The CRAZIEST BROADCAST CONTROVERSY in Michigan/Ohio State HISTORY

[@russf6572]

I missed the first half because I was sitting in a GAS LINE!

[@Tmcgraw79q]

I was doing church visitation that day for my churches youth services going on that weekend. So I never knew this about this game.

[@williamjordan5554]

Don't know why this keeps getting ranked higher than in-state rivalries, where opposing fans have to live and work together year round.

[@brianarbenz1329]

Kentucky-Louisville (once they finally started playing) divided families, workplaces and neighborhoods.

[@davewielhouwer11]

I was 7. I lived in suburban Detroit area. My father was livid. My brother and I paced around the house. When Sadat was murdered in 1981 people said "that's the guy who cost us half of the 1st quarter of the Mich-osu game. Go Blue!

[@johnwilson2414]

I too watched and was upset that day from a suburb north of the D. I still watch as much as I can. GO BLUE!

[@marquan1976]

Thank you for making this channel for College Football Controversies. Never miss an episode.

[@altfactor]

Maybe ABC should have asked the University Of Michigan to delay the start of the game until after the ABC News special report had ended.

[@altfactor]

Or put the game, without audio, in a corner of the screen.

[@americangiant1003]

That is why I suggested above. Since Sadat was not given that historic speech in Israel until the next day Sunday, then as soon as his plane landed then switch over to that game in Ann Arbor with a short 10 minute introduction.

[@americangiant1003]

@@altfactor I don't think Split Screen existed in 1977. Not to mention satellite camera was only around 15 years old in 1977 as well. So that option was not around then.

[@handyscapersllc]

Lucky I wasn't alive for this.

[@ericmeeuwsen2226]

I was 7 years old and I vividly remember not being able to watch the beginning of this game. Also, it was Woody's last game at Michigan

[@settermanfishing]

How Dare They, Interrupting The Game!

[@americanidol30]

Don’t you just hate it when ABC, NBC and CBS all show the same news coverage at the same time? An example would be an unscheduled presidential speech. If Joe Biden gave a speech at 11:00AM, CBS would preempt The Price Is Right. And when the speech is over, CBS would join the show in progress and not show it in its entirety.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

Yeah I remember NBC cut away from the Norte Dame game to show the Joe Biden Presidential victory speech. That wasn't the right move. Couldn't they just cut into the NBC LX programming and just show it there. It makes no sense.

[@WillGrimm623]

Because sometimes the national event is more important than the sporting event

[@americangiant1003]

@@WillGrimm623 Actually the announcement of a new POTUS-Elect has Worldwide impact as well. Unlike 1977 and the topic of Michigan/Ohio State with the ground breaking visit by Sadat to Israel, I think NBC might the right call 📱 to switch to the Biden Acceptance speech. Also NBC could have had a short interruption also that was being Notre Dame was being switched and show the full Biden was accepting his victory as President-Elect. Then have Anchor Lester Holt mention that the Notre Dame game was going to be flipped over to say Sister Cable Network USA Network until the acceptance speech was over. In a nightmare of a year of 2020 and that vital election, you correct Will, that NBC made the right call on that evening of Nov. 7, 2020. In situations of a major national/worldwide breaking news event, there is no reason here in the 2020's decade, that both that news story and the game being interrupted can *both* be shown.

[@WillGrimm623]

@@americangiant1003 I agree they could have done both Picture in Picture.

[@americangiant1003]

@@WillGrimm623 If you mean NBC dumping out of the Nov. 2020 Norte Dame game, I agree on a picture with picture. With the sound only on the Biden Acceptance speech. While that game should been flipped over to the USA Network.

[@tombuir]

Power 5 arrogance. Their football is more important than anything.

[@philduritza7717]

This channel is so great at unearthing college football stories I’d never known had happened. Keep up the great work!

[@p8nisman-not]

Fr so underrated

[@samstamos427]

I was at this game! I never knew about the TV blackout at the beginning. I remember the end, as Rod Gerald* fumbled the ball away. Woody Hayes then punched the ABC cameraman after having thrown his headset to the ground and grumbling some words. I was seated in section 3 row 10 and all of this happened right in front of me. 14-6 Michigan wins! Go Blue!

[@RM-ed1if]

It was Rod Gerald not Cornelius Greene. Rod Gerald was a similar runner to Greene, but he liked to pitch the ball late and he was prone to fumble.

[@samstamos427]

@@RM-ed1if Thanks for the heads up, I would've lost a bet on that. ;-) I've edited the above comment and stand corrected. Cheers..

[@thomascrowley9122]

Should've done split screen

[@americangiant1003]

Thomas I don't think(correct Guys if I am wrong) the so called "Split screen" technology was available in 1977. I know when the 1st Persian Gulf War aka "Desert Storm" got underway in Jan. 1991, "split screen" was considered back then brand new. In that Jan. '91 time period, which was held during the NFL Conference Championships both NBC Raiders/Bills for the AFCCG and CBS Giants/49ers for the NFCCG had split screen for brief showings of the press conferences that then Pres GHW Bush, Sr and Commanders Gen. Colin Powell (later Sec. of State for Pres. Bush, Jr)and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf had. With both games, being in the bigger screen and the Press Conferences by Bush Sr., Schwarzkopf and Powell in the lower corner.

[@marcus813]

TV size back then wouldn't have allowed that concept to be viable. This is 1977 we're talking about.

[@jessebest5961]

lol

[@JimTrussell]

Here's one for your analytics... I first saw your strange scenario with 27k views video first about a week ago. Watched it. Watched something else by you right after. But carried on. Just caught this video right now because it came into my feed.... I will subscribe now 😎🔥 all hail the algorithm 😂

[@kentfreeman8674]

I heard about this but it happened before I was born

[@stephaniegormley9982]

Me too. My dad was in high school and my grandad was the biggest football fanatic on earth. Also they lived in Michigan and were looking forward to this game. My grandpa (Korean war vet) wasn't all that upset. He said this story was about world peace so it was more important, and they did listen to the game on the radio.

[@SPTO]

Honestly, while it may have been "controversial" Arledge made the right call here. One of the things about Arledge is that he was very much a stickler for preserving history and having a record of major events. He did this with the sports division by archiving broadcasts. In fact, in the '70s while most networks taped over/wiped sports events Arledge kept ABC's broadcasts for posterity. Something like an Arab leader going to Israel for the first time isn't just some "ordinary" visit. This was the beginning of a long process that would culminate in the Camp David Accords so it was truly a historic moment that needed to aired and preserved for all time. Oh and LOL about that one caller....Yeah, never gonna watch that station but as soon as the game comes on you totally forget that threat LOL

[@orangehoof]

I remember a sportswriter pointing out how this was the sort of story that was right up the alley of ABC's Roone Arledge. "You have Ohio State and Michigan fighting for the rights to the Rose Bowl and you have Israel and Egypt fighting for the rights to the Sinai."

[@DolFan316]

I stand with the fans on this one. Sadat was just visiting Israel. That's it. There was no need to drag it out forever.

[@MrSchimpf]

12:32 I'm glad to finally hear a male equivalent to the retort most soap opera fans have given to ABC since Ryan's Hope/Loving/One Life to Live/General Hospital have claimed they would do when they all came to an end. It truly is universal. 😂 But it's fair; this was big news in 1977 and if they didn't cover it, they were pretty well screwed if they didn't, so nobody was going to be happy.

[@Keith_McDaniel]

The latter of aforementioned soap operas still running on ABC as of today

[@americangiant1003]

@@Keith_McDaniel Very True. As of Dec. 2022, General Hospital is the only one left of the 1970's/80's era hit Soap Operas group.

[@raydolph8776]

Only roughly half the audience saw the end of it too. GO BLUE!

[@rand49er]

At 45 years ago, I don't recall if I was at that game or not. Pretty sure I was. I was a graduate student and had season tickets, so I must've been. Go Blue!

[@clydemiller4776]

ABC’s decision was a little weird from a business standpoint, but from a philosophical standpoint I get it. As a sports fan I might be annoyed at first that I’m missing the game I want to watch, but in the grand scheme of things an event like this is much more important. And in retrospect, I might even be happier that I got to witness history as it happened.

[@americangiant1003]

Clyde that is why as a "compromise" for this kickoff of this critical UM-OSU game in late 1977 could have been delayed for up to 30 minutes or so. That why at least the Viewers could have seen Sadat's arrival in Israel. Then after a short 10 minute intro start the game at around 1:30pm.

[@DNSKansas]

@@americangiant1003 ABC didn't need to cover this. People obsessed with the news could have tuned to NBC or CBS.

[@americangiant1003]

@@DNSKansas While you make a valid point, then ABC Chief Executive Roone Arledge was trying to build up their news department which up to that recent time in 1977 was a laughing stock as a National Broadcast throughout it's history going back to the '50's compared to CBS and NBC. Arledge had just hired away Barbara Walters away from NBC to Co-Anchor their dinner time newscast first with Harry Reasoner and later Frank Reynolds/Peter Jennings. The Sadat trip to Israel was Walters first major International assignment so it was also a major business decision for ABC to show his arrival "live" to compete with CBS and NBC to show America and the rest of the World they was now a major "World Class" TV news station. That is why as a compromise (I was only in Kindergarten school in 1977)IMO this Michigan/Ohio State's kickoff should been delayed 30 minutes.

[@mfdixon1985]

It's not a matter of comparing the severity of the incidents. ABC was not the only place the news could be covered. It was the only place OSU and Michigan could be seen. If the regular program is an infomercial or some rerun, yeah. Air the news. But that's one hell of a counterprogram to punt so you can air the same thing being shown in 2 other places

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

Also this was a time where ABC and the other three networks don't have sister channel's to move events to other networks without cutting away from there main channel.

[@jamespond1977]

Michigan and Ohio State Football is NOT the biggest rivalry in sports. Football is NOT important as something that is going on in the world as this big.

[@riceymartin2203]

Considering everything that's happening in this day and age, is it safe to say that one can get away with blaming Israel for this? Because I think that's one of the very few times this statement rings true.

[@mr.green2341]

Sadat, Egypt, and Israel should have known better to schedule their event during The Game! Priorities, man! 😁

[@travisbraman4597]

Interesting that game was a 1 o’clock kick off. I always thought the Michigan ohio game kicked off at noon. I would of been pissed too lol. Go Blue!!

[@robertmiller5777]

Back before television controlled everything in sports, Michigan home football games began at 1 pm sharp ("toe to leather"). Bo Schembechler used to tell the TV networks "if you want to show our games, you are welcome to do so. We start at 1 pm." There were no 3:30 games, no night games and with shorter time outs, the games were over by 3-3:15 every time.

[@thomash.schwed3662]

@@robertmiller5777Granted. But, in general, most games at the time (and well into the ‘90’s) began at 1:30. Having said that, I’m surprised that nowadays That Team Up North doesn’t arrange with the television networks to begin its games at 11:30 given its affinity for making itself the proverbial odd man out.

[@igorslocks]

Here's a funny story about Ol Igor's ol man. 1986 Chicago Bears are playing Houston in the Astrodome. It was October 12, same day as Summit between Reagan & Gorbachev in Reykjavik. So during the game, which was a struggle as most Bear games were in 86 quite the opposite from 85, Bears run a draw play to Thomas Sanders(Texas A&M) that looks promising. Just as Sanders breaks into the open field it flashes on the screen - breaking news update from CBS News... So the ol man starts off 'What the f**k is this bulls**t?!?!' Then as it becomes apparent the delay would be longer than 30seconds, he walks to the kitchen to grab another Old Style. Sits down at kitchen table, cracks beer & tells my mom 'Go get the phone book.' Now, a young Ol Igor knew it was about to be interesting to say the least. So phone book is proffered & the ol man goes to the phone(still a wall unit, it's 1986) & dials a number. So is he calling the Chicago CBS affiliate, maybe the national CBS Station number in NYC??? No. He calls the White House. Yes. THE White House. Where the President stays when he isn't negotiating nuclear disarmament treaties in Iceland. So after some poor soul answers in DC , he lays in... 'Listen, you j**offs got all week to do your nonsense & pretend you are actually doing something. WTF are you doing interrupting our Football on Sunday? WTF is wrong with you? This is America, we watch Football in this F**king country on Sundays!!! Go do your bulls**t during the week, leave our Sundays alone motherf**kers!!!' Then he proceeded to hang up the phone by punching the wall unit, almost sending it through the picture window a good 25 feet or so away. So from that point forward Igor imagines the entire family has been on some sort of psycho list,lol. But yes he actually called the White House. And it's still one of my favorite stories about my youth, my family & the Chicago Bears of the 1980s. #GodBlessAmerica #GodBlessTheGreatGameOfFootball #ItsAlwaysFootballSeasonInHeaven

[@UserName-ts3sp]

i respect it from an old news perspective. but as a fan id be furious.

[@chrisguardiano6143]

This isn't the first time that a network has had to change their plans for a sporting event at the last minute to cover other major events. In one of the most infamous examples of this, in 1994, ESPN had to switch coverage of the Spain-South Korea match at the World Cup (on June 17th) being held in the US from ESPN to ESPN2 (which was a relatively new network at the time having debuted in October the previous year) to cover the infamous OJ Simpson car chase on the freeways of LA and the aftermath of that. Coverage of the OJ car chase started right when the match kicked off resulting in the commentators having to awkwardly tell viewers to switch over to ESPN2 for further coverage. This resulted in soccer fans having to do one of three things: call their cable provider to ask for ESPN2, flip to ESPN2 if they already had it or watch the match in Spanish on Univision if they did not have cable. Then on June 20th, ESPN's World Cup coverage was again messed up by OJ as ESPN did not show the start of the Netherlands-Saudi Arabia match due to ESPN covering OJ's first arraignment hearing. In fact ESPN didn't start showing the match until the 40th minute when it was already 1-1 & the commentators had to show highlights of what had happened.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

Wasn't Univision free in 2002 with just rabbit ears like it is now? Pfft

[@chrisguardiano6143]

@@runrafarunthebestintheworld it was but only certain areas of the country. It wasn't until 2005 that Univision was free nationwide.

[@chriskay1449]

There was another, more infamous one that happened the very same day. NBC was set to air Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets & New York Knicks. NBC not only chose to break away from the game mid way through the 2nd quarter only to go back to it with less than a minute left int he half, they then chose in the 3rd quarter to use picture in picture having the main screen be the OJ car chase with the game in the lower right corner. OF course the audio was of NBC News which made watching the game that way worthless. NBC got a TON of backlash for it.

[@chrisguardiano6143]

@@chriskay1449 I forgot to mention that one in my comment, thanks for letting me know. The ESPN 30 for 30 on that day does a great job of covering every single major event that happened in sports that day, including uncensored & behind the scenes footage of Game 5 of the NBA Finals that night and how difficult it was for NBC to cover both events.

[@thomlock5609]

They did this shit in 2017 against MSU in the Lansing area. Even though there are 2 channels, 47 and 53 that carries the game. They showed the weather for half the game on both channels.

[@marcus813]

ABC wouldn't even have its stations in Ohio and Michigan (including its then-owned-and-operated station in Detroit, which was sold nearly a decade later along with Tampa Bay's WFTS-TV due to the Capital Cities/ABC merger) air the game and have other stations join in progress? Most DMAs had full service from all 3 commercial networks, so not having Sadat's visit on ABC when the game kicked off shouldn't have been a big deal.

[@DNSKansas]

EXACTLY! NBC and CBS had it live. Peter Jennings could have done 30 minutes on it later in the evening.

[@Tubewings]

Michigan actually lost to Ohio State in 1975 (they did get to go to the Orange Bowl, though, their first non-Rose Bowl thanks to the Big Ten changing the rules that prevented other teams from going to bowl games).

[@rebelfever2]

Ok. But this is about 1977.

[@Tubewings]

@@rebelfever2 The original comment was in response to JG8 stating that after beating Ohio State, Michigan was taking the Big Ten's spot in the Rose Bowl for the third straight year.

[@kevinglennN]

Sometimes things in life is more important than a football dude.

[@switchblade6]

But not this time

[@chuckbarber8792]

Was that a chuckle around 11:20?

[@Rage-td9wv]

They didn't have many channels back then and sports is a time of leisure and escape from the crap of the world. It was a stinking visit that probably should headline the news, but to interrupt a game for a visit, that is news that can wait? Especially, when it was an entire weekend event. This news event was more important to those that control the apparatus, rather than the general public. And that's the problem and always been the problem, the power of small special interest.

[@Thechubbahead]

It’s reminding me of when 2020 when NBC wouldn’t show the Clemson Notre Dame game cause Joe Biden wanted to have a speech.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

And yet NBC has NBC LX as a sister network to show his victory speech.

[@americangiant1003]

And on the personal commentary on Jag, here on what ABC should have done with this historic visit to Israel by Sadat, I agree with him. Especially since both NBC and CBS(remember "kids" there was no cable news channels at all then)also showing this "visit" live. CNN the oldest debuted 3 years later in 1980. Plus MSNBC and Fox News both did not came on the scene for almost 20 years later in 1996. Also another important thing and idea not mentioned by Jag. ABC led by Chief Executive Arledge could have had this Michigan/Ohio State kickoff be delayed for about 20-30 minutes or so.. Then when ABC News led by the crew of I think at the time of Co-Lead Anchors Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings and Frank Reynolds showed Sadet arriving in Israel then flip back to this game at around 1:15pm. And then finally after a brief 10 minute introduction have kickoff at 1:25pm (ET)

[@SuperChampionRocker]

Our dudes Kyrie and Ye know why this happened.

[@softshoes]

The great Rick Leach.

[@martincruz8319]

I'm also interested in ABC's decision for its decision during Super Bowl XXV in reducing its pregame coverage (because of the Gulf War) and tape delaying the SB XXV halftime show (New Kids on the Block) 'till after the game.

[@anthony0358]

oh wow, I clearly remember this ! Thank you for posting the video about it. I believe Rick Leach won 3 straight games against Ohio State. Howard Cosell lectured all of us as a society in a commentary during his Sunday show later on that year. Excellent point at the 10 minute mark. Our family preference for news was ABC. People who preferred NBC or CBS were never tuning into ABC to see this story. The people who only cared about the news could have flipped to CBS or NBC

[@brianarbenz1329]

“Things that are closer to home “ are more important. Yes, but everyone’s children could someday be sent to a war in the Mideast. (And many would be.) Nobody’s children will have to be involuntarily sent to Ann Arbor or Columbus to die. The Mideast situation was closer to home. ABC did the right and professional thing.

[@brianarbenz7206]

@🍄Personal Shaman🍄 That's a very subjective statement. a "bullshit narrative" is usually one that a person disagrees with.... It may be that in the retrospect, ABC should have shown the full game over the meeting. But at the time, no one knew how the future of the Mideast situation would go. They were one network for all audiences, not like ESPN or CNN. It wasn't an easy decision they faced.

[@brianarbenz7206]

@🍄Personal Shaman🍄 And Paul is dead -- don't forget that one!

[@John-tr6of]

Sports take a back seat when it comes to important historical moments. Also, considering what happened four years later as a direct result of this visit, that should put things in proper perspective.

[@cpcva724]

Something similar happened during the confirmation of Clarence Thomas when Anita Hill popped up. Florida and Florida State football was to have been shown that Saturday but Roone Arledge announced he was going to preempt the game and air the hearings all thar day. He also seemed pissed that viewers were pissed.

[@JaguarGator8]

That’s definitely a future video topic. We’re gonna get into that for sure at some point

[@TimmyTickle]

IIRC, CBS’s postseason baseball coverage was also affected by the hearings

[@LogoAttitude]

UM-OSU should be at night

[@TheEgganator324]

It's because Big Ten doesn't play night games in November

[@LogoAttitude]

​@@TheEgganator324 They play them in early November, but not all November long. They should start doing it all November long with UCLA and USC, which are located in the warm weather city of Los Angeles, joining the conference. There is no good reason to keep UM-OSU in the daytime.

[@UserName-ts3sp]

its almost always at noon. we can leave it at noon honestly.

[@LogoAttitude]

Night football games have been better than day games since 1970.

[@mr.green2341]

Yeah, but both teams cling to the early afternoon tradition since back in the day, Bo and Woody had to be to the Old Country Buffet by 4, and turn in for the night by 5 or 5:30. 😜

[@curtisdavis2157]

#OhPleasantries!

[@muddwhistle3595]

A I don’t think there is too many people alive from 1977 and B most people didn’t have televisions back then

[@MetallicAAlabamA]

You simply do not mess with college football when it comes their fans and their programs. Doesn't matter what's going on halfway around the world. You DO NOT mess with college football. Alot of college football fanbases treat their programs like it's a religion. Ohio St and Michigan definitely have those type of fanbases, along with Alabama, Auburn, Florida St, Florida, Clemson, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, Notre Dame an so on. And if you're not a college football fan or you don't keep up with college sports in general. Then you really don't have a clue as to why this is a huge problem. If Jesus returned and the networks cut feed from one of the big college rivalry games just to show it live. Those fans would explode in anger. Especially if it was a close game lol. College fans don't mess around!

[@DNSKansas]

Arkansas, Texas A&M and Kansas State have those type of fan bases too

[@americangiant1003]

And that is a problem with some of these live or die sports fans. Whether it's Soccer fans in Brazil or American College Football. At most maybe 2-3x a decade there is a huge news story with global impact, that sorry even something "important' such as Michigan vs Ohio State has to take a back seat. Now in the 2020's decade, not too much of an issue. Not only there is CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and even CSPAN that could shown this Sadat visit had it happen in 2022/2023. Now there is at least 2 national Sports Cable Channels covering "major" College Football with Fox Sports 1 and ABC's sister station ESPN, its a Godsend. So now if this game if scheduled to be shown on ABC on even Fox, it could have just been shown in its entirety. Or have the first part of this be shown on either ABC's sister channel ESPN. Or ditto for Fox TV with FS1.

[@MetallicAAlabamA]

@@DNSKansas Agree! Even programs like Arizona, ASU, Colorado, Texas Tech, and even other smaller programs like North Dakota St, Montana, Boise St, and N. Illinois. We could go all day naming college programs that love their teams. That's why imo, it's the best of any sport.

[@michaellong5714]

I'm a UM grad ('88 with a Master's) but I had only recently moved to Ypsilanti from the greater Chicago Area when this game took place. I didn't know too much about UM Football but had followed Cazzie Russell's basketball career as he came from Chicago. I didn't really get into the rivalry until I started attending UM in 84. I did hear about the Snowbowl game, and eventually watched the '10 year war' starring Bo and Woody. Great to see some history.

[@a.grimes4202]

Oh right, I forgot the story of the time nobody saw the beginning of the most overrated college football “rivalry” in NCAA history.

[@thomash.schwed3662]

Oh, yes! “The most overrated college football ‘rivalry’ in NCAA history”: The annual Cocktail Party at Jacksonville betwixt the two Johnny Reb programs of Flori-duh and Georgia.

[@a.grimes4202]

@@thomash.schwed3662 Yeah, my Sparties of Michigan State have clobbered both in bowl games, so I just laugh whenever anyone says either of them are relevant somehow. *💀*