On what date did Howard Cosell mention nachos during a Monday Night Football game?

Howard Cosell mentioned nachos during a Monday Night Football game on September 4, 1978. The broadcast was the 1978 season opener between the Baltimore Colts and Dallas Cowboys, and it became associated with the snack’s rapid rise in American popular culture.

According to the commonly repeated account, the announcing crew was given a plate of nachos during the game. Cosell enjoyed the word “nacho” and used it during the broadcast, then continued referring to the dish in later weeks. His national television platform helped carry the term beyond its established Texas and Southwestern audience.

The date is sometimes confused with the dates of later games in the 1978 season or with modern nacho-related observances. The key event was not the invention of the food: Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya had created the original dish in 1943 in Piedras Negras, Mexico. Cosell’s role was popularization, not creation.