Retro Video: Ed Sullivan disses Steve Spurrier

Veteran color man Bob Griese is retiring from the ABC/ESPN broadcast booth, where the kids know him as the unassuming guy who gamely leads somewhat inappropriate cheers and makes somewhat inappropriate ethnic jokes on the air. But for fans of a certain vintage, Griese's game preceded his voice as a weekend fixture, beginning with an All-American career at Purdue in the mid-sixties.

He was already recognizable enough in 1966, in fact, that even the cameramen of the Ed Sullivan Show were able to pick his face out of that year's All-America lineup – no small feat, as Syracuse star Floyd Little and that year's Heisman Trophy winner, Florida quarterback Steve Spurrier, found out:

Behold the eternal greatness of Ed Sullivan, who makes at least four obvious mistakes in roughly 30 seconds of screen time ("from the University of Miami!"), unpretentiously refers to Spurrier as "Big Spurrier" and appears genuinely concerned about making sure this redneck kid from Tennessee has his moment in the sun on national television. (In an age when it really meant national television, because there was literally nothing else on.) You know, before he embarks on an obscure career as a high school coach or door-to-door salesman or whatever it is he's going to wind up doing with the next 45 years.

Also notice Spurrier winking at Sullivan, which, in an era when Sullivan ruled and no one could imagine an All-America quarterback who didn't look like this:

… qualified as genuine arrogance. These kids, they always think they're such hot stuff. Wait until he gets into the real world, and see who's winking then.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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