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By Root 2124 0

cable operator, and Anheuser-Busch all formed a sports network to take on ESPN. And Multimedia, based in Wichita, Kansas, was the first one that dropped ESPN and was going to replace it with this new thing—I forget what they called it—SportsVision or something like that. We immediately scheduled an Oklahoma prime-time football game for the following Saturday. Roger Werner and I flew into Tulsa, and it was the first time I felt like a rock star, because, as soon as we landed, the local Tulsa television stations were at the airport, filming us arriving. It was a big town-hall meeting in Tulsa. People wanted to know what Multimedia was doing dropping ESPN. There were four or five hundred people and a town council up there and some executives from the local cable operation. There were these guys in the back of the room with chain saws threatening to cut down the telephone poles carrying the cables unless ESPN was restored to the cable system so they could watch NASCAR races.

LOREN MATTHEWS:

We flew from the Texas–Texas A&M game on Thanksgiving night over to Oklahoma State in Stillwater, and when we landed, we heard on the radio there was going to be a big storm that Saturday night with ice and snow. We were hoping they were wrong, because they were going to be playing the game at night, but they weren’t wrong. It was horrendous. The field was covered with ice. They played because it wasn’t like there was lightning, but it was in the most miserable conditions ever. We were losing cameras and camera men; it was just awful. Finally the game was over, and our guys had to tear down everything. They’re still working about an hour after the game, and they see these two people sitting in the middle of the stands up there in this horrendous weather. So they go up and see what was going on. Apparently the woman had been drinking at the game and had gotten so drunk that she’d peed her pants and she was now frozen stuck to the metal bleachers. And the guy with her, who was also drunk, couldn’t free her. He was trying to pour hot coffee around her to get her out. So now, our guys had to literally chip the lady off the bleachers and get her home.

TERRY LINGNER:

We had a pretty major role in NASCAR’s ascension and growth, and everyone could see it. When we started covering them, there was nobody in the grandstands. I had come from ABC, where they had standards and practices and never would let you show even the Miller beer logo. So, when I came on the ESPN scene, I clearly remember going to all the drivers and saying, “Hey, we’re just a fledging cable network and we have no standards and practices. We want to be your friends. We want you to be successful. So, if you want to mention Miller beer in your answer, go for it.” Then I said, “I’ll shoot you wide if you need to show your sponsors while you’re thanking them.” I felt like it was vital for us to get the drivers and their teams on our side, ’cause if we did, it would make us fairly popular fairly quickly.

RICHARD PETTY, Race Car Driver:

ABC’s Wide World of Sports would give us five or ten minutes between mud wrestling and marble shooting, you know what I mean? That was about the only coverage we had. Then ESPN came on and started picking things up. I can remember when they first started. They were new and kind of crude, but they were quick learners and their people were pretty knowledgeable. Every now and then you’d run into one of them who would come up with something totally off the wall or ask a stupid question, but you’d try to help him because you’re trying to help yourself. We had to remember that this guy was trying to help racing.

What ESPN did was create interest all over the country. Before ESPN, we were still a Southern sport. They took us all over the United States. At first, we couldn’t see the effects, but all of a sudden, there were more photographers, more interview requests, more newspapers around us, more local TV stations. We woke up and said, “Golly, look what’s happened.” They covered our sport like nobody else had ever done it before. So, as far as I’m concerned,