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1939 Waynesburg vs. Fordham football game

Broadcast from New York, the first football game to be televised

Field	Value
name	1939 Waynesburg vs. Fordham
first televised football game
image	1939 Waynesberg vs Fordham football game.jpg
football_season	1939
visitor_name_short	Waynesburg
visitor_nickname	Yellow Jackets
visitor_school	Waynesburg University
home_name_short	Fordham
home_nickname	Rams
home_school	Fordham University
visitor_record	1–0
home_record	0–0
visitor_coach	Frank N. Wolf
home_coach	Jim Crowley
visitor_1q	7
visitor_2q	0
visitor_3q	0
visitor_4q	0
home_1q	7
home_2q	14
home_3q	7
home_4q	6
date	September 30, 1939
stadium	Triborough Stadium
city	New York City
attendance	9,000
us_network	NBC
us_announcers	Bill Stern

first televised football game The 1939 Waynesburg vs. Fordham football game was a college football game between the Fordham Rams and the played on September 30, 1939. The game was played at Triborough Stadium on New York City's Randall's Island. Fordham won the game 34–7. Broadcast by NBC, the contest was the first American football game ever televised.

Game play

Fordham entered the game a pre-season pick for the national championship, but the first score was completed by Waynesburg when Bobby Brooks completed a 63-yard run for a touchdown on the third play of the game. Fordham scored in every quarter, leaving the final score at 34–7.

Fordham's offense managed sixteen first downs and 337 yards, while Waynesburg managed only five first downs for a total of 157 yards. Fordham blocked a punt in both the first and second halves of the game and recorded an interception in the fourth quarter that the offense was able to turn into a touchdown.

Sports broadcasting firsts

NBC broadcast the game on station W2XBS with one camera and Bill Stern was the sole announcer. Estimates are that the broadcast reached approximately 1,000 television sets.

The game came just over a month after the Brooklyn Dodgers hosted the Cincinnati Reds in the first-ever televised professional baseball game, and five months after the Princeton and Columbia baseball teams played the first televised American sporting event.

Sports broadcasting continued less than one month later on October 22 with a telecast of a game between the now-defunct Brooklyn "Football" Dodgers and the Philadelphia Eagles at Ebbets Field. Brooklyn won 24–14 in what became the first televised professional football game. On February 28, 1940, the University of Pittsburgh played Fordham at Madison Square Garden in the first televised basketball game.

College football on television continued with the second televised college game just one month later, on October 28, when the Kansas State Wildcats hosted the Nebraska Cornhuskers for their homecoming contest.

References

Vander Voort, Eric. (September 29, 2015). "First televised football game featured Fordham, Waynesburg in 1939". NCAA.com.
Beachler, Eddie. (October 3, 1939). "Tech, Pitt, Dukes in Good Condition for Next Test". [[The Pittsburgh Press]].
(October 1, 1939). "Fordham Rams Drive Over Waynesburg, 34–7". [[The Tuscaloosa News]].
(October 1, 1939). "Rams Defeat Waynesburg". [[The Vindicator.
"First televised football game, Waynesberg vs Fordham, 1939". American Sportscasters Online.
(24 August 2021). "First televised Major League baseball game". History.com.
Smith, Curt. "TV brought baseball to fans who had never seen a game". National Baseball Hall of Fame.
"First TV Football Game". [[Waynesburg University]].
Janssen, Mark. (October 7, 2010). "Purple Pride vs. Big Red – 4–0 vs. 4–0". [[Kansas State Wildcats]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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