Past Our Prime

The 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal will always be remembered for the perfection of Nadia Comaneci; the golden smile from Sugar Ray Leonard; the perseverance of Bruce Jenner in the decathlon; the grace of hurdler extraordinaire Edwin Moses; and the youthful exuberance of 17-year old diver Jennifer Chandler in the 3M springboard. Two years earlier, Jenni was a 15-year old kid getting ready for tho...

In 1973 the Dodgers had an 8 1/2 game lead in the Cincinnati Reds before the Big Red Machine hunted them down and won the division. So in the offseason, the Dodgers acquired Jimmy Wynn... and relief pitcher Mike Marshall... and they both made quite the difference... The Toy Cannon provided a big bat in the middle of the lineup and Marshall was sensational out of the pen. Pitching in a MLB record 1...

It was the summer of '74 and the WFL was looking to compete with the NFL... only one problem... the NFL was on strike. And 6 weeks into the work stoppage the owners not only weren't interested in the players demands... neither were a bunch of the players as well. They were in need of some leadership and the great Hall of Fame Tight End and first NFLPA President John Mackey was ready to turn the co...

The numbers are staggering... Over 6 decades of work... 300+ covers... and countless stories that go with each one of them. Walter Iooss is the most prolific photographer Sports Illustrated has ever had. There is a reason it's not called Sports Literature, but Sports Illustrated... and that's because of the shooters like Iooss who captured a generation of sports idols with their photos. A time whe...

Jim Kaat pitched in the big leagues for 25 seasons, debuting in 1959 and hanging 'em up in 1983. He holds the distinction of the longest time in between World Series appearances first appearing in the Fall Classic in 1965 when his Twins took on the Dodgers with Kaat matching up 3 times against Sandy Koufax. 17 years later, as a member of the Cardinals, Jim was on the winning side of things as St....

Curry Kirkpatrick covered tennis and college hoops for almost 30 years at Sports Illustrated so it's not a shock that the two athletes who became good friends to him were a tennis star and a college basketball icon... Curry tells us how Chris Evert and Bill Walton crossed that line from subjects of articles to objects of affection and how Walton's recent passing hit him hard. Listen in and go behi...

In 1974, royalty showed up at Wimbledon. American royalty. The King and Queen of Wimbledon were 21-year old Jimmy Connors and his fiance, 19-year old Chris Evert. Both arrived at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club ranked #1 in the world, and both would leave as Wimbledon champions... Sports Illustrated's Curry Kirkpatrick covered them both for most of their careers and gives great insigh...

Mike Neel was heading in the wrong direction as a teenager. When it came time to make a decision on which path to take, he got on a bike, and road off to a life of adventure and success. From the Sierras to the Summer Olympics, to Paris and Italy, cycling took him all over the world. Being on a bike saved Mike's life... and almost cost him his life as well. Listen to a bonus interview on the Past...

Henry Lawrence grew up in the deep south... and in the late 60's, that was a tough place to be. When he wasn't playing football, he was in the fields with his family, picking whatever crop was coming in to put food on the table. His parents were hard-working folks doing back-breaking work. In Henry's junior year, his all black high school was going to integrate with the all-white high school. A to...

It was the hey day of boxing when the heavyweight ruled supreme... Ali, Frazier and Foreman were the kings of the ring in the 70's but there were plenty of contenders who wished to ascend to the throne. One of them was Jerry Quarry who in a different era may have been a champion but in 1974, he was not at the level of the titans of the sport. In a brutal beating at the hands of Smokin' Joe, Quarry...

It was known as the Massacre at Winged Foot. The 1974 US Open was a brutal four days for some of the greatest golfers in the history of the game. Nicklaus, Palmer, Trevino, Floyd, Miller and Watson all were tamed by the course... but a little known 29-year old PGA tour veteran was slow and steady and when it came to Sunday, Hale Irwin was ready to pounce... with the help of his caddie... a homegro...

In the summer of 1974, the Cleveland Indians were not a very good team and their owner was thinking of every way possible to get fans in the seats. How about this for an idea: 10-cent Beer Night? All you can drink for just 10-cents a cup. What could go wrong? To the 9th inning we go and after a game highlighted with fans jumping onto the field, many of them in their birthday suits, the chaos turne...

When you think of athletes in the 70's... and 1974 in particular... it doesn't take long to get to Bill Walton's name. The UCLA dynasty under Coach John Wooden was still in full force thanks to what many say is the greatest college basketball player to ever lace 'em up punctuated by the 1973 Title Game against Memphis when Bill was an astounding 21-22 from the floor to finish with 44 points and 13...

There was a time when the winner of the Indianapolis 500 was a household name in America. AJ Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Under, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears to name a few. Legends of the sport and none were any bigger than Johnny Rutherford who won the 500 in 1974... and in 1976... and in 1980... that's right, he took the checkered flag 3 times in 6 years... but on the Past Our Prime podcast, he'll tell u...

It's July 17, 1974 and Dodgers pitcher Tommy John is in the midst of his best season in baseball. He's 13-3 with an ERA of 2.59 and helping lead Los Angeles to first place in the NL West. And then in the 3rd inning that day against the Montreal Expos, one pitch changed his season, his career and the course of baseball history. One pitch. Tommy John was hurt, and while they tried resting his sore l...

If one was asked who is the most successful coach in UCLA history, John Wooden's name would quickly come to mind... but what if I told you there was a coach who had almost double the National Championships of the famous hoops coach? Yes, Al Scates, the other Wizard of Westwood won 19 titles with his UCLA Bruins in 48 years of coaching volleyball. And even though he has been retired for a number of...

The 1974 NBA Finals was a classic 7-game affair between the Celtics and the Bucks in which the road team won 5 games, including the final 4 contests. The Bucks won a thrilling double overtime game 6, in Boston to bring it back to Milwaukee. All the momentum was with the Bucks. But there was one thing in Bostons favor: Celtics Pride. Boston Globe Hall of Fame writer Bob Ryan literally wrote the boo...

They were known as the Broad Street Bullies. They never met a fight they didn't want. They would beat you up... and then they would beat you down... But most of all... they would just beat you. And for two straight years they did just that in winning back-to-back Stanley Cups. Bernie Parent was the last man of defense for those great Philadelphia Flyers teams and came up with shutouts in clinching...

It was the year after Secretariat owned the horse racing world... the 100th Running of the Roses... the biggest field in Kentucky Derby history... The Sport of Kings was riding high and in Arkansas, a 15-year old prodigy was taking it all in. Randy Moss has been covering horse racing since he was 13 years old... yes, you read that correctly... at age 13, he was giving out picks on the ponies in th...

It's 1974, and Jenny Fulle wants to play ball... Little League baseball. With the boys. That's gonna be a problem. Undaunted by being rejected at every turn, she writes a letter to President Nixon setting in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead her to being the first girl to ever legally play Little League. She was a pioneer 50 years ago and continues that to this day as a visual ef...

We know who hit #715--Hank Aaron. We know who threw #715-- Al Downing Now meet who caught #715 -- Tom House... correction... Dr. Tom House. The former MLB pitcher turned Quarterback guru talks about the night Hank hit that record breaking home run... how Aaron's mother was ready to die for her son... and how he caught the ball and became a part of Hank's Hall of Fame exhibit... House went on to ge...

How does 383 strikeouts sound? 24 wins? 40-40 anyone? Who would have been the top pick in a 1974 Fantasy Baseball Draft? Former Dodgers Vice President of Communications Gary Miereanu joins the boys to talk about some of the stars from 50 years ago who might have gone in the first round of a Rotisserie Baseball League draft heading into the 1974 season. It's a bonus segment from the Past Our Prime...

The 1974 baseball season was littered with players who would one day be enshrined in Cooperstown. But on the cover of the Sports Illustrated issue was Pete Rose, one of the few who isn't in the Hall of Fame, but not because Pete couldn't play... he was the MVP in 1973, and is baseball's all-time leader in hits, but.... well, you know... Former Sportswriter and VP of Communications for the Dodgers,...

In 1974, the UCLA Bruins dominated college basketball like no team ever has. Looking to win their 8th straight National Championship everyone wondered who would be the team to end their run. And in Greensboro, North Carolina we found our answer: North Carolina State. On the Past Our Prime podcast, Monty Towe, the 5'7 point guard joins us to talk about that Final Four win over UCLA... his bond with...

Babe Ruth changed the sporting culture in America when he went to New York and blasted his way into the record books. But what is it about the Sultan of Swat that we don't know about? Stephen Lang attempted to answer some of those questions about who the Babe was when he didn't have a bat in his hand in his portrayal of the legendary slugger in a TV movie in 1991 called... Babe Ruth. The versatile...