The first football game broadcast by ESPN ? Year was 1980. Open and scroll down for answer.
http://www.texasbob.com/stadium/stadium.php?id=274

The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network went on the air in 1979, and it was definitely not the ESPN we all know and hate love today. The whole concept of "media" as it applies to sports hardly existed compared to now.

I remember very specifically in the early and mid 80s that ESPN did not have the rights to broadcast live college football games on Saturdays, but rather would repeat the broadcasts of the most-recent weekend's games on Mon-Tues-Wed. the following week. As crazy as that sounds, remember that in those days you only had ABC showing 1 or 2 games on Saturdays (I mean, 1 or 2 games in any particular market. They certainly had broadcast crews at more games than that, and some games were telecast regionally). So the ESPN-repeats during the week was actually the typical viewer's First Chance to see a lot of these games. Plus (of course), ESPN could wait until after the games were over to decide which repeats to run, so they (of course) picked the most exciting or significant games.

The 1980 game between UT-Arlington and North Texas was not, obviously a Division I-A game, so possibly ESPN was able to show that one "live", I don't know.

**ESPN did score the rights to some of the lower-mid level bowl games in those days, and it paid off in a big way in 1984, when BYU went 12-0-0 and played a 6-5-0 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl (no corporate sponsorship in the bowl-name in those days!). ESPN billed the game as being played for the "National Championship", which was literally true (BYU was ranked #1 in both polls) though not exactly a #1-vs-#2 match-up. Barry Switzer, the OU head coach was very explicit that he considered the WAC a minor-league, and BYU a minor-league team. Switzer's Sooners were 9-1-1 (tied Texas, and a shocking loss to Kansas) and ranked #2 going into the bowls. Switzer said loudly and repeatedly that OU should be the Nat'l Champion if they beat #4 Washington in the Orange, regardless of what BYU did with Michigan. (#3 Florida was on probation and sat home) But Oklahoma lost to Washington and BYU was the NC in both polls, not unanimous IIRC but definitely with a solid margin over #2 Huskies.

(03-06-2010 02:36 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  The 1980 game between UT-Arlington and North Texas was not, obviously a Division I-A game, so possibly ESPN was able to show that one "live", I don't know.

**ESPN did score the rights to some of the lower-mid level bowl games in those days, and it paid off in a big way in 1984, when BYU went 12-0-0 and played a 6-5-0 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl (no corporate sponsorship in the bowl-name in those days!). ESPN billed the game as being played for the "National Championship", which was literally true (BYU was ranked #1 in both polls) though not exactly a #1-vs-#2 match-up. Barry Switzer, the OU head coach was very explicit that he considered the WAC a minor-league, and BYU a minor-league team. Switzer's Sooners were 9-1-1 (tied Texas, and a shocking loss to Kansas) and ranked #2 going into the bowls. Switzer said loudly and repeatedly that OU should be the Nat'l Champion if they beat #4 Washington in the Orange, regardless of what BYU did with Michigan. (#3 Florida was on probation and sat home) But Oklahoma lost to Washington and BYU was the NC in both polls, not unanimous IIRC but definitely with a solid margin over #2 Huskies.

Both North Texas and Texas-Arlington were Division I-A in 1980. UTA was in the Southland which was I-A until 1982 and the league champ was the host team in the Independence Bowl.

But it was a delayed game because ESPN says its first live telecast of college football was the 1982 Independence Bowl.

(03-06-2010 03:00 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  Both North Texas and Texas-Arlington were Division I-A in 1980. UTA was in the Southland which was I-A until 1982

Wow! I had no idea about that.


I did remember the Southland champ being in the Independence Bowl for a while, but I didn't realize they were classified as I-A.

wow they were really fast to forget their humble beginnings.