What a Sport

After Monday’s “All-Star Pro Sports Awards,” Brent Musburger will announce a variety of events for ABC--some old, some new. Here’s what he expects from them:

College football

I missed college football last year. If somebody said to me if you were just able to do one thing, I might surprise everyone and say college football.

I get a kick out of the enthusiasm. There are so many more plays run in a college game than the NFL. You don’t get the great execution like you do in the NFL, but you get so many great endings.

We had the Big Ten and Pac-10 a few years ago on CBS, and I love getting back to that. I went to Northwestern, so for me, it’s just like going back home.

College basketball

I have a feeling that (on-air partner) Jim Valvano will be a big player as an analyst. At CBS, there was a void not having the Big Ten in the package. I’ll go and see the general--(Indiana Coach) Bobby Knight--and do some college games earlier in the season than I did before.

The Hambletonian, Aug. 4

It’s the Kentucky Derby of harness racing. I’ve worked it before. I don’t think ABC was even aware of that. In the early to mid-’70s, the race was staged in Du Quoin, Ill. It was part of the fair, and had a rich, rural history.

I’ve been intrigued by harness racing. It’s more of a family sport than thoroughbred racing. If you go back through history, thoroughbred racing is an elitist sport, with kings and queens owning horses.

Harness racing people come from a different background. They’re more likely to wear jeans and cowboy boots.

What intrigues me about any sport is the people and where they come from. There’s always a chance some little guy has a chance to win.

Little League World Series, Aug. 25

That’s a real treat for me. I never expected to broadcast that event. I got interested in sports though Little League. I drove to Williamsport (Pa.) two years ago and saw Taiwan meet Saudi Arabia. The difficulty for me will be pronouncing the names of the players from the team representing the Far East.

World League of American Football, March-June, 1991

This is a guess, but the level of play will be just below the top colleges for the first couple of years. Then it will move past that and take on the look and luster of pro football.

There will be growing pains. Viewing the U.S. Football League from afar, when it debuted, I thought it had a chance until Donald Trump arrived and the dollars escalated. I thought they were committing suicide.

With this league getting the backing of the NFL, they can do a nice little 3 or 4 rating. When people are flipping through the channels, they’ll stop when they see a football game. There’s just something about football on TV that acts as a magnet to a certain segment of the audience.