On November 30, 1974 I attended my first college football game. It was Notre Dame vs. USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Notre Dame was up 24-6 early, only for USC to storm back and crush the Fighting Irish. While the mind at times remembers what it wants to remember, history is unequivocal that the final score was 55-24. What’s not clear is if my memory is correct about the Coliseum being one of the loudest stadiums ever on that day. Four years old, I begged my dad to take my sister and me home so loud was it, only for my generally compassionate father to turn us around as we exited the tunnel. There was no way he was missing the drubbing! Since then, I’ve seen countless matchups between the two schools in both Los Angeles and South Bend.
All this came to mind after Thanksgiving in 2004, and in particular the day after Notre Dame vs. USC on November 27, 2004. A private plane carrying television legend Dick Ebersol and other family members had departed Los Angeles the day after the game, only for it to crash. One of Ebersol’s sons, Charlie, was a Notre Dame student, while another, Willie, was a freshman at USC. When I read about the accident at the time, I knew they’d been at the game. Tragically, younger brother Teddy Ebersol died in the crash.
What happened so horrifyingly in 2004 is not solely why I purchased Dick Ebersol’s excellent new memoir, From Saturday Night to Sunday Night: My Forty Years of Laughter, Tears and Touchdowns In TV, but what happened then was on my mind for years after. I didn’t and don’t know Ebersol, but it was hard not to think about it. Beyond that, Ebersol was once again a legend. As readers will soon see, he was impossible not to know about and think highly of for sports fans, but also fans of televised entertainment in general. Ebersol shaped or produced a lot of the television that I watched quite a bit in my younger days. I had to know more about him. I’m glad I do. He’s very compelling.
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