"You are looking live at Ebbets Field, as today the Brooklyn Dodgers take on the Philadelphia Eagles in a battle of…"

No one knows for sure how SKIP WALZ opened the first-ever telecast of an NFL game on October 22, 1939.

But one thing is for sure: there were few…very few…people who were "looking live" at Ebbets Field on their TV sets at home.

Few people – even the players – even knew the game was being televised on W2XBS, an experimental NBC station that reached perhaps the 1,000 homes with TVs in New York City.

But 60 years ago this Friday, it was the beginning of a phenomenon – professional football on television – that would one day become a big part of American culture.

From perhaps 1,000 people watching…to more than 100 million each fall weekend…to nearly 800 million worldwide on Super Bowl Sundays, television has helped make the NFL America’s most popular sport.

Who knew that day back in ’39 what they were starting?

Certainly not announcer Allen "Skip" Walz and his eight-man production crew.

"Nine guys if you counted the driver of the mobile unit," Walz once recalled.

In this day of telestrators, reverse angles and virtual first-down markers, it is hard to believe how primitive "Game No. 1" was.

"There were no monitors, no spotters, and no visual aids of any kind," said Walz. "It was flying blind at best. It was up to the cameraman to somehow follow my commentary. That got sticky, particularly late in the game when the light got bad."

As the game – the Dodgers won 23-14 – progressed, the TV picture regressed.

"It was a cloudy day, and when the sun crept behind the stadium, there wasn’t enough light for the cameras," said Walz. "The picture would get darker and darker, and eventually it would go completely blank, and we’d revert to a radio broadcast."

Only two cameras covered the game. One was positioned on the field at the 50-yard line and another in the mezzanine. (As a modern-day comparison, at Super Bowl XXXIII this past January, FOX-TV covered the game with 31 cameras.)

"I’d sit with my chin on the rail and the camera was over my shoulder," said Walz. "I did my own spotting, and when the play moved up and down the field, or on punts or kickoffs, I’d point to tell the cameraman what I’d be talking about. We used hand signals to communicate. The other camera on the field couldn’t move, so we didn’t use it much."

There were more people at the game – 13,051 – than watched it on TV. The fans at Ebbets Field did not know they were witnessing history. The players did not know they were part of it, either.

"I saw a big trailer outside the stadium," said Dodgers fullback HARRISON "SLAMMIN’ SAM" FRANCIS, "but I didn’t know it was being broadcast."

He was not alone.

"If that game was televised, we certainly weren’t aware of it," said Eagles running back FRAN MURRAY.

Neither, apparently, was the other media that was at the game – New York City newspapers.

In a 1,500-word report on the game in the New York Daily Mirror, for example, no mention was made that it was the first NFL TV game. The New York Times did not note it either.

When it was all said and done, though, Skip Walz walked out of Ebbets Field a richer man.

He had $25 in his pocket, his pay for the day, and the knowledge that he had been part of something new.

Nobody realized how significant the day had been.

(October 22, 1939)

(From New York Daily Mirror report)

"The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Eagles broke even on touchdowns at Ebbets Field yesterday afternoon, but the accurate and mighty toe of Ralph Kercheval booted the ball over the crossbar for three field goals that gave Brooklyn a 23-14 victory. A crowd of 13,000 fans saw the game.

"In the course of winning his team’s ball game, Kercheval, former Kentucky University player who has seen five years’ service now with the pro team, made and then broke a record for himself.

"His first field goal, kicked out of Ace Parker’s holding fingers early in the third period, sailed over from the 44-yard line for a perfect bull’s-eye between the uprights – one yard longer than the season’s previous National Football League record for a field goal, held by Henry Reese, the Eagles’ center.

"The record stood for less than 15 minutes, however, for Kercheval’s third field goal early in the last quarter started from the 45-yard stripe, adding one yard to his record."