USD Football 1994

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A fan pondering the col- lege football landscape on a Saturday autumn afternoon finds him- self with more choices than if he were deciding what to eat first at a Las Vegas buf- fet. Wanting to watch a great game but not know- ing which one, the viewer can't decide whether to tune into an important Southeastern Conference matchup, a classic Pac-10 rivalry or Big Ten grudge match. But there's really an easy way to find out which is the game of the day: It's the one Keith Jackson is doing. Jackson, the voice of college football, is now in his 42nd year working for ABC. He has become asso- ciated with the game the same way Dick Vitale has with college basketball- in a much more low-key manner, of course. When- ever viewers tune into a game Jackson is broadcast- ing1 they know they're in for a "Whoa, Nellie!" or two, a couple of "F-U-M - 8-L-E!"s and the best broadcasting network TV has to offer. Jackson's enthusiasm for the game is genuine. Although the travel can be tough at times for the 65- year-old Georgia native, arriving at the press box on game day washes away the neg- atives. "I enjoy it, 11 Jackson said from his earthquake-damaged Sherman Oaks, Calif., home. "It doesn't get old. Players change every year and you never know what a freshman's gonna do." But is college football the same today as when he started in the booth, when winning was more important than money,

when alumni were more interested in supporting the team, no matter the cir- cumstances, than cam- paigning to fire the coach after one losing season? Sort of, but TV is now being asked to carry a much heavier burden. "I think the difference is that when the founda- tion was laid, it was so dif- ferent. I'm not sure we, those of us around the game, know exactly what (college football's) func- tion is anymore. It's a fund-raiser and revenue producer. But it coses more than it delivers. If you don't have the big house, like a Michigan or Ohio St., you can't pay the bills. If TV didn't before, it's now being forced to pay for everything. 11 Like all great announc- ers, Jackson doesn't try to become part of the game, just act as a conduit between what happens on the field and the television audience. That's not to say, however, that he tempers his enthusiasm to the point of being blasé. His job, as he likes to call it, is to "amplify, clar- ify and punctuate. 11 "Another thing that makes me communicate with people is that when I sit down to do my work, I'm not talking to 20 million or 40 million, 11 he said. 11 l'm just talking to the one or two people in front of the TV." It didn't hurt that Jackson grew up in the Deep South, where football was a way of life- especially for someone with a radio. That was before the NFL had crossed the Mason-Dixon line and college football was the big game. Which is to say, Real Big. continued

It wouldn't be college football without the unmistakable stylings of ABC broadcaster Keith Jackson.