PREFACE

Throughout this book you will see photographs of Tony Verna with sports stars, movie stars, presidents, dictators, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa…. How does a young kid from South Philadelphia get to make such a splash on the international scene?

Tony is more than “The Man Who Created Instant Replay.” He received the Directors Guild of America’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 1995, and before that he’d directed five Super Bowls and twelve Kentucky Derbies. He has traveled to Mexico to direct its Soccer Championship and to direct its national rodeo, the Charreada. Then he was off to France, to direct the Grand Prix and transmit it to the Mexican Network. After that, he was in Russia to direct The Mike Douglas Show live from Moscow.

Then it was off to London to direct the “World Circus,” to Montreal to produce a daily report on the 1976 Summer Olympics for Saudi Arabia, to Las Vegas to become President of Caesars Palace Productions, to Ronald Reagan’s home to direct an interview with the President-Elect, to the White House to direct President George H.W. Bush in a series of public service announcements.

In 1985 he filmed a “Christmas Special” with Mother Teresa. That year he co-produced and co-directed “Live Aid,” Bob Geldof’s 16-hour fund-raiser for Africa, seen by 1.5 billion people worldwide. He then created an international program for Pope John Paul II, “Prayer for World Peace.” What Verna created was seen by a billion people, breaking the record for the most viewers to witness a television program at the time. He also produced and directed the live transmission that linked five continents. Another first.

In 1987 Omni Magazine chose Verna as one of “14 Great Minds” to predict the future. In 1990 he was the executive producer/director for Ted Turner’s Goodwill Games. And that list is merely part of the remarkable career that began for a 19-year-old Tony Verna at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia. In addition to fashioning a global career, Tony found time to get married, divorced, and remarried. He has three grown children: Tracy, Jennifer, and Eric. He’s written four books. And, yes, he gave us the Instant Replay!

Through all the years Tony Verna has always—and is always— roughing out some new idea on taking the latest technology down a different path so as to create something it wasn’t intended to do. Thus it comes as no surprise that he has currently patented a live tracking football widget for the Internet.

It’s called the ‘InstantFootballer’ and, like the Instant Replay, it uses current technology to do something that never existed before. The InstantFootballer can spot the football during a live game. Yep! The ball is placed on the exact yard line and the image is immediately rendered to your computer or cell phone screen. It updates itself and it provides the latest game information as you continue with what you were doing on your computer or cell phone.

Reading the way Verna thinks about life may spark something in the way you should be thinking about life. So check him out. As Bette Davis once said, “Buckle your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

Join me and meet the man who invented the Instant Replay—and accomplished a heck of a lot more. Tony Verna has an incredible story to tell.