Wednesday, September 21, 2005

"Are you ready for some football ???"...

NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle brought his idea for prime time football to CBS and NBC as early as 1968 with both networks turning him down but he found a taker at ABC. Producer Roone Arledge bought the idea and set out to create an entertainment spectacle wrapped around a football game and it would be called "Monday Night Football"...

MNF debuted on September 21, 1970 with 3 men in the booth led by the enigmatic and bombastic Howard Cosell. Cosell was joined by veteran play-by-play man Keith Jackson and former Dallas quarterback Don Meredith for color. Director Chet Forte positioned the cameras and quickly became the best in the business by using instant replay, never before seen graphics and innovative camera angles...

While there would be changes made over the years with Frank Gifford replacing Jackson and 3 men in the booth reduced to 2, "Monday Night Football" has remained a prime time staple for ABC. The NFL recently signed a new deal which will move MNF but keep it in the same (Disney) family when the monday night game moves to ESPN in 2006...

Oh by the way, the Cleveland Browns beat the New York Jets 31-21 in the first "Monday Night Football" game back on September 21, 1970...

Some personal views of Howard Cosell follow in my commentary...

More September 21 Memories...

1938) A surprise, unnamed category 3 hurricane slams into Long Island and southern New England causing 600 deaths...

1948) Milton Berle becomes the permanent host of "The Texaco Star Theater" on NBC-TV...

1957) "Perry Mason" makes its debut on CBS-TV with Raymond Burr as Mason...

1961) Bobby Vee tops the charts with "Take Good Care Of My Baby"...

1966) Jimmy Hendrix changes the spelling of his first name to "Jimi"...

1970) "Monday Night Football" debuts on ABC-TV (feature story)...

1972) "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me" by Mac Davis is #1...

1973) Henry Kissinger is confirmed as Secretary of State by the Senate...

1974) BTO releases "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet"...

1980) Elton John signs a long term deal with Geffen Records...

1981) The Senate confirms Sandra Day O'Connor as the first female justice of the Supreme Court...

1982) The Devils beat the Rangers 3-2 in an exhibition game. It's the first hockey game ever played in the Meadowlands...

1983) Billy Joel tops the charts with "Tell Her About It"...

1986) "Golden Girls", "Cagney and Lacey" and Michael J. Fox are winners at the 38th Emmy Awards Show...

1989) The Bangles break up...

1996) JFK Jr. marries Carolyn Bessette in a secret ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia...

1998) President Bill Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony about the Monica Lewinsky scandal is publicly broadcast...

1998) Olympic gold medal track star Florence Griffith is found dead at home. Flojo was 38...

2001) "America: A Tribute To Heroes" is shown. The telethon raises $150 million to benefit families of terrorist attacks on 911...

Happy Birthday to...

1931) Larry Hagman...

1947) The Eagles' Don Felder...

1947) Stephen King...

1950) Bill Murray...

1967) Faith Hill...

1981) Nicole Richie...

Commentary...

Howard Cosell surfaced for the first time in my life when he hosted a 15-minute local sports show on channel 7 in New York. In my first fulltime job in the ABC mailroom I was fortunate enough to have access to the studios and would take advantage of it by watching Cosell do his show live each night, waiting for his sports celebrities to walk off camera so I could meet them...

Fast forward to the 90s when I worked in the same ABC building that Howard Cosell did his network radio show in. Howard was in failing health and had just come back to do his radio show when I ran into him on a crowded elevator. "How are you feeling Mister C ?" was the question. In typical Howard Cosell fashion he turned to me with this reply "I'm just fine but you look terrible". He got a big laugh from everyone on the elevator including me...

Whether you liked him or not, that was Howard Cosell. Brash, cantankerous, name your favorite descriptive word for him, whatever he was he made himself into a much talked about TV star who didn't have any plans to start or end that way. Howard Cosell was a smart man with a law degree to prove it. Who knows, maybe he played all of us and had a great time doing it...