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​We're back from our extended Thanksgiving break with an inside look at the venerable sports venue that single-handedly elevated 1960s-era Atlanta to "major league" status, and cemented its place among the most important American cities.   Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium - known simply as "Atlanta Stadium" when it opened in 1965 - was the long-time home of Major League Baseball's Braves (1966-96), t...

[We near the end of our Thanksgiving leftovers this week with a June 2018 archive re-release favorite featuring US Soccer Hall of Fame broadcaster JP Dellacamera - currently in Qatar covering this year's FIFA World Cup for Fox Sports!] Fox Sports soccer play-by-play broadcaster extraordinaire JP Dellacamera joins the podcast this week to discuss a pioneering career in sports announcing spanning ov...

[Our Thanksgiving gift this week is a December 2017 archive re-release favorite with world-renowned singer/entertainer Pat Boone!] We usher in the holidays and round out our debut season with the inimitable Pat Boone – an American entertainment legend and inveterate business entrepreneur, with a life-long passion for the sport of basketball.  In a career spanning over six decades (and counting!),...

In 1974, a small Midlands underwear firm changed soccer forever when it won the contract as official kit supplier for England's national team - featuring a tradition-busting combination of bright colors, definitional striping, and, uniquely, prominently positioned manufacturer's logos on both shirt and shorts.   Admiral Sportswear's bold designs and distinctive branding - soon outfitting storied c...

An important but surprisingly little-remembered story in the history of pro football - and a turning point in the city of New Orleans' eventually successful pursuit of an NFL franchise - is the subject of this week's hugely intriguing conversation with Erin Grayson Sapp, author of "Moving the Chains: The Civil Rights Protest That Saved the Saints And Transformed New Orleans" .   From the book's du...

There are few moments in sports more thrilling, compelling, or inspiring than a comeback story.  From the resurgence of a sports figure to a team that defies the odds for an unexpected win, to someone who never quite made it, finally getting their shot, these stories are the lifeblood of sports. Nobody knows this more than former NFL star linebacker, Ryan Shazier who scratched and clawed his way b...

As preparations for next month's 2022 FIFA World Cup spectacle in Qatar enter their final stages, we turn our attention back to the pitch for an intriguing look back at a seminal international "friendly" tournament earnestly designed to crown a world club soccer champion - and the unwitting genesis for today's officially-sanctioned FIFA Club World Cup competition.   Soccer writer and part-time Eng...

Fans of Americana music may recognize the name Bob Carlin as one of the country's leading practitioners of the classic "clawhammer" style of banjo.  His myriad recordings, historical writings and frequent performances across the US and around the world have won him plaudits from old-time banjo scholars and aficionados alike. B ut when he's not downpicking in the studio or performing on stage, Carl...

​​ P ittsburgh-native sports historian (and previous Episode 242 guest) Dave Finoli ( " Where Pittsburgh Played: Oakland's Historic Sports Venues ") returns to the pod for a deep dive into the notable histories of the Steel City's important first generation of modern-day sports venues.   We dig into some of the memorable (and many not-so) professional teams and leagues that called the city's Oakla...

​ The Hartford Whalers were a beloved hockey team from the ​ moment of their founding in 1972 as the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers. Playing in the National Hockey League's smallest market and arena after the 1979 WHA merger/absorption/expansion ,  t he Whalers struggled in a division that included both the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens - but the club 's fans were among the...

He's enshrined as a member of the College Football Hall of Fame for his record-breaking, two-time consensus All-American fullback rushing career at Syracuse in the mid-1960s. He's an inductee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, most notably for his dominant rushing prowess with the Don Shula-coached Miami Dolphins of the early 1970s - and his leading role in the club's three consecutive Super Bowl a...

We welcome budding sports historian - and previous Episode 190 guest - Alan Bass (" Ed Snider: The Last Sports Mogul ") back to our microphones this week, this time to delve into the life and times of modern-day Philadelphia's patron saint of professional sports. The dustjacket for The Last Sports Mogul makes the case: " Most sports team owners make their money elsewhere and purchase a team as an...

Fans of the original NHL version (1979-96) of the Winnipeg Jets, as well as the first ten seasons (1997-2007) of their subsequent incarnation as the Phoenix Coyotes, will surely remember the dulcet tones of team radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster Curt Keilback ( Two Minutes for Talking to Myself: Jets, Coyotes, Tales, Opinions ) . For 27 seasons - spanning some 2400+ games - ​K eilback was the...

​ Author/team biographer Steve Guinan ( We Are the Troopers: The Women of the Winningest Team in Pro Football History ) helps us celebrate the return of football this week - with a look back at ​​ the unheralded story of the most dominant women's team of the 1970s -the Toledo Troopers. Winners of seven consecutive championships across two different leagues - Sid Friedman's barnstorming Women's Pro...

As a young girl growing up in tiny, rural Throckmorton, Texas in the mid-1950s, memoirist Addie Beth Denton ( " 108 Stitches: A Girl Grows Up With Baseball ") had only a vague understanding of what her father and uncle did for a living - except that they seemed to always  be talking about baseball. Only as she grew older did she come to realize all that discussion - not to mention her bevy of annu...

The Athletic Major League Soccer staff writer Pablo Maurer steps into our vortex of what-used-to-be in professional sports this week, with a look back at some of the more confounding and overlooked stories of the not-so-distant past of US pro soccer. It's our deepest dives yet into memorable North American Soccer League gems like 1977's one-year wonder Team Hawaii ; 1983's divisive US Men's Nation...

Obscure trivia answers abound this week, as we return to the pro rinks of the 1970s with Twin Cities sports fan extraordinaire Dan Whenesota (" A Slap Shot in Time ") for a look back at the not one, but two World Hockey Association franchises known as the Minnesota Fighting Saints. The first team was one of the WHA's original twelve franchises, playing from 1972 until mid-1976; the second was the...

We spotlight the new Amazon Prime Video series " A League of Their Own " - an inventively reimagined telling of the story of the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (and originally made famous in the 1992 Penny Marshall-directed motion picture of the same name) - with writer and executive producer Desta Tedros Reff. Decidedly more "dramedy" in tone than the comedic app...

Life has come full circle for TV news reporter-turned-Triple-A baseball play-by-play broadcaster Mike Capps (" Grinders: Baseball's Intrepid Infantry ") - now the longtime radio voice of the Pacific Coast League's Round Rock Express. As a kid in early-1960s North Texas, Capps grew up immersed in the exploits of Dallas-Fort Worth's minor league Rangers, Cats and Spurs - intrigued by rotating roster...

It wasn't easy being a soccer fan in the United States in the 1980s.  While the 24-team North American American Soccer League ushered in the decade with an air of stability and momentum (the league even sold a pennant proclaiming the game the "Sport of the 80's"), it wasn't long before big-time American pro soccer was dangerously on the ropes (the NASL shrank to just nine franchises by 1984) – and...

Pro hockey history enthusiast/author Steve Currier ( Episode 37 ; " The California Golden Seals: A Tale of White Skates, Red Ink, and One of the NHL's Most Outlandish Teams ") returns to the show after a five-year absence - this time to accompany us deep down the rabbit hole of one of the National Hockey League's most overlooked adventures of the 1970s.   In his new book " When the NHL Invaded Jap...

Chicago sports fans of a certain age may remember the name Charlie Evranian atop the masthead of the executive suite (behind inimitable owner Lee Stern, of course) of the 1981 outdoor version of the North American Soccer League's Chicago Sting - when that club delivered the first major pro championship to the Windy City since 1963's NFL Bears.   (Not to mention the team's first two barn-burning in...

Fresno Grizzlies baseball TV play-by-play broadcaster (and Episode 208 guest) Dan Taylor (" Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball ") returns to the podcast - this time with the story of one of the most unheralded players in pro football history.   In his new book " Walking Alone: The Untold Journey of Football Pioneer Kenny Washington ," Taylor writes the first solo bi...

We're back from vacation with a 50th anniversary rewind of 1972's iconic "Summit Series" between "Team Canada" (featuring the NHL's best from north of the border) and the then-Soviet Union - with veteran sports journalist/hockey analyst Scott Morrison ( " 1972: The Series That Changed Hockey Forever ").   It's a deep dive into the curious, yet now-iconic battle between the hockey's two top superpo...

[We celebrate eminent North-of-the-border sportswriter Ed Willes' selection to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame's media wing last week - with a June 2018 archive re-release of one our most popular episodes!] As Johnny Manziel 's pro football comeback journey wraps up a promising pre-season with the Canadian Football League's Hamilton Tiger-Cats, we take a moment this week to reminisce on the app...