Sports History Network

Upton Bell Interview - Part 2 Note - This is part 2 of a 3-part series, diving into Upton's place in Baltimore Colts history.   If you did not listen to part 1, I highly suggest you listen to last week's episode about how it was for Upton growing up with Bert Bell first. This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to October 11, 1959, the day Bert Bell passed away in front of his 2 teams a...

Three golf champions. Three remarkable championships. Three very unique stories about three guys who had never won before: Mungo Park, 1874 Open Championship; David Brown, 1886 Open Championship; Jack Fleck, 1955 U.S. Open. Each have very unique stories and joining Sports’ Forgotten Heroes to help tell their stories is Connor Lewis from the TalkinGolf History podcast. Connor is one of the foremost...

Upton Bell Interview - Part 1 This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to April 15, 1904, the birthdate of Frances Upton.   Frances is the mother of this week's guest, Upton Bell.   The Football History Dude podcast happened to release on April 15, 2018, so there's a premonition going on here.   You will find out in the episode how Frances Upton and the podcast are linked in the upcom...

Matthew Algeo Interview - Part 2 This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to December 26, 1943, and we are at Wrigley Field to watch the 1943 NFL Championship game between the Washington Redskins and the Chicago Bears.   We learned a little about this game back in the episode about Bronko Nagurski .  The reason this moment is so important is that Bronko was called back to the NFL after...

Hank O’Day is one of the most unique and important figures in the history of Major League Baseball. He broke into the game as a pitcher in the American Association for Toledo in 1884. He finished his career seven years later with the New York Giants. During his career, on occasion, O’Day stepped out onto the field as an umpire and when his playing days concluded, he turned to umpiring permanently....

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...

Matthew Algeo Interview - Part 1 This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to December 7, 1941, and we are in the parking lot of New York Giant’s Polo Ground.   We also have a passenger riding shotgun with us.   His name is Matthew Algeo.   Matthew is an award-winning journalist that has reported from four continents.   His stories have appeared on public radio’s All Things Consid...

Tweet This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to a time when Americans were just trying to survive on the homefront while troops were fighting overseas against the Axis.   Supporting the war effort can take a toll on people, including owners of NFL teams.   League rosters were decimated.   The Cleveland Rams folded operations.   The Eagles and Steelers were close.   It took a marri...

Roy Sievers was one of the most clutch hitters in baseball history. In fact, Sievers, who won the 1949 American League Rookie of the Year with the St. Louis Browns, hit nearly a quarter of his 318 career homeruns in the eighth inning or later. But, becoming a clutch hitter almost didn’t happen. After winning the ROY in 1949, Sievers fell into a slump and that was followed by a devastating right-sh...

Tweet This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to a time when watching the NFL on television sets would have been considered Voodoo magic.   That all started to change on October 22, 1939.  On this day, the Philadelphia Eagles would square off with the Brooklyn Dodgers in what may have seemed like a typical NFL game. This was not the case, though.   NBC struck a deal with the NFL to b...

Tweet This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to a time when ESPN was not a juggernaut.   The network had just launched a few months prior, and the President of the newly minted network devised a brilliant plan with then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle to televise the NFL Draft.   Lem Barney was given the honor of being the first ever player drafted on live television.   As we know, the NF...

In 1969, Major League Baseball expanded to four cities: San Diego, Montreal, Kansas City and Seattle. Montreal moved to Washington and became the Nationals and Seattle moved as well. Yes, there was a team in Seattle before the Mariners – the Seattle Pilots. The Pilots played in Seattle for just one season – 1969 – and at the end of spring training, 1970, they were officially sold and relocated to...

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 140+ years of football history and memorabilia, Gridiron Great...

Tweet This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to 1936 to witness the first NFL draft.   Times were different for the players and owners pre-draft era.   Some say the NFL draft saved professional sports because it helped balance the leagues.   Others say the birth of the NFL draft was a major turning point in the explosion of the NFL.  The draft was the brainchild of the first great...

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 140+ years of football history and memorabilia, Gridiron Great...

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 140+ years of football history and memorabilia, Gridiron Great...

  Tweet     This episode we fire up the DeLorean to finish the 4-part series on the history of the NFLPA.  The first episode covered Bill Radovich and the beginning of the NFLPA from the era of the 40s and 50s.   Part 2 covered John Mackey vs. NFL and the NFLPA through the 60s and 70s .  Last week we focused on the scab season and the NFLPA through the 80s .  Now we get to the 90s and beyond....

Dolf Luque won 194 games over the course of his 20-year Major League career. In 1923, he put together one of the greatest seasons ever for the Cincinnati Reds going 27-8. Luque, however, never again won 20-games in a season, but remained extraordinarily consistent. In fact, in 1925 he went 16-18 and finished in the top-15 (13th) in MVP voting and in 1933, at the age of 42, he went 8-2 for the New...

  Tweet     This episode we fire up the DeLorean to take a look back at one of the darkest decades in NFL History, the 1980's.   The fight between the players and the owners for the freedom to player for team of choice came to a head on multiple occasions.   Last week's episode covering the NFLPA through the 60's and 70's was only the tip of the spear for the players.   A strike in 1982 wiped o...

  Tweet     This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to continue the fight for the players against NFL owners.   Last week was part 1 of a 4 part series covering the history of the NFLPA.  This week covers the 1960s and 1970s.   The announcement of the AFL took things in a different direction for both sides.   However, the John Mackey vs. NFL case was the most significant event towar...

Jimmy Demaret won 31 times on the PGA TOUR … was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame … and was the first golfer to win the Masters three times. Yet, when the discussion of the game’s greats rolls around, Demaret’s accomplishments are severely overlooked. He is rarely, if ever, mentioned in the same breath as Hogan, Nelson and Snead. Never is he spoken about when the names Nicklaus, Palmer, P...

Tweet This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to learn about Bill Radovich, the Father of Sports Labor Action.   Bill was a player for the Detroit Lions during the late 1930s and 1940s.   He had what he felt was a simple request, to be traded to a Western team to be close to his sick father.   His request was denied, and the league threatened to blacklist him if he jumped ship.   Bi...

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 140+ years of football history and memorabilia, Gridiron Great...

Tweet This episode we fire up the DeLorean and head back to learn about free agency in the NFL.  Last week we learned about the history of free agency up to 1992 .  Let's just say this was a good step forward, but the case that really broke open the free agency for players in the modern era was Reggie White vs. NFL.  The ruling in the Reggie White case allowed many players to deal with any team...

The NHL expanded to two cities for the 1974-75 season: Kansas City and Washington. Washington, of course, has turned into one of the National Hockey League’s marquee teams having won the 2017-18 Stanley Cup Championship. Kansas City, however, is one of the least-known teams in the history of sports. The Scouts, a team that lasted just two years, were moved to Colorado and played six years as the R...