Past Our Prime

The 1976 Rose Bowl wasn’t necessarily a game for Ohio State to win, but rather a coronation for their National Championship. They were facing Dick Vermeil’s Bruins in Pasadena, having already battered UCLA in the regular season, 41-20 at the L.A. Coliseum. The Buckeyes were favored by 15/5 points to do it again and end their season unbeaten, untied and unblemished.  However, with an opportunity to...

The 1975 Dallas Cowboys were a good organization led by General Manger Tex Schramm, Head Coach Tom Landry, and Quarterback Roger Staubach. But they were about to become a part of the sports world that 50 years later, love 'em or hate 'em, has stood the test of time. After beating the Minnesota Vikings in a playoff game on the original Hail Mary pass from Staubach to Drew Pearson, they were now Ame...

The end of the 2nd year of the Past Our Prime podcast is a great time to look back on a wonderful year, filled with great guests, unbelievable stories, and moments from half a century ago that are still hard to imagine 50 years later. 1975 was a great year in sports, and we chronicled it all week by week with the stars who gave us those moments of wonder and helped turn us into the sports fans we...

The Reds won the World Series 50 years ago in a classic highlighted by the amazing game six eventually won by the Red Sox on the foul-pole hitting HR by Carlton Fisk in the 12th inning. Prior to that, legend has it that Pete Rose said to Fisk  "Man, isn't this the most exciting game you've ever played in?”. Rose had a knack for being in the moment and enjoying this game called baseball more than m...

There was no more feared boxer than George Foreman in his prime. Tough, strong, mean, talented, smart… George had it all and was at the top of his game as heavyweight champ until October 30, 1974 when he lost to Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle. Now a year later, Big George is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, wanting another shot at Ali for “his title.” The fight never took place. And i...

The December 8, 1975 issue of Sports Illustrated had Texas A&M star back Bubba Bean on the cover because the Aggies were 10-0 after they beat the Longhorns. But the SI curse would get the better of A & M as the win over UT was their last of the season, as they lost to Arkansas and USC to close out the season. Another football team was also streaking… this one the NFL’s Baltimore Colts who after a...

Perfection… it doesn’t happen very often in sports. The ’72 Dolphins are the only team to ever have a perfect season in the NFL. Mary Lou Retton nailed a perfect vault in the ’84 Games to secure her Gold medal. Michael Jordan’s Bulls were a perfect 6-0 in their trips to the NBA Finals. And in college basketball, it’s been 50 years since a mens team went undefeated and won the National Championship...

When Archie Griffin won his unprecedented 2nd Heisman Trophy Award in 1975 he was heralded as the best running back in the nation. But was he? Finishing 2nd in the voting was a beast out west by the name of Chuck Muncie and the senior Golden Bear was putting up huge numbers in Berkeley. In fact, in 17 fewer rushing attempts than Griffin, Chuck had 103 more yards rushing and 9 more TD’s. Add in the...

Professional hockey was a different game in the mid 70’s that it is today. Whether it’s better or more entertaining is up for debate, but what is not up for debate is back then, there was a level of brutality that the sport fully allowed if not encouraged. Fighting was as part of the game as goals and saves, checks and assists. Bobby Clarke was the 2nd leading scorer in the NHL’s 1975-76 season wi...

In his 15th season in the NFL Fran Tarkenton was having another great year. Maybe his best. The Vikings would start the season 10-0 and finish 12-2 atop the NFL Central in large part to the numbers put up by Tarkenton. He completed 273 of his 425 attempts, 25 of them for touchdowns to lead the league in those 3 categories. And when the season concluded, he would take home the Most Valuable Player...

The Cincinnati Reds won the 1975 World Series in a classic 7-game matchup against the Boston Red Sox. The recent Dodgers victory over the Blue Jays is being argued as maybe the best Fall Classic ever, but that ’75 Series saw the Reds come from behind to win all 4 of their games, including 4-3 in Game 7 at Fenway Park. The Reds had a team littered with Hall of Famers. Tony Perez, Joe Morgan and Joh...

The 1975 Basketball season was the last one in which the NBA was competing with the ABA. It wasn’t much of a competition. At least not off the court. The NBA was doing well and had just signed one of the ABA’s top players, George McGinnis, to a lucrative deal to join the 76ers while the Baltimore Claws were folding up shop before ever playing a regular season game in the ABA. The tide was certainl...

It’s still thought of as the World Series to which all other World Series’ are compared. The Boston Red Sox vs the Cincinnati Reds. A classic 7-game series that had as much drama, controversy, rain, Hall of Famers, and unforgettable moments as baseball fans could ever hope for. The Big Red Machine was a juggernaut in ’75 led by Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Tony Perez and their Hall of Fame...

Four words. That’s all you need to take you back in time to a fight that to this day resonates with a generation of boxing fans. Ali and Frazier for a 3rd and final time. I’m talking about… The Thrilla in Manila. The two great heavyweights despised each other. Muhammad Ali famously said “It will be a killa and a thrilla and a chilla, when I get the gorilla in Manila.” His constant verbal abuse of...

The Oakland A’s of the 70’s were at their absolute best when it came to October baseball. They beat the Big Red Machine to win the 1972 World Series. They beat the Miracle Mets in ’73 to win it again. And in 1974, they made it back-to-back-to-back when they disposed of the Dodgers in 5 games. Flooded with names like Catfish & Reggie, Blue Moon & Vida, Campy and Geno, they had talent and swagger an...

The 1975 Notre Dame football season was one for the books… and later for the big screen. Ara Parseghian had retired as the head coach, replaced by Dan Devine. And on the cover of SI was Quarterback Rick Slager, guiding the Irish to an 8-3 season. But Slager was more than just a QB… he played just as much tennis in South Bend as he did football and would go on to get his law degree from ND… but whe...

They were the defending champs… and they were just getting started. After a draft in 1974 that would eventually produce 5 Hall of Famers… names like Lambert, Swann, Stallworth, Shell and Webster… the Steelers were ready to repeat as champions… and while the 2nd year players began to come into their own in ’75, the team was led by Quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who 5 years after being the #1 overall p...

1974 was a banner year for Jimmy Connors… He entered three Grand Slams and won all three of them. He was ranked #1 in the world and was engaged to Chris Evert. Life was good. But in 1975, things didn’t go quite as smoothly. His engagement to Chrissy was called off… and while he was still the most dominant player in the world, he failed to win a Grand Slam, losing in the finals at the Australian Op...

The Oklahoma Sooners were the team to beat heading into the 1975 season and the question was… could anyone do it? Barry Switzer’s squad had split the National Championship the year prior with the Trojans of USC, but with most of that team returning, the Sooners were stacked on both sides of the ball and looking to defend their title. On the cover of Sports Illustrated September 8, 1975, was their...

When we last saw a swimmer on the cover of SI in August of 1975, it was Tim Shaw after his dominating performance in Colombia. He won three gold medals in the aquatic championships and easily could have garnered a 4th if his teammate, Bruce Furniss hadn’t jumped the gun and left the block a bit too soon. That cost the U.S. a world record and Furniss a lot of grief. The 18-year old was despondent a...

The best team in the NFL in the 60’s was Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers. They won NFL Championships in 1961, 1962 & 1965 and the first two Super Bowls in 1966 and 1967. They were littered with future Hall of Famers throughout the roster including Jim Taylor, Forrest Gregg, Ray Nitschke, Herb Adderley, Willie Davis, Jim Ringo, Paul Horning and Willie Wood… but the leader of that team was the QB...

The brushback pitch has been a part of baseball since the turn of the Century… the one 125 years ago! The Big Train Walter Johnson hit over 200 batters in his Hall of Fame career… 50 years later, Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale were infamous for drilling guys either on purpose or just having one “get away” as they came inside. It’s a part of the game, and sometimes, it has catastrophic results. In 197...

Baseball was king in the mid 70’s and 1975 was a banner year for the National Pastime. After a decade in the dumps, attendance was booming all over the league with the Reds drawing a team record 2.3 millions fans, 2nd only to the Dodgers in all of baseball… and it was no surprise that the Red Sox led all AL teams in putting fans in seats with 1.75 million visiting Fenway that season. Those two tea...

It’s the Summer of ’75 and the Eagles’ ‘One of These Nights’ is at the top of the charts while the nation is gripped by a movie about a shark directed by a soon-to-be famous director by the name of Spielberg. Despite Jaws keeping the 2-legged creatures out of the ocean the beaches of Southern California are packed with people looking to enjoy some fun in the sun. That means plenty of beer, young f...

While the eyes of the sporting world were on Memphis and the trio of former Dolphins stars Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the U.S. Women’s Open was being played in Atlantic City and the smart money was on Sandra Palmer who would win the 2nd major of her Hall of Fame career, edging out a young amateur by the name of Nancy Lopez who would go on to have...