Autumn Spectacle: Chris Schenkel

Chris Schenkel
by AutumnSpectacle.com staff

During the 1960's, fall Saturdays came to life on campuses and television sets throughout the nation, with college football. The TV screen would light up with a shot of the NCAA Seal and the voice of Chris Schenkel:

“ABC and the National Collegiate Athletic Association welcome you to college football. College football, the autumn spectacle - what a way to spend an autumn afternoon!”

From there the cameras would pan to shots of ivy - covered halls, campus landmarks, the stadium and the people of gameday: marching bands, cheerleaders, mascots, coaches, players and fans. Then into the pressbox, where Chris would describe the action, color and pageantry of another collegiate gridiron Saturday.

Chris Schenkel saw it and showed it to us many years ago – and we are grateful. For there is nothing else in our society that compares with what happens across this country, simultaneously, continuously, coast - to coast and border - to - border, on beautiful college campuses, all day long - every Saturday in the autumn. College football.

Known for his “smooth and mellifluous” delivery, Schenkel was a frequent guest in U.S. homes via television for over 40 years, broadcasting events for all three major networks, including: the NFL, golf, tennis, boxing, the NBA and college football. He was among the first to report games on TV, beginning with Harvard football in 1947, and he was the voice of the New York football Giants for 13 years. He reported nine Summer and Winter Olympic Games, thoroughbred horse races, including all the major Triple Crown events, and hosted the pro bowlers’ tour for 32 years – the longest running program in sports television.

As the voice of ABC College Football for 12 years, he worked many big games, including three contests which were each heralded as the “Game of the Century”: Notre Dame at Michigan State, 1966, Nebraska at Oklahoma, Thanksgiving 1971, and the Texas at Arkansas showdown of 1969, which was attended by President Richard Nixon. Schenkel interviewed Nixon at halftime in the press box and the President went into the Longhorn locker room after that game to present Darrell Royal and the Texas team with Nixon's version of the National Championship.

Schenkel was named National Sportscaster of the Year four times, received the Pete Rozelle/Pro Football Hall of Fame Radio Television Award, was awarded the Golden Plate Award by the American Academy of Achievement, and was inducted into the American Sportscasters Hall of Fame in 1996. He was also granted Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Ball State University and from his alma mater, Purdue, and is an honorary Chieftain in the Miami Indian Council of Indiana.

As for the ol’ college game that Chris reported, it's now better than ever – because of an added ingredient: the Bowl Championship Series. The BCS has turned up the volume. Beginning with the first week of September - somewhere, it all hangs in the balance - every weekend. The only thing you know for sure is: no matter who you're playing, you MUST win THIS game, creating a now - or - never spirit for three solid months, an intensity unequalled in sports and a truly unique quality. For the identity of college football, the very essence of the game, is contained within those autumn weekends on college campuses all across the nation. The BCS creates autumn showdowns, and thereby, enhances that unique quality. So the greatest value of the BCS is what it does for the autumn, and the autumn, after all, is college football. Always has been.

So bring on those autumn Saturdays – smash-mouth, jail-break screens, reverses, on-side kicks, goal-line stands, zone blitzes and more – loyalty, tradition, competition, the stirring of passions, feast, camaraderie, party, celebration - fun in a festival atmosphere.

It’s all of the above, and still more - or as Chris Schenkel simply yet eloquently summed it up, college football is...

The Autumn Spectacle.

Thanks, Chris.

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"Oh those trees in October..." - Chris Schenkel

"Oh those trees in October..."
- Chris Schenkel