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“Legend Has It”…The Fence Between Networks At Super Bowl 1

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

“Legend Has It”…The Fence Between Networks At Super Bowl 1

Many of us have heard about the fence that had to be built between the CBS and NBC crews covering this event, but finally, here is the only photo proof that it happened.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-01-26/sports/8601070170_1_nbc-sports-pat-summerall-super-bowl
From the Chicago Tribune, here is the story as it was reported back in the day. FYI, CBS crews covered the game action, and used Norelco PC70s, which NBC carried, in the first and last simulcast of a Super Bowl. At the time NBC was near the start of their use of PC70s on their sports trucks too. Enjoy! -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

21 responses to ““Legend Has It”…The Fence Between Networks At Super Bowl 1”

  1. Dick Siley

    I was there in an end zone seat.

  2. Julian Munnich

    it’s been downhill ever since the divestiture of NBC Blue …; and get off my lawn.

  3. James Shea

    I remember seeing CBS remote trucks like these parked behind Television City during the late 1980s. After Westinghouse merged with CBS in the mid-1990s, a new engineering regime concluded it was more cost effective to rent mobile facilities as needed; and the CBS vehicles were sold, I understand.

  4. Laurie Atlas

    And my father was probably the technical director in one of those NBC trucks!

  5. Ted Langdell

    It would be interesting to see the “tale of the tape mentioned on page 2 of the article.

    Eddie Wiesman, NBC Sports publicist put together a comparison of what both networks were doing with equipment including cameras, tape machines, etc. and described the strengths and weaknesses of the announcers involved.

    His son said “it ran and all the papers.” So it might not be too hard to find

  6. Steve Dichter

    Frank Gifford @ Super Bowl 1:

  7. Jim Smith

    West coast n 4 and one of the east coast units too. Either n 2 or n 3.. tk41s. Shared cbs feed for some camera locations

  8. Robert Barker

    Isn’t it sad? An event not even 50 years old and there’s none, or very little videotape of Super Bowls I, II, and III? I know there’s the 3/4 of the game private tape out of there of Super Bowl 1, which no one can see for what seems a paltry sum. Does anyone know if the private tape is the CBS broadcast?

  9. Bruce Ferrell

    One network had the game feed…I think they even did the second half kickoff twice because the other network wasn’t back from break…I was 3 at the time, so somebody else will have to confirm

  10. Peter Sullivan

    Nice article Bobby…we note the wires flying over the trucks between the “sectors” !

  11. Christian Ackerknecht

    Funny how the compound today is just the opposite (in my eyes). Very communal.

  12. Craig Harper

    Something I have always loved about CBS is their understated design. The NBC trucks look like Ringling Bros., is in town with COLOR. CBS is understated with mostly whitespace and the beautiful didot fontb CBS COLOR. From the beginning CBS had an elegant style.

  13. Al Rider

    the fence didn’t stop wires from being run between units!

  14. Ken Jeffries

    I remember the dueling broadcasts…

  15. John Trautschold

    You mean NBC actually carried the game? 😉 I might be a bit biased (having worked for CBS) but I’ve always preferred CBS NFL coverage over NBCs or now, Fox’s for that matter. CBS always was, and continues to be a leader with sports coverage.

  16. Gary Sunkin

    Which cable we used watch the super bowl game?

  17. Alfred Robert Hogan

    I strongly disapprove of the violent and dangerous sport of American football. Plus football and other sports telecasts run roughshod over weekend network newscasts and potential special events broadcasts. That said, it is remarkable that neither CBS TV not NBC TV bothered to keep videotaped copies of their respective coverage of this 1967 game. An almost complete copy of the CBS version surfaced several years ago, and money-motivated petty squabbling among the assorted entities immediately ensued. I am not sure how or even if this has been resolved yet. What is now the Paley Center in NYC (and CA) had these broadcasts on its In Search Of lists for many years.

  18. Gary Walters

    Here I thought NBC purchased Norelco PC70s in 1968, but it had to be by late 1966.

  19. Russell Ross

    I’m jogging my memory…….the NBC trucks look like N-2 ?

  20. Charles Chin

    Great story! You can count on Eyes of a Generation for stories like these.

  21. Marc Wielage

    That’s a great story, well worth reading.

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