The Army-Navy football game that took place on December 7, 1963, was memorable for many reasons. It was the first Army-Navy clash following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, less than two weeks earlier. The game also has a special place in the history of sports broadcasting, as it was the first time that instant replay was used in a live broadcast.
The game had extra significance because of the slain president’s love for the annual matchup between Army and Navy. Kennedy, a Navy veteran and avid football fan, regularly attended the game, which in 1963 was delayed by a week due to the assassination. The instant replay innovation was the brainchild of CBS Sports Director Tony Verna, who had created a system to show notable plays a second time using the network’s video tape recorder (VTR). His system used audio tones to mark exciting moments, which were then located by technicians rewinding the tape.
Ultimately, only one instant replay aired during the Army-Navy game, treating a national audience to a second look at Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh’s fourth-quarter touchdown. To prevent viewers from getting confused, commentator Lindsey Nelson announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!”
Eventually, the system was improved so that additional cameras, linked to a different video tape machine than the one showing the live broadcast, would provide closeups, slow motion, and freeze frames shortly after a notable play occurred.
The development of instant replay has been credited with the ongoing popularity of televised football games, as it would eventually allow viewers to rewatch crucial moments of action (often zoomed in and in slow motion) that were typically hard to see in a wide-angle shot.
Let’s see that again:
- Years before Verna's success with the 1963 Army-Navy game, a “near instant” replay had already taken place during a broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada, which aired on CBC Television in 1955. The replay used kinescope to show a play again, though several minutes later.
- Instant replay was heavily utilized by Monday Night Football, which began airing on ABC in 1970.
- Besides being used for entertainment purposes, instant replay has another important function in sports: assisting referees in making calls and decisions. Major sports leagues, including the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB, utilize video reviews to some extent.