Monday Night Football intro (1973)

[ChadMediaFlix]

Better than the Hank Williams song and that horrid Faith Hill SNF intro put together!

[pacmannick]

Way better than Hank Williams theme

[RavenHouseMystery]

Classic 70s style intro to Monday Night Football. Always fun to look back at these and see how the intros have changed over the years and decades. Thanks very much for posting.

[pbanta62]

Wow, so it really looked like that? So it wasn't the drugs...

[badabing42196]

im sure glad i wasnt alive in the 1970s lol

[MrLehnerd]

Jets vs cleveland was First of Monday Night Football first use keith jackson in booth first in there first ever one in 1970....

[kirkindog]

Remember when i was 10, i would watch MNF just for this opening theme and, of course, the halftime hjghlights. Man, i'd give almost anything to go back to this time and era.

[inventorr77]

The huge TV contracts generated huge profits from the advertisers, players salaries escalated, as did profits for the team owners, as well as for the cites they hosted teams in.

He may be up for a Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2012. Contact the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio and let them know it's time for Howard Cosell to get a Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2012.

Pro Football Hall of Fame

2121 George Halas Dr. NW.

Canton, OH 44708

Phone: 330-456-8207

[AlisoViejoMan]

It still amazes me they were able to pull this off with the technology they had back then. Sporting events like football where the camera had to catch so much do it so quickly limited to the technology of the day, it was incredible

[headley62]

Dandy Don Jeff and Hazels baby boy looks like he's gift wrapped.

[altfactor]

Possibly the first use of computer animation in a TV sports open.

[DavisM6512]

Where is Ron Burgundy? I was waiting for him to pop up somewhere

[erinserb]

No sports event comes close to this classic opening; it was when MNF was THE sports event of the week - bar none!

RIP Dandy Don

[1560438]

This is when MNF was the best!

[ScorpioBornIn69]

I remember some of these Monday Night Football intros, very retro in the '70s up to the '80s.

[possumtail]

Watching and listening to this reminds me of just how sorrier and sorrier sports, entertainment, TV, and music has become. What a dumbed down society we live in.....

[sixsixxsixxxx]

@possumtail nah you're just an old fart

[SteelCity1981]

See drugs do have a positive influence at least with creating this video.

[mvhcpa]

Check out that GROOVY "Monday Might" font they used! :-)

[MultiMrfalcon]

DAMN! Bring this intro back with updated footage and you have a winner!

[JAISE1994]

Trippy man

[funkychick60]

This was the best music ever! R.I.P. Dandy Don!

[tvpirate05]

RIP Dandy Don

[gibby100]

Best MNF theme of all

[ccie12933]

For some reason I see Cheech and Chong walking down the street when I listen to this. : )

I get the munchies just listening to it.

[AK47Music]

R.I.P. "Dandy Don" Meredith - 1938-2010

We will all make sure that The lights will ALWAYS be on and The Party Will NEVER Be Over

[AK47Music]

R.I.P. "Dandy Don" Meredith, we will all make sure that the lights will always be on and that "The Party's (NOT) Over", we will all remember you and the legacy you left us with.

[Gide0n]

Gotta love these guys, man the music intros, smoking in the booth, the whole bit was just awesome. Those game were ruthless then.

[jamdawg]

The Banter between Cosell and Meredith was CLASSIC. R.I.P. Dandy Don

[pacmannick]

R.I.P. Danny Don

[alteredstateskustom]

R.I.P. "Dandy" Don Meredith

you'll be missed

[efrem1]

RIP Don :-(

[Highlander1G]

Whoa man...I think that shit I took just kicked in...

[AngryGundamGamer]

Forget the new openings, this is what it's all about!

[67nairb]

Neat intro.

[trinimark123abc]

classic shit just the way I like it

[smcentee6922]

So basically, the Edgar Winter Group was hired by ABC to compose the Monday Night Football theme?

[StFidjnr]

@ 0:15 take tape.

[headley62]

Don Meredith looked like he was gift wrapped.

[Zoomer30]

Yep, to people on LSD the colors looked normal XD

[jcextra]

you gotta love the theme songs from the 1970s, a time when football and all other sports featured REAL players

[sixsixxsixxxx]

@jcextra sure sure old fart...whatever you say...sad when you turn into ur parents, ain't it?

[funkychick60]

wow this is awesome!!! brings back memories. Thank God for youtube!!

[comfortablynumb1975x]

Who knows, maybe LSD was prevalent in TV directors back in the day.

*smiles*

[comfortablynumb1975x]

Good lord! This was two years before I was born!!!

Totally agree with Hippy Buddah.

Top stuff.

[BillyT92679]

Andy Sidaris was a well known film director of t and a jiggle action films like Picasso Trigger.

[schmoop14]

@BillyT92679 When I first saw Sidaris' name, I thought, "Wait is that the same one...?" Talk about a guy belonging in the Guy Hall of Fame: director of Monday Night Football when it was truly the shit, then directing soft core porn.

[Rickat1964]

I'm sick of the Hank Williams crap too. I never liked it to begin with.

[hmbpnz]

@Rickat1964

A-men.

[Ragnar06]

Duh-duh-duh-duhhh. That's my favorite four bars of music in all the world. The greatest intro to Monday Night Football there has ever been

[ebf1957]

I'm surprised that when MNF had their 40th anniversary ESPN (who owns ABC) didn't use this for their opening.

[CHUCKLOVES1969]

@ebf1957 who told you..ESPN...owned ABC.???

the Walt Disney Co. owns ABC...and they have

more commercials during every hour, than any other channel.

[texsportpub]

This was when it was FUN to watch football on Monday night.

[landrykkb]

@texsportpub This was the year I was born,but I most definitely remember MNF in later years,long before there was ESPN or TSN.The games had therefore meant 10 times more because of it.

[heine71]

Animation by Dolphin Productions.

[Ladiespetmansthreat]

FAR OUT!!

[detmikeq]

Awesome!  (Showing my age!)

[jgi99]

Thanks for the memories. Those were the days. I would bring it all back in a heartbeat!

[nicklebackfan]

It's important to remember that in the 1970's, there was no NFL Network, no ESPN, no endless supply of cable and satellite channels and no games during the middle of the week. You had college football on Saturdays and NFL on Sundays and then there was MNF. That's it. MNF was special, now it's just one of several games you can watch during any given week.

[notyetajedi65]

This is much better than the Billy Bob, honky tonk, country line dancing intro Monday Night football has foisted on us for the past decade or so. And they wonder why their ratings keep going down. Of course, it would also help if they could find some announcers with some Cosell/Meredith type chemistry (or, rather, anti-chemistry).

[rowdymax1]

looked like Chet Forte at the beginning...this was classic shit...very jazzy. I remember the first MNF game in 1970 from

Cleveland and there was a WR named Fair Hooker who played for the browns..Dandy Don said "Fair Hooker?...never met one yet!"

[SimuLord]

Produced by Don Ohlmeyer, of whom David Letterman said: "C'mon Norm [MacDonald], I've met Don Ohlmeyer. He's an idiot." Context was Norm's appearance on the Late Show after Ohlmeyer fired him from SNL Weekend Update because Don didn't think MacDonald was funny.

[KaraLarson26]

Is it just me or does the guy that says "stand by all cameras" at 0:04 and "make tape" at 0:17 look a little like the actor Roy Scheider(Sheriff Martin Brody) of the movie Jaws fame?

[SB7771]

aw yeah!!! bring back the bells, butterfly collars and stacks!!!!

[pmfernandez]

groovy

[TheTroubleBoys]

Andy Sidaris has come a long way; from pigskin to plain old skin.

[darrylhaynes]

back when ...FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL..back then when a player scored a touchdown he would hand the reff the ball...nowdays they dance like their on soul train....give me the olden days any time..

[bakedogg12]

Those ABC Monday Night Football Intros in the 70's were epic! I liked em all untilHank came along (I thought hank sucked.) ESPN's coverage is putrid, commercialized; junk...

[travis122imdb]

abc.. the station that was mans best friend in the 70s with 'the six million dollar man'' and 'monday night football' is now known as the vagina network with 'uglybetty' and TheView.

[1560438]

I'm overwhelmed with nostalgia. God I use to live for ABC Monday Night Football. Now its just rather blah on ESPN.

[auscon04]

Roone Arledge was a genius.. Him an Pete Rozzell abxolutely changed the game... Wish the game was still as simple as it was back then... Compare this MNF intro to the one NOW... it doesn't even look like the same game... and you can't get through the current MNF intro without heavy doses of "T n A"... just give me some freakin' football already! I guess I'm a purist.

[donjabroni]

I haven't seen this in ages! Thanks!

It looks like to me that the computer graphics were done using a Scanimate.

[NowhereMan1966]

I dig the early computer graphics they used for the field back then.

[8373seth]

wow, the year I was born.

[danolson68]

Boy that's just horrible.

[Poltr1]

This brings back good memories. Look closely -- Dandy Don is wearing a bow tie!

[eclectica1]

That was trippy...

[Jiltedin2007]

This was the best Monday Night Football Intro ever!

[pacmannick]

Look at that little monkey run

[jackthegroove]

lol, there was no espn back then. you had to read about everything. halftime highlights was the practically the only time you saw film of other teams. 'in for the score' kids don't realize berman is imitating cosell.

[Airborn365]

"He...could...go...all...the..­.way" is also a Berman imitation of Cosell.

[rosskstar]

WOW, i was 7 then

[muttville1]

any1 remember getting the game at 7:00 P.M. in the N.W.? What was with that again?

[Jiltedin2007]

Here in Los Angeles, back then(In 1973), we had Monday Night Football at 6 P.M.

[muttville1]

@Jiltedin2007 then it was a west coast thing then, i member it was like this till the late 80's. can't recall reasoning.

[Jiltedin2007]

I know! It's because "6 P.M." here in Los Angeles, was 9 P.M. in the East Coast.

And if I'm not mistaken, these games were always live. Were they not?

[mdumas43073]

Believe it or not, I think there were some western affiliates that actually tape-delayed the games in the '70s so they could show local news at the regular time.

[Jiltedin2007]

O.K., I never knew this.

[muttville1]

@muttville1 lol......was still drunk from x-mas. Oregon & Washington were the only 2 states that the game started at 7:00 was what I meant.

[pacmannick]

Look that little monkey run

[familyfriends10]

that was the coolest intro I have ever seen.

[Knugabug]

Dan was on alcohol fumes by 6 minutes into the third. When Walt Garrison visited the booth with Larry Mahan the Lone Star beer chasers were by the 6 pack at the Cotton Bowl. Football sucks now.

[davedavid86]

very groovy.. cool graphics for the early 70s

[dcbandnerd]

Howard: Well, if THAT isn't a non-sequitur at it's finest.

Don: I didn't know you could speak Chinese, Howard.

[arreffe]

would love to hear Dandy Don sing "turn out the lights" again

[CSFLChampion]

sounds like someone snoring in the background

[HippieBuddah]

You could become cooler by just WATCHING this. lol

[iFiveSidedEm]

@HippieBuddah LMFAO That's awesome...

[DBR96A]

@HippieBuddah I got high just from watching it.

[Soulthinker2007]

In the 74-74 season I remember the fan in the easy chair changed to a football player. P09,hope you find that one.

[Markieo]

"Hey Howard, is that a new jacket or did you just have the old one repainted?"

-Oscar Madison, 1975

[DiAnno13]

I remember that game. Jets v Bengals. The Jets came onto the field in their home jerseys but were wearing their visiting jerseys when the game started.

[ThisIsBilbo]

Gotta say Howard, Frank and Dandy Don were the only crew that I associate with MNF. Certainly they were together the longest (about 10 years) and were there when MNF was an Event.

[rcktmanil]

Groovy!!!!

[1560438]

Stirs the old memories!

[Weaponsuser]

wow, that brings back old memories,when i was young watching the game with my dad and brothers, ... i would love to see and hear the 1970 version of MNF..its alittle different..the music is the same i think ..but the players are running aganist a black background.

[72NovaGirl]

i couldnt wait to here that intro every monday night ; brings back old old memories thanks for posting

[AmazingG07]

Good seeing Howard, Frank and Don again and that Right On music - thanks!

[maggotframe]

the name of the song is heavy action

[kingslice75]

Oh yeah love the funky music!!

[lsmftymf]

Detroit's Tiger Stadium. Hmmmmm...!

[SayNoToPC]

To this day, there are people think the

original MNF theme was that more bombastic "DUH-DUH-Duh-duuuuuuuun...(Lit­tle drum part)...DUH-Duh-duh-duh-DUUUUU­UUUH" ( Hope you know which theme I'm trying to describe ).If you saw the lame TV movie "Monday Night Mayhem" about the show, they use thaT one as the theme to the first broadcast .But it wasn't used til about the late '70s.

[swami1]

Actually the first time that "DUH-DUH-DUH-duuhhhhh" theme was used(to my knowledge) was in ABC's intro to its live coverage of the Ali/Lyle fight on 5/16/75.

[salemwsr]

is it me, or does it sound like really bad bom chicka porno music?