundquist but HATE Gary Danielson, he is an effing hack. The guy that really gets on my nerves is Brent Musburger. Aaaaaaggggghhhh! So overwrought and dramatic that he reminds me of a silent film actor who has suddenly discovered sound.

I prefer a restrained color comentator who can diagnose why a play worked or failed without all the bull**** coaching jargon and phoney phraseology.

 

[Truthteller]

Up until the mid 1990's the Hartford Whalers had one man (play-by-play) in the radio booth for all road games and many home games, because their idiot owner at that time was too cheap to hire a color guy. Throughout the 1980's and into the early 1990's the franchise was often referred to as "The Green Bay of NHL", due to their great fan support, so it was real sad it had come to that point due to bad ownership. Just before they moved, 1996-97, they hired Gordie Howe's son (Marty) to do color and he was amazing at it -- even better than the ESPN or NBC goys (sic).

I know this is off on a tagent, but I think one man being in the both has been rare for a long time -- I really got into sports in the 80's and I don't remember it in other instances for pro sports. Not sure, but it could've been commonplace in the 1960's and 1970's, especially in radio for college games?

 

[Europe]

I think you are right about Hill being the only negro on the field that day.

UPDATE: Don Martin, #45 for Yale, was, and may still be, black.

I could be wrong, but wasn't that game a local/regional broadcast and not a national one?

I agree with you about contemporray broadcasters. They overhype and overdramatize to the point of making the whole affair ludicrous. I like Lundquist but HATE Gary Danielson, he is an effing hack. The guy that really gets on my nerves is Brent Musburger. Aaaaaaggggghhhh! So overwrought and dramatic that he reminds me of a silent film actor who has suddenly discovered sound.

I prefer a restrained color comentator who can diagnose why a play worked or failed without all the bull**** coaching jargon and phoney phraseology.

It may have been regional. I really don't know. It probably was since there weren't that many games on national tv back then. I would prefer Brent over Verne, but to each his own. I can't stand Will Mcdonough. His voice alone is irritating to me.

 

[white is right]

I recall boxing matches on the radio being one broadcaster for the fight and maybe a studio or ringside reporter after the fight. Radio one man broadcasts are more effective because it takes longer for the broadcaster to tell the listener about the action. I noticed that since all sports stations and satellite radio stations have started to flourish golf and tennis have come back to the radio and those broadcasts are fun to listen to, too.

 

[Europe]

Up until the mid 1990's the Hartford Whalers had one man (play-by-play) in the radio booth for all road games and many home games, because their idiot owner at that time was too cheap to hire a color guy. Throughout the 1980's and into the early 1990's the franchise was often referred to as "The Green Bay of NHL", due to their great fan support, so it was real sad it had come to that point due to bad ownership. Just before they moved, 1996-97, they hired Gordie Howe's son (Marty) to do color and he was amazing at it -- even better than the ESPN or NBC goys (sic).

I know this is off on a tagent, but I think one man being in the both has been rare for a long time -- I really got into sports in the 80's and I don't remember it in other instances for pro sports. Not sure, but it could've been commonplace in the 1960's and 1970's, especially in radio for college games?

They haven't had one man booths for years. It could have ended in the 60's. I remember Jim Durham doing Bulls games on the radio in the mid 80's by himself. He was very good.

Didn't Vin Scully do Dodger games by himself for most of his career?

 

[sam2012]

Game announcer

The announcer for the game was the great Don Gillis a Boston institution for many years. It was a local broadcast as the Harvard games were shown on local tv every week. He also announced games for the Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics. A real legend.