Parody of NCAA Tournament’s ‘One Shining Moment’ Is Brilliant

American sports fans don’t get their “One Shining Moment” on Monday at the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament in men’s basketball, but sportscaster Brandon Gaudin has saved the night by giving them 200 seconds to savor with a parody tribute video.

NCAA Tournament cancellation has left a void

Losing a chunk of the NBA and NHL regular seasons because of the coronavirus pandemic is one thing, but sports fans may have felt a little bit sadder in late March when Opening Day in Major League Baseball fell by the wayside since attending games on that day is a tradition for some fans who might not get out to many more games the rest of the season.

Having no NCAA Tournament this spring has left an even worse void for the past three weekends and the disappointment culminates tonight when fans won’t be witnessing the crowning of the men’s Division I basketball champion.

And, of course, the night is supposed to be capped by a montage of March Madness highlights set to “One Shining Moment.”

‘One Shining Moment’ parody gives fans a reason to smile

Sportscaster Brandon Gaudin has worked for Fox and the Big Ten Network among others while also having replaced Jim Nantz as the voice of the Madden NFL video game for EA Sports. He decided he couldn’t let the normally special night for the NCAA Tournament pass unacknowledged.

Holed up in his apartment during the coronavirus pandemic, Gaudin created his own highlights montage dressed in a variety of attire to create the purported highlights and disappointments of the 2020 tournament.

Gaudin, a graduate of Butler University, devised a Final Four consisting of Dayton, Florida State, Kansas and Michigan State.

‘One Shining Moment’ was going to be a Super Bowl tribute

If not for a bad break, “One Shining Moment” would have made its national television debut Jan. 25, 1987, to wrap up Super Bowl XXI. The montage had to be ditched because the New York Giants’ victory over John Elway’s Denver Broncos ran longer than expected and CBS didn’t want to push back the rest of the night’s programming that had been heavily promoted.

Folk singer David Barrett had written and recorded the song after watching Larry Bird in an NBA game. He gave the tape to CBS investigative reporter Armen Keteyian, a friend high school, and Keteyian relayed it to Doug Towey, the network’s creative director for sports. When Towey couldn’t use it at the Super Bowl, he went back to Barrett and asked for the OK to set NCAA Tournament highlights to the music.

“One Shining Moment” made its debut after Keith Smart of Indiana crushed Syracuse University fans by making a late jumper in the title game. The montage was well received by the television audience and CBS decided to make  “One Shining Moment” a permanent part of its tournament presentation, later sharing it with TBS.

Barrett, who writes music for TV shows and commercials, has said CBS pays him under $50,000 a year for the rights to the song. Barrett’s rendition of the song was used up until 1994 when Teddy Pendergrass recorded it. The Pendergrass version was replaced in 2003 by one recorded by Luther Vandross.