To break in a new season of "YouTube Memory Lane" on the Fantasy Fox blog, let's hearken back to a simpler time — 1983 — when a fledgling, fly-by-night cable network called ESPN was entering its fourth year of televising the NFL draft.
Here are nine things we learned from that landmark draft, along with ESPN's primitive coverage of the event. To view the entire clips, click below:
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
1. Who are Leandra Reilly and Greg Wyatt?
In 1988, Reilly would become the first woman to call play-by-play for an NBA game (Nets-76ers for Sports Channel New York); but in 1983, she was merely a cog in ESPN's draft-day machine, interviewing prospects and shaggy-haired veterans at restaurants (part 2).
Wyatt, one of ESPN's original Bristol, Conn.-based anchors (1979-81) and then the network's West Coast bureau correspondent (1981-86), gets top billing in the opening intro, but only gets a quick, post-pick interview with Rams head coach John Robinson.
