For kicks I watched the newscast -- at least until it reset for the second or third time (or perhaps it had ended). After the extensive coverage of the snow storm, however, the real piece of tragic news was broadcast. According to these reports it was forty years ago today that the US lost its first three astronauts when Apollo I burned on the launch pad during a training mission. I'll admit it was a bit of a shock to hear that report on an old newscast I was watching mostly to see what it looked like.
Other interesting observations:
Towards the beginning of the broadcast, it cuts to a reporter working for the Chicago Sun-Times in the city room. As the shot begins, and throughout his report, he is casually smoking.
During the sports report, they mentioned a college basketball game at the Chicago Stadium that was part of a rescheduled triple-header. The game was between Texas Western and BYU. Less than ten years later when I became aware of collegiate basketball, I know that both of those teams (Texas Western having changed its name to The University of Texas-El Paso, or UTEP) were part of the Western Athletic Conference (the WAC), with the University of New Mexico. So I'm wondering if that was a WAC game, or if one or both of those schools hadn't joined the WAC yet in 1966-1967.
