BRISTOL, Conn. ? Indiana State basketball fans will have a couple opportunities to see the classic 1979 NCAA championship game  which Sycamore legend Larry Bird battled Michigan State's Earvin “Magic” Johnson (an ESPN analyst).  The game, which is still the highest-rated college basketball game of all time, will be aired on Friday, April 3, at 7 p.m., and on Sunday, April 5, at 2 p.m., on ESPN2.

The ESPN2 telecasts will include interviews with Bird and Johnson. In addition, host John Saunders will interview two players from that historic game, Bob Heaton (Indiana State) and Greg Kelser (Michigan State), as well as Dick Enberg, who called the play-by-play for NBC.

Also, a special one-on-one conversation between Magic and Bird will debut on the 11 p.m. ET SportsCenter on Monday, April 6, and air on subsequent SportsCenters. The legends will sit down together in Detroit, site of that night's NCAA men's basketball championship.

In the 1979 NCAA championship game, Michigan State beat a previously undefeated Indiana State 75-64 in the first of many battles between Magic and Bird.  The game earned a remarkable 24.1 Nielsen rating, a number unsurpassed before or since for college basketball.  The following year, the two legendary players became fierce rivals in the NBA.