Game of the Century (college basketball)
| Game of the Century College Basketball |
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| Date | January 20, 1968 | ||||||||||||
| Arena | Astrodome | ||||||||||||
| Location | Houston, Texas | ||||||||||||
| Attendance | 52,693 | ||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||
| Network | TVS Television Network | ||||||||||||
| Announcers | Dick Enberg and Bob Pettit | ||||||||||||
The Game of the Century in college basketball was a historic NCAA game between the University of Houston Cougars and the UCLA Bruins played on January 20, 1968, at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. It was the first NCAA regular season game broadcast nationwide in prime time. It established college basketball as a sports commodity on television and paved the way for the modern "March Madness" television coverage.
The UCLA Bruins were the dominant NCAA men's basketball program of the era, winning NCAA titles in 1964, 1965, and 1967. Houston Cougars coach Guy Lewis wanted to prove his program's worth to his critics, so he decided to schedule UCLA. Houston and UCLA had met in the previous season in the semifinals of the 1967 NCAA Tournament. UCLA had prevailed against Houston 73–58, and won that championship.
Ted Nance, the sports information director for the University of Houston, put the schedule together. UCLA sports information director J.D. Morgan talked Bruin head coach John Wooden into the game by explaining how great it would be for college basketball. Nance put advertisements in the Cougar football programs touting the game as the "Game of the Century."
The game was televised nationally via a syndication package through the TVS Television Network, with Dick Enberg announcing and Bob Pettit providing color commentary. Morgan had insisted to TVS owner Eddie Einhorn that TVS use their broadcaster. Einhorn paid $27,000 for the broadcast rights on TVS. TVS signed up 120 stations, many of which would preempt regularly scheduled network programming. The basketball floor actually came from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
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