Sports Spectrum Podcast

Episode 316 Jade McCarthy is an Emmy-Award winning sports commentator. For 5 years, she was an anchor at ESPN, working on shows such as SportsCenter and NFL LIVE. She was released from her job at ESPN as part of a larger group of layoffs, on April 26, 2017. Prior to ESPN, Jade had broadcasting stops in Springfield, MA, Huntsville, AL, Philadelphia, PA and Boston, MA.  In the Fall of 2018, she retu...

Episode 315 Shawn Purdy is a former pro baseball player. He played his college baseball at the University of Miami in Florida. After being selected three times in the MLB Amateur Draft in 1987, 1989 and 1990, he signed with the Angels after being selected in the 16th round of the 1991 draft. After pitching for eight seasons in the minor leagues from 1991-1998, he retired at the age of 29. Today, P...

Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative, chaplain of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and author of more than 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. He joined us on Episode 129 of our show to talk about his work with the Dallas Cowboys, how he got started in sports ministry, where the state of faith is in th...

Episode 314 Aubree Munro is a member to Team USA's softball team and a 2-time NCAA National Champion with the Florida Gators.  She has played in the 2016 and 2018 WBSC Women's World Championship, winning the Gold Medal both seasons. In 2018, she hit .389 with 3 HR, and 8 RBI.    On this episode of the podcast, we talk with Aubree about winning back to back national titles, the booming popularity o...

Episode 301 Beth Guckenberger is Executive Director of Back2Back Ministries, an international orphan care ministry serving abandoned, orphaned and impoverished children in Mexico, Nigeria, India and Haiti.  Since Beth and her husband Todd co-founded the international ministry in 1997, Back2Back has been providing care for today and hope for tomorrow through its proven five-point Child Development...

Episode 312 David Pollack is a college football analyst for ESPN. He was selected 17th overall in the 2005 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals where his career would be cut short by a neck injury sustained on September 17, 2006 in a game against the Cleveland Browns.  As a defensive end at the University of Georgia, he was just the second Bulldog to be named a three-time All-American. Heisman Trop...

Episode 311 Christina Haugan is the wife of the late Humboldt Broncos hockey head coach Darcy Haugan. Her husband died on April 6, 2018, in a horrific bus crash that killed 16 members of the junior hockey team.  This episode of the podcast features an interview done by contributing writer Dave Dawson, and shares the powerful story of Christina walking through the process of forgiveness after losin...

Kelli Masters is an NFL Player Agent. She joined us in July of 2017 on Episode 30 and shared her story of how she came to be a sports agent and where her faith in Christ came from. Kelli is a former National Champion and Five-time World Champion Baton Twirler who graduated with honors from Law School at the University of Oklahoma. Kelli is also the first woman to represent an NFL first-round draft...

Episode 310 Kyle Snyder is a 2016 Olympic Gold Medal winning wrestler. He is the youngest Olympic gold medalist and youngest World Champion in American wrestling history.  He was a 3-time NCAA National Champion at Ohio State with a career record of 75-5 and ended his college career as the first and only wrestler to win the NCAA, World and Olympic championships as a collegiate athlete. In May 2018,...

Episode 309 Caylin Louis Moore should be dead, in prison or stalking the streets of Compton with fellow gang members. Instead, at age 24, he’s a Rhodes Scholar, author, speaker, husband, father and role model for children deprived of hope in downtrodden communities, while at the same time illuminating the seemingly static barriers the youth may face every day. Football and faith played a big role...

Episode 308 Marcel Reece played 10 years in the NFL from 2008-2017 with the Dolphins, Raiders and Seahawks. After going undrafted in 2008 out of the University of Washington, he spent two years on the practice squad with the Raiders before getting his shot. And he made the most of his opportunity, going on to be selected for four Pro Bowls in his nine seasons with Oakland. After spending 2016 with...

Episode 307 Leah O'Brien-Amico is a softball legend. She's a three-time Olympic gold medal winner, a three-time NFCA first-team All-American and a three-time WCWS national champion in college. Considered one of the top women's softball players of the last 25 years, O'Brien-Amico was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame in 2009, the Athletes In Action Hall of Faith in 2008, and the Univ...

Today we look back to our interview from July of 2017 with Ted Barrett, Major League Baseball Umpire on the podcast.  Ted has been umpiring Major League Baseball Games since 1994. He became a full-time MLB umpire in 1999. Ted is the only umpire to ever be behind the plate for TWO perfect games. (David Cone in 1999 and Matt Cain in 2012) He has umpired in 4 World Series including the Red Sox Champi...

Episode 306   Trent Shelton is a former NFL wide receiver who is now considered one of the most impactful speakers of this generation. He reaches more than 50 million people weekly through his various social media outlets and non-profit organization, RehabTime. Shelton travels the world sharing his message of creating lasting change in life. After playing college football at Baylor, Shelton went u...

Episode 305 Nick Ahmed is a shortstop with the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2011, he was selected by the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the 2011 MLB Amateur Draft, and he was traded after the 2012 season to Arizona in a seven-player deal. He made his MLB debut on June 29, 2014. The University of Connecticut alum became the regular shortstop for the Diamondbacks in 2015, and in 2018 he won his f...

Episode 304 Jeremiah Sirles plays offensive lineman for the Buffalo Bills in the NFL. He played his college football at the University of Nebraska, where he earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors as a senior and second-team All-Big Ten as a junior, along with Academic All-Big Ten honors his senior year. After going undrafted in 2014, he signed with the Chargers where he would make his NFL deb...

Episode 303 Clay Martin is entering his fifth season as an NFL official, and his second as a referee. The former college point guard at Oklahoma Baptist University, is also a high school basketball coach at Jenks High School in Oklahoma.  Martin bias also a former NCAA Division 1 assistant basketball coach with Texas Pan-American under Bob Hoffman. His football officiating career began in 2005. He...

Lee Strobel joins us on this THROWBACK edition of the podcast. Lee is the former award-winning legal editor of the  Chicago Tribune  and best-selling author of more than 20 books. His classic,  The Case for Christ , is a perennial favorite which details his conversion to Christianity. For the last 25 years, his life’s work has been to share the evidence that supports the truth and claims of Christ...

Episode 302 Rob Likens is the offensive coordinator and QB coach at Arizona State. During his 25 year coaching career, Likens has made stops at Kansas, Cal, Louisiana Tech, Central Connecticut State, Temple and North Alabama. He joined Arizona State as their Wide Receivers coach in 2016 before taking over the offensive reigns in 2017. Likens currently has seven former players in the NFL at the wid...

Episode 301 Bruce Pearl is the head men's basketball coach for the Auburn Tigers. His coaching career has spanned over 30 years and has included stops at Stanford, Iowa, Southern Indiana, Milwaukee, Tennessee and now Auburn.  In 1995, he was named Division II Coach of the Year at Southern Indiana and in 2006, during his time at Tennessee, was named Sporting News Coach of the Year.  In 2019, he led...

Episode 300 Tony Trent is our guest on the podcast today. He's the Dad to Purdue super-fanTyler Trent. And today on the show, we talk to Tony about Tyler's courageous battle with cancer, Tyler's new book "The Upset," and how the strong faith that the entire Trent family has in Jesus Christ has helped them during this difficult season of life and the loss of their beloved son Tyler back in January...

Episode 299 Patty Gasso is the head softball coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. In a word, she's a legend. Gasso came to the Sooners in 1995 and since then, has led her clubs to 12 Women's College World Series and is a 4-time WCWS champion.  She was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 2019 and is a 12-time Big 12 Coach of the Year. In 2019, the Sooners have won an NCAA record 39 consecut...

Today we throw it back to Episode 65 of the podcast with former NFL QB and current ESPN broadcaster Brock Huard.  Brock covers the NFL and College Football for ESPN. He’s also the co-host of the Brock and Salk show on 710 ESPN in Seattle and is the host of the “Above and Beyond” podcast. Brock was selected in the 3rd round of the 1999 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks out of the University of Wash...

Episode 298 Austin Hatch is an inspiration. His story has been seen and told by places like ESPN, NBC Nightly News, People Magazine and many others. On September 1, 2003, at the age of 8, Austin survived a plane crash that took the lives of his mom, sister and brother. On June 24, 2011, 9 days after making his commitment to play college basketball at the University of Michigan, Austin was the only...

Episode 297 Jonny Reid works for "Christians in Sport," a site dedicated to telling the stories of sports and faith in the United Kingdom. He is the Communications Team Leader. In his spare time, Jonny also plays hockey for Bicester HC and cricket for Westcott CC and is one of the leaders of Town Church, Bicester. On this episode of the podcast, we talk to Jonny about faith in the United Kingdom,...