Sports History Network

September 11 Attacks and the Impact on the NFL Today is the 18th anniversary of the largest terrorist attack on American soil.   The September 11 attacks made time stand still for a moment around the world.   There was no American, business, or even sports organization that did not have a decision to make about what to do next.   The NFL was in the same situation.   After the smoke cleared, th...

After losing the 1979 National Championship by a single point, the number-one ranked Ohio State Buckeyes open their 1980 season against the Syracuse Orangemen in the Horseshoe. In Pittsburgh, Jackie Sherrill and the Panthers uncage one the most talented defenses of all time to feast on Boston College while Lawrence Taylor and the fifteenth-ranked UNC Tar Heels travel to West Texas for a duel with...

Biggest NFL Rivalry | Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers What is the biggest NFL rivalry? The Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers sure could take the cake on that question. This rivalry has been going on ever since 1921. It is a rivalry between two of the most storied franchises in the NFL. George Halas and the Chicago Bears (well, Decatur Staleys at first) were there from the beginning....

As the 1980 college football season begins, everybody is hunting Alabama and The Bear. Winners of two straight national titles to close out the decade, the Crimson Tide starts the year perched at number two and riding an eighteen-game winning streak. The first week of games features Bobby Bowden and his renegade band of Seminoles continuing their raid on college football’s elite with a season open...

Joe Bauman was the first player in professional baseball history to hit more than 70 homeruns in a season. Bob Crues nearly hit 70 homeruns in a single season but came up just short with 69. Joe Brovia had nothing left to prove in the minor leagues and finally realized his dream of playing Major League Baseball when the Cincinnati reds called him up in 1955 at the age of 33. All three were stars f...

NFL Records All Time | Will Any Be Broken in the 100th Season? What are the most unbreakable NFL records all-time?   There are many that can be thrown into this category, but the one I believe is at least the most impressive record is held by Otto Graham.   You can hear about this record in this week's episode.   You will also learn about records that will be challenged in the upcoming 100th se...

NFL Hall of Fame 2019 | Re-Live Stories From the Hall The NFL Hall of Fame 2019 enshrinement is in the books.   Each year Hall of Fame weekend is a sight to behold, and each year it gets bigger and bigger.   This year there were 8 inductees.   You can learn more about them in the following 2 episodes that were released a few weeks ago: NFL Hall of Fame 2019 Class - Part 1 NFL Hall of Fame 2019...

Baseball outlawed the spitball in 1920. However, each team was allowed to designate two pitchers (if they already threw the spitter) to throw it until they retired. Burleigh Grimes of the Brooklyn (Dodgers) Robins was one of those pitchers. His spitball was quite unique in that he “coated” the ball with a special sap from a type of tree in Polk County, Wisconsin. Grimes continued to use his spitte...

Join Gridiron Greats Magazine Publisher and Editor Bob Swick along with his co-host Joe Squires for the all new 2019 of Gridiron Greats Magazine-The Podcast Gridiron Greats Magazine is the only publication in America which focuses upon the history and memorabilia of the North American Football Game since its inception in 1869. Covering 150+ years of football history and memorabilia, Gridiron Great...

Highest Scoring NFL Games Of All-Time   What are the highest-scoring NFL games of-all time? NFL fans love seeing points on the scoreboard. Nowadays, part of this has to do with fantasy football. However, fantasy football was barely a toddler when the highest-scoring NFL game in history occurred.  This game was on November 27, 1966, between the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants. The Redsk...

Join Gridiron Greats Magazine Publisher and Editor Bob Swick along with his co-host Joe Squires for the all new 2019 of Gridiron Greats Magazine-The Podcast Gridiron Greats Magazine is the only publication in America which focuses upon the history and memorabilia of the North American Football Game since its inception in 1869. Covering 150+ years of football history and memorabilia, Gridiron Great...

NFL Instant Replay History Instant replay in the NFL has not come without controversy over the years.   Look to last year's NFC Championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints for evidence.   This no-call on instant replay has become one of the most infamous (if not the most infamous) in NFL history.   In fact, it lit a fire under the Competition Committee to hold a vo...

Ray Billows was one of golf’s greatest players of his generation. But, instead of trying to make a living as a professional, Billows decided to remain an amateur and compete as such. Of course, this was at a time when amateur golf was considered a bigger game than professional golf and when the U.S. Amateur was much larger in stature than it is today. In fact, over the years some of the game’s mos...

NFL Hall of Fame 2019 Class (Part 2) This Saturday we get to see 8 more gridiron giants inducted as part of the NFL Hall of Fame 2019 inductees celebration.   Last week we covered the first four members in the episode titled NFL Hall of Fame 2019 Class - Part 1 .  I recommend you listen to this episode first if you have not done so.   This week we cover a brief overview of the rest of the membe...

NFL Hall of Fame 2019 Class (Part 1) Next Saturday we get to see 8 more gridiron giants inducted as part of the NFL Hall of Fame 2019 Class.   This week we cover a brief overview of 4 of the members being inducted on August 3rd.   The episode covers the players in alphabetic order.   Here are the first 4 members: Champ Bailey (modern) - cornerback for Washington Redskins (1999 - 2003) and Denve...

Ken Williams was one of baseball’s most feared sluggers of the 1920s. A star for the St. Louis Browns, Williams was a career .319 hitter who hit 196 home runs for his career while toiling in relative obscurity for a team that usually finished near the bottom of the standings. Williams, who never revealed his real age, was reportedly five-years older than what he claimed; and his career was shorten...

Pro Football Hall of Fame 2018 (Recap) This episode we hop on the DeLorean back to last year to recap the Pro Football Hall of Fame 2018 Class.   A brief overview of each of the 2018 enshrinees reminds us how awesome last year's class really was.   Then I break review how the selection process works. It was covered more in depth a year ago on the first Pro Football Hall of Fame episode.   Lastl...

Clayton Trutor - Part 2 Dr. Clayton Trutor stops by on the show to share his opinion of the best books on football.   During the interview, he provides 10 primary categories for the books discussed.   In the first part of this interview, Dr. Clayton covered the categories that he calls League History, Biography, Strategy, A Season in the Life, and Expose'.  If you have not listened to Clayton's...

When you are competing for notoriety against the likes of Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and Hank Greenberg, you have to be really good … great … to grab headlines. You need to hit a ton of homeruns. You need to rack up the RBI’s and you better have a terrific batting average to go along with all of that. Well, that’s exactly what Hal Trosky of the Cleveland Indians did. In fact, in his first four full y...

Clayton Trutor - Part 1 Dr. Clayton Trutor stops by on the show to share his opinion of the best books about football.   During the interview, he provides 10 primary categories for the books discussed.   In the first part of this interview, Dr. Clayton covers the categories that he calls League History, Biography, Strategy, A Season in the Life, and Expose'.  It's near impossible to pick the be...

Join Gridiron Greats Magazine Publisher and Editor Bob Swick along with his co-host Joe Squires for the all new 2019 of Gridiron Greats Magazine-The Podcast Gridiron Greats Magazine is the only publication in America which focuses upon the history and memorabilia of the North American Football Game since its inception in 1869. Covering 150+ years of football history and memorabilia, Gridiron Great...

The Football History Dude is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear . LINKS Follow The Football History Dude on X Follow Sports History Network on X Follow Sports History Network on Facebook Sports History Network YouTube channel Sports History Network TikTok channel EPISODE SUMMARY Elmer Layden is not a household name nowadays. However, back in the early 1920s...

So many baseball players have had their careers cut short by injury. Some of those careers might be considered marginal, and others might be considered a tragedy based on the fact that the career was on an upward trajectory and headed for greatness. Ray Collins, who pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1909 and into the 1915 season had one of those careers. His last full season, 1914, at the age of...

The World Football League The World Football League was a short-lived professional football league, and Upton Bell was the owner of one of the teams, the Charlotte Hornets.   In this episode, we pick right back up with the last part of the Upton Bell episode.   This time we fire up that DeLorean and head back to November 22, 1959.  The reason for this is because this is the day the Boston Patri...

Join Gridiron Greats Magazine Publisher and Editor Bob Swick along with his co-host Joe Squires for the all new 2019 of Gridiron Greats Magazine-The Podcast Gridiron Greats Magazine is the only publication in America which focuses upon the history and memorabilia of the North American Football Game since its inception in 1869. Covering 150+ years of football history and memorabilia, Gridiron Great...