Ed. Note: If the embedded video above doesn't show up for you, here's the link.
Much of this Wednesday was spent video-browsing. I knew I wanted to bring you a full basketball game from YouTube, but I wasn't sure what kind. I thought about a throwback Raptors game with All-Star Weekend coming up. I thought about a full game with an announcer I liked such as Ian Eagle or Kevin Calabro. I thought about something with a lot of flash, like a game with a lot of dunks. Then I stumbled across a video and thought "Yes. This is The One".
Much of this Wednesday was spent video-browsing. I knew I wanted to bring you a full basketball game from YouTube, but I wasn't sure what kind. I thought about a throwback Raptors game with All-Star Weekend coming up. I thought about a full game with an announcer I liked such as Ian Eagle or Kevin Calabro. I thought about something with a lot of flash, like a game with a lot of dunks. Then I stumbled across a video and thought "Yes. This is The One".
I take you to January 3, 1987 for a tilt between the 11-0 UNLV Runnin' Rebels and the 5-4 UC Irvine Anteaters from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The game was the Pacific Coast Athletic Association opener for both teams, and the 114-72 victory for Nevada-Las Vegas was the first win en route to an 18-0 conference record. The Rebels would make it all the way to the Final Four before falling to Bobby Knight's Indiana squad 97-93 at the Superdome.
This video grabbed me for a couple of reasons. For one, legendary Lakers announcer Chick Hearn is on the call, bringing you fast-paced play-by-play and analysis solo with the same intensity he had for those Showtime teams of the 80's. The other reason are the commercials. They are exactly the way I would imagine Vegas commercials in the 80's. Advertisements for sports books, vault companies, and jewelers featuring graphics that looked "high-tech" then but are cheesy by today's standards. They're a cross between small-market cheese (The beginning of Vegas's population explosion was just a year away), Vegas glitz, and 80's zeitgeist. Let me know which ad was your favorite in the comments below. One interesting note is that Royal West Airlines, one of this broadcast's sponsors, would cease operations the month after this game aired after only being in operation since the previous June.
The future NBAers in this game include UNLV's Armon (later "Armen") Gilliam, Gerald Paddio, and Mark Wade, and UC Irvine's Scott Brooks and Wayne Englestad.
I couldn't find a box score for this game. Instead, here's a game recap from the day after by the Las Vegas Review-Journal's John Rohde.
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