Hard to believe Ernie and Bernie was 50 years ago

#5
#5
They were must watch TV. Channel
5 in Nashville would broadcast all the non-televised home games at 10:30 at night. SEC games were Sat & Monday night in those days.
 
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#6
#6
wmcovol said:
They were must watch TV. Channel
5 in Nashville would broadcast all the non-televised home games at 10:30 at night. SEC games were Sat & Monday night in those days.
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Check that. It was Channel 2. My parents made me take a nap after supper when it was on Mondays. Of course I always faked it because I was too excited for the anticipation of watching a replay WITH JOHN WARD'S radio call piped into it. The game video was literally flown in on a twin engine from Knoxville to Nashville
 
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#7
#7
wmcovol said:
They were must watch TV. Channel
5 in Nashville would broadcast all the non-televised home games at 10:30 at night. SEC games were Sat & Monday night in those days.
Click to expand...

Satellite transmissions were expensive at that time. I think they actually had to drive a copy of the tapes to Nashville. Tapes weren’t cheap either. We lost so many games before the late 70’s because those tapes were recycled.

They’d gain an hour with the time zones. If the transmitter was east of Nashville they’d pick up some more time.

In Knoxville they might have been able to shoot a feed directly from the Communications Building to the Sneedville TV transmitter.
 
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#8
#8
BernardKingGOAT said:
Check that. It was Channel 2. My parents made me take a nap after supper when it was on Mondays. Of course I always faked it because I was too excited for the anticipation of watching a replay WITH JOHN WARD'S radio call piped into it. The game video was literally flown in on a twin engine from Knoxville to Nashville
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Aha. Flew them over the Plateau.
 
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#10
#10
Freak said:
This was a bit before my memories of Tennessee basketball, but still. Hard to believe that's been half a century ago.

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Freak said:
This was a bit before my memories of Tennessee basketball, but still. Hard to believe that's been half a century ago.

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I still have my copy of this SI edition. I was a senior at UT.

if you read the article carefully, you'll realize Stu Aberdeen, having the "metabolism of a hummingbird", was the reason King and others came to UT in the mid-1970s. It was Aberdeen who moved to Bedford "Stu-yesant"in Brooklyn so that he could keep recruiting King daily/hourly back then. No NCAA contact rules back then. Mears got the credit, but Stu was almost always the first to jump up from the bench. How could you not love Stu as a UT fan.
 
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#11
#11
NV Vol said:
I still have my copy of this SI edition. I was a senior at UT.

if you read the article carefully, you'll realize Stu Aberdeen, having the "metabolism of a hummingbird", was the reason King and others came to UT in the mid-1970s. It was Aberdeen who moved to Bedford "Stu-yesant"in Brooklyn so that he could keep recruiting King daily/hourly back then. No NCAA contact rules back then. Mears got the credit, but Stu was almost always the first to jump up from the bench. How could you not love Stu as a UT fan.
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Stu Aberdeen and George Cafego were probably the greatest coaching characters at UT in their respective sports.
 
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#13
#13
The only thing better was that transistor radio in our section in Stokely with John Ward on the call "Woods comes side front court, down to Jackson, can't feed King, backs it out, cross court pass to Grunfeld, Grunfeld comes toward top of the key, stops spinning 15 footer . . . BOTTOM!, Grunfeld has 20, A.W. I don't think they can stop that tonight and Vanderbilt wants a time out, Roy Skinner needs a time out, whistle sounds, we'll take a time out, 4 15 left Tennessee leads . . . . .
 
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#16
#16
brockytop said:
Great time to be a Vol basketball fan in my early teens.

How I’d love to have a nickel for the amount of paces I had in our garage listening to John Ward do their games (only able to see a handful of games in person).
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The radio call was an event we all planned for in those days. As great as Ward was in football, he was even greater in basketball. I think, or I have heard he was a bigger fan of basketball than football
 
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#17
#17
I was at UT for their 3 years together. It was such fun!!….the intimacy of Stokely, camping out all night for tickets, beating Hall’s KY team in ‘78, losing to Bama in triple?? overtime, Ernie shooting free throws for a teammate. They didn’t play defense like we do today, but their offense was terrific.
 
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#19
#19
Graduated, departed TN Summer '75. My Dad would tape many of that Fall's game broadcasts and mail them to me. Cassette tapes. Might still have a few.
Need to see if they'll play & if so sit down with a quality cold one (or two), close my eyes and pretend I'm in that Stokley student section instead of studying for tomorrow's exam.
If it's vs UK, I'll drink their bourbon instead and remind myself of "King holding Court" after his famous guarantee!
 
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#21
#21
ivorydr said:
I was at UT for their 3 years together. It was such fun!!….the intimacy of Stokely, camping out all night for tickets, beating Hall’s KY team in ‘78, losing to Bama in triple?? overtime, Ernie shooting free throws for a teammate. They didn’t play defense like we do today, but their offense was terrific.
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Mears complaining that Kentucky was playing “karate” defense.

Mears walking across the court pre-game in his orange blazer to mess with the UK student body.
 
#22
#22
Those years were my introduction to Vol hoops. Never missed a John Ward (Bottom!) radio call or the UTV replays.
Bernard King was the quickest leaper I’ve ever seen and Ernie owned the corner and the free throw line. Halcyon days. 🏀
 
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