The Moonlight Graham Show

This episode is fast. Really fast. You might need to play it at .5 speed it's so fast. I mean when you start talking about NFL caliber speed like this week's Moonlighter has, it is hard to even compare. Rico Gafford's wheels took him from a state title in high school to lining up in the same offense as some of the most talented players in the NFL.

This week's Moonlighter filled a critical role for 11 different major league teams over the course of a 21-year professional career. With that many years under his belt, LaTroy Hawkins had to evolve as a player and adapt to his role on the team a few different times. This interview covers the range of his career and his perspective on what the major league game is like now over 30 years after he w...

Chris Norton has taken his incredible story and turned it into his life's work. He started the Chris Norton Foundation to support others facing neurological injuries and challenges. He is a motivational speaker and his story has been published and is now a documentary.  You can watch 7 Yards on Amazon Prime or Netflix.

This week Tim, Tom, and Big Ben are joined by Mrs. Moonlight herself. The crew shares their favorite guests and moments from the podcast over the first 200 episodes. There have been Cyclones and Hawks, ballplayers and runners, Olympians and pros, and plenty of stories you probably hadn't heard before. Tori, Tom, and Big Ben also get to grill Tim a little about where the pod has been and a look to...

March Madness is in full swing and this week Tim sits down with a Cyclone who has seen just about every side of college basketball. Klay Edwards grew up in small-town eastern Iowa but found his home in Ames. During his time in the cardinal and gold, he saw the end of Johnny Orr's career, the Tim Floyd era, and the start of the Eustachy years. His Cyclones won the last Big 8 Conference tourney, pla...

Our Moonlighter this week is on a whole different level when it comes to video games. Nick Overton got his start playing games like Halo about 20 years ago and now makes a killing as a professional gamer.

Most of our Moonlighters come on the pod to share tales of the glory days. They relive the season or game that made their career. They can philosophize about the moments that made them love sports and the life lessons that the world of sports taught them. It isn't often that we get a guy on the mic whose biggest accomplishments on the wrestling mat might still be in front of him.

Alan Roach's career has been as interesting as it has been busy. Since leaving central Iowa radio, Roach has taken the microphone all over the world. From the Olympics to the Super Bowl, Roach's voice has echoed throughout the greatest stadiums and arenas in sports.

Moonlight Graham is ready to do what no one (and certainly no podcast) has been able to do; fix the game of baseball.

One of our favorite Moonlighters returns to the pod this week to cover the many unique projects he has going on. Many listeners will remember Paul Shirley from his Cyclone playing days in the late 1990s and early 2000s or his travels as a basketball player for 12 separate ball clubs. More recently though, Paul Shirley has made a name for himself as a writer.

This week's Moonlighter just knows how to win. Heck, Harlan just about had to add gold to its school colors during his senior year. The winning didn't stop with his high school graduation though. His experiences as a high school player and college athlete prepared him for helping lead a perennial D-II football power. After a decade as an assistant, he has taken the reins of his own football progra...

Every office has that guy who used to be an athlete or maybe even spent a little time chasing his or her dream in professional sports. Tim heard a little bit about one of those guys in his office who grew up in West Des Moines and spent some time in professional football after his playing days at Kansas State.

These days everything feels so divided. It's like the hot takes of sports talk radio and posts on social media have had to get even hotter just to stand out. On top of that, social media went from finding people like yourself to seeking out those you disagree with just to start a fight. Heck, the word troll has taken on a whole new meaning.

The Bohannon name is synonymous with basketball. The four Bohannon brothers know how to put the biscuit in the basket. This week, we have the second oldest and perhaps the most multi-talented of the crew on the podcast this week. Zach Bohannon had a terrific basketball career for the Wisconsin Badgers and Linn Mar Lions before hanging up his sneakers and becoming a professional fan for his Hawkeye...

Lookingbill brings the types of insights only a teammate can to break down that team, the expectations for that year, and the tragic loss of his friend. The Hawkeyes had to regroup as a team for a game at Michigan State just 9 days after Street's death. January 31st 1993 was the first time the the Haweyes played at home without #40 on the floor. Tim and Wade breakdown that game vs. the Fab Five in...

Most of our Moonlighter's get to look back on their careers and share their thoughts in the past tense. Most stories get a little bit better with time and a few retellings. Every once in a while we pull in an active athlete in the midst of their career with a few achievements under their belt and and their sights set on what's next. This week's guest brings a little bit of everything. Daniel Tillo...

There is always a lot of talk about coaching trees, especially when it comes to college football. In Iowa, we often hear about Hayden Fry's incredible legacy with his 1980s Hawkeye football coaching staffs but those guys all had different last names. The Woodley Tree is pretty much synonymous with coaching in Iowa as Mike and his sons have led programs in central and eastern Iowa with a great deal...

Season 10 opens with a guy who has a story or two to tell. Over the course of 45 years, Steve Loney has seen just about everything at every level of football and always comes home to his passion for Iowa State football. Loney brings some of his favorite stories and insights from the sideline and to the Moonlight Graham Show.

At the core of Field of Dreams is a story about a father and son. So what better way to wrap up this season than to focus on Moonlight Tim's soon to be new job; Dad. Brother Andy and Tom join Tim for a conversation about what it means to be a good dad.

While it might be a little different than Sunset Park and Hoosiers, Iowa certainly has more than a few white men that can jump coming out of Iowa hoops. This week Moonlighter Jack Brownlee returns to the studio to help Tim come up with the all-time Iowa NBA team. Some of the greats, like Kyle Korver, Fred Hoiberg and Nick Collison, quickly come to mind but the research required some deep dives. Ti...

This week's Moonlighter won an underdog tournament to become the biggest underdog in the biggest golf tournament in the US. Jack Newman won the 2008 U.S. Amateur Public Links tournament to earn a tee time at the Masters. Newman went to Hoover High School in Des Moines and got his start playing Waveland. After a very successful high school career, he went on to play golf in college at Michigan Stat...

For being the home of the Field of Dreams, Iowa has had its fair share of stars shining bright under the Friday night lights. This week, Tim and Tom did their research and prepared an all time 2-deep lineup of Iowans who played in the NFL. This wasn't your average fantasy draft! We scoured the internet looking for players who were born, bred, and corn-fed Iowans and then compared position groups l...

This week's Moonlighter started his career in Iowa, circled the globe, and ended up on top of the world. Nick Nurse played in the red and gold of the Kuemper Knights but more recently has been sporting the gold of his NBA championship ring as head coach of the Toronto Raptors. His journey to the top of the basketball world included stops around the US and Europe before arriving in Canada. No matte...

This week's Moonlighter is a doubleheader in his own right. Scott Schebler was on the podcast in Ep. 49 and comes back in Ep. 179 as part of our series with DMACC. Scott Schebler came out of DMACC's Boone Campus in 2010 and has spent the last ten years in professional baseball.