May 17, 1939…Television’s First Sports Announcer & Baseball Game

On May 17, 1939 NBC broadcast a baseball game between Princeton and Columbia Universities from Columbia’s Baker Field. Two RCA Iconoscope cameras covered the event that was carried on NBC’s experimental station W2XBS in New York. Princeton beat Colombia 2 -1.

The rare color image is that of Bill Stern, the man that called the action on this first ever televised sporting event. It was on purpose that coverage was of the second game of a baseball doubleheader between Princeton and Columbia, because during the first game, they all practiced, and took feedback from 30 Rock on the closed circuit run through.

On September 30, 1939 he called the first televised football game. It was a college game between the Fordham Rams and the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets played at Triborough Stadium on New York City’s Randall’s Island. Fordham won the game 34–7.

NBC hired Stern in 1937 to host a radio show called “The Colgate Sports Newsreel”, as well as Friday night boxing on radio, which made Stern one of the first televised boxing commentators, and the man Dennis James looked up to.

Many say that Paul Harvey copied Stern’s style, and his stories about the famous and odd, which Harvey called “The Rest Of The Story”. Although Stern made no effort to authenticate his stories, in later years, he did however introduce that segment of his show by saying that they “might be actual, may be mythical, but definitely interesting.” Below, is Bill Stern narrating “The Colgate Sports Newsreel”, with guest BABE RUTH. Hear the similarity? Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD9lTCLDZX4&ab_channel=OleTymeRadioShows

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