Producers for the ESPN “30 for 30” series contacted UNT Special Collections this year for help in locating footage of the 1988 Dallas Carter Cowboys football team. Archivists working with the collection provided extensive archival footage which was eventually incorporated into the film, “What Carter Lost,” which aired on ESPN on August 24. The story of the 1988 Carter Cowboy’s is both fascinating and tragic– and perfect example of the way sports can be a reflection of social and cultural values. Much of the footage which was digitized in preparation for use in the documentary is now available online in its original format. Footage for this production was primarily from the years 1988-1989, and was still on the original Beta SP cassettes. Footage research in this time period relies on the use of video log books. The log books preserve a record of every segment that aired each day during multiple daily news broadcasts. Although the log books are digitized, they can be difficult to use and navigate, as this example shows. Stories are often only identified with one or two word “slug lines” which in this example was “Carter Parents.”

[News Clip: Players Arrested] on The Portal to Texas History.

[News Clip: UIL Grades] on The Portal to Texas History.