What’s On This Tape
The tape is a compilation recorded over several years. It starts with Ohio State basketball from 1987 (OSU vs Florida on TVN Sports), then OSU football from 1986 (OSU vs Wyoming and OSU vs Wisconsin). A hard cut jumps to the 1991 NCAA Final Four: Duke vs UNLV on CBS. Then it swings back in time to ESPN’s Baseball’s Greatest Hits covering the 1979 World Series.
The second half is baseball. NBC’s broadcast of the 1985 NL Playoffs (Dodgers vs Cardinals), then Orioles vs Blue Jays, and finally ABC Sports coverage of the 1985 World Series between St. Louis and Kansas City. Ten segments total across multiple years of sports history, all recorded from Columbus-area television.
The commercial breaks tell their own story. “One Shining Moment” plays during the Final Four coverage. A Patrick Stewart-narrated RCA home theater ad runs alongside IBM computers with Charlie Chaplin. Columbus local bumpers and promos surface throughout.
The Commercial Inventory
- Cash Explosion – Guy in a carrot suit, peak Ohio lottery
- Nationwide – “Is on Your Side,” classic jingle
- Murray Mowers – Lawn care advertising at its finest
- ITT – “We Built This City” song parody
- Chuck Yeager for Bryant Air Conditioner – “Check Your Yellow Pages”
- Reebok Pumps – Olympics athlete spot
- Snapper Mower with Kelsey Grammer – Before Frasier made him too famous for mower ads
- Dave Cowens and Bob Lanier for Miller Lite – NBA legends selling beer
- Clubman Men’s Toiletries – A product line from another era
- Ronson Lighter – When lighters had brand loyalty
- Hitachi Compact Disc Player – Futuristic marketing for what was then cutting-edge tech
- IBM Personal Printers – “Less than $550”
- NCR “Unfloppy Copy” – A computer ad that has essentially vanished from the internet
- Canon T70 – Futuristic camera commercial
- GTE “Telephone System Grows as a Town Grows” – Futuristic telecom vision
- Wheaties with Pete Rose – Before the ban
- McDonald’s “100% Pure Beef” jingle – Peak jingle era
- Mr. T for Burger King Breakfast – Exactly what it sounds like
- Budweiser Clydesdales – The World Series broadcast version
- Channel 6 Taft Bumper – Columbus local station ID
- Action 6 News promos – Including a “Best Boss in Columbus” segment and a Walk for Hunger promo
Why This Tape Matters
Someone in Columbus spent years building this tape. OSU games from 1986 and 1987. The 1991 Final Four. The 1979 and 1985 World Series. They labeled it “NEVER ERASE” because they understood what they had. The commercial breaks capture Columbus-area advertising across nearly a decade of broadcasts, from Taft-era Channel 6 bumpers to Cash Explosion lottery ads. The NCR “Unfloppy Copy” computer commercial appears to have no surviving copies online.
This tape is filed as VHS-2026-128 in the 90s Craig archive. Polaroid Supercolor brand. Part of the Sunbury Collection. Six hours of Ohio sports history that someone loved enough to protect.
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