So Who Is Doug Towey?

If you caught the end of CBS's annual salute to the champion of the NCAA Tournament, you might have been asking yourself the same question I was Monday night:

Who is Doug Towey?

His name and photo appeared at the end "One Shining Moment," the popular music montage of basketball action that sums up the highlights of March Madness.

So after taking in this year's music video, I worked my way over to my laptop and went in search of the answer. It took me a few clicks to come across this story, which revealed Towey was the CBS Sports creative director who had a hand in "virtually every major sporting event in the world" during his 34-year career in television.

Of course, he will best be remembered for matching stroke folk singer David Barrett's song "One Shining Moment" into summing up the network's college basketball coverage. He first used it to wrap up CBS' NCAA basketball coverage on March 30, 1987. I recall that particular game ending with Keith Smart of Indiana hitting the game-winner in the final seconds from the baseline. I watched it while putting together that week's edition of The Antelope newspaper (sports section) at Kearney State College.

It was only in recent years that I was turned onto the tradition of the music montage, probably when I was working at KMTV and producing the morning newscast. I believe it was 2003 when I turned the girls onto it and we have watched nearly every edition (courtesy of YouTube) since then.

So how did this year's edition stack up? Not too shabby. It featured quite a bit of natural sound, the usual shots of cheerleaders, bands, coaches, players, etc. It amazes me how they manage to pack the entire championship game into the final 10 seconds or so of the video. But they do it and it comes off seamlessly.

(Be sure and read this nice tribute to Doug Towey.)