Past Our Prime

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue became a cultural phenomenon in the mid 70's thanks in large part to supermodel Cheryl Tiegs who was on the cover in 1970, 1975 and again in 1983 becoming the first model to be on the cover three times. She went from a shy midwestern gal to living in New York City as one of the top models in the world thanks in large part to those 3 covers for SI. But her most...

In 1975, the Steelers were on the verge of greatness. They had just beaten the Vikings to win their first Super Bowl Championship and Terry Bradshaw adorned the cover of Sports Illustrated after leading Pittsburgh to the big win in Super Bowl IX. For legendary broadcaster Curt Gowdy, it was one of 9 Super Bowls he called to go along with 13 World Series and 8 Olympic Games. Nine years later, in 19...

Chris McCarron burst onto the scene in 1974... he won his first race in February of that year... and 546 more the rest of the year... setting an all-time record at the time. And he was just getting started. He would go on to be in the winner's circle an astonishing 7,141 times amassing over $264 million dollars in earnings... the most ever. Born in Boston, McCarron was introduced to America when F...

The Steelers and Raiders were two of the great teams in the NFL in the 70's... but in January of '75, neither had asserted their dominance just yet. That was about to change. Pittsburgh was heading to Oakland a week after the Silver and Black had dethroned the two-time Super Bowl Champion, Miami Dolphins in a classic game known as "The Sea of Hands". Now John Madden's team had to take on a Steeler...

The Past Our Prime podcast is heading into season 2 but before we look back to the future lets look ahead to the past. There were plenty of great stories in sports from 1974 starting with the Miami Dolphins repeating as Super Bowl champions behind SB MVP Larry Csonka who joined us for our 3rd episode. A week later, the UCLA Bruins 88-game winning streak ended at the hands of Notre Dame and former...

He started the year by beating Joe Frazier in Superfight II to avenge his loss to Smokin' Joe from three years earlier. 9 months later, in the Rumble in the Jungle, he shocked the world by knocking out George Foreman to once again become the Heavyweight Champion of the world. So how did Muhammad Ali cap off this eventful year? By being named the 1974 Sports Illustrated Man of the Year. It wasn't j...

The Golden State Warriors were picked to finish last in the Pacific Division before the 1974 season tipped off. They had the best record in the Western Conference. After defeating both Seattle and Chicago to advance to the NBA Finals, they were picked to get destroyed by the Bullets. Instead, they did the destroying... sweeping Washington in 4 games to win the Championship. And they were led by th...

Notre Dame was up 24-0 in the 2nd quarter over the USC Trojans. The defending champion Irish were in complete control. Only a late first half TD pass from Pat Haden to Anthony Davis kept ND from a perfect first half. Even then, the Trojans couldn't convert on the PAT. At halftime, USC Coach John McKay said he needed his team to make a play and that "It's not illegal to block on kick returns." His...

The guys go freestyle for the first time all season long as Scott, Bill and Marc talk about a range of topics including the 1974 college basketball season that is about to tip off with Denny Crum's Louisville Cardinals the pre-season choice to win it all led by Junior Bridgeman. Bridgeman would go on to have a fine NBA career but did you know that in 2016, according to Forbes magazine, he was the...

It's the greatest moment in the history of sports. A group of amateur kids from America taking on the most powerful hockey team in the world, the USSR. Tied at 3 in the 3rd period the youngsters from the U.S. were doing everything they could to keep up with the Russians when the captain of the team let one rip... and in the blink of an eye Mike Eruzione had given his squad a 4-3 lead and sent the...

The 1974 NFL Draft was historic in many ways. Ed 'Too Tall ' Jones was the first overall pick by the Dallas Cowboys and the first of many intriguing stories. Such as Randy Gradishar being taken by the Broncos with the 14th pick and 50 years later, being inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was one of 7 players who debuted in '74 that ended up enshrined in Canton... 5 of them by the Pittsburgh Steele...

It was one of the biggest fights in the history of boxing. The undefeated George Foreman putting his heavyweight championship on the line against Muhammad Ali from Zaire, Africa. The Rumble in the Jungle where Ali shocked he world to regain his belt for the first time since 1967 when he was forced to give it up. But there was a dynamic duo making noise in November of '74. Hank Aaron was in Japan h...

In 1974, the Oklahoma Sooners were practically unbeatable... in fact, they were unbeatable. The Sooners outscored their opponents by an average score of 43-8 and won twice by the score of 63-0. They were stacked on offense and defense as they ran the table en route to a perfect 11-0 record that culminated in a sharing of the National Championship. Nobody had a better view of that than John Brooks...

They couldn't play in a bowl game. They couldn't play on TV. All they could do was play and win... and win big for that matter. The '74 Sooners were a wrecking ball... the defense led by the Selmon brothers gave up just 92 points. And the offense led by one of the greatest running backs in Oklahoma history, Joe Washington, averaged 43 points a game. They started the season on probation... and they...

Anthony Davis is one of the greatest athletes to ever play at USC winning 5 National Championships. That's right... FIVE! Two in football, and three more in baseball. Before there was Bo Knows, there was AD Does. Davis had a legendary career at SC capped off with wins over UCLA where he ran for 195 yards, followed by his 4 TD's against Notre Dame in the famous Comeback Game that the Trojans won 55...

The October 28, 1974 issue of Sports Illustrated once again had George Foreman and Muhammad Ali on the cover as their fight from Kinshasa, Zaire, delayed by 6 weeks due to a cut suffered by big George during a sparring session, was now just 2 days away from taking place. The whole world was watching a fight that would start at 3am in Africa and be broadcast across the globe. There may not have bee...

As the Dodgers get ready to play in the World Series this coming week, we look back at the Series they played in October of 1974 against the Oakland Athletics. It didn't go well for Los Angeles, but that didn't deter a young kid from South Pasadena who fell in love with the Dodgers as a 9-year old and has kept that love affair with the team for half a century. Mark Langill knew from a very young a...

They were the two greatest players in college basketball history, separated by just a couple of years in Westwood. Lew Alcindor was 88-2 with three national titles at UCLA from 1967-69. A couple of years later the Big Red-Head, Bill Walton, arrived on campus and guided the Bruins to two more championships and an 86-4 record. John Wooden's dynasty was literally centered around these two stars. Now,...

They were a dynasty unlike any other. The Oakland A's in 1974 were looking for a 3-peat and the only two things in their way were themselves... and their owner, Charlie Finley. They fought, they battled, and they scrapped amongst themselves mostly before they beat the Dodgers in 5 games to win their 3rd straight World Series and nobody chronicled that team better than author Jason Turbow who wrote...

December 31, 1973... The Fighting Irish taking on the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl with the National Championship hanging in the balance. Ara Parseghian coaches his Notre Dame kids to a 24-23 upset win over Bear Bryant with Tom Clements leading the way and Frank Allocco on the sidelines, as usual, rooting on the starting QB. That was Allocco's job as the backup quarterback and he did it...

In 1968 Rocky Bleier was drafted in the 16th round of the NFL, the 417th player selected. In 1969 Rocky Bleier was drafted again. This time by the Army. Instead of training camp for the Steelers he was in basic training for the United States. A few months later he found himself halfway across the world, with a grenade launcher in his hand when he heard gunfire. He took cover but it was too late......

Joe DeLamielleure will tell you he has lived a charmed life. An All-American at Michigan State he was drafted in the first round by the Buffalo Bills in 1973. In his 13 years in the NFL, he never missed a game due to injury. In fact, he's never once had any kind of surgery in his life. And that rookie season was one to behold. He helped solidify the Bills line and opened up holes for OJ Simpson to...

The 1973 season did not end the way JK McKay and his Trojans teammates had hoped it would. Against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl USC was tied with the Buckeyes, 14-14 at the half. But the guys from Ohio blitzed the Men of Troy in the 2nd half and won handily, 42-21 ending SC's season on a down note. But on January 1, 1975... a chance for redemption. Down 17-10 late in the 4th against those same Buck...

There may not have been a more famous person in sports entertainment in the 70's than Evel Knievel. His motorcycle jumps were legendary... both the successful ones and the not so successful ones. And in the summer of '74, Evel was on the cover of Sports Illustrated about to trade in his bike for a rocket ship... the Sky-Cycle... so that he could jump the Snake River. It too was not successful, but...

John Kinsella did it all in a pool. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City he won a silver medal at the age of 16... 16!!! And he followed that up in Munich in 1972 by taking gold and helping set a World Record in the 4 x 200 freestyle... Kinsella started that race, and Mark Spitz ended it. But a pool just wasn't big enough for Kinsella... and he took to the open waters... and marathon swimming....