Episode 03: How GenX watched sports.

Mark, David, and Casey join Shon to reminisce how GenXers kept up with their favorite teams and marvel at the growth of televised sports from the "three channel" days to the birth of ESPN. Plus they share their admiration and nostalgia for some favorite sports writers and broadcasters.

Credits: 
Haylee Wolf: narration.
Mason Enis: theme music.

Copyright @ PineStreetProductions 2024. Any illegal reproduction of this content will result in immediate legal action.

Transcript

[Music] welcome sports fans to Gen X classic

Sports where we bring the Nostalgia of our Sports fied youth into the present day do you remember when football players were stick them do you remember when the NBA played defense do you remember when Wrigley Field turned on the lights if so the Miss podcast is for you grab your favorite retro jersey crap open a cold one and let's stroll down memory lane together we're here to discuss iconic Sports moments teams and athletes from our generation this is Gen X classic sports sports talk for Gen xers by gen xers pleas that we you know well you know during our for during our formative years yeah all right so welcome to episode two we're going to talk about the media and broadcasting back in the day so to speak and it may not be episode two I'll probably have to edit that cuz I don't know what episode it's going to be all right all right so here's what I'm asking the panel the panel for this episode is Mark David Casey again guys how did we get our sports information when we were kids SL

teenagers growing up and trying to watch and learn about sports how do we get our

information Mark I'm going to send it to you what do you remember doing to keep up with teams and to watch teams and all

that um just kind of off the top of your head and then we'll sort of drill in some of

these early years early 70s I mean it was it was either NFL on TV

newspaper yep um exactly and that was about it that's all we had well I jotted

down some other things that I thought of but yeah those two for sure you the game of the week for college football or

whatever uh David made a great point on an earlier podcast the Monday night baseball was the thing too back then

right um okay so M Mark says watching football games on TV and the newspaper

David what do you remember about how we got our sports information the newspaper for sure it was a lot bigger back then

for sure cuz there was articles on of course of course your information was several days late you know after

happening it's not it's not the instant information we have now and also Monday

Night Football at halftime showed highlights of Sunday's gam which was the whole big deal man yeah that was huge

you know that was huge to watch that was Sports Center for us that was that you're right you're absolutely right and

I'm that's there may have been another highlight show sometime that I don't remember but it was Monday night at

halftime and Monday Night Football was big to watch cuz you can see all the good highlights were good you know good

for us at the time totally agree well I want to set the stage before I kick it to Casey by saying this was the three

Channel days corre for people that don't know that we had three channels ABC NBC

CBS so those different channels had their um contracts with different sports

and whatnot and that's how you piece together there was usually one college football game of the week probably

there's probably there was one well there were two n there was probably an NFC and an AFC football game and then

one or the other would maybe have a 3:00 game and then there was a Monday night game so by my count that's four football

games a week out of the NFL that's maybe two college football game maybe CBS had

one or two and then ABC might have one or what so three or four uh that's total in a week three

football games for college three or four for NFL uh one for Major League

Baseball um so uh three channels and then you got your

information from box scores you got them from the summaries written in the newspaper a daily newspaper and when

David said what he said what popped into my head was the phrase the 24-hour news cycle if the ball game went past

10:00 and the local news didn't have the score you didn't know anything about that again till 7 or 8:00 the next

morning if it was in the newspaper correct can you imagine kids today that are sports fans like my son or

whoever uh having to wait until the next day to read in a paper newspaper what

the score was from the night before cuz they I mean it it was a completely different world about how we interacted

with and watched Sports well anything really but we're talking Sports um I

wanted to say before I kick it to Casey too that I distinctly remember the

pregame show um on CBS with ER cross phis George

and Brent mustb you got about 30 minutes before kickoff for themmy the and Jimmy

the Greek thank you Jimmy the Greek you got about 30 minutes before kickoff now keep in mind this was in the late 70s to

talk about the matchups who's going to win and lose uh the betting lines and

interview a player or two squeeze all that into 30 minutes and go kick the ball off that's what we that's what we

were used to back then um so three channels

daily newspapers I wanted to say that we got our uh I made a note of this we got our news from uh the Elber News Times

which was an Arkansas publication obviously we got the sh Port time anybody's family have the sh Port times that y'all can remember on Sunday on

Sundays yes okay um and uh we had Mark

mention newspapers too but I want did we have a Monroe paper Monroe right some people had a Monroe paper Maybe I don't

remember I don't remember that we didn't we had a sh Port that our grandparents got on weekends Sunday I guess and then

we had that daily Elder if a game went too late on Monday Night Football it wasn't even in the paper on Tuesday

you'd be Wednesday before you you go to school not knowing who won the Monday Night Football game kids today would not

believe that um also I want to mention Mark you said uh newspapers but I wanted

to add myself before I kick it to Casey the role that magazines played back in

the day I was a huge fan of Sports Illustrated right and there was also a

Sport magazine okay and then you had other things that y'all can mention but

those were the two that popped into my head about I couldn't wait for Sports Illustrated to get to the house it came

like Thursday or Friday or whatever and you get to the interviews you the the

scores were irrelevant there were other ways to find about find out about those but you got the preseason

information you got the uh the interviews with the Stars I mean it was that was awesome uh and then Sport

magazine was kind of like its ugly younger sister or something it was just sort of a a different one but not as

good I guess but I do remember Sport magazine you said newspaper do you remember any anybody well I'm going to

go to you do you remember any magazines back then yeah this is easy

um I'm I'm younger so I remember ESPN was already a thing by the time I was interested

sports but one thing I do remember as a kid was Miss acock at

church had a subcription and I to the Cowboys it was either was it a monthly a

weekly had a weekly Cowboy weekly Cowboys weekly that was a paper paper she had a subscription and she would

read it and she would give it to Sean and he would study that thing cover to cover cover to cover every week it was

the only way you found out anything about the Cowboys in depth even from Street Port or Alo you just got the the

the top level she subscribed actually at times we subscribe to it too this is the

same woman who told the preacher to shut up before noon so she could get home for the kickoff at noon cuz he was going too

long but she was a huge Cowboys fan and so yes you teams had their own

newspapers I'm sure a lot of them did but I just did the Cowboys obviously yeah U but do y'all remember any other

the magazines that you had to go browse other than Sports Illustrated in sport David what' you have the sporting new

sporting it was like a newpaper too and actually to me it was better than Sport magazine it it was pretty in-depth too

some of the it's articles uh yeah was that weekly or other I think it was

weekly too it was a thick like a newspaper and it was you know it sure

was yeah you know Sports illustrator had the glossy pictures and stuff but the sporting news still had the you know

kind of the newspaper newspaper type picture I remember it was literally a

treat for me when Dad would say hey I think I'm going to go ahead and buy us a Sports Illustrated thing for another

year it's probably 10 bucks a year you know maybe maybe but that thing came

every week man I mean come on uh I love Sports Illustrated back then not even in

publication anymore in paper completely shut down the paper unreal do you

remember Sport magazine Casey by any chance the ugly little sister vaguely uh

I remember Sporting News yeah yeah uh okay well I wanted to throw magazines in

there cuz I definitely was a big participant in that um so three channels

we already know that uh there was obviously no internet um I don't think

anyone's going to say this but I'm just going to ask is anybody remember listening to live broadcast of

games um on the on the radio back then

anybody surely surely we did but no I don't remember

either back then specifically say I can't either actually I probably listen to more games on the radio since then

and since the internet than I ever did before which is really odd you remember ever I don't I don't

either mark no well and so in addition to the newspapers and magazines that

I've mentioned how about these two the Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas

Gazette and why those are important is because of this thing that comes up over and over which is the fact that we lived

in hogland and LSU Tiger land um Arkansas supported somehow two

newspapers that were Statewide and um for Arkansas fans they had a couple of

writers orble Henry and whoever that really went in depth with Razer back

coverage for football every Sunday or Monday I can

remember boy you talk about something kids can't relate to who remember was going to school going to the rack at the

back of the library that had the the wooden poles that the newspaper was sectioned out in and hung on a rack

right through a pole I bet our kids can't even picture what we're talking about I'd go straight

for the poll that had the sports section on it and they'd had like The Gazette and then of course later on they had a

newspaper war and emerged Casey's probably like I didn't know they were two newspapers but oh I do remember okay

but I would go straight on Mondays for the sport because it was really I think like the Sunday edition that was thicker

and had more information but the the Razorback kids really read that that

because it went really in depth about the previous game Mark was there equivalent to that that you can remember

for LSU did treport times cover LSU to that extent they did they did okay they

they covered LSU but like I said it was only on Sunday yeah

and honestly LSU wasn't that great in the 70s and '

80s so not a lot of not a lot of interest

um yeah probably not because of their success rate or whatever at that time um

let's see what else case anything you got to add about newspapers and

magazines does everybody agree it was kind of like it is now with the local news the news would come on you get 10

minutes of News 10 minutes of weather and 10 minutes of sports y'all y'all remember how 20 after you pretty much

were ready for the sports or whatever it was do remember that um yeah and so just think about the news cycle being so slow

back then that you literally might go to bed and not know how a World Series game ended or whatever the case might be um

let me ask you this does anybody remember the World Series being during the daytime at school yes I do too yes I

I remember yes I remember the World Series still being played during the day and kids at school asking I wonder how

the reds are doing or what you know and I'm like what and you know they're because I'm used to football being played at night and they're like well

the reds are playing the A's right now and you're like really uh kids now not

me and not anybody in my age but I have heard people say that people a little older than us would sneak transistor

radios into school and run the one little plug that went in your ear the wire stick it in there and listen to the

World Series at school that's how big big of a deal and important it was to some kids back then when it was truly

the national Pastime I I always found that pretty interesting all right let me let me throw something else at y'all so to set

the stage for the three Channel days cuz I just don't think young people can kind of wrap their minds around it but all us

geezers can we're talking three college football

games a week probably how did they pick those games where did those games come from how did

ABC maybe show one CBS show a couple or in other words what teams got the

exposure to be on those na they weren't Regional they were National broadcast so

we probably we probably would understand if a Notre Dame was on there this was before they had their own contract but

can you imagine being a top 10 nationally ranked team and not even

being on national TV half the year no right I mean it's hard to even say that

hear it and understand that that was a thing back then and it it didn't click with me at the

time but before uh cable why Arkansas fans would just lose

their minds cuz they were going to be on ABC that way it didn't occur to me that they were on TV only on TV maybe twice a

year maybe once and maybe once and it may be because they played Texas and it may be because they played Texas and I

don't know how LSU fig figured into all that but I remember seeing a lot of Texas Longhorns football a lot of like

UCLA USC football a lot of Michigan football Oklahoma football Oklahoma but

people would lose their minds in our area if LSU or Arkansas fell on an I I

imagine LSU since they weren't that good back then if they played a nationally ranked Old Miss or whoever I'm just

making up Alabama then they probably ended up on there too but can you imagine a world where your team is the

top 10 15 program and they're not even on TV but want to see I mean that's insane nobody would believe that that

was the case right so having said that in the early 80s

something came along to our little town I think I was in the fourth grade and we got something called cable vision and

talk about changing your world quickly yeah um I don't I I really need to

research the history of this and figure it out but somehow WGN out of Chicago and wtbs out

of Atlanta went National through more more and more parts of the country getting cable

vision and our grandparents went from Cardinal fans so their routine in retirement was

this get up early go work to the Garden come back in eat lunch and then uh my

granddad would sit down in the hottest part of the day and cool off or whatever and he would watch Atlanta Braves

baseball and this was a the side of the family that had been clearly Cardinals fans back to to the he was born in 1910

and he could remember them listening to Cardinals games on the radio right he went immediately over to the

Braves cuz they were on every freaking day during the summer and he became the biggest Dale Murphy fan and the Braves

at the time I'm just going to throw some names that y'all not uh had uh Dale Murphy they had uh I think a guy named

Glenn hubard second basem they had Bob Herer at third I don't remember their

Short Stop they had a guy named maybe claudell Washington yeah outfielder they had was he outfielder first base was he

outfielder both Dale Murphy was an outfielder and that's kind of who uh Chris chamblas didn't he play for Chamas

he was their first baseman all right I don't remember their catcher but our Grandpa would sit there and Dale Murphy

was his guy Dale Murphy for those who don't know didn't wear back and gloves he wore bare hands up there bading D

Murphy was a stud and he was a stud and uh and our grandpa because of cable

ision became a huge Braves fan now four blocks away I I'd like David to say what

happened on the other end of town other end of our neighborhood down there what was going on on WGN for you um we were

Cubs fans I was a Cubs fan and it was wasn't because the team was very good it was because of Harry kry their

announcer and honestly that's the reason why I never liked the Braves because

Harry Cary son called their games and I could not stand stand the way he called a game was that skip or chip skip was

the son chip was the grandson right now Chip I think Skip and whoever would call

the first three Innings then chip would call the middle three chip wasn't bad skip I just didn't like him to to set

the stage Harry Carey was entertaining if I was in the fourth grade when we got cable that means you guys were about the

ninth grade and Casey was a kindergarten or whatever and then suddenly every

afternoon we've got baseball now and you either watch Chicago or 115 nor won a cup started and the reason for that was

what didn't have lightss in regular field another thing that would blow people's mind now that

that are young that wait you had a stadium without lights in the 80s absolutely we did so but do you remember

I know you said it was because but that was literally you just happened to see Harry a game you listen to Harry Cary

for 2 minutes and you're like this is the guy it was overtime I I watch several Braves games that's why man I

know several of their players yeah but they also came on in the evening times you know by this time we're pretty big

Baseball fans yep we watched the Cubs at 11:5 and the Braves come on at what 6:35

or something OD time like that stadium so but I just I don't know after a few I

couldn't tell you how many games but Harry Carey was just more entertaining to listen to you know even if he would

miss all the game so to speak Mark was anybody in your family listening to the Braves or the Cubs and and how did you

kind of fall into all this with us W with you guys you guys were the influence of that U hanging out with you

guys in the summer at David's house yeah I y'all were too young to work when this really first started I mean y'all

weren't y'all weren't driving to a job and sacking groceries and hauling hay and all that we were still too young to

do that right so uh where we grew up it was so

freaking hot during the summer that you didn't just even even us tough 80s kids

we didn't just go outside at 1:00 for the for the giggles we we might actually eat lunch and kind of hide out for a

little bit which fit in perfectly with the Cubs routine because they play at 1:00 or 115 like David said and you know

about 4:00 they're wrapping things up hopefully and what were we trying to do at 4:00 trying to get out there and play

whle ball when you know and so we did have this routine David David watching the Cubs no matter

what the rest of us are waiting on it to get over with so we can get out there and play with fo ball um so yeah I I

mean if you were a baseball fan you watch one or the other both they were on the same time A lot of times um anybody

got anything anything else about that that you find interesting cuz I think about Chicago pumping a signal into

South Arkansas and creating a legion of cubs fans right that's just crazy I mean

it's a precursor for everything we see now but it's crazy to think about it does seem like it's more people like

your grandparents they they follow the braid they like the bravs better than the Cubs and I don't really know why

that was for them honestly I just I just know he liked Dell Murphy but yeah I don't I don't know how that happened

maybe they didn't want to be CBS fans because they were Cardinal's fans you could not do that Mark I hadn't thought

of that I hadn't thought of that it's kind of like a good alternative to not get in the middle of all that yeah

because we we didn't see any Cardinals games I mean they were fans but you know if you wanted to watch I'm saying watch

baseball it had to been the the Cubs or Braves and so maybe that's what our grandpa was doing I hadn't thought of that Mark it's really if your family

going back to the Depression was Cardinals F how you going to all of a sudden start rooting for the Cubs you're not that's true that's a really see we

learned so much um I don't I I remember WGN and watching the Cubs at Daves and

all but I don't know the reason but I remember the White Socks playing on there too so I don't know how they

decided which one they did I'm thinking when the Cubs on the road or something they might have showed a

big maybe they're off day or something could be yeah and they sucked back then

no one cared no one cares now both of them suck pretty much well that's true but you know the Cubs were I'm not

saying this CU it's who we watched it was truly because we didn't get a we

didn't get a Yankees Channel we got a Cubs Channel we didn't get a Red Sox channel we got a Cubs

Channel it was going to be one or the other for the these kids just think about the fingers reaching down in the

Deep South and creating a bunch of fans for a Midwest team like that I remember

and please y'all tell me was it 85 when the Cubs and Padres went to the postseason 84 I remember that being a

big deal right you just y'all just graduated high school and I guess and

the Cubs went up against Tony Gwyn in the postseason and how heartbreaking that was that ended up being ultimately

but I just inly remember how huge of a deal it was to play the postseason that

year um does anybody know the year they turn the lights on cuz I did not look it up I think 88 I think I'm thinking 878

somewhere in there too somebody look that up I'll look that up real quick to to think about a major league but even a

college Stadium not having lights is laughable right and here you had this

historic I don't even know what year it was built but the fact that they only it gets hot in Chicago I bet players were

so sick of playing in the heat man you know back playing 81 games a year in the Heat or whatever 1988 1988 it was a

massive Sports story when they finally turned the lights on uh at Wrigley um y'all remember y'all remember

that kind of the hype around that or whatever I do yeah yeah I do too I don't remember who they played I honestly

think the first game was rained out I'm not sure um I'm pretty sure it was I think they started it and it got rained

out yeah if people are listening to this and they're going crazy cuz we don't have our trivia nailed down that's not

dudes we are we're just not those dudes we don't remember exact dates and stats we we're we're plugging into the emotion

and the and the time and all that so you stat heads that that are screaming at us

just just Hammer us we don't care we don't care Casey what you remember the C what you remember about our whiffle ball

in the neighborhood and the Cubs and braak what more about beyond our grand par what do you remember about Cubs and

Braves I just I do remember the uh lights being such a big deal yeah in 88

I do remember that cuz you were a Junior High kid by then yeah yeah

um yeah uh we we were kind of in that vacuum of no real Major League connections up until then and then all

of a sudden boom if you were going to watch any baseball you had a couple of pretty good options there you mentioned

we weren't Yankees or you know red so if they had have piped them down there that's who we would God forbid we' be rooting for the

Yankees oh my Lord it could have been anybody it just happened to be a Midwest and a southern team that got and you

know it's just it's just really really strange that that happened well and

another thing about baseball and and media and your TV I think about now how

we have the like the SEC network my wife can watch every Razer back game now we didn't have any college games right on B

on TV then either right and you can watch everything now right B ball yeah

whatever yeah so that brings me to this I made a note said pregame shows before

College pro football and college games and exposure all right so I'll mention this I remember CVS being Earth cross

phis George Jimmy the Greek as David said and uh Brent musberger Brent musberger still working um what do y'all

remember about the coverage itself the pregame shows we've already talked about

the highlights and the and the how we learned who won that was newspapers and stuff what do youall remember about the

games themselves how they were broadcast and announcers and pregame shows what y'all got any thoughts on

that cuz cuz I'm saving the big topic for last uh Keith Jackson is probably the

original football for college football I I don't know how far back that was but

he's like the biggest memory y'all remember Frank brols being his broadcast partner yeah I do thinking who's this

Southern who's this dude with the southern draw I had no idea for years it was Frank BRS unless I probably just

zoned out and didn't know Frank bws doing the national broadcast right yeah and with Keith Keith Jackson by the way

Keith Jackson the announcer not the tight end um but do y'all have any

recollection of college pregame like it it's such an event now you've got Fox

you've got ESPN you've got ABC CBS they're all on simultaneously talking

about the same stuff we might have had a 15minute lead into the kick maybe right

maybe I don't I don't remember at all really it's nothing I don't remember a single announcer other than Keith

Jackson at for college football back then of course you know no way was college football competing with NFL back

then not a chance not then not then no way so maybe that's why there wasn't a

big lead in um I remember in the NFL

that um a lot of EX players did the color Analyst job on the broadcast

themselves um I remember Terry Bradshaw briefly on CBS tried to be like a color

analyst in the booth and it just didn't for whatever reason they kicked him to the studio um I don't remember a lot of

uh you know who who talked and I remember the the Monday night football crew whole different issue but on the

the networks I don't you I remember Keith but I don't remember who maybe

Barn L Barn lanquist was Cowboys radio announcer for years and then he moved to

National I don't remember who called NFL games really I don't either was it like

the Bob trumpies and well Howard coell but that was Monday Night Football right

that's the only time you saw it except and it took a while to happen but the suay except Sumer all and Madden

eventually but before them I don't have a recollection of who mm- like Sunday

afternoon yeah I mean just I just have no clue who that was on the mic when the Cowboys played unless it was some roll

and then someone other than Madden that preceded Madden with him who it could have been um so that leads me to the

final not the final topic but the final crew I wanted to talk about was that Monday night football crew we grew up

Monday Night Football kids uh one of my earliest memories as far as a specific player play game Etc

was Tony Dorset running his 99 yard touchdown against the Vikings on Monday Night Football I was watching that game

when it happened I lost my mind I'm sure y'all did too the evolution of the Monday Night

Football cruise over the years I remember the uh uh coel and I want to

say Frank gford yep days was that maybe am I right about that Frank gford I

think yeah he was with him at one time and then Dy da Meredith of course what was the big thing about that play

10 men on the field for the Cowboys yeah little trivia there Don mer said 99 and

a half 99 and a half uh D Dandy non Meredith who was oh my people that don't

know just YouTube Dandy non Meredith highlight uh him Frank gford who people

don't probably don't remember was a real buttoned up uh sort of a the straight man to to Meredith a heck of a football

and a heck of a halfback for the New York Giants in the Heyday of the the the birth of the NFL really in the 50s and

such um and coel um they were must see TV right

right I you just it didn't make a who it didn't matter who was playing you had to watch that um and I have no stats on

this no years but my recollection is they were together for a pretty good while during our childhoods do y'all

remember anything else on Monday Night Football from being younger I mean I know what stuff happened I can't say I

was actually watching when it happened but do y'all know something y'all know other significant things about Monday Night Football just the the halftime

highlights yeah John John lenon getting murdered

specific announced it to the country that's how the country found out yeah yeah that was a big one uh I can't say I

was watching at that he was extremely shook up yeah he'd been on there before Lennon had sat in on a game with him

before for a few minutes on Monday Night Football and what did Dy Don Meredith do with when the game was in hand he' sing

turn out the lights the parties that's right um You Know It evolved after that

I don't remember after Coale necessarily who all you know did it uh we were all

watching I'm not sure OJ Simpson was on some OJ Simpson was on for sure the NBC

pregame show I remember that who was on Monday night was on Monday night he may have been I'm not saying he wasn't um

lots of EX players um for some reason Dan Fouts is in my

head as being an announcer on CBS or something maybe a color um so was he

with Bob trumpy dick inberg maybe dick inber I'm thinking of I think I

think it was B honestly I don't know I'm I'm biased but for me the gold standard

was always Pat Sall I mean I can't say I remember him as a tiny kid but certainly

as a teenager it was pet some wrong absolutely any else got anything on announcers you remember or moments from

Monday Night Football oh Monday Night Football or any any of that about announcers cuz I got the final topic right here anything mark on announcers

in general yeah just any of those guys back then cuz I'm Football announcers any of them baseball Scully was he's

like the ultimate to me Ben Skully was probably better Su off yeah Ben Scully

um do y'all well I don't want to get into that Vin Scully was the Dodgers guy

but he didn't ask too didn't he yeah Jack Buck was pretty good too Jack Buck was um yeah we could

do a whole discussion about the the Harry krey I think I going to go back to

the Cubs that's what I'm trying to say okay I thought Harry Carrey was the star of the show no matter what was going on

and you see pictures now him with his boxers on and his pants are missing and he's got his feet in a tub of ice and

all cuz he's up there you know burning up and stuff that dude was his own can you imagine that dude with a pod

or the kind of Internet stuff that we have now I invite anybody who listens to

this to read Harry K's book just to find out his story I think I've read it before it's it's uh interesting he was

something else for a long time and he the crazy thing was he'd been the uh Cardinals announcer and the white sock

and the white socks I mean the teams that he had worked for but uh he was he

was the star of the show himself as far he was kind of the Howard coel of baseball I me I mean he was just he was

the man of such an entertaining dude to listen to call a game the stuff he said

about people in the crowd and all that was just Priceless yeah all right so that brings me to the final topic on

this one let's talk about the birth of a little Network called ESPN this little

struggling entity in the late 70s Mark what year did ESPN debut 1979 I had no

idea I thought it was in the ' 80s honestly so yeah ES PN has grown into

this thing that it is this conglomerate owned by Disney and ABC and ESPN are the

same and all that what you guys remember about ESPN being born so now we're not

stuck with three channels now we've got this other thing that says hey you geers

that love football or love sports we're going to give it to you 24 hours a day

365 how are you how are you going to handle that my first thought when ESPN

came out was how were they going to cover that much Sports and make it

interesting right and some of the early things that they did were not that interesting well I jokingly said it was

because they didn't have any money they couldn't buy the rights to anything interesting so they had shuffleboard title games and they had a dark

championships and just crazy events but that's all they could afford to show bowling I remember bowling my thought

was this this will be gone in a couple of years a't that funny um

it took them a long time to actually broadcast college sports that we cared about certainly forever to get in NFL

and Major League Baseball and all that they showed a lot of stuff on repeat they showed a lot of stuff on

repeat but we were in it for the highlights in the early days we were in it for the highlights and so there's a

whole cast of characters that evolved out of that but before we keep jumping into ESPN I want to say that I was a CNN

Sports Fan I was just gonna and also the Sports Machine yeah there was an alternative to ESPN back then yeah

that's that's awesome I'm glad you said that Sports Machine Sports Machine uh what was that I don't remember it's like

Sunday night review of the Week sports 30 minute highlight show I can't remember that guy's name and I he was oh

something something Sports Machine it was it was a so and so in a sports machine What station was that it was like a on NBC or something after the

news went 11:00 or something came on he kind of recapped the entire week it wasn't

dedicated to any one sport I do remember the CNN he was a famous he was a famous

public picture who was that guy the Sports Machine you're looking it up oh

um but I was a CNN Sports Fan I'm going to give you two names Nick Charles and

Fred Hickman yeah they were great those were my guys before ESPN went crazy

hiring former players to be announcers and these places had journalists

George Michael George Michael Sports machine machine how did we forget that I don't know recap the week's worth of

sports in about 30 minutes it was maybe an hour I don't know it was awesome but I was a Nick

Charles Fred Hitman they had highlights on every night just like ESPN and I watched

theirs um I didn't watch the ESPN ones until Dan Patrick and

uh uh I was going to ask who who's the Keith obman and those guys that's who I first started watching who's what was

the earliest guys y'all who are the earliest ESPN guys you remember think I think that it was mustsee I gotta get up

in the morning and watch the highlights from these guys I'm thinking the curly headed guy um Charlie something Charlie

rer Charlie Steiner Stein Stein Stein and he may not be one be one of the

originals but that's Bob Lee I remember Bob Lee and Charlie Steiner I remember Burman Chris Barman early obiously

because of a nickname but he did baseball nicknames yeah you know bertt behome BL 11 and jod Davis eyes and guys

like that you know he had the nicknames for baseball highlights u i he's one of the early

ones I remember Tom me who died he drowned uh Bob Lee Charli

Steiner uh and then like I said I kind of have this Haze and then it it shows

up with the Oberman and Dan Patrick right and that crew and then it kind of became must SE for me that was pretty

much when I was like in college I think I had to watch the highlights and mornings

um they became their own personal people though it's it wasn't just Nick Charles and what was the other Fred Hickman Fred

Hickman he had uh Linda con was she on CNN first I forgot that yeah and she's

still doing it for ESPN now yeah and there was some other I just remember she was on on CNN I'm pretty sure I'm sure

somebody will correct me if I'm wrong I'm not doing a good job of it but I do like talking about about journalists

versus former players who just get on there and scream and stuff back then

writers actual Sports journalists would get finally get camera

time like they started shoving a camera and my guy was Peter King and he just

retired poor I mean I we won't have Monday Monday Morning Quarterback ever again by Peter King he just hung it up

before the draft Peter King was on CNN with Fred Hickman and and Nick a lot and

he would preview that day's games on CNN I watched it instead of the ESPN

stuff um the stuff that happens now it took uh decades to evolve into you know

what it really is um so Casey you you remember who' you say was your first uh

Charlie Steiner Stein one I remember and he did basic he he did broadcasts of different he call it games

too um anybody else got a ESPN name that

jumps out at you earli I mean early yeah I mean it

obviously we know it evolved in the Stuart Scott right yes he was must SE

for me Stuart Scott doing highlights and Dan hick uh Dan Hickman Dan uh Patrick

oh and uh who was the blind guy that had been the the the the one that made all the

Kenny M Kenny M oh yeah Kenny M that was a big one for me too

um I don't know ESPN became a kind of became Rich Eisen Rich how did we forget

Rich Eisen yeah Rich Eisman took over the NFL Network he had a uh I like his home run call he's like so and so and he

got it yeah yeah Rich I mean some big names that went on a lot of them went on to do other things but I like the fact

that they would pull in an actual journalist and I'm going to throw some names at you for baseball it was Peter Gamin who had been a lifelong I guess

Red Sox was he the Red Sox guy can't remember I remember probably uh Peter gamon's uh the Peter C I'm not saying

ESPN specifically but just whoever they pull in the Peter gamon's world uh who

was the guy that that that hosted the show with all the different guys on and he typed with one finger when they

showed him uh dick dick his son's on the SPN dick shap dick shap Trey shab's not

Jeremy Sha's D yeah uh dick Sha uh was a was a well-known writer I mean

a journalist first of all and he he had a big presence on there I need to correct myself it wasn't uh Linda con

was Hannah Storm Hannah Storm Hannah Storm was on CNN Sports night okay and you're going to realize let's

see Did You Know Dan Patrick and Keith Overman were both on there post on there

on CNN no I know on CNN Sports night no not at all that's crazy before ESPN uh

before they went yeah Chris Sager would didn't he go to ESP at some point I

don't maybe not anyway but those two names uh Overman and Dan Patrick jump

out as you know they they pretty much made their career at ESPN but since here

they were former Sports night sports tonight host huh

um before before games themselves I have

zero recollection of college football pregame shows just zero I don't before

Lee Coro and all that I don't recall at all what happened I probably didn't even tune it in until the kickoff do You'

have any any memories of college football coverage I can't I can't think of anything I remember I mean I know

like Brad nestler and all these dudes but that called the game I don't remember any pregame shows though I'm

kind of I have a blank must must have just been radio yeah it's a good point we didn't listen to radio much no no we didn't um

okay um pregame show um oh I was going to say when we

talked about ESPN ESPN did do a really good job a lot of people thought with

their Sunday night baseball and who were their two guys on there for years and years and years Joe Morgan and um

golly I remember Joe Morgan Charlie Steiner ended up doing it didn't he Tom

at some point but but it was John Miller wasn't it John Miller that's right and uh Joe Morgan Morgan were on there for a

long time yes yes they were the face of Sunday night you may not like the way they called it but you know who they

were the minute they came on the air yeah yeah that uh I just I always that always stuck out to me that that they

did that um anything else about media how we got

our news about sports and how we watched the sports back in the day jog my memory a little bit here um

in the'80s uh you mentioned LSU me being an LSU fan

you guys remember Jefferson Pilot Sport yes like a regional kind of approach Regional you you could catch a LSU on

there but that was later right it kind of evolved into that okay

okay yeah I do and that evolved into other things and I'm sure eventually involved right on into ESPN didn't it I

mean it became gobbled up then SEC network on into that yeah it's

fascinating to me that you can watch a football game on your phone now and you know when we were guy when we were

growing up loving Sports we couldn't even watch our closest teams in proximity to us play but once a year or

something it's crazy to me all right anybody got anything else about the media and how uh Sports were covered

back in the day if not all right we're going to end episode whatever number this is going to end up being right

there thank you for joining us on genx classic Sports where Nostalgia meets The Thrill of the game tune in next time for

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