September 17, 1955…First College Football Colorcast

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The first NBC color coverage of a college football game was in Atlanta when Georgia Tech Yellowjackets played the Miami Hurricanes, September 17, 1955 at Grant Field. Not long after that, NBC went to Ann Arbor’s “Big House” for a Wolverine game. In the great video below showcasing RCA color and the first commercially available color camera, the RCA TK41, there is about 30 seconds of the Michigan game at the end of the clip.

In that there weren’t many color sets till the mid 60s, why did they do all this color production? For two reasons…first, every color event taught both RCA and NBC how to do better color work and constant upgrading and modifications were being made to enhance the image on black and white sets. Second, the more color shows offered, the better chance to interest customers in a new RCA color set.

Below is a 4 minute clip showing the great RCA TK41s in service, including the football remote. 


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