Dec. 19, 2007

By Jim Sumner
theACC.com

• Follow the ACC Basketball Timeline

If you are like me, this is the time of year when you to figure out where to find the big basketball game. It might be on the Raycom Sports network. Or maybe one of the ESPN stations, or a FOX Sports Net affiliate, or CBS. But it's almost certain it's going to be on somewhere. ACC basketball on television is like the sun rising in the East and setting in the West, something so natural and expected that there's just no reason to take special notice.

It hasn't always been that way. Fifty years ago, in the infancy of television, the ACC took a bold step, putting together a package of televised games that helped publicize and distinguish the young league.

There were a few false starts. In January 1955, the ACC gave WUNC-TV, a public station, permission to broadcast a UNC-Wake Forest game. NC State played at Duke the same night and State coach Everett Case complained, "Too many people stayed home to watch the Carolina-Wake Forest game on television. You can't tell me TV doesn't hurt attendance."

This was the big question. Would fans brave winter weather, leave the comfort of their homes, and drive to games when they could watch them for free in the comfort of their living rooms? This was the same question asked that decade by Major League Baseball, the NFL, and college football, among others. The answers weren't always reassuring. Television - both sports and regular programming - helped send minor league baseball into a decline that would last for decades.

There was another entrenched interest to consider. The Tobacco Sports Network carried numerous games on the radio and they liked things the way they were. The stations were in place, the sponsors were in place. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Why mess with success?

The ACC tried to combine television and radio in a bizarre 1956 experiment. It was called Broadvision. A handful of UNC games were broadcast on WUNC-TV, but without audio. Viewers had to tune in to cooperating radio stations to hear what was going on.

Irwin Smallwood was a writer for the Greensboro Daily News and also worked for the ACC. Smallwood, who still lives in Greensboro, remembers, "Broadvision was doomed from the start. There were serious problems with a public station competing with for-profit TV stations. But the games whet people's appetite. Basketball looked good on television and people liked it."

If Broadvision whet people's appetite, the 1957 Final Four was a holiday feast. The undefeated North Carolina Tar Heels became the first ACC team to advance that far. Castleman D. Chesley saw an opportunity. A former UNC football player, Chesley had worked with ABC, NBC, and the now long-gone Dumont networks on college football broadcasts. Some of those were regional games involving ACC teams.

So Chesley knew his way around the nascent world of college sports on television. But what he did in March 1957 practically defies belief. In less than a week after North Carolina advanced to the final weekend in Kansas City, Chesley paid the NCAA for rights, acquired equipment, found sponsors, and put together a network of five North Carolina stations to show UNC's games from Kansas City.

Chesley did get lucky. North Carolina played two of the most riveting games imaginable. The Tar Heels defeated Michigan State 74-70 in three overtimes in the semifinals and then Wilt Chamberlain and the Kansas Jayhawks 54-53 in three more overtimes to win the title.

The reaction was stunning. Television ownership wasn't universal in 1957. Entire neighborhoods converged on the homes of those who had made the plunge. Appliance stores stayed open well past posted closing hours to accommodate potential customers. Hospitals rented televisions for patients and for lobbies.

Tommy Kearns was one of UNC's stars. He remembers, "We really didn't know what to expect when we got back. A huge crowd met us at the airport. We found out later that everyone had found a way to watch the game on television."

Jack Markham was a producer at Greensboro's WFMY-TV, one of the stations that carried the Chesley broadcasts. "The NCAA games got it all started," he recalls. "We had been producing a Frank McGuire show, so we had some idea of how popular this might become but we still were surprised."

Chesley was emboldened. That May he founded the C.D. Chesley Network and convinced the ACC to carry a dozen basketball games, Saturday afternoons, regular-season only; the ACC didn't broadcast the ACC Tournament title game until 1964. Chesley spent the summer driving up and down the four states that comprised the ACC. By the time he had finished, he had come up with 20 stations willing to carry the games. Chesley also signed Pilot Life Insurance Company as the anchor sponsor. Generations of mid-South basketball fans would grow up knowing at least some of the words to its theme song, "Sail with the Pilot."

ACC stalwarts like Case and Duke athletic director Eddie Cameron helped promote the TV package. Cameron told audiences that he would rather have the nation's youth watch ACC basketball than watch Mickey Mouse or westerns.

McGuire was a believer. He told the media, "Whether this change will be good or bad from the standpoint of attendance, I do not know. I do know, however, that the game will become more popular. More youngsters will be permitted to stay up at night to see the telecasts."

The inaugural telecast was December 7, 1957, at Woolen Gymnasium, as the defending NCAA champions hosted the Clemson Tigers. Unlike the March NCAA games, this contest was not a classic. Not even close.

It was UNC's opener. Clemson had already lost to Georgia and Duke, the latter only the night before in Durham. Clemson recently had hired Press Maravich as head coach and was starting to get serious about basketball. North Carolina only graduated one starter from the title team but was struggling to overcome some adversity. Center Joe Quigg suffered a broken leg in the preseason that would end his college career.

But even with Quigg absent, Clemson was overmatched. The Tigers were ice-cold from the field; they would make only 12.8 percent of their field-goal attempts in the first half. Making matters worse, UNC turned those misses into defensive rebounds and fast-break baskets. Clemson fell behind 15-1. Tommy Kearns, a speedy 5'11" senior, was particularly effective in transition. It was 39-14 at the half.

Clemson played better after intermission. A 12-0 run made the score 63-47 but Carolina stabilized and cruised down the stretch, winning 79-55. Kearns scored 32 points, making 12-of-18 field goal attempts and 8-of-12 foul shots. Fellow senior Pete Brennan added 14 points and 7 rebounds. Walt Gibbons led Clemson with 12 points, one more than Tom Cameron and John Yockel. North Carolina shot a blistering 56.6% from the field, Clemson 34.7%.

Frank McGuire praised his team after the game, stating he was "satisfied with the boys." But he apparently didn't mention the television broadcast.

Kearns isn't surprised. "It became very significant later on but it didn't seem significant at the time. Maybe it's because we had a little experience with TV. Maybe it's because we were so concerned with starting the season and defending our title. We were more concerned with playing than watching. But I don't remember it being a big deal."

Kearns added that the production was not a distraction. "I do remember that it wasn't a big operation at the beginning. A few cameras way back in the rafters. If someone stood up, you couldn't see a thing. It wasn't obtrusive at all."

Markham was more impressed. "It was very popular from the beginning. The games had great ratings and just got better. We got letters and phone calls thanking us for carrying the games. It became the nucleus of the ACC."

The Chesley network came back to Woolen Gym a week later to show North Carolina defeat South Carolina. The games got better, the productions got better, and the audiences grew, bringing ACC basketball into households across the region and enhancing the young league's reputation for quality basketball, a reputation that potential recruits noticed.

Irwin Smallwood has followed the ACC since the beginning. "They may not have known it at the time but it was an occasion of great significance," he says. "A new media takes on a life of its own and that certainly was the case here. People quickly discovered that having the games on television not only didn't reduce attendance, it helped. The league eased into it but the TV coverage took ACC basketball out of smelly gyms into living rooms and paved the way for the big arenas of today. There's no question it was a monumental thing. The ACC took the lead in branding and helped cross the line from sports to show business. It's hard to imagine life without ACC basketball on television."

Jim Sumner's articles on southern sports history have appeared in the ACC Handbook, the ACC Area Sports Journal, Blue Devil Weekly, Inside Carolina, the Wolfpacker, Baseball America, Basketball America, and other publications. His latest book, Tales From the Duke Blue Devils Hardwood, was published in 2005. In his bimonthly column "Looking Back... by Jim Sumner", he will examine the rich history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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