Week 1 - 1985 Houston Gamblers vs Los Angeles Express - "Greatest Game No One Ever Saw"

Houston Gamblers vs Los Angeles Express "Greatest Game No One Saw"

Week 1 - Sunday, February 24, 1985

Attendance: 18,828

TV: None (Coach's cameras)

The date was February 24, 1985, a battle between Jim Kelly’s Houston Gamblers and Steve Young’s Los Angeles Express, at the LA Memorial Coliseum.

Originally, ABC Network was supposed to broadcast this game for the opening weekend of the USFL’s third season. Instead, the network decided to switch gears and show Doug Flutie’s first pro game, which left the Express with no TV coverage.

A couple of coaches cameras were setup in the stands of the Coliseum to record some of the plays as well as provide the network with highlights. There was no audio whatsoever recorded, as these were just coaches tapes to study later.

The game you are about to see, not only, did it not have any sound, there were no graphics, no game clock and not very many close up action shots of the players in regular speed. Most were shown in replays because again, this was not setup for a normal football broadcast.

Producer Frankie Rosario added as many detailed graphics as possible and edited together all the available close up shots of the game. Once he had located the game audio, the race was on to finish the video.

John Greer who called the game thirty years ago, along with Ed Biles, had recorded their voices on gameday. They were on cassette tapes for demo purposes. Those recordings recently were discovered and given to Anthony Nunez, a Houston Gambler historian. He has since given permission to the producer of the “USFL Forever” YouTube Channel, for use of the audio.

Now, we must make you aware, John and Ed didn’t record the play by play for the entire game. There were 62 minutes of missing audio that needed to be filled in. To compensate for this, the producer provided the play by play where John and Ed did not.

Finally, there was some game footage that due to severe video distortion could not be shown. You will though, see graphics at the bottom of your screen explaining what happened on the that particular play.

Most of the game is intact and edited to the best quality possible. Make sure to watch the game in 720P HD. Just go to your settings on the YouTube Player and you can set it from there.

I wanted to make it broadcast quality. This project was over 150 hours of man power all by myself, as well as 1500 graphics, 8 voice overs, crowd sounds, etc.. The "Did You Know" segments were added for some trivia fun.

We hope you enjoy it.

USFL Forever

Video Contents:

Video and Voice Over Opening to the game by Chuck Fresh

Halftime: A Special Message from Elmo and Grover - Sesame Street

Gambler players Kelly and Verdin plus Coach Pardee in 1985 give us their thoughts

Play by Play: Allan Fox (fictitious name)

Announcers: John Greer and Ed Biles

Spots: "Did You Know" Segment

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