When March Went Mad (eBook)

From the book PROLOGUE On Sunday evening, March 25, 1979, the NBC Sports production team gathered in a conference room at the Hotel Utah in Salt Lake City to go over the game plan for the following night's NCAA men's basketball championship game. George Finkel, the game producer, spoke first. He laid out the manner in which he and his broadcasting team of Dick Enberg, Al McGuire, and Billy Packer would be presenting the contest between Michigan State and Indiana State. The next person to speak was Don McGuire (no relation to Al), who produced the pregame, halftime, and postgame segments that were hosted by Bryant Gumbel. Before beginning a career in television, McGuire had worked as the sports information director at the University of New Mexico, where the associate athletic director was a man named Bob King. King had since moved on to become head basketball coach at Indiana State University, but before the start of the 1978--79 season, he developed an aneurysm in his brain and had to undergo emergency surgery. That forced King to hand over the reins to his young assistant, Bill Hodges, who despite having no previous head coaching experience had guided the Sycamores to a stunning 33--0 record and a berth in the national championship game. Now, McGuire told the group that he wanted to air a story on King, the incapacitated head coach, during NBC's pregame segment on Monday night. McGuire was abruptly interrupted by Don Ohlmeyer, the executive producer of NBC Sports. A large, domineering, and sometimes bombastic man, Ohlmeyer had spent a decade at ABC Sports learning at the knee of the legendary producer Roone Arledge. While working for the popular, eclectic program Wide World of Sports, Ohlmeyer learned the importance of developing a story line to pump up interest in a sporting event. 'Nobody cares about Bob King,' Ohlmeyer said to Don McGuire. 'What about Magic and Bird?' Ohlmeyer was referring to Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and Larry Bird, the All-American stars at Michigan State University and Indiana State, respectively. An uncomfortable silence fell on the room. 'Well,' McGuire said, 'Dick, Al, and Billy are going to be talking a lot about those two during the game. And we've got a highlights piece set to music ready to go for halftime.' 'Well, you're going to do them in the pregame, too,' Ohlmeyer snapped. 'Those guys are the stars here. That's who people want to see.' Ohlmeyer's edict left McGuire in a bit of a pickle. In the first place, he now had less than twenty-four hours to put together a quality piece. More problematic was Bird's notorious antipathy toward the media. He had gone through most of the season without speaking to the press, and McGuire had no idea whether Bird would consent to be interviewed so close to tip-off. The following morning, Don McGuire sent Packer and a camera crew to the University of Utah's Special Events Center, where the Indiana State Sycamores were just completing their game-day shootaround. Fortunately for NBC, Bird agreed to answer a couple of questions. Packer began by asking him how he felt about playing for the national championship. 'Well, this is probably the biggest game I'll ever play in my life,' Bird replied in his high-pitched Hoosier twang, which made 'life' sound like 'lahff.' As he spoke, Larry looked not at Packer but straight ahead and slightly downward. He had a disconcerting habit of resisting eye contact with people he didn't know well. Bird continued, 'I just feel like I'm representing not only myself and my team, but we're representing our school and our town, Terre Haute. It means so much to me just to even be here that we're gonna...