The Lorimar Sports Network, or LSN, was an American ''
ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.)
Com ...
''
television network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...
providing syndicated
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
and
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
. It was based at Lorimar's original headquarters in
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...
, with an additional office in
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
. It was in operation from 1983 until 1986.
History
Beginning
It began in 1983 as a new sports broadcasting division of
Lorimar Productions
Lorimar Productions, Inc., later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993, when it was folded into Warner Bros. Televisio ...
, adopting the branding Sports Productions, Incorporated, or SPI. It was then renamef the Lorimar Sports Network in Summer 1984.
Sports programming
Under both banners, the Lorimar Sports Network had a history of bringing major events in men's college basketball and football. It acquired
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...
(SEC) basketball from the
TVS Television Network
The TVS Television Network, or TVS for short, was a syndicator of American sports programming. It was one of the several "occasional" national television networks that sprang up in the early-to-mid-1960s to take advantage of the establishment o ...
in 1983. It also acquired rights to the
Big Ten
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
,
Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
, and
WAC. The SEC on SPI/Lorimar ran from January 1984 until the end of the 1985-1986 season.
LSN also broadcast the
Freedom Bowl
The Freedom Bowl was an annual post-season college football bowl game played at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, California, from 1984 to 1994.
The bowl frequently invited a team from the Western Athletic Conference to compete against an at-large opp ...
in 1985, along with the Holiday and
Bluebonnet Bowl
The Bluebonnet Bowl was an annual college football bowl game played in Houston, Texas. A civic group was appointed by the Houston Chamber of Commerce Athletics Committee in 1959 to organize the bowl game. It was held at Rice Stadium from 1959 ...
s at the end of the 1985-86 football season,
[ as well as Pacific-10 Conference football during those years.
]
Demise
The Lorimar Sports Network dissolved over time when they lost broadcast rights to all the conferences they had rights for, especially after the end of the 1985-1986 sports season. Rights to Metro Conference basketball were the first to be lost by LSN as Raycom Sports
Raycom Sports is an American producer of sports television programs. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owned and operated by Gray Television.
It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom ...
won rights to the Metro in 1985, and then the Big Ten conference in 1989, two years after Raycom won rights to basketball games from the Big 8 (now Big 12
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its fo ...
) conference; both the Big 8 and Big Ten were acquired by Raycom in 1987. The 1986 SEC and Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournaments (except the championships) were LSN's last sports broadcast because Raycom won syndication rights to the Pac-10 starting with the 1986-87 season. As for SEC Basketball, Raycom's Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
broadcast partner, Jefferson-Pilot Teleproductions (later Jefferson Pilot Sports, Lincoln Financial Sports, now part of Raycom Sports) won those rights beginning with the 1986-87 basketball season, added SEC football in 1992, and those rights remained with that company (which became Lincoln Financial Sports in 2006, and became part of Raycom Sports on January 1, 2008) until the end of the 2008-2009 season.[Company History , Raycom Sports]
The Freedom and Bluebonnet Bowls, however, ended up with the Mizlou Television Network
Mizlou Television Network, Inc. or Mizlou Communications, Inc., is a former sports broadcast television network. It was active from 1962 to 1991, and in 1992 it was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, Inc., which is now based in Tampa, ...
for the 1986, 1987, and 1988 installments.
Just before the end of the 1985-1986 season, Lorimar completed a merger with Telepictures
Telepictures (also known as Telepictures Productions; formerly known as Telepictures Distribution and Telepictures Corporation) is an American television show and filmmaking company, currently operating as a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Television S ...
, to form Lorimar-Telepictures
Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation was an entertainment company established in 1985 with the merger of Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Telepictures Corporation. Headquartered at the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) ...
. After the Lorimar Sports Network was dissolved in summer 1986, the Lorimar studio itself, including its extensive library of produced and/or distributed programming, was bought out in its entirety by the Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...
-based Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...
studio in 1993. Telepictures, on the other hand, once again became a separate production and syndication company under Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
ownership.
Notable on-air personalities
This is a partial list.
*Tom Hammond
Thomas Taylor Hammond (born May 10, 1944) is an American sportscaster. Hammond is primarily known for his work with NBC Sports from 1984 to the present. Hammond is one of the network's staple on-air presenters, along with Bob Costas and Dan Hic ...
, play-by-play commentator (SEC basketball, 1985 Bluebonnet Bowl, 1985 Holiday Bowl)
*Joe Dean
Joe Dean (April 26, 1930 − November 17, 2013) is known as "Mr. String Music" and was the voice of Southeastern Conference basketball for most of the 1970-80s. In 2012, he was elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, as a contri ...
, color analyst (SEC basketball)
* Tim Brando, play-by-play commentator (Metro Conference basketball)
* John Rooney, play-by-play commentator (Metro Conference basketball)
* Bob Carpenter, play-by-play commentator (Big Ten basketball)
*Irv Brown
Irv Brown (March 30, 1935 – February 3, 2019) was an American sportscaster, and basketball and baseball player, coach, executive, and official.
Early life
Brown earned seven letters at North High School in Denver, where he starred in footba ...
, Color analyst (WAC basketball)
*Barry Tompkins
Barry David Tompkins (born May 2, 1940) is an American sportscaster. He is better known for his work as a boxing commentator, but he has covered football and other sports.
Early life
Tompkins was born and raised in San Francisco.
Career KCBS, K ...
, play-by-play commentator (1985 Freedom Bowl, PAC-10 Conference Football)
*Steve Grote, color analyst (Metro Conference Basketball)
*Lou Holtz
Louis Leo Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is an American former football player, coach, and analyst. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the New York ...
, color analyst (1985 Freedom Bowl)
*Gifford Nielsen
Stanley Gifford "Giff" Nielsen (born October 25, 1954) is a former American football quarterback who played professionally for the Houston Oilers of the National Football League (NFL). He was the sports director of KHOU in Houston from 1984 until ...
, color analyst (1984 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship and 1985 Bluebonnet Bowl)
*John Laskowski
John Laskowski (born June 7, 1953) is an American former professional basketball player. He played two seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
College career
A 6'6" guard born in South Bend, Indiana, Laskowski played basketball f ...
, color analyst (Big Ten Basketball)
*Terry Donahue
Terrence Michael Donahue (June 24, 1944 – July 4, 2021) was an American football coach and executive. He served as the head coach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1976 to 1995, compiling a record of 151–74–8. His 15 ...
, color analyst (1985 Holiday Bowl)
*Verne Lundquist
Merton Laverne Lundquist Jr. (born July 17, 1940) is an American sportscaster.
Biography
Early life and career
Lundquist was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas, before attending Texas Lutheran Un ...
, Play by Play (1983 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship)
*Roger Staubach
Roger Thomas Staubach (, -; , -; born February 5, 1942), nicknamed "Roger the Dodger", "Captain America", and "Captain Comeback", is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for ...
, color analyst (1983 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship)
*Darrell Royal
Darrell K Royal (July 6, 1924 – November 7, 2012) was an All-American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Mississippi State University (1954–1955), the University of Washington (1956), and the University of Texas (1957â ...
, color analyst (1983 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship)
*Brad Sham
Brad Michael Sham (born August 16, 1949) is an American sportscaster who is known as the "Voice of the Dallas Cowboys". Sham is currently the play-by-play announcer on the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network.
Biography
Sham has been with the Cowboys sin ...
, Play by Play (1984 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship)
See also
*TVS Television Network
The TVS Television Network, or TVS for short, was a syndicator of American sports programming. It was one of the several "occasional" national television networks that sprang up in the early-to-mid-1960s to take advantage of the establishment o ...
*Mizlou Television Network
Mizlou Television Network, Inc. or Mizlou Communications, Inc., is a former sports broadcast television network. It was active from 1962 to 1991, and in 1992 it was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, Inc., which is now based in Tampa, ...
*Raycom Sports
Raycom Sports is an American producer of sports television programs. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owned and operated by Gray Television.
It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom ...
References
{{southeastern Conference navbox
Defunct television networks in the United States
College sports television syndicators
Sports television networks in the United States
Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries
Television channels and stations established in 1983
Television channels and stations disestablished in 1986
Television production companies of the United States