Saunders: ABC's demise signals end of an era

Monday, August 28, 2006

Like many fans, I've grown up with ABC Sports.

Early TV coverage of NCAA football.

The birth of the American Football League with Broncos quarterback Frank Tripucka and those terrible vertically striped socks.

The Winter and Summer Olympics in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including the terrorist events in Munich in 1972.

And how could a sports fan not follow Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell and Wide World of Sports with Jim McKay and Vinko Bogataj.

Vinko Bogataj?

He was the Slovenian ski jumper seen weekly in the series' trademark introduction, crashing down a mountain side, as the audio intoned "the thrill of victory . . . the agony of defeat."

An ABC Sports camera crew filmed Bogataj's horrific trademark spill during European ski-jumping competition. Suffering only a mild concussion, Bogataj later gained status when attending Wide World of Sports banquets.

Memories of the organization, which grew to such prominence under the late Roone Arledge, came flooding back after the announcement ABC Sports will pass into history Saturday because of a decision by the Walt Disney Co.

Major sports events, including this season's full 14-week prime time college football schedule, will still air on Denver's 7 and other ABC stations around the country.

And while there'll be an ABC logo "bug" in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, everything else will have an ESPN brand - graphics, scoreboards, sets and the names of the programs.

Because of the growth of ESPN, Disney executives say "it makes perfect sense" to move its strong brand of sports programming under one platform and banner.

It probably does - from a corporate perspective.

The dollars and cents decisions always supersede the sense of nostalgia.

Still, do you often feel that you'll wake up some morning and discover everything on television is under one production umbrella with a single brand name?

ESPN executives and several sports bean counters around the nation have voiced the opinion that if Arledge were alive (he died in 2002), he'd approve of moving the sports network he built into the ESPN stable.

I'm not so sure.

A brilliant executive, Arledge was a savvy, prideful competitor with a "don't-get-on-my-turf" attitude.

SCANNING THE SCHEDULES: Diehard college football fans probably don't have to be reminded the television season kicks off on ESPN2 at 4 p.m. Thursday when Boston College travels to Central Michigan. Next at 6 on ESPN: South Carolina at Mississippi.

A full schedule on ESPN, ESPN2 and FSN Rocky Mountain awaits fans Saturday, with the capper coming at 6 p.m. with the Notre Dame- Georgia Tech game on ABC-ESPN.

• USA begins coverage of U. S. Open tennis today at 9 a.m. The two-week event, with CBS joining coverage on the weekend, will center on the retiring Andre Agassi and James Blake, the highest-ranked U.S. player.

• Rev up your recording devices. ESPN2 will cover the semifinals of the World Basketball Championship at 1:30 a.m. Friday. The gold-medal game airs at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, also on ESPN2.

• One of the positive sports-oriented stories evolving out of Hurricane Katrina dealt with how the Louisiana State football team triumphed in the face of tragedy on and off the field.

Eye of the Storm (7 p.m. Sunday, FSN Rocky Mountain) documents how LSU players served as volunteer relief workers and recalls their inspirational season, which culminated with a 40-3 win against Miami in the Peach Bowl.

AWARD WINNER: You can't mention television and high school sports without mentioning CBS 4's Marcia Neville.

For more than 25 years she has covered the state's high school sports beat while spreading her reporting wings to include print coverage in the Rocky Mountain News.

Along the way, Neville also has anchored and been involved in the production of the station's Emmy winning series, Colorado Sportswomen.

So it's not surprising Neville will be inducted into the prestigious Silver Circle of the Heartland Emmy Chapter during annual award ceremonies on Oct. 21. The award honors television journalists, executives and personalities who have worked in local broadcasting for 25 or more years.

saundersd@RockyMountainNews.com