In This Deal, Even O.J. Is Working Against Trojans

USC may have missed out on its last chance to beat Notre Dame.

The Irish are on their way to becoming unbeatable, thanks to their sweet deal with NBC.

Imagine being able to tell a recruit that every home game--even those against Navy--will be on national television.

There would be no problem convincing him this is a big deal. Just tell him to watch NBC any time, day or night. All those promotional announcements will let him know Notre Dame football on NBC is considered a major event.

It’s now NDBC, the Notre Dame Broadcasting Co.

Pity the poor schools trying to compete.

A USC recruiter, for instance, might make a pitch to a Midwestern blue-chip prospect that goes something like this: “Come on out to sunny Southern California and play for the Trojans.”

But a Notre Dame recruiter can counter with: “Come to South Bend and have your family and friends see you on NBC, no matter where they live. You’ll also get to meet Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh, too. They’re our announcers, you know. Even O.J. Simpson works for our network.”

This week’s edition of Notre Dame football on NBC will be on later than usual because of the Breeders’ Cup Saturday.

The horse racing from Churchill Downs will be shown from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Then comes Notre Dame against Navy.

With Enberg in South Bend, Ind., Tom Hammond takes over as the host of NBC’s Breeders’ Cup coverage.

Hammond is a rising star at the network. He worked on NBA playoff games last season, was at track and field’s World Championships in August and is doing NFL football.

But horse racing is his specialty. He grew up in Lexington, Ky., and has been around the sport all his life. As a graduate student at Kentucky, he majored in equine genetics and reproductive physiology.

“I wanted to be a thoroughbred breeder,” he said from his home in Lexington this week.

A job calling race results at a Lexington radio station changed his career objectives.

Hammond got his first big break at NBC when former executive producer Michael Weisman assigned him to the first Breeders’ Cup in 1984 as a reporter. He has worked all of the network’s Breeders’ Cup telecasts since then, but Saturday’s program will be his first as the only host. He and Enberg were co-hosts the last two years.

Hammond said Enberg decided last year, before he got the Notre Dame assignment, that he wouldn’t be back for this one.

“Dick had a love-hate relationship with the Breeders’ Cup,” Hammond said. “He loves horse racing, but this is a tough event for someone who isn’t around racing all the time. You have to cram for not one but seven races.

“After last year’s show, Dick said, ‘That’s it for me. It’s time to turn this over to you.’ He had said that before, but this time he meant it.”

During the four-hour Breeders’ Cup telecast, there surely will be some blunders. But probably none will match the one Hammond made last Sunday while working a game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots.

In the second half, Patriot quarterback Hugh Millen’s fiancee, Lisa Coles, who is also that team’s cheerleader coordinator, appeared on camera.

“There’s Lisa Olson,” Hammond said, referring to the sportswriter who was the victim of sexual harassment in the Patriots’ locker room last season.

Working his third Breeders’ Cup will be Trevor Denman, the Vin Scully of race callers.

The only problem is Denman again won’t be calling the races. He’ll be used as a “contributing analyst.”

Talk about misusing your personnel. That is as bad as having Scully call the World Series on radio instead of television.

Belmont Park’s Tom Durkin will call the races, as he has on the seven previous Breeders’ Cup days. There’s nothing wrong with Durkin; he just isn’t in the same class as Denman.

Durkin and Denman could at least alternate from year to year.

But Durkin works in New York, where the NBC executives live. Call it Eastern bias if you like, because that’s what it is.

Sure, Denman would like to call the races. It’s what he does best.

“I’ve never said anything to anybody at NBC,” he said. “They call and tell me to be there, and I say OK.”

Someone needs to clue in the good people at NBC. The nation’s best race caller works in the West.

Particularly with Southern Californian Enberg off the Breeders’ Cup, the NBC crew working the races is slanted toward the East.

Besides Durkin and Hammond, other Easterners working the telecast will be Jenny Ornstein, who is the host of a daily show at Philadelphia Park; John Veitch, a New York trainer; Bob Neumeier, a Boston sportscaster, and jockey Gregg McCarron, Chris McCarron’s brother who lives in Maryland.

The West will be represented only by Denman and Dan Kenny, an independent blood-stock agent and free-lance broadcaster from Santa Barbara. Kenny has been a racing commentator in Canada for many years, and also has worked on some Santa Anita stakes telecasts for SportsChannel.

TV-Radio Notes

There will be telecasts of three NBA openers locally tonight--the Lakers at Houston on Channel 9 at 5:30, plus a TNT doubleheader beginning at 5, Philadelphia at Chicago and Phoenix at Seattle. . . . TNT will have 51 NBA telecasts this season, and TBS will televise 30 Atlanta Hawk games. Dick Versace, TBS’ Hawk commentator, will be a guest on TNT’s pregame show today at 4:30 p.m. . . . Versace will have two play-by-play partners this season. With Skip Caray asking to work only home games, Jim Durham, fired by WGN after 18 seasons with the Chicago Bulls, has been hired to work the road games.

Channel 13’s first Clipper telecast will be next Tuesday night, when the team plays the Lakers at the Forum. The game also will be televised on Prime Ticket, with Chick Hearn and Stu Lantz, but Channel 13’s new three-man announcing team of Ralph Lawler, Mike Fratello and Bill Walton is worth checking out. Fratello and Walton are the hottest new basketball commentators in the business. Each will miss a few Clipper telecasts during the season because of other assignments. Fratello is NBC’s top NBA commentator, and Walton is also the Dallas Mavericks’ television commentator. . . . Channel 13 also brought in a respected basketball producer from Philadelphia, Dave Goetz, to handle both game coverage and the half-hour pregame shows. “The station has really made a commitment and is sparing no expenses on production,” Goetz said. Goetz showed off some fancy graphics and nicely done feature material to a reporter who visited Channel 13 the other day. To be shown at halftime Tuesday is a feature on Ron Harper by feature producer Heidi Palarz, formerly of SportsChannel.

KMPC’s Jim Healy will get his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6740 Hollywood Blvd. There will be a ceremony Thursday at 11:30 a.m. . . . KMPC has signed on as an affiliate for ESPN’s new all-sports radio network, which mainly will provide weekend coverage, from 3 to 10 p.m. ESPN announced this week that Chris Berman, Frank Deford and Dick Schaap will be among those contributing to the venture.

USC, despite being 3-4, will make two consecutive appearances on ABC, beginning with Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. game at California. Gary Bender and Lynn Swann call the action. The Trojans’ home game against Washington on Nov. 9 also will be on ABC, with Keith Jackson and Bob Griese drawing the assignment. . . . UCLA’s home game Saturday against Washington State is the Prime Network Pac-10 Game of the Week, so it will be played at 3:30 p.m. . . . Sign of the times: Hoop-It-Up, a taped three-on-three basketball competition on NBC last weekend, got a 6.5 rating in Los Angeles. The Bruins’ football game against Arizona State on ABC got a 4.7.

Steve Garvey did a nice job filling in for Larry Burnett on Prime Ticket’s “Press Box” last week. Burnett, out with a respiratory problem, also missed the next night. But Garvey wasn’t available, and with Glen Walker, the program’s other anchorman, on vacation, the “Press Box” producers came up with something different. They opened with Alan Massengale and Alan Massengale in the two host seats. Sort of reminded one of the old “Patty Duke Show.” . . . “American Gladiators,” on Channel 9 Saturday at 10 p.m., has former NFL players competing--Charles White, Cliff Branch, Greg Pruitt, Phil Villapiano and Jim Kiick. Kiick’s former backfield mate with the Miami Dolphins, Larry Csonka, is the co-host of the show.