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[One last dip into the vault before a flood of new episodes beginning next week; from 2020, our revealing conversation with a pro hockey great - and Atlanta Flames original!} For 1970s-era NHL hockey fans who remember the eight-year adventure known as the Atlanta Flames, few are likely to forget Dan Bouchard. A tenacious, slightly eccentric and occasionally fight-prone French-Canadian goalie, “Bouch” was an immediate standout between the pipes for the NHL's first-ever Deep South franchise (platooning with fellow Quebecois & expansion draftee Phil Myre during the club's first five seasons) – and a survivor in a league where hard-nosed hockey was the norm and where good goalies were at a premium. Bouchard's big-league call-up to the Flames in 1972 came amidst a frantic period of NHL franchise expansion and relocation driven in large part by the arrival of the challenger World Hockey Association – which debuted alongside Atlanta (and the NY Islanders) that season. And while the collective memory of the original Flames remains muddied by a woeful post-season record (reliably exiting the playoffs in the first round, despite qualifying six out of their eight seasons), as well as a then (and still?) persistent narrative of Southerners' native distaste for ice hockey – Bouchard and Atlanta were actually more competitive and popular than many of the NHL's other 1970s forays in places like Kansas City, Oakland, Denver, and Cleveland. When Nelson Skalbania bought the Flames and moved them to Calgary in 1980, most in Atlanta and around the league assumed that the well-publicized financial struggles of the team and owner Tom Cousins (who also controlled the Omni arena and the NBA Hawks) were to blame. But as Bouchard outlines in this revealing conversation, an explosive league-wide issue was festering behind the scenes – of which he was uniquely aware and determined to address – regardless of the potential consequences to his playing career. Bouch walks us through an eye-opening story that wends its way through the defunct Quebec Nordiques (including the infamous “Good Friday Massacre” vs. the Montreal Canadiens in 1984), the original Winnipeg Jets, the scandalous downfall of a pro hockey Hall of Famer, and fighting for legendary player/coach Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion both on – and off – the ice. + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable "Good Seats" Show & Defunct Team Merch: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY SPONSOR THANKS Royal Retros (promo code: SEATS): https://www.503-sports.com?aff=2 Old School Shirts.com (promo code: GOODSEATS) https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND & FOLLOW Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
[By popular request, an archive re-release from August 2018, featuring our extraordinary conversation with one of the central figures of the original North American Soccer League - from its chaotic formation in 1968 to its untimely demise in 1985.] + + + Soccer America columnist (and Episode #6 guest) Paul Gardner summed up this week's National Soccer Hall of Fame guest in his May 2015 commentary: “The debt owed by American soccer to Clive Toye is a vast one. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say, flatly, that without Toye's blind faith in the sport in the 1970s, pro soccer in the USA would have withered and died. Yes, Phil Woosnam and Lamar Hunt and Bob Hermann were there too. But in those unpromising years it was Toye's voice -- it came in a steady flow of ridiculously optimistic press releases and grandiose plans for a future that few others even dared to ponder -- that called loudest. “The New York Cosmos general manager credited with turning that league's fortunes around when he signed Pele to a contract in 1975. Toye, who was born in England and came to the United States in 1967 at the age of 33, was president of three North American Soccer League teams – the Cosmos, Chicago Sting and Toronto Blizzard – and general manager of the [original National Professional Soccer League and subsequent NASL] Baltimore Bays. [He] was an official of the NASL in helping it through its crisis year of 1969 and in its final months in 1985 – and helped to found the third American Soccer League in 1988. “There has always been the spirit of a showman in Toye, and surely it was that spirit that enabled Toye to overlook the virtual collapse of the old North American Soccer League and to see instead a glittering future for the sport in the USA, even to declare to anyone who was listening -- and not many were in those days -- the preposterous notion that the USA should begin preparing to stage the World Cup. “And when the NASL, by the skin of its teeth and by the mad devotion of Toye et al., did survive, it was Toye who gave the reborn league its glittering image with his invention of the Cosmos, with his canny maneuvering and dealing, who brought Pele and Beckenbauer to New York. Showmanship indeed.” Toye (A Kick in the Grass: The Slow Rise and Quick Demise of the NASL; Anywhere in the World) joins host Tim Hanlon for a lyrical and anecdote-filled journey through the pro league that he helped create, later put to rest, and which ultimately shored up the long-term foundation of the “beautiful game” in America. + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: "Good Seats" Show & Defunct Team Merch: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: A Kick in the Grass: The Slow Rise and Quick Demise of the NASL (2006): https://amzn.to/3Ln1KAt Anywhere in the World (2015): https://amzn.to/3Y3TD3A SPONSOR THANKS: Royal Retros (promo code: SEATS): https://www.503-sports.com?aff=2 Old School Shirts.com (promo code: GOODSEATS) https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
[An archive re-release favorite from September 2017, featuring one of professional baseball's most enigmatic leagues!] Inc. Editor-at-Large David Whitford (Extra Innings: A Season in the Senior League) joins host Tim Hanlon to retrace his journalistic odyssey covering the inaugural season of the short-lived, Florida-based Senior Professional Baseball Association (SPBA) in the winter of 1989-90. Whitford recalls the early-career events leading up to his plum writing assignment, and the process by which he went about chronicling this unique, but ultimately ill-fated eight-team circuit for former pro players over the age of 35 (32 for catchers). Despite half the franchises folding after the first 72-game season (and the rest of the league mid-way through the second), the Senior League afforded dozens of former big-league players and managers what Whitford dubbed a "life-after-death fantasy" – one that attracted both stars and journeymen alike for a chance to either stay fresh for one last shot in the Show, recapture past on-field glories, or simply earn some needed money. Whitford highlights a wide array of characters he met while covering the SBPA, including: Founder Jim Morley, the thirty-something hustler who erroneously believed a senior league could generate cash flow sufficient to sustain his debt-ridden real-estate empire; Commissioner Curt Flood, the indefatigable player's union representative who broke Major League Baseball's reserve clause, but sacrificed his career in the process; Pitcher Wayne Garland, the former Cleveland ace and early free-agent beneficiary who risked permanent shoulder damage by coming back to play pro ball after a five-year layoff; Ex-Padres/Astros fastballer (and pioneer descendant) Danny Boone, who reinvented himself into a knuckleball specialist, and improbably made it back to the bigs with Baltimore in 1990 following the SPBA season; AND A veritable who's who of former big-name major league stars – each with their own personal reasons for returning to the diamonds: Bobby Bonds, Joaquin Andujar, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, Ferguson Jenkins, Dave Kingman, Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Graig Nettles, Mickey Rivers, and even manager Earl Weaver – just to name a few. + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: "Good Seats" Show & Defunct Team Merch: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable SPONSOR THANKS: Royal Retros (promo code: SEATS): https://www.503-sports.com?aff=2 Old School Shirts.com (promo code: GOODSEATS) https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: Extra Innings: A Season in the Senior League (2024): https://amzn.to/4cfkRbs FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
[An essential fan favorite from 2018 - with the dean of "forgotten sports" promotion!] If someone ever decides to build an American sports promotion Hall of Fame, the inaugural class will undoubtedly be led by this week's special guest, Doug Verb. In a career spanning more than 40 years in professional sports management, Verb's remarkable career has included spearheading marketing, promotion, publicity, and television for some of the most innovative and memorable leagues and franchises of the modern era. One of the founding executives of both the pioneering Major Indoor Soccer League (along with sports entrepreneurs Earl Foreman, Ed Tepper, and previous podcast guest Dr. Joe Machnik), and the frenetic Arena Football League (with the sport's inventor [and past two-part guest] Jim Foster), Verb additionally served as president of pro soccer's legendary Chicago Sting from 1982-86 – which, incredibly, drifted between playing in two separate leagues during his tenure (for one year, simultaneously) – the outdoor North American Soccer League and the indoor MISL. In our longest and more anecdote-filled episode to date, Verb vividly recounts the highs and lows of launching new teams, leagues and even sports themselves from whole cloth – with nary an operational blueprint or career roadmap to be found. Buckle up for a wild ride through the woeful 1976 NASL Philadelphia Atoms, the “Rocket Red” pinball-like MISL, soccer for all seasons in the Windy City, and birthing indoor football. PLUS: Kiddie City to the rescue; Earl Foreman's “Brother-in-Law Effect;” getting paid in soybeans; and the curious one-game history of the Liberty Basketball Association! + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable "Good Seats" Merch: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY SPONSOR THANKS: Royal Retros (promo code: SEATS): https://www.503-sports.com?aff=2 Old School Shirts.com (promo code: GOODSEATS) https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailable Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
[A dip into the archives for a one of our first-ever episodes from 2017 - by request!] Author Matt Algeo (Last Team Standing: How the Steelers and the Eagles – "The Steagles" – Saved Pro Football During World War II) joins Tim Hanlon all the way from Maputo, Mozambique to discuss the marriage of convenience that literally saved the National Football League from collapse in 1943. Algeo describes how a desperate Art Rooney scrambled to save his Pittsburgh Steelers franchise, depleted by wartime military call-ups; how a hastily assembled squad of ragtag draft rejects practiced football at night while maintaining defense jobs by day (including one player who worked on the eventual war-ending Manhattan Project); why the "Phil-Pitt Combine" wore Eagles colors and played more home games in Philadelphia than in Pittsburgh; and, in a PODCAST EXCLUSIVE, why the story of the Steagles just might soon be coming to a theater near you.
[A dip into the archives for a fan favorite from 2019 - featuring a show-closing ode to the late, great 70s' TV game show "Celebrity Bowling"!] + + + We hit the lanes this week to delve into the fascinating story of the nation's first and only attempt at a professional team bowling league – a seemingly anachronistic idea by today's standards, but a concept that made total sense in the early 1960s when pro bowling was in ascendance and the sport was seemingly everywhere on television. Bowlers Journal columnist and historian J.R. “Dr. Jake” Schmidt (The Bowling Chronicles: Collected Writings of Dr. Jake) joins the podcast to lay out the curious backstory, short-lived season(s) and unwitting legacy of the National Bowling League (1960-62) – an ambitious, but altogether logical attempt to professionalize bowling in the style of America's other major team sports, and capitalize on the big money purses beginning to fuel national TV competitions during the late 1950s. Amidst a bevy of popular made-for-TV competitions that featured various takes on head-to-head play – like NBC's weekly Championship Bowling, and primetime's Make That Spare (ABC) and Jackpot Bowling (NBC) – the coast-to-coast NBL hoped to offer bowling professionals a city-based team format, replete with purposely-designed television-friendly arenas and boisterous fans. Despite investment from deep-pocketed funders like AFL founder Lamar Hunt and oilman/Cotton Bowl creator J. Curtis Sanford (whose Dallas-based 72-lane Bronco Bowl set the standard for NBL facilities); a well-publicized draft (with then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson in attendance); and a novel scoring system that featured situational bonus points and wild-card substitutions, the NBL stumbled out of the gate devoid of the very thing it needed most to succeed – a national television contract. Outfoxed by the nascent Pro Bowlers Association – which was simultaneously pioneering a laddered individual vs. individual national tour format with a similarly fledgling ABC-TV – the NBL had to rely solely on individual gates while trying to convince other networks to take notice. Early crowds were sparse to virtually non-existent, and most pros found the money, light workload and broad television exposure of the PBA's “Pro Bowlers' Tour” to be the better path to ply their wares. It's a tale of what might have been – and we “spare” no question in our pursuit of the story of this most intriguing of forgotten pro leagues! + + + SPONSOR THANKS: Royal Retros (promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?aff=2 BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: The Bowling Chronicles: Collected Writings of Dr. Jake (2017): https://amzn.to/3Ogt6Kj FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram (+ Threads): https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
[By popular demand, an archive re-release of Episode 321 guest and "The Big Time: How the 1970s Transformed Sports in America" author Michael MacCambridge - from his first appearance on the show from March 2017!] Sports author/historian Michael MacCambridge ("Lamar Hunt: A Life in Sports") joins Tim Hanlon to discuss the legacy of Lamar Hunt – the most unlikely of sports executive pioneers – and the outsized role he played in modernizing 1960s pro football into the enduring American sports juggernaut it is today. MacCambridge recounts how a strong rebuff from the stodgy 1950s NFL establishment galvanized Hunt's determination to disrupt the football status quo, how the AFL's “Foolish Club” of owners persevered through staggering financial losses, how Kansas City mayor Harold Roe “Chief” Bartle wooed Hunt and his flailing Dallas Texans franchise to the City of Fountains, and the karmic irony of the AFL Chiefs' victory over Max Winter's NFL Minnesota Vikings in the final AFL-NFL Super Bowl (IV) in 1970. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: Royal Retros (promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?aff=2 BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: Lamar Hunt: A Life in Sports (2012): https://amzn.to/3T0FL7G FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram (+ Threads): https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
[A scheduling snafu this week gives us a perfect excuse to re-release this hidden gem from November 2019 - enjoy!] You can be forgiven if you never heard of the International Volleyball Association – the mid-1970s co-ed pro circuit that aimed to draft off the rising popularity of Olympic and beach volleyball during America's wildest sports decade – but the high-wattage media and entertainment moguls behind its creation at the time certainly cannot. The IVA was the brainchild of prolific Hollywood television and film producer David Wolper ("Roots," "The Thorn Birds" and "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" to name a mere few) – who became smitten with the sport while filming documentary footage of the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Wolper quickly recruited a who's who of well-connected LA-based investors – including ABC-TV (later Paramount and Fox) chief Barry Diller, as well as Motown music studio founder/movie producer aspirant Berry Gordy – and by 1975, a five-team California and Southwest-centric league bowed before modest, but enthusiastic crowds. Ironically, with nary a television contract in sight (despite players Mary Jo Peppler and Linda Fernandez appearing on ABC's "Superstars" competition, and coverage of 1977's IVA All-Star Game on CBS' "Sports Spectacular"), most of the big-name investors had pulled out by 1976. Volleyball magazine publisher Jim Bartlett stepped in to quietly stabilize the league, with legendary basketball big man and beach enthusiast Wilt Chamberlain joining for various roles as player, coach, commissioner, and publicity magnet. But neither could ultimately overcome the PR disaster of a 1979 mid-match police bust of Denver Comets owner-brothers Robert and David Casey (for drug trafficking), nor the promotion-deflating boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics where the US women's team was expected to medal. IVA standout and beach volleyball legend Jay Hanseth joins the podcast to help “dig” into one of pro sports' most enigmatic and endlessly fascinating leagues. FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram (+ Threads): https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
[We round out our last week of summer vacation with a re-release of this listener-favorite episode from June 2019 - enjoy!] Author and former SPORT magazine writer David Levine (Life on the Rim: A Year in the Continental Basketball Association) joins the ‘cast to give us our first taste of the quirky minor league basketball circuit that began as a Pennsylvania-based regional outfit in 1946 (predating the NBA's formation by two months), and meandered through a myriad of death-defying iterations until whimpering into oblivion in 2009. Often billed throughout its curious history as the "World's Oldest Professional Basketball League," the colorful Continental Basketball Association rocketed into the national sports consciousness during the 1980s – when expansion into non-traditional locales (e.g., Anchorage, AK; Casper, WY; Great Falls, MT; Atlantic City, NJ); innovative rule changes (e.g., sudden-death overtime, no foul-outs, a seven-point game scoring system); and headline-grabbing fan promotions (e.g., “1 Million Dollar Supershot," "Ton-of-Money Free Throw," "CBA Sportscaster Contest") – garnered its first national TV coverage, and even grudging respect from the staid, top-tier NBA. Levine recounts his time chronicling the 1988-89 season of the CBA's Albany (NY) Patroons, and the real-world stories of the realities of playing, coaching (including a young and hungry George Karl), traveling, and endlessly hoping in a league that sometimes rewarded its members with opportunities at the next level of pro basketball – but more often, did not. + + + BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: "Life On the Rim: A Year in the Continental Basketball Association" (1990) FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram (+ Threads): https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
[A summer vacation re-release of a fan favorite episode from March 2019!] We celebrate our second anniversary with the intriguing background story of the original Major Indoor Soccer League, with the man who started it all – Ed Tepper. A commercial real estate developer by trade, Tepper actually got his start in pro sports ownership as the owner of the original National Lacrosse League's Philadelphia Wings – only to switch allegiances to an inchoate indoor offshoot of the world's most popular sport after a chance exhibition (between the 1973 NASL champion Atoms and the Russian CSKA “Red Army” team) at Philadelphia's Spectrum on February 11, 1974. Originally interested in the game's bespoke Astroturf-covered surface as a potential improvement for his fledgling box lacrosse club, Tepper (along with 11,700+ enthusiastic curiosity-seekers) instead became instantly attracted to the fast-paced action and high scoring of “indoor soccer” – and quickly resolved to make a professional sport out of it. In this illuminating interview, Tepper recounts some of the notable events and influential people along the journey from concept to the MISL's official debut kick (by Cincinnati Kids part-owner Pete Rose, no less) on December 22, 1978 at Uniondale, Long Island's Nassau Coliseum – including: Convincing ABA Virginia Squires owner (and eventual MISL commissioner) Earl Foreman of the game's potential; The instant credibility boost of signing American superstar goalkeeper Shep Messing; NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam's on-again, off-again interest in the indoor game; How (and why) NFL owners Carroll Rosenbloom and Al Davis wanted in; AND The unsung role of TV executive Bob Wussler in garnering attention for the fledgling circuit. PLUS: The untold tale of Tepper's very own (barely one-season long) MISL franchise – the New Jersey Rockets!
[A summer vacation re-release of a fan favorite episode from January 2020!] The Buffalo Braves were one of three NBA expansion franchises (along with the Portland Trail Blazers and Cleveland Cavaliers) that began play in the 1970–71 season. Originally owned by a wobbly investment firm with few ties to Buffalo, the Braves eventually found a local backer in Freezer Queen founder Paul Snyder – who, by the end of the first season, had inherited a team that was neither good (penultimate league records of 22-60 in each of its first two seasons), nor easy to schedule (third-choice dates for Buffalo's venerable Memorial Auditorium behind the also-new NHL hockey Buffalo Sabres, and Canisius Golden Griffins college basketball). Snyder addressed the Braves' on-court issues by luring head coach Dr. Jack Ramsey from the Philadelphia 76ers, while drafting key players like high-scoring (and later Naismith Basketball Hall-of-Famer) Bob McAdoo, eventual NBA Rookie of the Year Ernie DiGregorio, and local (via Buffalo State) crowd favorite Randy Smith – yielding three consecutive playoff appearances from 1973-74 to 1975-76. Off the court, Snyder looked to regionalize the team's appeal beyond “The Aud” by scheduling select home games in places like Rochester, Syracuse and even Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens – and team attendance, TV ratings and revenues achieved league-average levels. By the summer of 1976, however, Snyder was facing severe pressure to sell the team and get it out of “The City of Good Neighbors.” Of particular consternation was Canisius president Fr. James Demske, who publicly thwarted the Braves' attempts at decent home dates – which angered the NBA enough to force the issue with Snyder. Snyder, who said he was losing money anyway, threatened to move the Braves to suburban Miami's Hollywood Sportatorium, a deal that collapsed after the city of Buffalo sued and secured a new 15-year Aud lease – with a provision it could be broken if the team didn't sell 5,000 season tickets in any future season. Author and Western New York native Tim Wendel (Buffalo, Home of the Braves) joins the pod to discuss the convoluted story of what happened next, including: Snyder's ownership sales to former ABA owner (and eventual Kentucky governor) John Y. Brown and businessman Harry Mangurian; The subsequent dismantling of the team and overt attempts to drive down attendance to break the Aud lease; The two-season coaching and player carousel that followed – including the curious six-minute career of Moses Malone; AND How the Braves' eventual move in 1978 to become the San Diego Clippers wouldn't have happened without the Boston Celtics. + + + BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: "Buffalo, Home of the Braves" (2009) FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram (+ Threads): https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
[A summer vacation re-release of a fan favorite episode from January 2020!] It's a return to the gridiron, and a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the brash, but ultimately ill-fated United Football League of 2009-12 – with its only commissioner, Michael Huyghue (Behind the Line of Scrimmage: Inside the Front Office of the NFL). Formed in 2007 out of big-budget dreams to establish a national top-tier, Fall-season minor league pro football circuit by high-wattage investors like San Francisco investment banker Bill Hambrecht, Google executive Tim Armstrong and Dallas Mavericks owner/firebrand Mark Cuban (who later backed out, along with initially-rumored financier T. Boone Pickens) – the UFL was also conveniently timed to capitalize on fallout from any potential labor/owner strife prior to the 2011-12 NFL season, when the league's collective bargaining agreement with its players expired. The bet backfired when a correctly-anticipated owner lockout of players quickly ended in July of 2011, ensuring no regular season disruption or drama. Over the course of its history, five teams played in the league: the Las Vegas Locomotives, Hartford Colonials (originally the New York Sentinels), Omaha Nighthawks, Sacramento Mountain Lions (née California Redwoods), and Virginia Destroyers (successors to the Florida Tuskers). The Locomotives were historically the best of the franchises, winning two of the UFL's three championship games, and possessing an undefeated regular season record when the league suspended operations (ultimately for good) in mid-Fall 2012. Big-name NFL coaches like Jim Haslett, Jay Gruden, Dennis Green, Marty Schottenheimer, and Jim Fassel were featured attractions, as were recognizable pro talent like Simeon Rice, Josh McCown, Daunte Culpepper, and Jeff Garcia – to name just a few. Huyghue walks host Tim Hanlon through the numerous ups, frequent downs and multiple sideways' of the UFL's brief lifespan, including: how early-career front office experiences in the NFL (Lions, Jaguars), WLAF (Birmingham Fire), and NFL Players' Association uniquely prepared him to the UFL commissioner's role; league ownership's original intention to play as a Spring league; the allure of then-untapped pro markets like Omaha, Las Vegas Sacramento; and lessons learned that could have helped last year's AAF and this year's soon-to-launch XFL. + + + Support the show with Dollar Shave Club's “Ultimate Shave Starter Set” for just $5! + + + BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: "Behind the Line of Scrimmage: Inside the Front Office of the NFL" (2018) FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill Instagram (+ Threads): https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
Earth Tones Lee BrackerOchelli Archive Re 2-28-2023 Original Air 5-30-2015 Lee BrackerIn a special Pre-Release for the upcoming series of Ochelli Network Archive, we present a 2015 audio of a broadcast originally carried on UCY.tv Radio.Lee Bracker died suddenly the following year at the age of 53. He was a unique explorer and hinted at some of what was yet to come.Lee Bracker (R.I.P.)Bloghttps://fourthdimensionalrecovery.wordpress.com/Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXB5ovlH9qep8NAYxplC-KARemastered by Natureboy & Chuck with some editing from both. Origin = UCY.tv Chuck Ochelli, The Ochelli Effect Ochelli Link Treehttps://linktr.ee/chuckochelliOchelli Effect – Uncle – Age of Transitions – T-shirts and MORE: https://theageoftransitions.com/category/support-the-podcasts/Do you have a project, business, or message To PromoteBe Heard on The Ochelli Effect - The Jack Blood Show 360 - The Age of Transitions - Get M A D with Chris Graves - Uncle The Podcast or The whole Network. Rates Start at $50.Get In TouchE-mail ads@ochelli.com LIVE LISTENING OPTIONS:APPLE MUSIC RADIOhttps://music.apple.com/us/station/ochelli-com/ra.1461174708OCHELLI.COMhttps://ochelli.com/listen-live/TuneInhttp://tun.in/sfxkx+ Many More
[After an entertaining "inaugural" weekend of the XFL's third incarnation, we dig into the archives for this 2019 conversation with author Brett Forrest - and a rewind to the league's original season back in 2001!] As another NFL season closes, we shift gears toward the forthcoming Alliance of American Football – the first of two new leagues attempting to again extend the pro game into viable Spring season play – where the USFL, World League of American Football and NFL Europe have famously tried before. The other – both in 2001 and in a reincarnated form coming next year – was and is the XFL, which we finally sink our teeth into for the first time this week with Wall Street Journal national security reporter Brett Forrest (Long Bomb: How the XFL Became TV's Biggest Fiasco). We drop this episode on the 18th anniversary of when the audacious joint venture between the Vince McMahon-helmed World Wresting Federation (now WWE) and the Dick Ebersol-captained NBC Sports opened play at a raucous Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas to see the hometown Outlaws battle the already-villainous New York/New Jersey Hitmen in front of a national primetime television audience. Nearly two decades later, most who witnessed it (not to mention the tumultuous season that followed) still don't know what to make of it. Forrest digs into: the process of tackling his then-first-ever book assignment with Long Bomb (including the pre-season magazine article from which it came); some of the curious characters (the seemingly-legitimizing presence of Dick Butkus, the unwitting marketing genius of Rod “He Hate Me” Smart, the hungry group of eager players simply wanting one last shot at playing pro football) he encountered along the way; and the less-than-enthusiastic response of McMahon to the idea of a book about the league in the first place. Be sure to check out the great XFL shirts and replica jerseys from our friends at 503 Sports!
[It's a quick trip to the Bay Area this week for an archive fan favorite from 2017, featuring a true American sports original!] America's most famous professional sports cheerleader “Krazy” George Henderson (Still Krazy After All These Cheers) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss some of the wackiest adventures from his 40+ years of live performances – and how a self-described shy, mediocre schoolteacher ultimately followed his passion to a unique and storied career converting passive game-day attendees into cheering fanatics. Henderson (along with his signature drum!) recounts how a school field trip to an Oakland Seals NHL hockey game led to his first sustaining professional gig; describes how he and the NASL's San Jose Earthquakes changed the face of professional soccer in the mid-1970s; recalls how his success with the NFL's Houston Oilers almost led to banishment from performing at pro football games; and breaks down the chronology of the formative elements of his most famous in-stadium creation – The Wave.
[We celebrate the amazing life of the legendary Pelé with a reissue of our 2018 conversation with the man chiefly responsible for coaxing the "Black Pearl" out of retirement in 1975 to join the NASL's then-fledgling New York Cosmos - Clive Toye!] + + + Soccer America columnist (and Episode #6 interviewee) Paul Gardner summed up this week's Hall of Fame guest in his May 2015 commentary: “The debt owed by American soccer to Clive Toye is a vast one. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say, flatly, that without Toye's blind faith in the sport in the 1970s, pro soccer in the USA would have withered and died. Yes, Phil Woosnam and Lamar Hunt and Bob Hermann were there too. But in those unpromising years it was Toye's voice -- it came in a steady flow of ridiculously optimistic press releases and grandiose plans for a future that few others even dared to ponder -- that called loudest. “The New York Cosmos general manager credited with turning that league's fortunes around when he signed Pele to a contract in 1975. Toye, who was born in England and came to the United States in 1967 at the age of 33, was president of three North American Soccer League teams – the Cosmos, Chicago Sting and Toronto Blizzard – and general manager of the [original National Professional Soccer League and subsequent NASL] Baltimore Bays. [He] was an official of the NASL in helping it through its crisis year of 1969 and in its final months in 1985 – and helped to found the third American Soccer League in 1988. “There has always been the spirit of a showman in Toye, and surely it was that spirit that enabled Toye to overlook the virtual collapse of the old North American Soccer League and to see instead a glittering future for the sport in the USA, even to declare to anyone who was listening -- and not many were in those days -- the preposterous notion that the USA should begin preparing to stage the World Cup. “And when the NASL, by the skin of its teeth and by the mad devotion of Toye et al., did survive, it was Toye who gave the reborn league its glittering image with his invention of the Cosmos, with his canny maneuvering and dealing, who brought Pele and Beckenbauer to New York. Showmanship indeed.” Toye (A Kick in the Grass: The Slow Rise and Quick Demise of the NASL; Anywhere in the World) joins host Tim Hanlon for a lyrical and anecdote-filled journey through the pro league that he helped create, later put to rest, and which ultimately shored up the long-term foundation of the “beautiful game” in America.
[We kick off our holiday break this week with a deep descent into the "Good Seats" archives - and an eyebrow-raising revisit of the enigmatic Continental Indoor Soccer League of the 1990s with former play-by-play broadcaster Kenn Tomasch!] Former sportscaster and fellow defunct pro sports enthusiast Kenn Tomasch joins host Tim Hanlon to dig deep into the two-season saga of the Indiana (née Indianapolis) Twisters of the Continental Indoor Soccer League – the mid-90s summertime indoor soccer circuit hatched by a collective of team and arena owners from the NBA and NHL to keep their facilities humming during their respective “off”-seasons. CISL franchises controlled by entities outside the big-league fraternity were also part of the mix (accounting for half of the eventual 18 teams during the league's five-year run from 1993-97) – including the tumultuously tenuous Twisters, who cycled through two separate ownership groups as well as a temporary spell of league receivership during its brief 21-month existence. As the radio “Voice of the Twisters,” Tomasch was there for all of it, including: A rousing home debut on June 21, 1996 at Indianapolis' Market Square Arena that saw the club drop an entertaining 7-6 overtime decision to the Washington Warthogs; Dwindling announced home-game crowds of barely 2,000+ just months later; Co-owner Rodney Goins ceding his role as president mid-season to become an active player on the Twisters roster – debuting as US pro sports' first-ever player-owner on August 23, 1996; Becoming “wards of the league” two weeks later when Goins and his co-owner brother suspend operations – and team radio broadcasts; New ownership, team name, logo, colors – and a surprising second-place regular season finish in 1997; Losing home-field playoff advantage due to a scheduling conflict, and ultimately an early exit from a potential title run; AND The abrupt folding of the venerable San Diego Sockers just days before the 1997 season that foreshadowed the CISL's demise later in the year.
[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 over 30 years – including calling this year's 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia – his ninth consecutive men's quadrennial assignment since Mexico '86. Widely acknowledged as the original voice of US Soccer, Dellacamera's calls have become synonymous with some of modern-day American soccer's most indelible moments – including his accounts of the US Women's National Team's dramatic penalty kick shootout victory over China in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, and Paul Caligiuri's historic “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” against Trinidad & Tobago in the final game of 1989 CONCACAF qualifying that punched the US Men's National Team's ticket for Italy '90 – ending a 40-year World Cup finals drought, and reorienting the sport's trajectory in the ‘States for decades to come. The road to broadcasting global soccer's marquee events has by no means been a straight and narrow one, however, and we (of course) chat with Dellacamera about some of the more memorable “forgotten” stops made along the way, including: Talking his way into his professional debut calling local TV games for the 1978 NASL expansion Detroit Express; Handling radio play-by-play for the American Soccer League's ALPO dog food-sponsored Pennsylvania Stoners; Parlaying years of minor league hockey broadcast experience into lead announcing duties for indoor soccer's Pittsburgh Spirit of the fledgling MISL; Cementing his stature as the voice of US women's soccer as the play-by-play lead for the 2001 launch of the WUSA; and Returning to his first love of pro hockey – finally at the NHL level – with the short-lived Atlanta Thrashers.
[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!), the incomparable Boone has just about done it all in the fields of music, film, television, and stage, as well as the pursuit of a wide variety of business interests – including being the majority owner of the American Basketball Association's charter Bay Area franchise, the Oakland Oaks. Denied the ability to play its NBA All-Star marquee signing (and cross-town San Francisco Warriors star) Rick Barry for the inaugural 1967-68 ABA season, Boone's Oaks endured a league-worst 22-56 record, amid dismally low crowds at the brand-new Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena. Barry's official arrival the next season (despite a knee injury that curtailed his play after only 35 games), paired with the hiring of two-time NBA champion head coach Alex Hannum, and an influx of future perennial All-Star talent like Doug Moe and Larry Brown, instantly rejuvenated the club's competitive profile, as the Oaks zoomed to a league-leading 60-18 “worst-to-first” regular season record and a dominating run in the playoffs to capture the 1968-89 league championship. Despite the reversal of fortune on the hardwood, Boone lost a fortune at the box office (in excess of $2 million in just two seasons), as neither Barry nor a title provided any significant lift in ticket sales – or visible hope of near-term future improvement in the competitive Bay Area market. Former Baltimore Bullets NBA owner (and later Major Indoor Soccer League co-founder) Earl Foreman purchased the franchise (and its debts) from Boone for $2.6 million in August of 1969 and moved them to the Nation's Capital, where they became the one-year Washington Caps, replete with a reluctant Barry in tow. In this revealing conversation, Boone recounts: the events that led him to become a pro basketball owner; the tortuous journey of landing Rick Barry; the thrill of winning an ABA championship; the unwitting blank check that kept the Oaks financially afloat, but nearly sank Boone personally and professionally; and why, despite his continued passion for the sport, he never pursued another professional basketball ownership opportunity in the decidedly more stable NBA in later years. Plus: a ring more expensive Elizabeth Taylor's; dunking over Bill Russell; comparing pro titles with Mark Cuban; and our quest for footage of the 1978 CBS/NBA Three-on-Three Tournament!
[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 approaching 25th anniversary of the CFL's bold, but ultimately ill-fated attempt to bring its exciting brand of pigskin south of the border in 1993. When the NFL put the brakes on its two-year World League of American Football experiment in the summer of 1992 (which included a franchise in Montreal, dubbed the “Machine”), an economically wobbly CFL sensed an opportunity to fill the gap in US markets newly comfortable with the notion of pro football, as well as a potential growth path for the tradition-rich Canadian game to expand outside the Provinces. In fact, two WLAF owners, Fred Anderson (Sacramento Surge) and Larry Benson (San Antonio Riders) "crossed over" to the Canadian League and were awarded newly rechristened franchises for 1993 – Anderson's Sacramento Gold Miners and Benson's San Antonio Texans. While the Gold Miners were the only ones to make it into the following season's expanded CFL schedule (Benson literally – and ominously – left the league at the altar by bowing out the day of the league's press conference announcing the expansion), the door was open to a wild three-season adventure that brought the wide-open Canadian game to far-flung American outposts in Baltimore, Las Vegas, Shreveport, Memphis, Birmingham, and, ironically (via eventual relocation from Sacramento), San Antonio. Longtime Vancouver Province sportswriter Ed Willes (End Zones and Border Wars: The Era of American Expansion in the CFL) joins the podcast to discuss the league's short-lived American expansion effort, which then-commissioner Larry Smith had hoped to eventually encompass ten US teams in a fully expanded 20-team league. Among the misadventures, Willes recounts: the 1995 champion Baltimore Stallions (who operated as the nickname-less “CFLers” the previous season in a trademark dispute with the NFL over the “Colts” moniker); the woefully attended Las Vegas Posse (who practiced on the Strip in the Riviera Hotel's parking lot and were forced to play their last “home” game in Edmonton); the Memphis Mad Dogs' unique approach to fitting the longer/wider CFL field into the Liberty Bowl; why football-mad Birmingham couldn't draw flies for Barracuda games once college and high school seasons started; and the “Great Tucker Caper” – featuring the infamous brothers Glieberman and their attempt to steal away the Shreveport Pirates to the greener pastures of Norfolk, VA.
[A June 2017 archive re-release favorite with one of the true insiders behind the initial success of the legendary original 1970s/80s Major Indoor Soccer League!] This week, Tim Hanlon buckles up for a wild ride through the tumultuous early years of the original Major Indoor Soccer League with sports PR veteran Michael Menchel, in our longest and most anecdote-filled episode yet! Menchel takes us on a head-spinning audio journey across some of the most memorable (and forgettable) franchises in professional indoor soccer history – including stops in Long Island, NY (the Arrows trade for Pete Rose!); New Jersey (scoring champ Fred Grgurev's unique approach to car maintenance!); Houston (the “Summit Soccer” borrows its name from the arena it plays in and its players from the NASL's Hurricane!); Baltimore (the marketing genius of Tim Leiweke!); and Hartford (what the hell is a “Hellion”?). Plus, Menchel: hits the road with Frank Deford; spends a year outdoors among the Caribou(s?) of Colorado; has a bad day in Rochester, NY; and “settles down” in St. Louis wondering when and where the NFL football Cardinals will move next.
[A September 2017 archive re-release favorite with the production wizard behind behind early network TV coverage of the World Football League & North American Soccer League of the 1970s!] On January 20, 1968, a frenzied crowd of 52,693 packed the Houston Astrodome to witness the #2-ranked University of Houston Cougars nip the #1 (and previously undefeated) UCLA Bruins in a college basketball spectacle that legendarily became the sport's “Game of the Century.” In addition to the record-sized gate, it was the first-ever college game to be televised nationally in prime time – and it was sports entrepreneur Eddie Einhorn's scrappy little independent network of affiliated stations called the TVS Television Network that brought it to millions of TV viewers. Calling all the shots from the production truck was veteran TV sports director Howard Zuckerman – who quickly became the backbone for the fledgling ad hoc network's subsequent coverage of not only college hoops, but also two of the most colorful pro sports leagues of the 1970s – the World Football League and the North American Soccer League. Zuckerman joins host Tim Hanlon to recount some of his most memorable (and forgettable) moments in TVS history, including: Surviving a power outage in the middle of the WFL's first-ever national telecast from Jacksonville; Managing a motley crew of rotating guest commentators for WFL broadcasts, including the likes of George Plimpton, Burt Reynolds and McLean Stevenson; Hastily reorienting weekly WFL production travel plans as teams suddenly relocated or folded; Faking on-field injuries during NASL telecasts to allow for ad hoc commercial breaks; The origins of the specially-composed TVS theme song and its orchestral big band sound; and Post-TVS work, including the Canadian Football League's Las Vegas Posse, and the worldwide music landmark event Live Aid.
[We dig out from last week's major winter storm with a fan-favorite Archive Re-Release from 2018!] By the summer of 1959, the absence of two former National League franchises from what was once a vibrant New York City major league baseball scene was obvious – and even the remaining/dominant Yankees couldn't fully make up for it. Nor could that season's World Series championship run of the now-Los Angeles Dodgers – a bittersweet victory for jilted fans of the team's Brooklyn era. Fiercely determined to return a National League team to the city, mayor Robert Wagner enlisted the help of a Brooklyn-based attorney named William Shea to spearhead an effort to first convince a current franchise to relocate – as the American League's Braves (Boston to Milwaukee, 1953), Browns (St. Louis to Baltimore, 1954), and A's (Philadelphia to Kansas City, 1955) had recently done. When neither Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or even MLB Commissioner Ford Frick, could be convinced by the opportunity, Shea and team moved on to an even bolder plan – an entirely new third major league, with a New York franchise as its crown jewel. Financial backers from not only New York, but also eager expansionists in Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, Toronto, Atlanta, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Buffalo joined in the effort – christened the “Continental League” – and recruited longtime pioneering baseball executive Branch Rickey to do the collective's bidding. In preparation for an inaugural 1961 start, Rickey immediately preached the virtues of parity, and outlined a business plan that included TV revenue-sharing, equally accessible player pools, and solid pension plans; properly executed, it would take less than four years for the new league to be a credible equal of the National and American Leagues. His plan: poach a few established big-league stars, and supplement rosters with young talent from a dedicated farm system that would quickly ripen into a formidable stream of high-caliber players and, in turn, a quickly competitive “major” third league. That, plus an aggressive legal attack on MLB's long-established federal antitrust exemption – designed to force greater player mobility and expanded geographic opportunities. Suddenly pressured, MLB owners surprisingly responded in the summer of 1960 with a hastily crafted plan for expansion, beginning in 1962 with new NL teams in New York (Mets) and Houston (Colt .45s) – undercutting the upstart league's ownership groups in those cities, and promising additional franchises in the years following. Within weeks, the Continental League was no more, and the accelerated expansionary future of the modern game was firmly in motion. Original Continental League minor leaguer Russ Buhite (The Continental League: A Personal History) joins host Tim Hanlon to share his first-person account (as a member of the proposed Denver franchise's Western Carolina League Rutherford County Owls in 1960) of both the build-up to and letdown of the “league that never was” – as well as the broader history of the unwittingly influential circuit that changed the economic landscape of modern-day Major League Baseball.
[More holiday fun with a re-release of a fan favorite episode from January 2018!] We conclude our two-part journey into the early history of the Arena Football League with founder and inventor Jim Foster, who recounts some of the most notable events of the league's formative years – including a memorable 1987 “demonstration season” featuring: The February debut “Showcase Game” in suburban Chicago's Rosemont Horizon between the hometown Bruisers and the Miami Vise – highlights of which later dominated ESPN's SportsCenter; A return to the Horizon for the first-ever nationally televised league match four months later (after a non-televised inaugural game the night before in Pittsburgh) – an overtime thriller that left fans, ESPN broadcasters, and league officials scrambling for the newly-written rule book; The league's first “Arena Bowl” championship game (won by the visiting Denver Dynamite) in front of a sold-out Pittsburgh Civic Center and a live national TV audience; AND US patent filings (officially granted in the spring of 1990) protecting the original rules, play and configuration of arena football – and precluding potential competition (like 1989's almost-World Indoor Football League) from stealing the concept. Plus: the early dynasty of the Mike Illitch's Detroit Drive; the holier-than-thou genius of coaching legend Tim Marcum; Des Moines gets a team; what happens when a ball gets stuck in the goalpost during the run of play; and can today's Arena Football League be saved?
[We celebrate the holidays with a re-release of a fan favorite episode from January 2018!] As the new year beckons, the fate of the Arena Football League – one of America's most innovative modern-day professional sports concepts – hangs in the balance. With only four teams (the mutually-owned Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade, defending champion Philadelphia Soul, and a still-unnamed Albany, NY squad) confirmed for the upcoming 2018 season, the AFL will play with exactly the same number of franchises that comprised its inaugural “demonstration” season back in 1987 – and a mere fraction of the 19 clubs that competed during its heyday in the early-to-mid 2000s. Much has happened to the league and the sport during those 30+ years, of course – and few doubt that the unique (and once-patented) excitement of arena football won't eventually find a sustainable business model and a return to long-term stability. In the interim, however, we delve into how it all began, with the first of our two-part interview with Iowa native Jim Foster – the inventor of arena football and the founder of the original Arena Football League – who takes host Tim Hanlon on rollicking excursion across the uncharted sports terrain of the 1970s and 80s that led to both the birth of a sport and the launch of a professional league, including: Exporting professional American football to Europe decades before the NFL; Discovering fans' year-long appetite for pro football via the USFL; Scribbling parameters for “indoor football” on a manila envelope while attending the 1981 MISL All-Star Game; Tinkering on a shoestring with facilities, equipment, rules, and approaches to TV broadcast coverage; Tapping into the nostalgia and cost economics of two-way players, as well as the fan appeal of “run-and-shoot” offensive action; AND Defending the notion of centrally-controlled league ownership from franchise-hungry charter owners.
[A re-release of a fan favorite episode from July 2017!] National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee and three-time ABC-TV “Superstars” champion Kyle Rote, Jr. joins Tim Hanlon from his home in Memphis for an in-depth and wide-ranging conversation about his trailblazing journey as America's first true native-born professional soccer star. Along the way, Rote, Jr. reveals: How a fortuitous heart-to-heart with his famous football star-father helped convince him to choose soccer over football for his pro career; How a standout Rookie of the Year season with the 1973 Dallas Tornado helped thrust him into the North American Soccer League's national marketing spotlight; The remarkable impact of winning a made-for-TV athletic competition against the biggest stars of the “traditional” sports world; The unique relationship he developed with the New York Cosmos' international legend Pelé, and the public relations narrative the NASL built around them; How lucrative marketing endorsements made up for embarrassingly low-paying player contracts; The serendipitous story of how he helped rescue an MISL team from the “hell” of Hartford; AND The unmistakable higher power that continually guided him through the ups and downs of professional athletics – both on the field and off.
We mourn last week's passing of legendary sports entrepreneur and challenger-league impresario Dennis Murphy with a special archive re-release of our two previous interviews from September 8, 2019 (Episode 129) and August 30, 2020 (Episode 179). The brainchild behind some of modern-day sports' most audacious, convention-challenging "alternative" leagues - the American Basketball Association (1967-76), World Hockey Association (1971-79), World Team Tennis (1974-78), and Roller Hockey International (1992-2001), among others - "Murph" was a one-of-a-kind hustler/pioneer who leaves a lasting mark on today's pro sports landscape. Obits: "Dennis Murphy, Co-Founder of Pro Sports Leagues, Dies at 94" (Beth Harris, Associated Press) "Dennis Murphy, Impresario of Alternative Leagues, Dies at 94" (Richard Sandomir, New York Times) "As a Promoter, Dennis Murphy Was in Several Leagues of His Own" (Mark Whicker, Los Angeles Daily News) Biography: Murph: The Sports Entrepreneur Man and His Leagues (Richard Neil Graham)
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