NFL Films, which started out as a small company filming game highlights and turned into a small media conglomerate that won 40 Emmy Awards, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this season.
It`s an anniversary-and business-that almost didn`t get off the ground because of the opposition of Papa Bear himself, George Halas.
”He saw us as the enemy,” recalls Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films and son of founder Ed Sabol. ”Maybe because our offices were in Philadelphia, which was too close to New York for him. He was so suspicious of the league office.”
Whatever the reason, the cantankerous Halas would assign his older brother, Frank, to chase away cameramen from the Bears` bench with a cane. And that`s where the younger Sabol got his start.
”He always thought we were spying,” says Steve Sabol, who began his NFL Films career in 1965 as a cameraman. ”We would put a guy on the ground and all he would do is shoot the bench. That was new in that era. So whenever I would come up and I`d be shooting Halas, he`d look at me suspiciously.
”When the game started, I`d hang around the bench. He`d have his brother, who was like a self-appointed guardian of that area, shoo me away with his cane whenever I`d start to shoot the bench.”
Which accounts for the lack of closeups from that era of Halas as well as such budding Bears stars as Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus.
”We could never get closeups of them because Halas would never let us near the bench,” says Sabol, ”and Frank would come after me with a cane. I finally figured out that he (Frank Halas) couldn`t walk that well, so we would decoy him, faking one way and going another. . . . I would have 30 or 40 seconds to get the shots that I wanted before here he`d come again.”
It took former Bear Ed Healy to change Halas` mind in 1979 at the 50th reunion of the original Decatur Staleys. Healy had seen NFL Films` work and
”really liked it,” says Sabol. Healy ”thought it was a great way to preserve the memories of the game. And he must have gotten to Halas somehow.” At Healy`s urging, Sabol showed Halas a film about the Bears from the 1930s and `40s. ”He was really moved by it,” Sabol says, ”he really liked it. About a year or so later, Halas wrote me this great letter about how much I cared about the history of the game and he said . . . that, in the future, NFL Films would be considered `the keepers of the flame. . . . Because the way you have captured the spirit of the game, the action of the game, is worth preserving. And it`s important the league have someone to do this.`
”And from then on, he was our biggest booster. He let us mike him for a couple of practices, and a couple of years before he died he sent me all of his coaching films. He said he knew we cared about the game and he knew they`d be preserved with us.
”So he ended up not only being a great fan of ours, but also coining the phrase that`s sort of been our motto: Keepers of the Flame.”
To mark its milestone, NFL Films presents a three-week series of ”Silver Memories” on ”This Is the NFL,” starting at 10:30 a.m. Sunday on WBBM-Ch. 2. And thanks to Sabol and Halas, Sayers and Butkus play a prominent role.
– Jim Valvano begins his new career as a college basketball analyst on Saturday, teaming with Brent Musburger on ABC`s coverage of the Kentucky-Notre Dame game in Indianapolis. It`s a day that should live in television infamy. Valvano, an engaging personality and a knowledgeable coach, was forced out at North Carolina State after a series of serious charges that ranged from recruiting violations to an almost total lack of control over the off-court conduct of his players. Now, Valvano will earn $900,000 from ESPN and ABC, who aired reports of alleged Wolfpack point-shaving that led to his downfall in the first place.
What`s the solution? Boycott the games. Don`t turn down the sound-turn off the telecasts. Watch something else. Do something else. Hit the network where it hurts the most-in its ratings book. By boycotting games broadcast by Valvano, who indeed may be the second coming of John Madden (after all, he never met a camera he didn`t mug for), justice may prevail. Otherwise, can Jerry Tarkanian be far behind?
– Big hand for the little lady: Andrea Joyce blazes a few trails this week when the CBS Sports announcer becomes the first woman to host the Heisman Trophy presentation Saturday (WBBM-Ch. 2, 5:30 p.m.) as well as the Lombardi Award dinner Wednesday in Houston. Joyce, who hosts the network`s college football studio show, also will join colleague Lesley Visser in invading the previously all-male bastion of the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame dinner Tuesday night in New York.
– SportsChannel Chicago officials point out the cable outlet televises an average of two National Hockey League games a week in addition to its Blackhawks coverage. ”You`re not seeing any fewer games than last year,”
said a spokeswoman. She added that during the Stanley Cup playoffs, only SportsChannel could provide the kind of ”whip-around” coverage as it does.
– Chet Forte, who won 10 Emmy Awards before leaving ABC in 1987, will return to TV as director of ESPN`s tape-delayed telecast of the Breeders` Crown at 11 p.m. Friday. Forte recently ran into gambling problems that led to his conviction this year of mail fraud and tax evasion.
