John Madden and Pat Summerall Call a D-III Game
The Day CBS Carried a Sunday Doubleheader of NCAA Division III Games
By Denis M. Crawford, College Football Hall of Fame Historian
Labor Day weekend provides one of the rare moments when college football games are played on Sundays, normally the province of the National Football League. In 1982, however, the first Sunday in October found the hours between 1 pm and 7 pm EST filled with college football…not just the level of competition one would expect.
The National Football League Players Association walked off the job prior to Week Three of the NFL season leaving millions of football fans without their Sunday fix. The lack of professional games also left the networks in a quandary as to how to fill a six-hour window normally occupied by the NFL.
CBS re-broadcast Super Bowl XVI on September 26 but elected to do something unique on October 3: a double-header of NCAA Division III football.
Why Division III?
CBS had recently re-obtained the rights to college football after a long-hiatus and network sports president Neal Pilson and his team convinced eight D-III teams to move their games from Saturday the 2nd to Sunday the 3rd. This served two purposes. First, it gave CBS football on a Sunday and, second, it fulfilled the network obligation to show four D-III games in 1982.
The four games rescheduled were (locations in parenthesis):
Baldwin-Wallace at Wittenberg (Springfield, OH)
Commentary Team: Pat Summerall and John Madden
West Georgia at Millsaps (Jackson, MS)
Commentary Team: Tom Brookshier and Wayne Walker
Wisconsin-Oshkosh at Wisconsin-Stout (Menomonie, WI)
Commentary Team: Tim Ryan and Johnny Morris
San Diego at Occidental (Los Angeles, CA)
Commentary Team: Dick Stockton and Hank Stram
Logistics
As seen in the details above, CBS sent their top NFL talent to some of the smallest venues in the game. They also sent their standard equipment and crew, which gave these games an NFL feel although it required some modifications. To accommodate the broadcast cameras, Occidental had to build scaffolding because they only had bleachers on one side of their stadium. Wittenberg had to remove windows from their press box so Summerall and Madden could get a better view.
The games led to overflowing crowds as the excitement generated by the chance to appear on national television led to thousands of fans ringing stadiums with banners and elaborate costumes in the hopes of catching the eye of a CBS camera operator.
All the announcers were very respectful of the action. Pat Summerall may have summed it up best when he signed off by saying, “After 31 years of every Sunday being associated with the NFL either as a player or a broadcaster, it’s nice to be on campus.”
The Games
There were stars in each of the games:
Occidental running back Vance Mueller scored two touchdowns in the Tigers’ 34-20 upset of #15 San Diego
West Georgia’s Lamar West returned the opening kickoff 92-yards for a touchdown in the Wolves; 41-6 rout of Millsaps
Wisconsin-Stout quarterback Glen Majszak accounted for two scores in the Blue Devils’ 23-15 victory over Oshkosh
The real star of the day, however, was Baldwin-Wallace kicker Steve Varga. His 47-yard field goal proved the difference in the Yellow Jackets dramatic 16-14 win over rival Wittenberg. When Varga celebrated his kick, an enthusiastic Madden said, “I like Varga!”
Hall of Fame head coach Dave Maurer, who led Wittenberg to two national championships during his career, was disappointed about losing the game but thrilled that both his squad and Baldwin-Wallace had risen to the occasion and put out a great effort on national television. “They gave everything they had,” Maurer said. “I don’t think they cheated the people here or those watching on television. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Given the status of Madden and Summerall, the Hall of Fame resume of Maurer, the theatrics of Varga, and the close finish, the Baldwin-Wallace – Wittenberg game was the gem of the weekend.
The exciting day proved to be a one-off, unfortunately. While the teams appreciated the opportunity, moving more games from Saturday to Sunday proved difficult as the larger schools did not want to inconvenience fans and the logistics to accommodate CBS was too great. Until the NFL strike finally ended in November, football fans would have to be satisfied with a smattering of Canadian Football League games and a lot of boxing.
But for at least one Sunday, Division III football entertained the nation.
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