NFL broadcast preservation status

[SeahawkFever]

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but from the 1977 season onward is when we start to see the majority of NFL games have a full broadcast available in some archive?

And for playoff games in the rounds before the Super Bowl, would that be more like the mid 70’s?

Of the games I’ve only read about but never seen anything more than highlights of, one that I think would be interesting to see just how it played out is the 1979 Monsoon Bowl between the Bucs and Chiefs.

Obviously an incredibly low scoring game, but from the NFL Films footage we do have, it appears to be played on as drenched a field as I’ve ever seen.

[JohnTurney]

the radio call is posted online ... pretty ez to find ... you can hear when "the rain seems to be coming down a little bit harder now" about 35 minutes into the broadcast ...

[Jay Z]

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but from the 1977 season onward is when we start to see the majority of NFL games have a full broadcast available in some archive?

And for playoff games in the rounds before the Super Bowl, would that be more like the mid 70’s?

Of the games I’ve only read about but never seen anything more than highlights of, one that I think would be interesting to see just how it played out is the 1979 Monsoon Bowl between the Bucs and Chiefs.

Obviously an incredibly low scoring game, but from the NFL Films footage we do have, it appears to be played on as drenched a field as I’ve ever seen.

The first VHS recorders became available in the USA in mid 1977. That's why you see a sharp increase in games from that season forward.

[Retro Rider]

The majority of 1977-79 games that we see on YouTube are CBS productions (NFC games). There seem to be significantly fewer 1977-79 NBC/AFC games by comparison. The source for much of the late '70's CBS video appears to be from Channel 2 in New York. You don't see any local commercials or station I.D.'s on those telecasts, they're copies directly from the CBS archives.

On a side note, it's my understanding that the cost of video tape dropped significantly in 1977. Major League Baseball began taping all of their regular season games in 1977 and the best material would be shown on weekly episodes of This Week in Baseball. 

[JohnR]

From what I understand the great volume of preserved broadcasts starting in 1977 came through back channels w/ the CBS archive. These weren't recorded by private parties. NBC broadcasts from that era are few, and that's because they were recorded by home recorders.

[Citizen]

A handful of CBS games from the '70s (including Super Bowl VIII) are "truck feeds" -- copies straight from the production truck. That means the camera stays at the stadium during commercial breaks. Sometimes you can hear the announcers discussing talking points for the broadcast, but usually they're pretty quiet, just going over their charts and notes.

ABC saved quite a few Monday Night Football games from that era, most of which are easily found. NBC games that aren't Super Bowls are much tougher to find.

The super-rare games are in the hands of super-collectors who are super-secret and paranoid about sharing, which is understandable. But the good stuff has a way of trickling down eventually. The 1968 and 1969 NFL championship games weren't widely circulated 20 years ago, but they've more than made the rounds since then.

[JeffreyMiller]

It still amazes me that broadcasts of the 1961 NFL Title Game and 1962 AFL Title Games, for example, are in circulation but we still can't get a complete film of the first Super Bowl, which came five years later.

[SeahawkFever]

A handful of CBS games from the '70s (including Super Bowl VIII) are "truck feeds" -- copies straight from the production truck. That means the camera stays at the stadium during commercial breaks. Sometimes you can hear the announcers discussing talking points for the broadcast, but usually they're pretty quiet, just going over their charts and notes.

ABC saved quite a few Monday Night Football games from that era, most of which are easily found. NBC games that aren't Super Bowls are much tougher to find.

The super-rare games are in the hands of super-collectors who are super-secret and paranoid about sharing, which is understandable. But the good stuff has a way of trickling down eventually. The 1968 and 1969 NFL championship games weren't widely circulated 20 years ago, but they've more than made the rounds since then.

Wait, there’s a copy of the 1969 NFL Championship Game between Minnesota and Cleveland?

In the Secret Base series on the history of the Minnesota Vikings, in some of the early years where they couldn’t find a copy of the full broadcast (whether it be a score or a drive), they showed a sticker that said “[GAP IN HISTORICAL RECORD]”.

Given that that game was rather one sided, I could see why they wouldn’t have prioritized finding it.

Either way, it’s cool that there’s a full broadcast of that one.

[JohnR]

Wait, there’s a copy of the 1969 NFL Championship Game between Minnesota and Cleveland?

In the Secret Base series on the history of the Minnesota Vikings, in some of the early years where they couldn’t find a copy of the full broadcast (whether it be a score or a drive), they showed a sticker that said “[GAP IN HISTORICAL RECORD]”.

Given that that game was rather one sided, I could see why they wouldn’t have prioritized finding it.

Either way, it’s cool that there’s a full broadcast of that one.

Pre-game & 1st half only exists for the '69 Vikings-Browns.

[JohnR]

It still amazes me that broadcasts of the 1961 NFL Title Game and 1962 AFL Title Games, for example, are in circulation but we still can't get a complete film of the first Super Bowl, which came five years later.

Film? You mean tape? NFL Films put together a nice complete game film synched to the radio and titled it "The Lost Game". It starts with some salvaged network TV player intros which is pretty neat. The partial tape that was found is locked away at the Paley Center. Super Bowl 2 is the only SB from which all TV video appears lost.