Are you ready for some football?

You know, I just haven't written enough for this blog.  (Conversely, there may be some of you who think I've already written too much.  In that case, I'm not talking to you.)  So my pledge to you, dear readers, is to try and give you more to read - even if not all of the pieces contain the significant social and cultural study I'd promised when I started this almost a year ago.

Example #1 is a clip from one of the oldest extant college football television broadcasts: Notre Dame vs. Indiana, from September 29, 1951.




A few notes: it's the opening game of the season (on September 29! They only played 10 games at this point), which Notre Dame wins 48-6 (Indiana is bad as usual; rare enough that the Fighting Irish get off to a good start nowadays). According to one of the YouTube comments, the game "was actually a broadcast done by something called the Theater Television Network*, which didn't do traditional broadcast to homes, but to theaters, where patrons bought tickets to watch the game on the big screen. TTN began in 1951 by televising Truman's State of the Union address and followed with college basketball games that winter and this Sept. 29 game from South Bend, Indiana. TTN died two years later." 

 
*Sounds like a topic for a future piece, doesn't it?

And the announcer? None other than the future anchor of ABC World News Tonight, Frank Reynolds! Who knew? TV