PHILADELPHIA -- Watching sports on television changed forever on a December day 36 years ago.

It was early in the fourth quarter of the 64th Army-Navy football game. Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh broke a tackle from 1 yard out and ran in for a touchdown. A few seconds later, television viewers watched it again -- the first instant replay.

"This is not live!" CBS announcer Lindsay Nelson said. "Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!"

The rest is history. On Saturday, the rivalry will be renewed for the 100th time.

In 1963, the Army-Navy game was the nation's biggest football game with one of the largest TV audiences for a sporting event. A perfect opportunity to try out a revolutionary TV idea, decided young TV director Tony Verna, who had attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

"I think it's hard to imagine viewing sports without the instant replay," Verna, 65, said this week from his office in Pacific Palisades, Calif. "After that, every sporting event had to use it or people would complain."

Verna was only 29 when he launched instant replay, but he was already well regarded and trusted with top athletic assignments. (The Army-Navy game in 1963 was considered more important than the first Super Bowl, held in 1966; CBS sent Verna to a European ice skating event instead).

Verna said he started thinking about a way to show replays out of frustration after missing too many key plays.

"I'd say, 'What happened on that play?' and someone would say (Eagles receiver Tommy) McDonald had tripped," Verna said. "What if we could let people see that again?"

At the same time, Verna also had the problem of the devastatingly long pauses between plays.

"In those days, when (Eagles quarterback Norm) Van Brocklin threw the ball and walked back to the huddle, it was boring," he said. "You could eat a ham sandwich it was so slow."

His idea was to film games on videotape, then cue up a play much like can be done now on a home VCR. Video replay had been used by ABC on its halftime shows but never during a live game.

There were problems: Videotape was cumbersome to use on location and hard to come by. Verna ended up borrowing an old tape of "I Love Lucy" -- he had to give it back, so there is no video record of the first instant replay -- and placing a refrigerator-sized tape machine with the onfield camera crew.

In addition, videotape showed static for a few seconds or longer when it cued up. The problem was how to show a few seconds of football footage without any static. In about 50 practice runs before the game, Verna was unable to get a perfect cut but decided to try it anyway.

"I remember before the game, I picked up our announcers, Lindsey Nelson and Terry Brennan, in a cab," Verna said. "I told them what we were going to do and Lindsey said, `You're going to do what?' They couldn't believe it.

"For most of the game it didn't work. Then late in the game, I heard the beeps straightening out, and I said, `Stand by Lindsay,' and I hear the picture straightening out and I say, `Go Lindsay.' "

Verna used instant replay only once during that 1963 Army-Navy game. By the following year, CBS was using video replay in all its sports broadcasts.

"After that, you wouldn't dare to show a game without using it," he said. "People would write in ... Then we tended to overuse it. Every play was replayed. We had it, we had to use it."

Now executive vice president of Scanz Communications LLC, Verna has designed a hand-held instant replay monitor. He said the invention could help speed up the pace of the game. He said the game seems even slower now to allow television to show replays. "It's destroyed the pace of the game," he said.

Although he is sure instant replay would have been developed eventually, Verna wonders if it has ruined some of the mysticism of sports.

"It's like standing behind the magician," he said. "I'd pulled back the curtain."