February 8, 2021
The committee has decided to allow me to drone on about sport other than track and field this week, so here goes.
Last week we saw in The New York Times that something like 148 college quarterbacks this year elected to go in to the 'transfer portal' hoping to be picked up by another school where they might have more playing time and a better shot at getting a professional contract. The money that many of these kids are earning through the Name Image and Likeness (NIL) system, makes me a little bit envious but really, in my day I would not have merited any NIL money, so I got over that envy really fast. But money has truly changed the face of college sport in the last few years. We may have forgotten that once, the University of Chicago Maroons played in the Big Ten and then one day the college president Robert Hutchins decided that they were first and foremost an academic institution and dropped football in 1939 and completely bailed out of the conference in 1946. "Hey, we developed the A-Bomb under our grandstand and won World War II, so who needs football?" They still have sport today but only at the D III level.
And once Centre College of Danville, Kentucky, 'The Praying Colonels' with an enrollment of less than 300 students won the Rose Bowl in the 1920's before disappearing from the headlines. They beat teams like Auburn, Clemson, Kentucky, Texas Christian, and Arizona and are still a DIII program and just known as the 'Colonels'. I guess their prayers were answered. That said, it seems that even at other schools, the idea that sport could make not just money, but big money to line the university coffers was not even a pipe dream.
Then while going through my favorite thrift store I came across about 20 copies of an old monthly magazine called "The Literary Review". The issues covered a wide variety topics of the day from the rise of Hitler in Germany, the early days of the New Deal and FDR, writers, book reviews, a bit of sport, and some poetry. I browsed through them but didn't find anything mentioning our sport and declined to buy even one of them at $5.00 CDN per rag. I did see one article of interest on American college football and how a number of schools were declining or reducing or even eliminating radio coverage of their games for fear that gate attendance would go down. People would stay home and listen to the big game and not buy a ticket. They had not thought of advertising and syndication. Two days later I went back to find that issue and they were all gone. Ah well. So I did a little Google search to see what came up. I didn't find the article but I did find something to corroborate it in the archives of Michigan State University. It is more or less an outline of a history of radio and sports events without much description, but it still says a lot about the thinking on campuses across the nation at the height of the Great Depression.
Here are those chapter headings, some of which I have edited out and or highlighted. While not detailed, you can still see the trend through the early 20th century and they haven't even discovered television with one exception. My comments are italicized and photos added:
COLLEGE SPORTS & RADIO BROADCASTING, 1912-1939 OVERVIEW •
from Michigan St. University archives.
First how the newspapers had the handle on sports coverage. ed.
1870-1920 PRINT MEDIA DOMINANCE • MADE COMPETITIONS INTO COMMERCIAL ENTERTAINMENT FOR MASS CONSUMPTION
NEWSPAPERS REGULAR COVERAGE OF SPORTS EVENTS. •
SPORTS SECTION DEVELOPMENT •
READERSHIP & CIRCULATION LEVELS ASSOCIATED TO SPORTING EVENTS •
BOXING, BASEBALL, COLLEGE FOOTBALL •
NEWSPAPERS CORPORATIONS TAKE ON SPORTS BASED ON: •
EVENT PREPARATION (“SELLING THE FIGHT”) •
EVENT DESCRIPTION (“BLOW BY BLOW”) • EVENT ANALYSIS & CRITICISM •
EVENT SIGNIFICANCE • EXPERTISE + HUMAN CONNECTION •
UNDERDOG PLOT STORY MEDIA & SPORTS •
1870-1920 NEWSPAPERS UNCONTESTED HEGEMONY ON PACKING SPORTS EVENTS FOR FANS. •
PRE-EVENT REPORT, FREE ADVERTISING •
“NEXT-MORNING” REPORT, FREE ADVERTISING FOR FUTURE SPORTS EVENTS.
• EXPERTISE “INSIDE-DOPE” FORMAT, PLUS “PERSONAL DRAMA”, STANDARD FEATURES ELECTRONIC MEDIA-RADIO ERA • ELECTRONIC MEDIA, UNWELCOMED TO SPORTS (BOTH COLLEGE AND PRO). •
INDIRECT SPECTATORSHIP, SEEN IN DIRECT CONFLICT WITH DIRECT ATTENDANCE AND GATE REVENUE. •
INDIRECT SPECTATORSHIP, CONSIDERED EQUAL IN SIZE AND SOCIO-DEMO PROFILE AS FANS WILLING TO PAY FOR THE TICKET. ORIGINS •
1912 RADIO BROADCASTING ACT: BROADCASTING LICENSES, TIME-LIMITS FOR BROADCASTING, WAVELENGTH DISTRIBUTION & ASSIGNMENT. •
1912 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 9X1WLB BROADCASTS FOOTBALL GAME. •
1920 WTAM COLLEGE STATION BROADCASTS TEXAS A & M FOOTBALL GAME “FIRST” EVER. •
1921 KDKA BROADCAST PITT VS WEST VIRGINIA, FIRST GAME WITH A COMMERCIAL SPONSOR. •
1922 OVER 70 UNIVERSITIES GET LICENSE TO CREATE RADIO STATIONS IN THE U.S. •
1922 AT&T WEAF STATION FIRST IN SELLING ADVERTISING TIME ON RADIO 10 MIN FOR $100 RADIO BROADCAST •
This week's Super Bowl ads went for $7 million for 30 sec.
1922 PENN, CORNELL, NOTRE DAME, HARVARD, YALE, GAMES BROADCAST. •
1924 WGN CHICAGO BROADCAST OF BIG TEN GAMES, PLUS USC, NEBRASKA AND PENN •
1925 ROSE BOWL RADIO BROADCAST •
1925 ROSE BOWL, NOTRE DAME-USC, BROADCAST TO NEW YORK CITY. •
1927 NBC COVERS ROSE BOWL •
1927 CBS BIRTH IN NEW YORK •
1927 DEMPSEY-TUNNEY 100 MILLION FANS MARK •
1928 NBC COAST-TO-COAST NETWORK •
1930 BBC BROADCASTS HARVARD-YALE GAME RADIO & COLLEGE SPORTS •
Hey what's beginning to happen here? Damned radio broadcast, now we can't sell all our tickets tickets. ed.
1930 EASTERN INTERCOLLEGIATE ASSOCIATION BANNED RADIO BROADCAST OF FOOTBALL GAMES. •
1932 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE AND SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE JOINED THE BAN •
1932 NCAA RULES “HOME RULE” STANDARD FOR BROADCASTING COLLEGE SPORTS •
1932 NCAA DECLARES RADIO BROADCASTING “HURTING” FOOTBALL REVENUES RADIO & COLLEGE SPORTS •
1934 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE BANS ALL REGULAR SEASON FOOTBALL BROADCASTS •
Ahh the Wolverine AD has been talking to the profs in the business college. ed.
1934 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SELLS ITS FOOTBALL BROADCAST RIGHTS TO WWJDETROIT FOR $20,000. CHEVROLET SPONSORS ALL THE TRANSMISSIONS. •
But aren't we confusing things with the two words Chevrolet and Transmissions?
Big Ten Commissioners, "Hey we're not so dumb we don't see what's happening." ed.
1935 BIG TEN PLAN TO SELL FOOTBALL SEASON BROADCASTING RIGHTS FOR $100,000 RADIO & COLLEGE SPORTS •
Monkey see, monkey do. ed.
1935 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE ALLOWS RADIO BROADCASTING AGAIN. •
Dust Bowl days make for profiteering. ed.
1936 ORANGE BOWL BROADCAST RIGHTS TO CBS FOR $500. •
The Eli's are a lot smarter than those boys down in Miami. ed.
1936 YALE UNIVERSITY SELLS ITS BROADCASTING RIGHTS FOR $20,000 •
Colgate? Are you freakin' kidding me? ed.
1936 DUKE-COLGATE GAME, FIRST BROADCAST COAST-TO-COAST EVER. •
In their infinite wisdom the NCAA takes a stand. ed.
1936 NCAA DECLARES RADIO BROADCASTING RIGHTS PROPERTY OF UNIVERSITIES, NOT CONFERENCES RADIO & SPORTS •
What have the Fightin' Illini got up their sleeves? Let's see, $100,000 divided by ten....? ed.
1937 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS VETOED BIG TEN PLAN TO SELL CONFERENCE BROADCASTING RIGHTS IN A SINGLE PACKAGE FOR $100,000. •
College baseball on TV? Who'd a thunk? How many TV's in homes then? ed.
1939 FIRST COLLEGE TELECAST: PRINCETON VS. COLUMBIA BASEBALL GAME •
Who got to the lads in Champaign-Urbana? ed.
1939 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ACCEPTS COMMERCIAL BROADCASTING OF FOOTBALL GAMES, BANNING IT FROM ALL OTHER SPORTS. RADIO BROADCASTING IMPACT • MULTIPLICATION EFFECT •
Junior, you better be home to listen to the Fight'n Illini. ed.
RADIO BROADCASTING REACHED MILLIONS OF AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS, WHERE ENTIRE FAMILIES LISTENED TO SPORTING EVENTS. •
Our halftime report will be coming to you straight from Mary Jane's Barbeque and Pancake house in downtown Mudflats, Tennessee on the banks of the Loosahatchie River . ed.
LOCAL & STATE & REGIONAL RADIO STATIONS BECAME THE IDEAL VENUE TO REACH MILLIONS BY CAPITALIZING ON REGIONAL, HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES RADIO BROADCASTING •
CRUCIAL ROLE IN TURNING ELITE SPORTS COMPETITIONS INTO ENTERTAINMENT FOR MASS CONSUMPTION. • SPECIALIZATION IN BROADCASTING ROLES •
We got this boy, Harry, what's his name, just outta high school to do the Cubbies for 5 bucks a game. Yeh but his guy Howie Cosell might have a future with the East Coast intelligensia. ed.
PLAY-BY-PLAY GOLDEN THROAT ANNOUNCER • “HOLY COW” GUY, OVER-THE-TOP, EXCESSIVE, HYPE-BUILDER. COLOR MAN. •
Why don't we give this guy Cronkhite a chance? I like his wardrobe that hat, OMG. ed.
Norman, OK 1937
EXPERT “INSIDE SECRETS” COMMENTATOR, ANALYSIS, MODERATION, PROFESSORIAL. RADIO BROADCASTING •
Howie, I got this great idea. We can charter the Hindenberg to do fly overs at the big games. It's due in any day now in New Jersey. I'll talk to the ship's captain. I'm sure we can get them for a few cases of Budweiser. ed.
Never mind, Woody, I got this great idea, we hook up Greta Garbo with one of those college boys at USC. Fans will come to see her even if it's a track meet. ed.
1930S TRASCONTINENTAL NETWORK •
Polly, aren't you supposed to be drying the dishes? ed.
UNLIKE NEWSPAPER READERSHIP, DIRECTED AT THE HOUSEHOLD HEAD IN EACH FAMILY, RADIO BROADCASTING PROGRAMMING WAS TAYLORED FOR ENTIRE FAMILIES, GATHERED IN THEIR LIVING ROOM, TO LISTEN TO MUSIC, VARIETY AND SPORTS. •
MASS CONSUMPTION OF DIVERSE PROGRAMMING ANCHORED IN MUSIC & SPORTS. RADIO BROADCASTING •
Hey, why don't we play on Monday nights, skip study hall, and .....
Are you outta your skull, who would watch this on Monday night, we'd be playing in the dark. They'd have to pay me...... ed.
POPULARIZATION OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL •
SHAPING OF INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC EVENTS AS REPRESENTATIONS OF AMERICAN YOUTH, AMERICAN SPIRIT AND AMERICAN IDENTITIES. •
IDENTITIES OF COLLEGE TEAMS WITH REGIONS, CITIES, HISTORICAL EXPERIENCES AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES. •
Sorry, folks, no track and field. We just couldn't sell it to the masses.
1 comment:
U shudda bought them at 5 bucks per
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