Local station WSTR/Star64 will broadcast Cincinnati's 1961 national basketball championship game on Sunday, April 4 at 8 p.m.
The NCAA championship game was not broadcast nationally until 1962, so a complete version of the 1961 game video with synched-up audio was not available until producer David Ashbrock set out to re-construct the pieces of media into a television experience.
Now, 60 years later, Bearcats fans can enjoy their first title win over the Ohio State Buckeyes.
‘This was no fluke’:UC shocked as NCAA champs in 1961, 1962
From the WSTR/Star64 press release:
It wasn’t until 1962 that the national championship game was broadcast coast-to-cost by the national networks. So, on that night, WKRC sent Daryl Parks – a radio announcer and weather man – to Kansas City to provide descriptions of the coverage originated by a local TV station. Back home, was a very excited and restless Cincinnati audience, convinced that the Bearcats could be triumphant over the heavily-favored defending national champs! Unless you happened to watch the coverage that night, you’ve never seen the Bearcats upset the Bucks for the crown jewel because no video recordings were made of the game! … that kind of technology would have been ‘a stretch’ for the networks, ‘challenging’ for WKRC and ‘impossible’ for members of the viewing audience. The only real-time record of the broadcast was the audio portion – “the call” – that was preserved by some ingenious fans who were able to record the sound from the TV. Even that keepsake wasn’t widely circulated.
Throughout the years, without benefit of a kinescope recording, Coach Jucker would assemble ‘the boys’ and they’d listen to these poor audio recordings and try to synch-up the film that Ed’s staff had shot during the game. Better known as ‘coach’s film’ – Ed had six reels in his attic until a few years ago when his widow retrieved them for a better purpose!
Six years ago, producer David Ashbrock set out to re-construct these pieces of mis-fit media into a television experience.
What you’ll see on our broadcast has been assembled from shards – from the film that was shot by Coach Jucker’s staff and restored audio recordings. One of these amateur recordings was of average quality; one was recorded at the wrong speed and ‘backwards’ for today’s playback machines; neither recording was complete. Once restored, re-timed and synchronized, these elements were augmented with the inclusion of replay, a scoreboard, running clock and graphics that tell the complete story of this incredible match-up.
This special broadcast of the 1961 National basketball Championship is the crowning moment in the storied history of Bearcat Basketball, brought back to life 60 years after it happened, for Bearcat fans to enjoy now!
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