PHILADELPHIA — All sports TV director Tony Verna wanted was a way to fill those boring gaps during a football telecast.

Quarterback throws ball, receiver catches ball, team walks back to huddle. There was so much time between plays, Verna joked fans could go eat a sandwich. There had to be a way to beef up the telecast, to give fans a new way to look at the game — or even something as simple as looking at the same play again.

Once Verna had his instant idea, sports on TV would never be the same.

It’s been 45 years since Verna and CBS used instant replay for the first time in the Dec. 7, 1963 Army-Navy game at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia.

The innovation was first used on a routine 1-yard touchdown run. Upon further review, there may be no greater technological advancement to the games we watch and how we watch them in the 45 years since that play.

“Not many things you can do in life where you can change the way things were happening before,” said the 75-year-old Verna.

Verna, who called the first replay, takes a look back at that day in his book “Instant Replay: The Day That Changed Sports Forever.”

When Army and Navy play Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field, instant replay will be used on plays from the basic to the controversial; fans in the stands to the bands; and President George W. Bush waving hello.

In the 1950s and early ’60s, blink and you missed the play forever.

Verna, a Philly native, grew frustrated that there was no context for the play viewers saw at home. Sure, a wide receiver may have missed an open pass, but fans never saw on their TVs why he couldn’t make the catch.

What was happening away from the ball?

“I’ve got to find a way for people to see what I saw in the truck,” said Verna, who lives in Woodland Hills, Calif. “It was all in my mind. How do I do it?”

The Army-Navy game was originally scheduled two weeks earlier, but was postponed when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. With the country still grieving, CBS didn’t want to heavily promote its new gimmick.

Verna never mentioned his idea to the announcers until he rode with Lindsey Nelson and Terry Brennan in a cab the morning of the game.

“You’re going to do what?” Verna recalled Nelson saying.

Verna said he tried at least six or seven times earlier in the game to debut instant replay, only to have some sort of glitch derail the plan. Navy led 21-7 and the game was almost over when the perfect moment struck.

Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh broke a tackle from 1 yard out and scored a touchdown. When Verna watched the pre-roll played back, he saw clean video. There was no rehearsal — it was time to go.

“I shouted into Lindsey’s ear, ‘This is it!” Verna wrote in his book.

Viewers saw the replay seconds later.

“This is not live!” Nelson screamed. “Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!”

That was the only use of replay in the game and it wouldn’t be used again until a month later in the 1964 Cotton Bowl. Other networks caught on and started using replay about a month later, according to Verna, and slow motion instant replays were gradually added to telecasts.

Want a replay of the first instant replay? Well, sports fans, you’re out of luck. Storage for tapes was limited and they could be used again, so the game was likely erased and lost to history.