Let's Watch... (1968/3/10) CBS Game Of The Week - Toronto at Chicago IN COLOR

[Fenway]

In the newest installment of this feature, we watch a game from March 10, 1968 at Chicago Stadium between Toronto and Chicago as seen on CBS.

The tape begins with 5 minutes gone in the second period and continues until the last minute when CBS decided the game was over and went to a children's movie - The Heidi fiasco was still a few months away.

This is certainly one of the oldest color videotapes of the NHL in existence and the quality is exceptional.

Stu Nahan and Jim Gordon call the action from 51 years ago.



1967-68 Toronto Maple Leafs Roster and Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com
1967-68 Chicago Black Hawks Roster and Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com


Previous editions:
(1959/4/07) SCSF Game 7 - Toronto Maple Leafs at Boston Bruins
(1966/4/14) Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens
(1960/4/7) Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs
(1963/4/18) Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings
(1963/12/7) Toronto Maple Leafs vs Chicago Black Hawks
(1965/4/1) Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs

​

Click to read more...

 

[Fenway]

Of note - Chicago Stadium still did not have a Zamboni.

 

[c9777666]

Jim Gordon on the call, best remembered as a NY Giants radio guy in their Parcells glory years.



Also was a NY Rangers TV guy:

 

[VaCaps Fan]

Old time hockey in amazing quality!

 

[Fenway]

The play by play announcer Stu Nahan was the first TV voice of the Flyers and then moved to LA to do the Kings. He really tried to sell the game to LA viewers



He was also the fight announcer in Rocky

 

[The Macho King]

The curve on Mikita's blade... holy shit that is extreme.

 

[McGarnagle]

Brett Hull's mom though

 

[ICM1970]

You wonder how the tape of this game was saved all of these years, as it would be neat to see other games with other teams from this era preserved like this.

 

[c9777666]

Both of these teams fell off from '67.

Chicago made the infamous Phil Esposito trade, lost Glenn Hall to expansion, and this was before Tony O so they were relying on Denis Dejordy. Even though Mikita won the Hart/Art Ross/Byng, Chicago fell from first to fourth.

Toronto, as defending Cup champs, seemingly got older. Sawchuk left in the expansion draft and they made the blockbuster Detroit Mahovlich trade.

 

[Kitty Hawk]

Definitely a rarity at the time for a Hawks home game to be televised.

In the newest installment of this feature, we watch a game from March 10, 1968 at Chicago Stadium between Toronto and Chicago as seen on CBS.

The tape begins with 5 minutes gone in the second period and continues until the last minute when CBS decided the game was over and went to a children's movie - The Heidi fiasco was still a few months away.

View attachment 195553

This is certainly one of the oldest color videotapes of the NHL in existence and the quality is exceptional.

Stu Nahan and Jim Gordon call the action from 51 years ago.



1967-68 Toronto Maple Leafs Roster and Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com
1967-68 Chicago Black Hawks Roster and Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com


Previous editions:
(1959/4/07) SCSF Game 7 - Toronto Maple Leafs at Boston Bruins
(1966/4/14) Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens
(1960/4/7) Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs
(1963/4/18) Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings
(1963/12/7) Toronto Maple Leafs vs Chicago Black Hawks
(1965/4/1) Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs

​

 

[DJ Man]

I heard this one on the radio 'way back then, They wouldn't allow home games t9o be televised in Chicago.

Goalie Jack Norris had a couple of good games early on, and that the Hawks thought they might get some small dividend on the Phil Esposito trade ... however, he didn't develop into a starter and was gone before too long.

 

[pvr]

Definitely a rarity at the time for a Hawks home game to be televised.

Doubt that it was on tv in Chicago. Hawks home games were televised outside of Chicago and suburbs typically outside of Illinois. I believe it’s a Canadian TV schedule and broadcast, most likely Toronto. Here comes the long reason why...

The channels aren’t correct for Chicago. There was no channel 4, 12 or 56. Back then it would have been 2, 5, 7, 9, and 11, and I believe before the UHF channels. March 10 was a Sunday, so it could have been televised in the far away suburbs, on NBC (channel 5), with different other channels than were used back then in and around Chicago (though UHF 56 still would have been odd). However, it likely isn’t even a Chicago/environs schedule in the OP, as WGN channel 9 isn’t listed, and Disney was on channel 5 (NBC), not channel 4. I used to come home from playing hockey on Sunday and watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom followed by The Wonderful World of Disney, both on NBC. Finally, the Childrens Film Festival program about a Czech youth hockey player wouldn’t have been a Chicago program, and pegs it as being from Canada (though there is the Stan Mikita connection...).

Perhaps someone will recognize the announcers. They sound a bit Leafs-centric.

I heard this one on the radio 'way back then, They wouldn't allow home games t9o be televised in Chicago.

Goalie Jack Norris had a couple of good games early on, and that the Hawks thought they might get some small dividend on the Phil Esposito trade ... however, he didn't develop into a starter and was gone before too long.

Agree...this likely was on radio, with the great Lloyd Pettit painting the picture.

 

[DJ Man]

The game may have been available in Chicago on closed-circuit at theaters -- they often did that with late season and playoff games. One of the reasons that no TV was allowed for home games was to protect this bit of income. (The WGN late news would still show highlights, accompanied by Pettit's radio call, which I presume was also uaed in the theaters.)

 

[nnynetpotato]

Doubt that it was on tv in Chicago. Hawks home games were televised outside of Chicago and suburbs typically outside of Illinois. I believe it’s a Canadian TV schedule and broadcast, most likely Toronto. Here comes the long reason why...

The channels aren’t correct for Chicago. There was no channel 4, 12 or 56. Back then it would have been 2, 5, 7, 9, and 11, and I believe before the UHF channels. March 10 was a Sunday, so it could have been televised in the far away suburbs, on NBC (channel 5), with different other channels than were used back then in and around Chicago (though UHF 56 still would have been odd). However, it likely isn’t even a Chicago/environs schedule in the OP, as WGN channel 9 isn’t listed, and Disney was on channel 5 (NBC), not channel 4. I used to come home from playing hockey on Sunday and watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom followed by The Wonderful World of Disney, both on NBC. Finally, the Childrens Film Festival program about a Czech youth hockey player wouldn’t have been a Chicago program, and pegs it as being from Canada (though there is the Stan Mikita connection...).

Perhaps someone will recognize the announcers. They sound a bit Leafs-centric.


Agree...this likely was on radio, with the great Lloyd Pettit painting the picture.

It think would be an American city because you have NBC listings on Channel 4,and ABC on 7(Sunday Night Movie-always a blockbuster).Channel 2 looks like Educational/Public TV.

BTW,good call by CBS to cut to the Czech kid's movie.I loved the dream sequence where the kid thinks he's in the Olympics.It was part of CBS international kids film festival which was usually on Saturday lunchtime on my CBS station.

Yes,I am that old.

 

[cupcrazyman]

Of note - Chicago Stadium still did not have a Zamboni.

Silly question but how did they clean the ice ?

 

[sctvman]

It think would be an American city because you have NBC listings on Channel 4,and ABC on 7(Sunday Night Movie-always a blockbuster).Channel 2 looks like Educational/Public TV.

BTW,good call by CBS to cut to the Czech kid's movie.I loved the dream sequence where the kid thinks he's in the Olympics.It was part of CBS international kids film festival which was usually on Saturday lunchtime on my CBS station.

Yes,I am that old.

It’s Boston. Channel 5 was CBS there until 1971 (WHDH), while 2 is the public TV station (WGBH, still is). 7 was ABC, 4 NBC (WBZ).

 

[Fenway]

The listings in the OP were from the Boston Globe

Here are the Chicago listings and WBBM-TV CBS2 was forced to show a movie instead of the game

 

[c9777666]

Why the heck was Wirtz so hellbent on not televising home games considering this was a team with real starpower in a big city?

 

[Fenway]

Why the heck was Wirtz so hellbent on not televising home games considering this was a team with real starpower in a big city?

Not even Rocky Wirtz knows for sure.

It was said that Arthur Wirtz on his deathbed made his son Bill promise keep the policy in place. Bettman did order Wirtz to allow home television on some network games on ABC and Fox in the 90's but they were few and far between.

Apparently, Bill Wirtz KNEW the policy was wrong and that is part of the reason Rocky was given the club and not his brother Arthur. Rocky immediately reversed the policy and Arthur was so upset he quit and the 2 brothers really haven't spoken since even though they both share offices at the Wirtz HQ's on LSD.

The first home game after Bill died was pretty ugly but it convinced Rocky that somebody from outside the family had to run the team and he hired John McDonough.

 

[Fenway]

Silly question but how did they clean the ice ?

as you can see here - men pushing scrapers

 

[Fenway]

You wonder how the tape of this game was saved all of these years, as it would be neat to see other games with other teams from this era preserved like this.

What tapes were saved and what was recorded over was pure chance.

This tape was recorded at a CBS affiliate possibly to edit highlights and somehow was not recorded over. Home recorders did not exist and this tape was recording the pure CBS feed sent to affiliates.



The CBC archives we have from the late '50s into the '70s are on kinescopes that were filmed off a monitor in Toronto and then mailed to remote CBC stations that were not yet connected to the network.

It is maddening what was saved and what wasn't - for example in Boston a complete tape of the penultimate game of the 1967 baseball season was found but nothing exists from the game the next day when the pennant was won.

 

[DJ Man]

"... they both share offices at the Wirtz HQ's on LSD."

...

Now that would explain a lot of their management style!


I know ... I know it means Lake Shore Drive ... but I assure you they didn't use that acronym for the address in the 1960s.

 

[Fenway]

Now that would explain a lot of their management style!


I know ... I know it means Lake Shore Drive ... but I assure you they didn't use that acronym for the address in the 1960s.

OK I couldn't resist

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

It was said that Arthur Wirtz on his deathbed made his son Bill promise keep the [blackout] policy in place. Bettman did order Wirtz to allow home television on some network games on ABC and Fox in the 90's but they were few and far between.

Apparently, Bill Wirtz KNEW the policy was wrong and that is part of the reason Rocky was given the club and not his brother Arthur. Rocky immediately reversed the policy and Arthur was so upset he quit and the 2 brothers really haven't spoken since even though they both share offices at the Wirtz HQ's on LSD.

Sort of off-topic, but of course Halas was another one. One of my early-life memories was that people wealthy (or fanatical) enough would get Ham-radio-style towers built on their properties, with TV antennae atop, in order to catch the television-feeds from South Bend, IN (or Milwaukee) and circumvent the Blackout policies.

My childhood home was not among them, but one could instantly tell the one home in 100-or-so that did make such provisions.

 

[Fenway]

Sort of off-topic, but of course Halas was another one. One of my early-life memories was that people wealthy (or fanatical) enough would get Ham-radio-style towers built on their properties, with TV antennae atop, in order to catch the television-feeds from South Bend, IN (or Milwaukee) and circumvent the Blackout policies.

My childhood home was not among them, but one could instantly tell the one home in 100-or-so that did make such provisions.

Halas had built a nice regional TV empire with the Bears and helped arrange that the Bidwell family would find riches in St. Louis with the football Cardinals and give him Chicago to himself.

Halas was a paradox as he also agreed to full revenue sharing when CBS got the rights to the NFL in 1962 mainly to keep Green Bay afloat. But when NBC got the rights to the AFL in 1965 he got worried as NBC wanted an AFL team in Chicago playing at either Comiskey or Soldier Field. He ordered Rozelle to merge with the AFL to keep his Chicago monopoly intact. That Chicago AFL expansion franchise would become the Miami Dolphins.

I don't understand why Arthur Wirtz was scared of home TV especially after both Detroit and Boston embraced it and attendance did not suffer. The Hawks had a nice side business of showing games on closed-circuit TV that was beamed to movie theaters and Arlington Park but still....

Ironically the only video from Game 7 of the 1971 SCF is the Blackhawks closed-circuit feed with Jim West doing the call - CBC had Danny Gallivan, CBS had Dan Kelly but those tapes don't exist