Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994 TAG: 9402050045
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In Iowa City on Sunday, CBS will put together two-thirds of the most-popular basketball team in telecast history. Billy Packer and Al McGuire will call the Purdue-Iowa game (1 p.m., WDBJ). No one knows how this Big Ten telecast will sound, except fun.
From 1978-81, Packer and McGuire literally were separated at courtside by Dick Enberg's play-by-play for NBC on college hoops. Although they have remained close friends, Packer and McGuire haven't worked the same game telecast since the 1981 NCAA Tournament championship.
"I think it did take courage to do this," McGuire said of the decision by Rick Gentile, CBS Sports vice president of production. "Courage may be too strong a word. Courage is a little like JFK. Foolish might be the better word."
Gentile's decision had roots in Norway. With Packer's regular play-by-play partner, Jim Nantz, in Lillehammer to host weekend studio shows at the Winter Olympics, Packer needed a sidekick. Why not McGuire? Whether Sunday's show works or not, they'll return Feb. 27 for an Indiana-Minnesota game.
Even the casual hoops viewer probably has noticed that in Packer and McGuire, the game has no play-by-play voice. Packer will fill that role - sort of. He has done play-by-play on college hoops once before - on a game at Mississippi State for Jefferson Pilot Sports.
"I thought I did a helluva job," Packer said. "I told the producer that and he kept blowing me off. Then he finally told me, `Packer, you were the least of our problems. We never got on the air.' "
The last Enberg-Packer-McGuire game certainly was memorable. Indiana defeated North Carolina at the Spectrum in Philadelphia for the '81 NCAA title. It was the day President Reagan was shot. In much more trivial history, it also was the day the last NCAA Tournament consolation game was played. Virginia beat LSU for third place.
CBS outbid NBC for the tournament rights, and Packer left Enberg and McGuire, who worked a reduced schedule of regular-season games. Two years ago, McGuire's last NBC contract ran out. Packer, in his 13th CBS season, got the network to hire McGuire for a few regular-season games and NCAA Tournament work.
It was probably best that the trip broke up in 1981, for there were days when they were bigger - and better - than the game they called. The reason the threesome worked so well was that Enberg was the circus ringmaster and while Packer and McGuire watched the same game, they saw it differently.
"I get nervous when I hear anything in my ear," McGuire said of his on-air experiences. "But, you know, I've never been critiqued."
"That's because nobody can understand you," Packer said.
"We're just going to do the game," McGuire said. "There won't be any preset phoniness or scam or schtick, as they say in the East, whatever that means. They say we're going back to where we were, but it's different. I'm like a Q-Tip. I've got moss on me, with legs."
\ ICE MEN: Salem Buccaneers play-by-play man Stu Paul was summoned from the bullpen by hockey's Roanoke Express to replace ailing broadcaster Tim Woodburn for Tuesday's 1-0 home win over Huntsville. Woodburn was suffering from a swollen larynx and was under doctor's orders to rest his vocal cords. Paul spent much of the afternoon before the game practicing his call.
"People around me probably thought I was crazy," Paul said. "I kept going Berdichevsky to Yashin, in the slot to Dubkov, back out to Berdichevsky . . . he shoots, he scoooooores."
Paul did a very creditable job with little time for preparation. "There aren't many people who could go in short notice and do as good a job as Stu did," Woodburn said.
Former Virginia Lancer Chris Lindberg, now playing with the NHL's Quebec Nordiques, will be the guest on "John Madden's Sports Quiz", which airs Monday at 12:38 p.m. on WROV (1240 AM). Lindberg, who played 26 games for the Lancers in 1989-90, will recount stories from the early days of the East Coast Hockey League.
\ AROUND THE DIAL: Retired Richmond basketball coach Dick Tarrant did a resume tape as an analyst at Wednesday's Maryland-Virginia game for Host Communications of Lexington, Ky. Host owns the rights to NCAA Tournament broadcasts, which are sold to CBS Sports, and Tarrant is hoping to fit into their plans next month. . . . The Big East Football Conference appears at least 10 days from making a decision on whether to leave the CFA television package after the 1995 season. CBS Sports has made a tentative offer of $55 million for five years (1996-2000) to the eight-team league, contingent on the Southeastern Conference first accepting a five-year, $85 million deal. . . . Keith Olbermann is returning from ESPN2 to ESPN on April 3. He will co-anchor an expanded one-hour SportsCenter weeknights at 11 starting in April. . . . Kyle Petty is driving on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit, but he'll be working as a pit reporter on ESPN's coverage of Grand National races in 1994. . . . NBC's Nielsen rating for Super Bowl XXVIII on Sunday was 45.5 (percentage of U.S. TV homes). That was the highest rating in seven years. . . . Recently retired Los Angeles Raiders star Howie Long is reportedly ready to sign with Turner Broadcasting to work "The Stadium Show" on the NFL package next season.
by CNB