ABC Wide World of Sports -

Here's a lengthy excerpt of ABC Wide World of Sports as aired on WLS Channel 7, spotlighting a (mostly complete) appearance by the Harlem Globetrotters at their training camp in the Barnes Field House at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, AZ, playing against the New Jersey Reds. The play-by-play for this game, such as it was, was called by Howard Cosell.

The roster of the "Clown Princes of Basketball," as of this appearance consisted of Meadowlark Lemon (#36; who would announce his retirement from the team later in the year), Curly Neal (#22), Nate Branch (#32), Geese Ausbie (#35), Jerry Venable (#38), Twiggy Sanders (#42), Mel Davis (#19), Marques Haynes (#20), John Smith (#24), Dallas Thornton (#10) and Wolfman Lee (#34). Reds players include General Holman and (?) Buckner [actually Rick Butner] (#11). The referee is Andy Johnson, joined in the course of the game in officiating by Riley Pitkoff and Bruce Briggs.

The play-by-play (with some shots of a banner saying "Sierra Vista / Ft. Huachucha[sic] Welcomes ABC-TV") is intermixed with behind-the-scenes with the team, and recurring filmed segments about various legends retold Globetrotters style (narrated by Fred Foy).

After the end of the first part, Howard signals for a commercial break, but the tape cuts directly to the next sequence.

After the second part, Howard acknowledges soldiers stationed at Fort Huachucha; this leads to a filmed skit that is cut just as it's starting, and directly to the Globetrotters clowning with soldiers and visiting wounded veterans before play (and the hi-jinks) resumes.

Commercial: Allstate Homeowner's Insurance, followed by very brief shot of start of car commercial before cutting to film skit (already in progress) about the legend of the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, re-enacted both traditionally (voiceover by Fred Foy) and in Globetrotters' style (voiceover by Howard Cosell), before we get back to the action.

A very brief commercial is shown before the tape cuts back to the Globetrotters/Reds match.

Yet another brief commercial opening (for a drink) before tape cuts back to the hilarity on the court. At one point Geese douses Tony DeMarco of the Fort Huachuca sports staff with water. This is followed by a continuation of the Tombstone legend, Globetrotters-style (narrated by Fred Foy), before once again Howard picks up the action at Barnes.

The next commercial break is cut out entirely, and on the court some funny stuff with a cowboy hat. This leads into a segment of Meadowlark at his residence at El Rancho Escondido in Arizona before we get back to the game, with ventures into football and baseball before the action finally ends.

We then cut to the ending titles to the series, with sponsor billboards for Anheuser-Busch Natural Light and Gillette Right Guard (voiceover by host Jim McKay).

[Technical Note: On some angles, shots of Norelco PC-70 cameras used by ABC in those days can be seen, however briefly.)

This aired on local Chicago TV on Sunday, January 8th 1978 within the 3:30pm to 5:00pm timeframe (the 5 kHz telco audio was still on network feeds at that point for much of the country - but that would all change within the next month with diplexing which allowed video and audio to be fed through the same lines).

About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:

The Museum of Classic Chicago Television's primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s and early 80s, primarily) recorded off of any and all Chicago TV channels; footage which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical purposes. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to DVD, and to view more of the 4,700+ (and counting) video clips available for viewing in our online archive, please visit us at:
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