Sports' Forgotten Heroes

When the United States entered World War I, it signaled the end, for a while, to the landscape of college football. So many of the young men playing the game, put their college careers on hold, withdrew from school and joined the military to fight for their country. They left school and found themselves in “training camps” across the U.S., learning how to fight and preparing for deployment to help...

Charley Trippi is not a name most NFL fans are familiar with. And that’s a shame, because Charley Trippi was one of the game’s most outstanding players during his nine years from 1947 through 1955. Trippi was a star for the Chicago Cardinals beginning on the day he arrived in 1947. A runner-up to Glenn Davis for the Heisman Trophy, winner of the Maxwell Award and the leader of a very formidable Ge...

The Chicago Bears are an NFL original. Well, sort of. During their first year of play, 1920 the inaugural year of the NFL (known as the American Professional Football Association before adopting the name – National Football League), the Bears were actually known as the Decatur Staley’s. And, much to the surprise of most football fans, even those in Chicago, George Halas was not the founder of the...

Pop Warner is one of the greatest football coaches in history when it comes to the collegiate level. But, as great as he was, he is probably best known for his name being associated with youth football. Despite a career that saw him win four national championships with Pitt and Stanford, most football fans have no idea about just how great a coach he was. Completely consumed by the game, his innov...

Sometimes superstars of the game are forgotten. There’s no real explanation for this. They just fade away with time, and this is the reason I launched Sports’ Forgotten Heroes. To remember the stars whom time has forgotten and for this episode, episode No. 89, this certainly holds true – Dutch Clark. A member of the inaugural class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Dutch was certainly on the of gr...

There was a time when Chicago was home to three NFL teams: the Bears, the Cardinals and the Tigers. The Tigers didn’t last long, but the Bears and Cardinals, as football fans know, still play today. While the Bears still call Chicago home, the Cardinals have since moved to St. Louis and now call Arizona (Glendale) home. But it was in Chicago where the Cardinals celebrated their greatest successes...

On August 5, 2020, just a short time ago, Horace Clarke passed away. During the peak of his playing days (1965-1974) one could argue that Clarke was one of the faces of the New York Yankees. Sure, whenever you’re on a team with the legend – Mickey Mantle – you’d be hard-pressed to say anyone but The Mick was the face of the franchise. But, there was much fanfare around Clarke. While he wasn’t the...

The American League was founded by a few men, but two are largely given most, if not all, of the credit: Charles Comiskey and Byron Bancroft “Ban” Johnson. Despite what history tells us, there was a third gentleman who deserves just as much credit; and if Comiskey and Johnson were alive today, they would most likely concur – Tom Loftus. The three men spearheaded the idea of taking on the National...

Tom Sestak is not a name familiar to many football fans. And that’s a shame because it should be. In fact, when those outside of Buffalo think about great defensive players who suited up for the Bills one of the first names that comes to mind is Bruce Smith. Certainly one of the greatest to ever play the game, Sestak wasn’t that far behind. During his career which spanned just seven seasons from 1...

When you think of the New York Yankees of the 1950s the names that come to mind are those of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford. One name that very few mention, or even remember, is that of Gil McDougald. And, that’s a shame because McDougald was just as important to that dynasty as anyone else. Sure, he didn’t slug homeruns at the prodigious rate of Mantle, nor did he hit the ball like Ber...

Jimmy Wynn was one of baseball’s most feared sluggers of the 1960s and early 1970s. Playing for the Houston Astros, however, muzzled just how powerful a hitter he was. Wynn and the Astros called the Houston Astrodome home, and it was by far one of the most difficult stadiums in baseball history to launch home runs in. Yet, Wynn, still put up remarkable numbers. In fact, Wynn produced nearly all of...

In the mid-1990s the Canadian Football League was struggling financially. The league had teams in all of Canada’s big cities with the exception of Montreal. Out west were the British Columbia (Vancouver) Lions, the Edmonton Eskimos, Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders. In the east were the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Ottawa Rough Riders and the Toronto Argonauts. There...

Andy Pafko was a household name in Chicago for much of the 1940s. He made his debut with the Chicago Cubs in 1943 and became a fixture in their lineup until he was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers midway through the 1951 season. Pafko represented the Cubs in the classiest of ways and helped Chicago win the National League Pennant in 1945. Unfortunately, the Cubs lost in seven games to the Detroit Ti...

In 1964, Skip Lockwood was being looked at by several Major League Baseball teams. The Kansas City A’s and their general manager Pat Friday offered Lockwood a signing bonus of $35,000. Lockwood wrote a “1” in front of the 35 and convinced Friday and A’s owner Charlie Finley he was worth every penny. Finley agreed and Lockwood’s career was underway. A third baseman, one week out of high school, Loc...

Edd Roush was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. A star for the Cincinnati Reds of the 19-teens and the 1920s, Roush also played in one of the most famous World Series of all time, the 1919 Series between the White Sox and the Reds. While so many players from Chicago have been written about and are well-known, especially Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Kid Gleason and Eddie Cicotte; so few kn...

The name Drazen Petrovic might not be familiar to many of today’s NBA fans. But for those who recall the early 1990s and the sudden rise of the then New Jersey Nets, Drazen Petrovic is a name that brings up memories of a sharpshooting guard, a star on the rise, and man whose life was tragically cut short in a head-on collision along the famed autobahn. Petrovic, born in Croatia, had a passion for...

The name Oscar Charleston is not familiar to many. An absolute star in baseball’s Negro Leagues, Charleston’s best years came before there was much structure in the Negro Leagues. His prodigious power, spectacular defense and winning ways came before the more popular names of Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Buck O’Neill took the field. Oscar played for the likes of the Indianapolis ABC’s, Homestead...

When you think of the greatest defensemen to ever play in the NHL, a few names come immediately to mind: Bobby Orr, Doug Harvey, Ray Borque and Denis Potvin. But one of the most overlooked names is Pierre Pilote and he deserves to be mentioned in any conversation when it comes to who was the greatest blueliner to ever play. Some of the reasons Pilote might be overlook, and even forgotten, are: his...

Darel Carrier is one of the greatest players to ever play in the ABA, the American Basketball Association and he joins me on this edition of Sports Forgotten Heroes. A prolific shooter from 3-point territory, Darel was named to the ABA’s All-Time team and is the leagues career leader in field goal percentage from downtown. In fact, for his career, Darel averaged exactly 20 points-per-game. Darel w...

Jerry Quarry was one of boxing’s most gifted fighters. But, he had two major flaws that were impossible to overcome: his size and his “thin” skin. First, his size. Most heavyweight boxers fought at weights that surpassed 200-pounds. Quarry was smaller and fought most of his fights between 175 and 185 pounds. As for the “thin” skin, that’s the best way I can describe how easily he cut. Those two fl...

The New York Rangers are one of the NHL’s six original teams, and throughout their history, the one position the Rangers have been known for is goalie. They have had some of the most successful goalies in the game suit up for them, most recently Henrik Lundqvist. In fact, several who have worn the Rangers sweater have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. On this episode of Sports’ Forgotten...

On September 17, 1920 at a car dealership in Canton, Ohio, a meeting took place between a group of men who loved football. All of these men, a group that included Jim Thorpe and George Halas – amongst others, had a passion for the game and there they created the American Professional Football Association (two years later it would change names to the National Football League). Another of the 12 men...

The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin were one of the most controversial in history. As World War II was about to explode, there was much debate as to whether or not the 1936 Olympic Games should even be held. In fact, there was a lot of talk as to whether or not the U.S. should attend or boycott. After much deliberation, the U.S. decided not to boycott and off to Berlin the U.S. contingent went includ...

Earl Morrall threw for over 20,000-yards during his 21-year NFL career. He was a part of three teams that won championships and was named NFL MVP in 1968 and he played a HUGE role in the Miami Dolphins perfect season of 1972. Not bad for a backup quarterback. In fact, Morrall played backup for guys like Fran Tarkenton, Johnny Unitas and Bob Griese. When Unitas went down in 1968, the Baltimore Colt...

When the World Football League launched its inaugural season in 1974, all of the leagues 12 teams had very high hopes. But one team in particular thought it was going to do much better than it did – the Detroit Wheels. But, in reality, this team never stood a chance. After all, how can team expect to succeed when it’s operated with a pay-as-you-go mentality? The Wheels had 33 owners and none of th...