| NFL on DuMont | |
|---|---|
| Starring | See announcers section below |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 180 minutes or until game ends |
| Original release | |
| Network | DuMont |
| Release | 1951 (1951) – 1955 (1955) |
The NFL on DuMont was an Americantelevision program that broadcastNational Football League (NFL) games on the now defunctDuMont Television Network.[1] The program ran from1951[2] to1955.
DuMont's NFL coverage consisted of contracts the network signed with individual NFL teams. Only for theNFL Championship Game did the network actually sign a contract with the league. Some teams did not have deals with DuMont; instead selling television rights to local stations, independent producers, or breweries who were major sponsors and who also packaged the telecasts.
Locally and regionally televised games were broadcast as early as 1939, but on December 23, 1951, DuMont televised the first ever live,coast-to-coast professional football game, theNFL Championship Game between theLos Angeles Rams andCleveland Browns. DuMont paid$75,000 for the rights to broadcast the game.[3]
In1952, DuMont only airedNew York Giants games before moving to a more national scope the following season.
During the1953[4] and1954 seasons, DuMont broadcast Saturday night NFL games. It was the first time that National Football League games were televisedlive, coast-to-coast, inprime time, for the entire season. This predatedMonday Night Football onABC by 17 years.[5] Several of the games in 1953 and 1954 originated inNew York (Giants),Pittsburgh (Steelers), orWashington (Redskins). (All three of these cities hadDuMontO&Os.)[6]
From 1953-55, DuMont televised theThanksgiving NFL games between theDetroit Lions and theGreen Bay Packers.
DuMont was nominated forEmmy Awards for its coverage of the 1953 and 1954 seasons but did not win.[7]
DuMont proved to be a less than ideal choice for a national broadcaster. The network had only eighteen primary affiliates in 1954, dwarfed by the 120 available to NBC (although a number of ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates that had DuMont "secondary" affiliations did carry some NFL games, mainly on Sunday afternoons). Coverage of Canadian football's "Big Four" was more readily available on NBC than NFL games were in most markets on DuMont.[8]
In January 1955, DuMont obtained rights from the Los Angeles Newspaper Charities to cover thePro Bowl only one week before the game date. As they had trouble lining upaffiliates to cover the game on such short notice, the telecast was cancelled.
By1955, the DuMont network was beginning tocrumble. For instance, in1955,NBC replaced DuMont as the network for the NFL Championship Game, paying a rights fee of$100,000.[9] ABC acquired the rights to the Thanksgiving game. Meanwhile, most teams (sans theGiants,Eagles andSteelers, who received regionalized coverage from DuMont) were left to fend for themselves in terms of TV coverage.
Consequently, this is roughly how coverage went for each team in 1955:
The October 17, 1955 issue ofSports Illustrated lists Chicago Cardinals-New York game as not televised. However, an article on this game in October 16, 1955 issue of theNew York Times states, "(t)he game will be telecast but will beblacked out within a 75 mile radius ofNew York City." Meanwhile, the October 31, 1955 issue ofSports Illustrated lists the Chicago Bears-Los Angeles game as being televised. If so, it could have been televised as a syndicated pick up.Bob Wolff is listed as doing play-by-play for the Giants game for DuMont, so Chris Schenkel could have made the call here.
DuMont ceased most entertainment programs (and anightly newscast) in early April1955. DuMont still broadcast some sports events (aMonday-night boxing show and the1955 NFL season) until either August1956,[10] or Thanksgiving1957.[11] Prior to the1956 NFL season, DuMont sold its broadcast rights toCBS;[10] for DuMont's last broadcast in 1957, a high school football state championship, it borrowedChris Schenkel, CBS's announcer for New York Giants broadcasts at the time.
DuMont normally used a single announcer for its telecasts, a common practice then but a departure from modern practice where aplay-by-play announcer is paired with acolor commentator. Several of DuMont's championship game broadcasts did have color commentators.
| Season | Play-by-play | Color commentator(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Harry Wismer | Earl Gillespie |
| 1952 | Harry Wismer | |
| 1953 | Harry Wismer | Red Grange |
| 1954 | By Saam (first half) andChuck Thompson (second half) |
Two episodes of the NFL's highlights package,Time for Football, from the 1954 season survive, featuring game action of Week 1 and Week 6.Time for Football was a co-production of DuMont and Tel Ra. The Week 6 episode presumably includes DuMont's own game footage from the Saturday night game between Philadelphia and Green Bay. No audio play-by-play or commentary survives from any DuMont telecast.[12][13]
It is also possible thatthis video footage is DuMont coverage of the1953 NFL Championship Game, though it is not confirmed and the tape contains no audio. That footage is available for viewing onYouTube. This game, and others aired by DuMont, were broadcast live and were probably not recorded except onkinescope for later viewing by the few DuMont affiliates and stations in the west or for highlight reels and game film.
Two five-second plugs from October 1954 promoting DuMont's NFL programming survive.[14]