On March 26, 1979, Magic Johnson’s MSU team defeated Larry Bird’s ISU squad, 75-64, at the Special Events Center in Salt Lake City. That showdown had star power – much more than folks may have realized at the time – and an estimated 35.1 million viewers tuned in to the NBC telecast announced by Dick Enberg, Billy Packer and Al McGuire. The course of college basketball and the NCAA tourney changed that day.
Source: MLive.com