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It’s hard to imagine watching the Stanley Cup playoffs without instant replay. That’s not surprising: the technology that allows multiple and frame-by-frame reviews of any given play in professional sports had its beginnings 70 years ago, thanks to an initiative from George Retzlaff, then the producer of Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC).

Born in Germany in 1922, Retzlaff was three when his family immigrated to Canada and settled in Winnipeg. After his father lost his job during the Depression, Retzlaff left school to find work, eventually landing a job at radio station CJRC Winnipeg as a control room operator for sports broadcasts and then later at CBC radio.

In 1951, CBC Toronto recruited Retzlaff to learn how to use new TV broadcasting technology at Ryerson Institute of Technology (now Toronto Metropolitan University). Two years later, he started working for HNIC as a cameraman and a live-telecast camera switcher. Before the end of the season, he was promoted to producer and director.

In 1955, three years after the NHL’s TV broadcast debut, Retzlaff realized that TV provided a limited experience of the big moments for the audience watching at home. Using a newly invented hot processor, which could develop film in 30 seconds, Retzlaff was able to replay a goal during breaks before the game ended. The technology was not “instant,” however, and could best be used for highlights of the games.

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The achievement didn’t gain popularity. MacLaren Advertising agency, which dominated most of the programming on TV in Canada at the time, had not been informed of Retzlaff’s trick and did not want the Toronto broadcast to be different from the one in Montreal, where they did not have the necessary technology. Retzlaff never replayed it.

It would be another eight years before Tony Verna, a CBS sports director, created a more popular version of instant replay using videotape machines for an Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia.

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