"color" (sports commentary)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

OED has 1938 (from Evelyn Waugh's _Scoop_) as the earliest use of "color"
meaning "words, descriptions, or attendant features of an evocative
nature."  Usage of "color" for sports commentary predates this.  In the
'20s, "the color story" referred to a feature that a newspaper would run
in addition to the straightforward account of a sporting event.  In the
'30s this usage was applied to radio broadcasts, with one announcer doing
the play-by-play (or blow-by-blow in boxing) and the other doing the
"color" in order to "paint the picture" for the audience.  Various
attributive usages followed, such as the now-pervasive "color commentary"
(oddly, not in OED or any other major dictionary at hand).


* color story

1912 _N.Y. Times_  17 Apr. 12/5 Though all of it was good, I will say that
I think the color story one of the finest pieces of newspaper writing I
have ever seen.
[A letter to the editor praising the paper's coverage of the Titanic
disaster.  Not sure what "the color story" refers to here.]

1924 _L.A. Times_ 31 Aug. A6/8 J. Andrew White will give the color story
of the crowd; the names of celebrities and a brief description of the game
[sc. polo game].

1926 _L.A. Times_ 22 Sep. 9/3 In addition there will be color stories,
statistical stories, analytical stories, etc., by the staff of Associated
Press veterans, men who have seen all the big fights of the past ten years
or more.


* (the) color

1932 _L.A. Times_ 7 May 5/8 Ted Husing and Thomas B. George will handle
the broadcast, Husing doing the color while George will "call" the race,
post by post, for the fans.

1934 _L.A. Times_ 27 Sep. 12/1 Columbia yesterday announced its sports
commentators who will handle the World Series assignment. Ted Husing will
give the color while Frances Laux of KMOX and Pat Flannagan of WBBM will
alternate at the microphone with the play-by-play descriptions.

1934 _N.Y. Times_ 30 Sep. X11/5 McNamee will handle the "color" while
Manning and Bond describe the plays.


* color picture

1933 _L.A. Times_ 3 Oct. 16/1 Husing will offer color pictures of each
contest, while Fred Hoey of WNC, Boston, will give the play-by-play
account of the first game today.

1934 _N.Y. Times_ 30 Sep. X11/5 Ted Husing will give "the color picture."

1934 _Washington Post_ 3 Oct. 21/6 Graham McNamee, Tom Manning and Ford
Bond will do the color picture and play-by-play description for N.B.C.


* color spot

1941 _N.Y. Times_ 24 Aug. X10/7 Don Dunphy will handle the blow-by-blow
accounts, while Bill Corum is to do the color spots for all the bouts.


* color commentary

1943 _Washington Post_ 1 Jan. B9/3 Description of the Cotton Bowl Game.
Don Dunphy does play-by-play and Earl Harper, the color commentary.

1943 _Wisconsin Rapids Tribune_ (Wisc.) 30 Dec. 5/2 (caption) Venter will
be on temporary leave from the United States Coast Guard..to do the
East-West color commentary.

1944 _N.Y. Times_ 24 Sep. X5/4 When the world series baseball games get
under way on Wednesday, Oct. 4, Don Dunphy and Bill Slater will do the
play-by-play descriptions, with Bill Corum doing the color commentary.



--Ben Zimmer