As there once was a time without electricity and cars, viewers actually watched games on TV without instant replay.

That all changed 50 years ago this week. Here’s a video with Tony Verna, the man who changed TV Sports forever.

Sam Gardner of Fox Sports did a story on that first game, Army-Navy on Dec. 7, 1963.

Verna’s initial thought was to unveil instant replay at the 1963 NFL championship game, but that option was off the table because NBC had the rights to that year’s game. Instead, he chose to try it at Army-Navy, a game that had been postponed for a week by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and featured a Heisman-winning quarterback in Roger Staubach.

By that point, Verna had developed a method of identifying points on a tape using sound, putting tones on the tape’s sound track that would tell him the approximate location of the play he wanted to re-air. The only challenge from there was getting all three tape heads in sync so he could be certain he was showing the correct replay, and that it was being clearly displayed to the viewer.

Later, Gardner writes:

However, unfamiliarity didn’t keep viewers from enjoying the new technology’s debut, and the positive response to the first instant replay was almost immediate.

“I was still on the air, and Tex Schramm, who was then the general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, called me in the truck — he was the guy that hired me as a kid at CBS — and he said, ‘Verna, you don’t know what you’ve done; this is going to be great for officiating,’ which I hadn’t thought of,” Verna said.

“When that call came in, I had to say, ‘Tex, I can’t talk to you right now, I’ve got a hell of a game going on,’ but that was the first indication that it was a success.”

Classic Sports TV and Media also did a post on the anniversary. Lindsey Nelson did not even learn about this innovation until the morning of the game.

Terrific move by CSN Chicago. Hopefully, it will help the recovery effort.

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Comcast SportsNet, the television home of the Chicago Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox, has announced it will be carrying the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Class 5A Football semifinal playoff match-up featuring Washington High School (12-0) at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School (12-0) live from Springfield, IL this coming Saturday, November 23 at 1:00 PM CT (replay at 1:30 AM).  The winner of this game will go on to play in the IHSA Class 5A championship, which will air on CSN on Saturday, November 30 at 10:00 AM.

Throughout this special game telecast, Comcast SportsNet will also be urging viewers to make a donation to the Red Cross Central Illinois Tornado Response Relief efforts by contacting 1-800-RED CROSS or by visiting redcross.org.  The announcement was made by James J. Corno, President of Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

“In the aftermath of Sunday’s devastating tornadoes in the town of Washington and throughout numerous areas of central Illinois, Comcast SportsNet will utilize this opportunity to not only present what promises to be an excellent preps football playoff match-up between two standout teams, but also to provide our viewers with vital Red Cross donation information to help make a difference in the lives of those affected by this tragic occurrence,” said Corno.

The announcing team for the Washington at Sacred Heart-Griffin match-up will be Lee Hall (play-by-play) and James “Boomer” Grigsby (analyst), while Comcast SportsNet’s Bears beat reporter Jen Lada will provide sideline reports featuring interviews with Washington High School coaches, administrators, parents, and fans throughout the game.

In addition, Comcast SportsNet’s digital portal – CSNChicago.com – will have complete highlights and post-game reaction from players and coaches following Saturday’s game.  Plus, viewers will be able to showcase their support via Twitter by utilizing the hashtag #TeamIL prior to and during the game.

In advance of Saturday’s Class 5A semifinal game, Comcast SportsNet’s Kelly Crull will be visiting the town of Washington for a report to air on Thursday night’s edition of SportsNet Central at 10:00 PM.  This special report will include interviews with the Washington players, coaches, and family members on how they’ve dealt with the horrific experience over the past few days, along with how the team has overcome this deep adversity and still find a way to prepare for the biggest game of their lives.

Amy K. Nelson, writing at The Hairpin, wrote about the real issue for women in sports media: A lack of power. The column is in the aftermath of Damon Bruce’s ridiculous statements about women in sports.

Nelson writes:

A lot of people were angry, and a lot of people wrote about how (Rob) Neyer had tripped up in a “fallacy,” which is a point well-taken—but I’d argue it missed on addressing the much larger issue here: very few women hold positions of true power in the sports journalism industry. When it comes to finding women employed at the top of major media and news-gathering organizations (let alone the smaller shops), the pickings are slim. And I don’t think it’s due to a lack of desire.

The piece includes some interesting quotes via email from Michelle Beadle, who has been mostly silent about her show being canceled by NBC Sports Network.

“Perhaps I’m most amused by the audacity to cower when confronted with the very ‘right to free speech’ they defend,” NBC Sports on-air host Michelle Beadle told me in an email. “At the end of all of this, there are many [people] who think this way. I don’t always take the misogynist tirades personally as I think sometimes they’re aimed at a few ‘bad apples’ or [are] just desperate attempts at relevance. Then again, my current situation leaves me with a really bad taste in my mouth and an even greater desire to stick it to ‘the man.’”

But if more women were in those corner offices, would that mean more women fulfilling those dreams—and yes, contrary to what Neyer wrote, there are plenty of us who dream this—of working in the sports industry?

“It would be nice to see more women in [executive] roles,” Beadle told me, “but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee more options.”

Thanks to Keith and Ken for having me on their podcast this week. While the two Red Sox fans were basking in the glory of another title, I waved my White Sox cap with memories of Chicago’s victory in the 2005 World Series. Yes, I enjoy living in the past.

The rundown:

We spend a good portion of our segment looking at Fox’ coverage of the World Series.  Fox has been promoting improved ratings over last year.  But the ratings had no where to go than up after last year’s Fall Classic registered the lowest ratings in history.

We delve into the length of games and how those on the east coast have a difficult time staying up to watch games that end near midnight.

We also look back at how Fox’ practice of focusing on crowd shots between pitches cost them during Game Four when they missed the pick-off play at first in the bottom of the ninth inning which ended the ball game.

We wrap up the news segment looking at the tenth anniversary of the NFL Network and the report from the New York Times on how the NFL was looking to sell a stake in the network to ESPN.

Our second guest this week is long time ABC Sports producer Doug Wilson who has a new book out entitled The World was Our Stage: Spanning the Globe with ABC Sports. Ken talks with Doug about his many decades with ABC, including his recollection of his relationships with the likes of Jim McKay and Roone Arledge as well as his time working ten Olympic Games for the network.

Today is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews. As a result, I will be posting my Weekend Wrap tomorrow.

In honor of this very solemn holiday, where Jews spend the day in synagogue asking for atonement for the sins of the past year, it always is fitting to invoke the name of Sandy Koufax. Among Jews, he is remembered as more than a great pitcher because of what he did, or more accurately, didn’t do on Yom Kippur in 1965.

The passage below is from Jane Leavy’s excellent biography on Koufax. By the way, if you haven’t read Leavy’s best, you should. One of the best sports books ever.

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In 1961, Yom Kippur began at sundown on September 19 and ended at sundown September 20. Koufax, as usual, fasted during the holiday. On the night of Sept. 20, though, he was on the mound and pitched the Dodgers to victory with a 13-inning, 15-strikeout, 205-pitch performance.

In 1965, the Dodgers had a big lead in the National League. It was announced that Oct. 6 would be game 1 of the World Series. Oct. 6 was Yom Kippur. They asked Koufax what he would do. He said,

“I’m praying for rain.” He also said he would consult a Rabbi. He never did.

Koufax told a Rabbi: ‘I’m Jewish. I’m a role model. I want them to understand they have to have pride.”

Thousands of Jews said they saw Koufax at various synagogues in Minneapolis. In fact, he never left his hotel room.

Don Drysdale, a Hall of Famer, pitched Game 1. He got bombed, giving up 7 runs. When the manager went out to pull him, he said, “Don’t you wish I was Jewish too?”

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Always loved that Drysdale line. I got to know Don when he was the White Sox play-by-play voice in the 1980s. Like Koufax, he was a Hall of Famer way beyond the pitcher’s mound.

L’Shana Tova to all. Today is Rosh Hashanah, celebrating the Jewish new year.

I will be spending the day in synagogue and with my family. However, I wanted to leave a post about Hank Greenberg and the holiday that actually had a sports media component.

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With Rosh Hashanah nearing in 1934, the Detroit slugger was debating whether or not to play. “The team was fighting for first place and I was probably the only batter in the lineup that was not in a slump,” Greenberg said. “I was literally carrying the club with my hitting.”

Greenberg wasn’t all that observant as a Jew, but he always promised his parents he wouldn’t play on a High Holiday.

According to Tigers’ radio announcer Ernie Harwell, a rabbi in Detroit looked in the Talmud and found a reference to young Jews playing in the streets of Jerusalem during Rosh Hashanah. A headline in a local paper read, “Talmud Clears Greenberg for Holiday Play”

Greenberg decided to play and hit two home runs in the Tigers’ 2-1 win over the White Sox. On the front of the Detroit Free Press the next day, the headline read, “Happy New Year” written in Hebrew.

“Years later, I heard that the rabbi knew that the Talmud really said that it was the Roman children who played on Rosh Hashanah, but the rabbi didn’t tell Hank that part of it,” sports broadcaster Dick Schaap said.

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Indeed, I don’t think I would have gotten that interpretation from my Rabbi, Vernon Kurtz.

Thanks to Keith and Ken for having me on.

Here’s the official rundown:

Our top story of the week is still evolving as it was announced late today that ESPN is backing our of its partnership with PBS’ Frontline show in producing an investigative documentary on concussions in the NFL.  ESPN claims the move is over a lack of editorial control on the project.  We speculate that there must have been a major disagreement between the parties.  We will follow the story as it progresses.

We then look at last Saturday’s launch of Fox Sports 1.  The three of us agree that as much as people want to send out flash judgments of what they’ve seen over the first five days on the air, it’s better to judge the success of the network over the long haul.

We wrap-up the news segment by reviewing my trip yesterday to ESPN as part of the network’s Media Day.  We discuss the state of ESPN, particularly through the words of ESPN President John Skipper, who held an hour-long Q&A session with reporters over lunch.

The day at ESPN also included panels on college football, the NFL, and a look at ESPN’s new digital studio, which will host SportsCenter beginning next year.

The second half of the show features my interviews with four members of ESPN:

• SVP of Programming, College Sports Burke Magnus on the upcoming college football season
• SVP of Content, Digital and Print Media Rob King on the network’s online properties
• NFL Live host Trey Wingo
• SportsCenter anchor Steve Levy who is celebrating his 20th year at the network

This is great news if you are a fan of Robert Feder, the highly esteemed media writer in Chicago. And I guess since I’m a contributor to the Tribune, writing a sports media column, it finally makes us sort of teammates after all these years.

Welcome aboard, Sir Robert.

Robert Channick in the Tribune has the details:

Longtime Chicago media columnist Robert Feder is launching a standalone media blog next month through a partnership with the Chicago Tribune. 

The editorially independent Web site, RobertFeder.com, will be owned by Feder, but licensed and marketed by the Chicago Tribune Media Group, an agreement based on generating online traffic and advertising revenue. Terms were not disclosed. 

“It really is an experiment in setting up a site like that and somebody who is an expert in a field and can generate his own audience,” said Bill Adee, senior vice president of digital development and operations at the Chicago Tribune. “Rob is going to be responsible for what he writes, we’ll have our advertising on there, but editorially speaking, he’ll do whatever he wants.”

And..

“I see this as a great opportunity to cover Chicago media in all its forms, expanding on the work I’ve been doing since I started at the Sun-Times in 1980 and later adapted to digital platforms at Vocalo and Time Out Chicago,” Feder said. “This new venture with the Tribune guarantees that my blog will be editorially independent.”

The Chicago Tribune Media Group includes the Chicago Tribune, RedEye, Chicago Magazine, Hoy and TribLocal, among other media properties.  While Feder’s site will be promoted on chicagotribune.com, there are no plans to share content with the newspaper – in print or online, according to Adee.

“We’ll have ways of promoting his blog on our site, but there’s no expectation that his work would have to appear in the newspaper, ” Adee said.

Thanks again to Keith Thibault and Ken Fang for having me on. Here’s the link to the podcast. It also is available via iTunes.

Among the topics discussed this week:

ESPN’s lowest ratings in the second quarter since 2006.

Fox Sports 1′s planned 90 second promo during the MLB All-Star Game.

The MLB All-Star Game.

CBS Sports Network’s plans to air a four hour NFL pregame show this fall.

My story in Awful Announcing about two newspapers planning to stream online sports radio shows.

And Chicago’s anger of Justin Bieber stomping on the Blackhawks’ logo while looking at the Stanley Cup.

Greetings, everyone. Your faithful sports media correspondent has returned from two weeks in the Baltic Sea.

It seems there isn’t much talk about sports media in the Baltic countries. They aren’t caught up about the latest with Skip Bayless or whether Bill Simmons launched another angry tweet.

Mostly, it’s about being blonde and having a good time. Not a bad combination. By the way, high, high marks for Stockholm, Berlin, and Copenhagen. If you get a chance to go there, go.

For two weeks, I existed in a virtual sports media blackout. How bad was it? Yesterday was the first time I saw the wild finish to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Since my oldest son is an avid Blackhawks fan, we knew immediately at 5 a.m. in Stockholm about the Hawks pulling out the miracle to win the Cup. However, in the ensuing two weeks, I couldn’t find a computer with a strong enough connection to run the video with the highlights. So much about the Internet capabilities in the Baltics.

I did finally see it yesterday. Even though I knew the outcome, I found the heart pumping a bit faster near the end. Talk about a historic moment for Chicago sports.

It felt good to get away, but it also feels good to be back in the saddle.

Sherman Report is back and ready to serve.