David Barrett and One Shining Moment

It's that time of year - ONE SHINING MOMENT!!!...

Sports fans have heard the anthem of college basketball since its debut in 1987 when Indiana beat Syracuse for the title...here is a little information about the famous song...the lyrics were written by David Barrett of Ann Arbor, Michigan...

"Writing this song changed my life. Strange how that is so. I mean; the writing came so effortlessly. I knew immediately after that I had something special on my hands. In fact I got up from the piano and went immediately to the phone and called a friend and said... "Glen I just wrote a great song." It was almost like... "where did this come from?" In any case, the song opened all sorts of doors for me in a professional sense. But on a personal note, it also showed me to write about what mattered to me. I mean, I just wrote it because I thought it was worth writing. I learned to trust that. For years I had been listening to what others thought was valid. It was this song that made it clear to me that my job was to write about what I know, and tell the truth about that... Simple."

Barrett wrote the song after seeing Larry Bird star for Indiana State in the 1979 NCAA tournament...CBS originally planned to debut the song after Super Bowl XXI...however, the game ran later and cut into the primetime show that was to be on after the big game...so CBS scrapped it... CBS then asked Barrett for use of the song after the 1987 NCAA championship game...Barrett had to change the opening lyrics from "The ball is kicked," to "The ball is tipped."...

CBS Sports have screwed around with various versions of the song...they have had Teddy Pendergrass then Luther Vandross sing it...then they tampered with the melody and added a bunch of graphic bullshit...to me, the best version is the original from 1987 when Barrett provided the vocals...

One of the best parts of the CBS telecast was often overshadowed by One Shining Moment...before the One Shining Moment montage, CBS would show a live shot of the winning team cutting down the nets as the credits rolled across the television and a musical piece played on the piano...that segment was great to watch because the viewer got to see the raw emotion of the event - from the players to the cheerleaders to the parents in the stands....also, no matter who was part of the team, the star, bench warmer, coach, manager, etc. each would take the walk up the ladder and cut a piece of the nets...think about it, every little kid dreams of cutting down the nets...the clip below is from the 1987 title game between Indiana and Syracuse...watch for the Indiana players and fans celebrating as the Syracuse players sit dejected on the bench...that is pure raw emotion...

This 2:00 piece is followed by the original and first One Shining Moment from 1987...I thought these snippets were great, so look for them:
1:58 - the Phantom Friar from Providence
3:01 - Jim Boeheim getting surprised with a Gatorade bath
3:15 - A young Rick Pitino waiting with open arms as one of his Providence players comes running for a hug - that player is Billy Donovan
3:17 - look for the UNLV team manager who high steps it - he has a tie and long pants
3:55 - the Syracuse cheerleader who gives that nervous look - check out her hair