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We take another crack at the history and mythology of the late, great North American Soccer League - this time through the eyes of sports filmmaker Rachel Viollet, whose new documentary " Big-Time Soccer: The Remarkable Rise & Fall of the NASL " makes its US debut at New York's Kicking + Screening film festival later this week. If that surname sounds familiar, it won't surprise you that Rachel is...

Veteran sportswriter and Sports Broadcast Journal columnist Rich Podolsky (" You Are Looking Live! How 'The NFL Today' Revolutionized Sports Broadcasting ") joins the pod this week for an inside look at the TV pregame show that modernized how America experiences nationally televised pro football. While the concept of NFL pregame coverage dates back to the earliest days of the medium, it wasn't unt...

It's a return to the Nation's Capital this week as we take a romp through Washington, DC's surprisingly rich pro basketball history with Brett Abrams ( The Bullets, the Wizards, and Washington, DC Basketball ). While today's astute District hoops fans know the current Washington Wizards were once known as the Bullets - the name under which the franchise won its one and only NBA title back in 1978,...

We revisit LA's spirited pre-majors Pacific Coast League rivalry (begun in Episode 208: The Hollywood Stars - With Dan Taylor ) with a look at the team ultimately responsible for the demise of both - the Los Angeles Angels. Baseball author Gaylon White (" The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels ") helps us set the table for the club's background story as the city's preemi...

University of Texas Permian Basin history professor Derek Catsam (" Flashpoint: How a Little-Known Sporting Event Fueled America's Anti-Apartheid Movement " ) joins to delve into the intriguing story of how a relatively low-key South African rugby tour of the United States in 1981 became an unwittingly pivotal turning point in the nation's growing collective conscience against apartheid, and an in...

Quiz any fan of soccer in the US as to the origin of the professional game on American soil, and you're likely to get a myriad of answers - usually rooted in generational identity.   ​If you're under 30, the 1996 launch of Major League Soccer looks like a logical starting point - 25 years old, 29 teams strong, and dozens of soccer-specific stadiums befitting a "major" sports league.   Older MLS fa...

Described as a "festive prison yard" by famed New Yorker baseball essayist Roger Angell during the 1962 World Series, San Francisco's famed Candlestick Park was equally loved and hated by sports teams and fans alike during its 43-year-long run as the dual home of baseball's Giants and the NFL's 49ers.   ​Curiously (and perhaps illegally) b uilt on a landfill  ​atop​ a garbage dump ​at the edge of...

It's been more than two years since we last checked in on the spectacular flame-out of the Alliance of American Football back in April 2019 - enough time, perhaps, to begin the process of dissecting how something so fresh and innovatively promising went so speedily to hell in a hand-basket.   Documentary filmmaker Steven Potter (" Alliances Broken ") joins this week's 'cast to discuss his brand ne...

[ A re-release of a fan favorite episode from July 2017! ] National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee and three-time ABC-TV "Superstars" champion Kyle Rote, Jr. joins Tim Hanlon from his home in Memphis for an in-depth and wide-ranging conversation about his trailblazing journey as America's first true native-born professional soccer star.  Along the way, Rote, Jr. reveals: How a fortuitous heart-to-he...

Your humble host does his best this week to tamp down his inner fanboy as he sits down for a bucket-list conversation with one of his favorite players from the legendary New York Cosmos of the original NASL - winger extraordinaire Steve Hunt (" I'm With the Cosmos: The Story of Steve Hunt ").   Abruptly transferred into the star-studded orbit of North America's burgeoning super-club at the tender...

We close the gap between our previous explorations of the National Hockey League's former California Golden Seals and Minnesota North Stars with a deep dive into the two-year curiosity that bridged between them - the unforgettably forgettable Cleveland Barons.   Episode 111 guest and WKKY-FM/Geneva (OH) radio jock Gary Webster (" The NHL's Mistake By the Lake: A History of the Cleveland Barons ")...

We're absconding for a few days of summer vacation this week - but not before taking time to sit down for a thoroughly enjoyable interview with pro football enthusiast and friend-of-the-show Aron Harris - as a guest on his popular Sports History Network podcast " The Football Odyssey ." Tim and Aron obsess about all things defunct football - including spring circuits of the past (and still); chall...

We mourn last week's passing of legendary sports entrepreneur and challenger-league impresario Dennis Murphy with a special archive re-release of our two previous interviews from September 8, 2019 (Episode 129) and August 30, 2020 (Episode 179).   The brainchild behind some of modern-day sports' most audacious, convention-challenging "alternative" leagues - the American Basketball Association (196...

Pittsburgh's dean of sportswriters Jim O'Brien ( Looking Up: From the ABA to the NBA the WNBA to the NCAA - A Basketball Memoir ; Looking Up Again - A Basketball Memoir )   has seen it all in his more than 50 years of chronicling stories across the pro and collegiate sports landscape - but perhaps no more deeply than in basketball, and in more detailed fashion than during the old American Basketba...

As the debut season of the surprisingly entertaining Tony Stewart/Ray Evernham-led Camping World SRX Series nears its conclusion next week, we dive deeper into the rabbit hole of one of its major influences - the legendary International Race of Champions (IROC) - with longtime automotive journalist and former Motor Trend magazine Executive Editor Matt Stone (" The IROC Porsches: The International...

FrontRowSoccer.com 's Michael Lewis returns after a two-year absence to help us dig into the news of the Major Arena Soccer League's hiring of three marquee names from pro indoor soccer's 1980s heyday - as it attempts to translate the sport's past glory into interest for a new generation of fans.   The additions of Shep Messing (Chairman), Keith Tozer (Commissioner) and Episode 66 guest JP Dellaca...

Most baseball fans are familiar with the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from the hit 1992 movie " A League of Their Own " - but most do not know that there was another pro women's circuit that played only in the greater Chicago area at around the same time.    Documentary filmmaker Adam Chu (" Their Turn At Bat ") joins the pod to discuss the fascinating story of...

We knock out a bunch of previously unexplored US soccer franchises of yore with the delightful Graham "Buster" Tutt (" Never Give Up: The Graham 'Buster' Tutt Story ") - whose tragically derailed, but ultimately persevering pro soccer journey across three continents serves as the backdrop for intriguing tales of the modern-day American pro game's formative years.   A promising young goalkeeper for...

In our Episode 104 with David Hubler & Josh Drazen, we examined the existential crisis faced by organized baseball during the first half of the 1940s, when America's heightened involvement in World War II threatened to shut down pro leagues entirely as the country focused its attention elsewhere.   While President Roosevelt's now-famous "Green Light Letter" to MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Lan...

We dial up Robert Cherry, author of the definitive biography of legendary pro basketball great Wilt Chamberlain (" Wilt: Larger Than Life "), to delve into the lesser-known (but enormously fascinating) aspects of the "Big Dipper"'s athletic career - including intriguing stops and stints with: The Harlem Globetrotters (1958-59) - where Chamberlain effectively played out his senior college year afte...

The starting grid is set for the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500 this Sunday, and what better way to get ready than with a look back at the divisive battle between two competing sanctioning bodies that almost decimated the sport of open-wheel IndyCar racing - and even "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" itself. Veteran motorsports reporter John Oreovicz (" Indy Split: The Big-Money Battle Tha...

We admit that when our friends at Liverpool's deCoubertin Books reached out recently with an advance look at their upcoming title devoted to the history of one of England's most venerable top-flight soccer clubs, we weren't immediately sold on the premise, nor its applicability to our (admittedly) odd brand of sports curiosity. But after just a few minutes with the meticulously detailed " Toffee S...

American soccer insiders know Steve Gans as one of the sport's leading domestic corporate attorneys, with a long track record of legal representation from all sides of the ball - including as a former candidate for the US Soccer Federation's highly contentious presidential election in 2018. Few, however, are aware that the Boston-born-and-raised Gans - who also spearheaded the Foxborough, MA venue...

Soccer America columnist and Episode 49 guest Ian Plenderleith (" Rock 'n' Roll Soccer: The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League ") returns to the show for our initial hot take on the ill-fated "Super League" - a long-rumored, big-money elite European club tournament concept that is already being left for dead a mere two days after its official  launch on April 18th. Steal...

Baseball historian Steve Treder (" Forty Years a Giant: The Life of Horace Stoneham ") steps up to the plate this week to delve into the oft-overlooked contributions of influential San Francisco (née New York) Giants owner Horace Stoneham - who quietly stewarded the storied National League franchise through four turbulent decades of baseball history (1936-76). Inheriting the club at the tender age...