The 1963 Army-Navy game holds an established place in rivalry lore: Delayed a week following the assassination of President Kennedy, Roger Staubach led the No. 2-ranked Midshipmen to a 21-7 fourth-quarter lead, and the Navy defense fended off a late Army rally to secure a 21-15 victory. Despite that history, the game’s true place in the sports-viewing pantheon has almost nothing to do with the on-field participants and everything to do with Tony Verna, who died Sunday at age 81. Verna, then a 29-year-old director with CBS, had developed what was a then-unheard of bit of video genius, which he used late in…
Browsing: instant replay
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j7CnIqIhNk[/youtube] For those of us who groan through what seems like an unending litany of instant replays in college and NFL football games, partial blame falls on the Army-Navy game for the technology’s birth. The first ever use of instant replay occurred at the end of the 1963 broadcast of that year’s Army-Navy game won by Navy 21-15 after Army scored a touchdown. In fact, the technology was so bewildering that it caused many viewers to think Army had scored twice to win the game. Michael Connelly wrote about it in his book The President’s Team: The 1963 Army-Navy Game…
