shining moment got its start on a napkin

`Shining Moment' got start on napkin - Charlotte Observer
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When the final whistle sounded in Monday's NCAA basketball championship game, CBS producer Pete Radovich had 15 minutes to finish making "One Shining Moment."

That final quarter-hour of editing emotion, interweaving dunks and overlaying audio reaction -- on deadline -- annually is the most pressure-packed timespan of the nine-time Emmy Award winner's year.

But the following 10 minutes, he said, are some of the most rewarding.

"I'll show it right now to anybody, and the reaction is, `OK, it's a nice group of clips, whatever,' " Radovich said, standing in the back of a trailer in the Alamodome where more than 50 hours worth of game video is condensed into 180 seconds of memories.

"But when you show it on the air right after the team has won, and you see the players crying, high-fiving, watching it from half court, it's the greatest moment in sports television."

It's hard to believe that combining sports footage with song lyrics could become such a cultural icon.

Yet Monday marked the 21st year the three-minute montage of last-second shots, nail-biting blocks and final hard knocks wrapped up CBS' coverage of the tournament.

When he wrote the song in 1986, folk singer David Barrett never dreamed it would get anywhere. He was sitting in a bar, trying to impress a cute waitress by explaining the greatness of NBA star Larry Bird, and the words didn't come.

The next day they did, and he wrote what became "One Shining Moment" on a paper napkin in 20 minutes.

The next month, he was visiting an old friend, CBS correspondent Armen Keteyian, and told him about the tune. He recorded it and sent it to Keteyian, who forwarded it on to some of the network bosses.

"And unbeknownst to me, they did a backflip," Barrett said during a phone interview from his office in Ann Arbor, Mich.

At first, CBS was going to use the piece to accompany a highlight reel at the end of the 1987 Super Bowl.

"But the game went too long," said Barrett, a former high school basketball player and avid basketball fan, "and it got back to where it was supposed to be."

Several months later, the first "One Shining Moment" was shown after the NCAA championship in New Orleans. Keith Smart's winning shot was the marquee moment for Indiana and the tournament.

And a phenomenon was born.

Jene Duffer is a prolific author who specializes on alternative views on a variety of topics.