Monday night marks the 50th anniversary of a television landmark – the first airing of Monday Night Football on ABC. It was the broadcast that introduced much of the world to Howard Cosell, Dandy Don Meredith and Keith Jackson, a soon-to-be legendary trio.
 
Incredibly, as the linked article points out, many doubted whether sports in prime time would work and it took a few years before the game became the landmark it was. It’s now been relegated to cable in the U.S. for the most part, but at a time when there were no all sports cable stations, this was a major milestone in TV history.

And it was also the place in 1980 where most of us heard about the murder of John Lennon, when Cosell breathlessly announced the "unspeakable tragedy," that the former Beatle had been shot outside his apartment in New York City and rushed to hospital. "Dead on arrival," were the words I still remember all these years later. Hard to believe it will be 40 years this December. 

‘Monday Night Football’ debut 50 years ago began a TV revolution