They Made Slow Night Interesting : Football Succeeded ‘Ben Casey’ to Become Institution on Monday

In the spring of 1970, Roone Arledge began formulating ideas for “Monday Night Football.”

The National Football League was venturing into prime-time later that year on ABC and Arledge, then the president of the network’s sports division, knew the telecasts had to be different than those on Sunday afternoons.

For one thing, he wanted to go to a three-announcer format, and he wanted one of them to be the flamboyant and controversial Howard Cosell, whose antics with Muhammad Ali had made him a national figure.

During the 1950s and ‘60s, the popular game show “What’s My Line?” had a provocative panelist in Dorothy Kilgallen, a New York newspaper columnist.

Viewers liked to see Kilgallen fall on her face because she was so abrasive. But she was also smart, and her sharp-edged personality gave the show its bite.

That’s what Roone Arledge hoped Cosell would do for “Monday Night Football.”

Even before he approached Cosell with his idea, Arledge discussed it with his good friend Frank Gifford during a round of golf in New York.

Arledge wanted Cosell and Gifford to be the commentators. However, Gifford was under contract to CBS at the time. He didn’t join “Monday Night Football” until its second season in 1971.

Gifford recommended that Arledge hire his friend Don Meredith instead, and that’s what Arledge eventually did.

The play-by-play man Arledge first sought was Curt Gowdy, but he was locked in at NBC, and that’s where he stayed.

Chris Schenkel was considered for the play-by-play job, but Arledge thought it would be best to leave him on college football.

Arledge also tried to lure Vin Scully away from the Dodgers, but Scully wouldn’t venture into the network broadcasting until he began doing pro football for CBS five years later.

Keith Jackson came highly recommended and Arledge, rather reluctantly, decided to use him, although Arledge dumped him in favor of Gifford after only one season.

By Sept. 21, 1970, all the pieces were in place, and ABC televised its first Monday night game. It was played in Cleveland, where the Browns defeated Joe Namath and the New York Jets, 31-21.

ABC, which never needs much of a reason to throw a party, is throwing a season-long shingdig for what it says will “commemorate the 20-year milestone of the most successful and longest-running network prime-time sports series.”

On the night of this season’s first telecast next Monday in Washington, where the Redskins play host to the New York Giants, ABC will televise a special one-hour 20th anniversary special, which Gifford will narrate. It will be shown before the game in the East and after the game in the West.

Also, there will be a new twist to halftime highlights this season--highlights not from the previous day’s games but from games played on “Monday Night Football” during the past 19 seasons.

ABC also will market a home video, hats, T-shirts, sweatshirts and so forth. And for pinball freaks, there’s now a “Monday Night Football” pinball machine based on the show’s animated opening sequence.

A computer company is sponsoring parties in every city that the series visits this season, except Minneapolis. That stop will be bypassed because the Vikings are playing host to Cincinnati on Christmas Day.

The tour features a 10-foot by 16-foot assemblage of “Monday Night Football” memorabilia. It was put together by former NFL defensive back Jim Ridlon, who is the brother-in-law of ABC Sports publicity director Bob Wheeler.

It’s got a little of everything, even a picture of Fred (The Hammer) Williamson, who worked only a couple of exhibition games in 1974.

Williamson was hired to replace Meredith. You might recall that Meredith went to NBC for a few years before returning to “Monday Night Football.”

Williamson, who refused to wear a tie because it would cover up the gold chains he wore around his neck, labeled himself “the Muhammad Ali of football.”

He was far from that. The Hammer was a bust.

On his first cliche-riddled telecast, trying to show irreverence, The Hammer said: “Even an old cripple like you could have made yardage through that hole, Howard.”

According to Marc Gunther, TV columnist for the Detroit Free Press, and Bill Carter, TV critic for the Baltimore Sun, in their book published last year, “Monday Night Mayhem,” the idea for prime-time pro football first came up in 1964.

ABC was getting ready to ditch Gillette’s Friday night fights and a dynamic young man working in sales for the Ford Motor Co., Lee Iacocca, proposed pro football for that night.

But because of high school football, that plan never got off the ground. Saturday night was also ruled out because of strong network programming back then, and midweek games were ruled out because they would disrupt practice schedules.

NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle suggested Mondays, but “Ben Casey,” ABC’s most popular show, was going to run on Monday in the fall of 1964. But two years later “Ben Casey” went off the air, leaving ABC looking for another Monday night hit.

Rozelle got a taste of Monday night football in September, 1964, when the Green Bay Packers played in Detroit. The game drew 69,203, then a Detroit record.

Two years later, CBS experimented with a Monday night telecast between Chicago and St. Louis, but the network wasn’t interested in any more because of a Monday night lineup that included “The Lucy Show.”

In October, 1968, Rozelle spoke at a New York luncheon, and Monday night football was again on his mind.

Shortly after Namath led the Jets to a 16-7 victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in January of 1969, Rozelle began making the rounds of the networks trying to sell his Monday night package.

CBS had a Monday night lineup that was too strong, so it passed, as did NBC.

Arledge was interested, but his superiors at ABC weren’t.

What finally sold ABC was the fear that Rozelle would make a deal with the Hughes Network, which would in turn sell the games to ABC affiliates. The affiliates would happily dump ABC’s lowly rated programs, Arledge warned.

ABC and the NFL made a one-year deal in which the network paid $8.5 million for the rights.

“It is a hot, sultry, almost windless night here at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, where the Browns will play host to the New York Jets.

“Good evening, everyone, I’m Howard Cosell and welcome to ABC’s Monday night prime-time National Football League television series.”

And the show was on.

When Meredith was introduced, a film package of personal lowlights--sacks, interceptions, fumbles and botched handoffs--was cued up.

The gag worked, sparking sympathy for this folksy new announcer. Meredith didn’t know he was going to be roasted in the film clip, but his aw-shucks reaction completed the impression: Cosell came on sour; Meredith came on sweet. Black hat, white hat. An act was born.

During that first telecast, Cleveland wide receiver Fair Hooker pulled down a pass and Meredith asked, “Isn’t Fair Hooker a great name?”

Cosell said nothing.

Meredith went on anyway. “Fair Hooker,” he said. “I haven’t met one yet.”

A few weeks later, with the Rams playing in Minnesota, the camera focused on Viking coach Bud Grant, giving Meredith an opportunity for this line: “If Bud Grant and Tom Landry were in a personality contest, there’d be no winner.”

Perhaps Meredith’s best line came a couple of years later when a sleepy fan in the Houston Astrodome made an obscene gesture at the camera. “He’s saying, ‘We’re No. 1,’ ” Meredith said.

Actually, according to Gunther and Carter, that line was fed to Meredith from a producer in the truck, Dennis Lewin.

A highlight, or, depending on your perspective, a lowlight of that first season came Nov. 23, 1970, the night Cosell threw up on Meredith’s Cowboy boots.

The incident is chronicled in detail in “Monday Night Mayhem.”

The night started for Cosell with a visit to a cocktail party thrown by Philadelphia Eagle owner Leonard Tose.

Then, after the game started, an officer of the Philadelphia fire department appeared at the back of the booth carrying two large fire buckets. One was filled with cognac, the other with a jug of vodka martinis.

Cosell was soon bracing himself against the cold with help from the vodka martinis.

A little later Cosell started to have trouble getting his sentences out. In the truck, Arledge was getting edgy. He reportedly leaned toward director Chet Forte and said, “What the hell is the matter with Howard?”

It was late in the second quarter when Cosell went white, pitched forward and did his number on Meredith’s boots.

Cosell remained quiet the rest of the half, and after halftime Arledge told Cosell to go back to the hotel.

According to Gunther and Carter, Cosell didn’t go back to the hotel. He instead took a cab home to New York. The ride cost $92.

Back in Philadelphia, Meredith said on the air that Cosell had taken ill. He and Jackson did the rest of the telecast alone.

Jackson said he hoped Cosell would be back soon. No one knew he had taken a cab home.

The next day, Cosell told Arledge he was the victim of a “virulent virus” in his inner ear.

Cosell was back on the air the next week, and “Monday Night Football” was on its way to a successful first season, the first of many that would follow.