The Lorimar Sports Network, or LSN, was an American ''

ad hoc ''Ad hoc'' is a List of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning literally for this. In English language, English, it typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a Generalization, generalized solution ...

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

providing syndicated

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

. It was based at Lorimar's original headquarters in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...

, with an additional office in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. It was in operation from 1983 until 1986.

History

Beginning

It began in 1983 as a new sports broadcasting division of

Lorimar Productions Lorimar Television, formerly Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Lorimar Distribution, was an American production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969

, adopting the branding Sports Productions, Incorporated, or SPI. It was then renamed the Lorimar Sports Network in Summer 1984. Dvd snapshot 00

Sports programming

Under both banners, the Lorimar Sports Network had a history of bringing major events in men's college basketball and football. It acquired

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

(SEC) basketball from the TVS Television Network in 1983. It also acquired rights to the Big Ten, Metro, and WAC. The SEC on SPI/Lorimar ran from January 1984 until the end of the 1985-1986 season. LSN also broadcast the

Freedom Bowl The Freedom Bowl was an annual post-season college football bowl game played at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, California, from 1984 to 1994. The bowl frequently invited a team from the Western Athletic Conference to compete against an at-large opp ...

in 1985, along with the Holiday and Bluebonnet Bowls at the end of the 1985-86 football season, as well as Pacific-10 Conference football during those years.

Demise

The Lorimar Sports Network dissolved over time when they lost broadcast rights to all the conferences they had rights for, especially after the end of the 1985-1986 sports season. Rights to Metro Conference basketball were the first to be lost by LSN as Raycom Sports won rights to the Metro in 1985, and then the Big Ten conference in 1986, two years after Raycom won rights to basketball games from the Big 8 (now Big 12) conference; both the Big 8 and Big Ten were acquired by Raycom in 1986. The 1986 SEC, Big Ten and Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournaments (except the championships) were LSN's last sports broadcast because Raycom won syndication rights to the Pac-10 starting with the 1986-87 season. As for SEC Basketball, Raycom's

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

broadcast partner, Jefferson-Pilot Teleproductions (later Jefferson Pilot Sports, Lincoln Financial Sports, now part of Raycom Sports) won those rights beginning with the 1986-87 basketball season, added SEC football in 1992, and those rights remained with that company (which became Lincoln Financial Sports in 2006, and became part of Raycom Sports on January 1, 2008) until the end of the 2008-2009 season.Company History , Raycom Sports
The Freedom and Bluebonnet Bowls, however, ended up with the Mizlou Television Network for the 1986, 1987, and 1988 installments. In February 1986, Lorimar completed a merger with

Telepictures Telepictures (also known as Telepictures Productions; formerly known as Telepictures Distribution and Telepictures Corporation) is an American television show and filmmaking company, currently operating as a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainmen ...

, to form

Lorimar-Telepictures Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation, Inc. was an entertainment company established on February 19, 1986 with the merger of Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Telepictures Corporation. Headquartered at the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (now Sony Pi ...

. After the Lorimar Sports Network was dissolved in summer 1986, the Lorimar studio itself, including its extensive library of produced and/or distributed programming, was bought out in its entirety by the

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

-based Warner Bros. studio in 1988. Telepictures, on the other hand, once again became a separate production and syndication company under

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

ownership.

Notable on-air personalities

This is a partial list. * Tom Hammond, play-by-play commentator (SEC basketball, 1985 Bluebonnet Bowl, 1985 Holiday Bowl) * Joe Dean, color analyst (SEC basketball) * Tim Brando, play-by-play commentator (Metro Conference basketball) * John Rooney, play-by-play commentator (Metro Conference basketball) * Bob Carpenter, play-by-play commentator (Big Ten basketball) * Irv Brown, Color analyst (WAC basketball) * Barry Tompkins, play-by-play commentator (1985 Freedom Bowl, PAC-10 Conference Football and Basketball) *Steve Grote, color analyst (Metro Conference Basketball) * Lou Holtz, color analyst (1985 Freedom Bowl) * Gifford Nielsen, color analyst (1984 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship and 1985 Bluebonnet Bowl) * John Laskowski, color analyst (Big Ten Basketball) * Terry Donahue, color analyst (1985 Holiday Bowl) * Verne Lundquist, Play by Play (1983 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship) * Roger Staubach, color analyst (1983 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship) * Darrell Royal, color analyst (1983 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship) * Brad Sham, Play by Play (1984 Texas AAAAA State Football Championship) *Ralph Hacker, Play by Play (SEC Basketball)

References