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414: The Professional Women's Hockey League - With Karissa Donkin

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Release Date: 09/29/2025

431: 431: "Return of the King" - With Tom Aiello

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Valdosta State University history professor (and Episodes  and guest) Tom Aiello is back — this time for an intriguing look at one of the most politically and culturally charged nights in American sports history: Muhammad Ali’s comeback fight against Jerry Quarry on October 26, 1970, in Atlanta. After nearly three and a half years in professional exile, Ali returned to the ring having lost far more than his world heavyweight title. His refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War had stripped him of his license to box, cost him his prime athletic years, and turned...

info_outline 430: 430: "Everybody Loses" - With Danny Funt

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This week, we pull back the curtain on one of the most seismic shifts in American sports and culture: the explosive rise of legalized sports gambling. Once condemned as a corrosive menace to the integrity of competition, betting on games is now a pervasive part of how fans watch, interact with, and spend on sports. But at what cost?  Our guest, journalist Danny Funt, has spent years investigating the forces behind America’s betting boom. His new book, "," lays bare how fantasy sports startups, professional leagues, and tech platforms helped normalize wagering — transforming...

info_outline 429: The Negro Leagues' Memphis Red Sox - With Keith Wood show art 429: The Negro Leagues' Memphis Red Sox - With Keith Wood

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Author and baseball historian Keith Wood () joins the show to explore the rich yet often overlooked story of the Memphis Red Sox, one of Black baseball’s most resilient and community‑rooted franchises. From their semi-pro origins in the early 1920s to their run through the Negro Southern, National &  American Leagues, the Red Sox embodied sustained Black ownership and stability in a turbulent era for segregated sports.​ Wood details how the Martin family, a group of influential African American professionals, uniquely controlled both the club and its home...

info_outline 428: 428: "Stadium City" - With Helen Morgan Parmett

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Sports stadiums are often framed as engines of civic pride, economic development, and shared spectacle. But what if they are something more consequential — and more complicated — than that? In this episode, we’re joined by University of Vermont professor Helen Morgan Parmett, author of , for a wide-ranging conversation that rethinks stadiums not merely as venues for games, but as powerful urban media infrastructures shaping how cities function, govern, and imagine themselves. Drawing on case studies from Atlanta, Seattle, and Minneapolis, Parmett explores how modern stadiums operate as...

info_outline 427: 427: "Baseball in the Roaring Twenties" - With Thomas Wolf

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Baseball's 1926 World Series was more than just a championship showdown — it was emblematic of America in a decade defined by financial excess, social rebellion, and societal reinvention. We explore that dramatic showdown through "," a riveting new book by historian and author Thomas Wolf. Wolf takes us beyond the box scores of this unforgettable seven-game clash between Babe Ruth’s New York Yankees and Rogers Hornsby’s St. Louis Cardinals. He traces Ruth’s improbable resurgence from a disastrous 1925 season — a comeback that reignited the public imagination—and...

info_outline 426.5: The NASL Players’ Strike of 1979 – With Steve Holroyd [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE] show art 426.5: The NASL Players’ Strike of 1979 – With Steve Holroyd [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]

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[We say goodbye to a crappy 2025 with a fond remembrance of frequent guest and long-time friend-of-the-show Steve Holroyd - whose untimely passing earlier this year still stings mightily. In this classic ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE from April 2019, we tapped Steve's encyclopedic knowledge of US soccer history for an essential look at an oft-overlooked event in the life of the original North American Soccer League (1968-1985), that arguably marked the "beginning of the end" of that influential circuit.] + + + Professional union labor lawyer and Society for American Soccer History sports historian...

info_outline 426: The 6th Annual(-ish) Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular! show art 426: The 6th Annual(-ish) Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular!

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It's our year-end Holiday Roundtable Spectacular, featuring a look back at the year's newest additions to "what used-to-be" in big-time sports (RIP Pro Volleyball Federation, Utah Hockey Club, three UFL teams, half of Major League Rugby, and the NCAA's LA & Bahamas Bowls); AND semi-educated guesses as to what might be ahead for 2026 - with three of our favorite fellow defunct sports enthusiasts: Paul Reeths (, ; ); Kenn Tomasch (, ; ); and Scott Adamson (;  & ). Buckle up for our annual mashup of amusement and bemusement at the fringes of the pro sports establishment, as we...

info_outline 425: Fox Sports Soccer Rules Analyst Dr. Joe Machnik show art 425: Fox Sports Soccer Rules Analyst Dr. Joe Machnik

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He’s been called “American soccer’s renaissance man,” and in this episode, Dr. Joe Machnik returns to trace the remarkable arc of a life spent pushing the sport forward in the United States. When Machnik first joined us for back in 2017, he brought a rare, firsthand view of American soccer’s highs and lows. Today, with his new memoir, "" freshly in hand, we revisit that conversation with even richer context and perspective. Dr. Joe’s story began in Brooklyn, where an immigrant neighborhood and a love of the game planted the seeds for a career that would — like the domestic...

info_outline 424: Baseball's Most Outrageous Promotions - With Joseph Natalicchio show art 424: Baseball's Most Outrageous Promotions - With Joseph Natalicchio

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Baseball has long been America’s pastime — and the stage for some of the wildest, most outrageous marketing stunts in sports history. From the postwar era through the 1970s, team owners and promoters pushed the limits of spectacle to fill seats, generate buzz, and entertain fans, often blurring the line between creativity and chaos. This week, "" author Joe Natalicchio joins for a wild ride across some of the sport’s most infamous attempts to spice things up at the ol' ballpark - where good marketing intentions went mightily awry. Natalicchio takes us behind the...

info_outline 423: Philadelphia's 423: Philadelphia's "Broad Street Bullies" - With Sam Carchidi & Jeff Hare

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The Philadelphia Flyers didn’t just win hockey games in the 1970s — they changed the sport, the city, and the culture around them. In this episode, we dig into the rise, reign, and mythology of the "Broad Street Bullies," the decade-long era (1971–1981) when the Flyers transformed themselves from an NHL expansion afterthought into the toughest, most polarizing, and most beloved champions in league history. To unpack how a group of gritty, bruising, blue-collar players became civic folk heroes, we sit down with long-time Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter Sam Carchidi and...

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How do you build a professional women’s hockey league from the ground up — and convince the sport’s best players, skeptical investors, and hungry fans that this time it’s built to last? CBC Sports journalist Karissa Donkin, author of "Breakaway: The PWHL and the Women Who Changed the Game," helps us dive into the backstory of the incredible Professional Women’s Hockey League.

Donkin traces the roots of the PWHL back to the collapse of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League in 2019 and the rise of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, whose “Dream Gap” tours kept women’s hockey in the spotlight when no stable league existed. She also unpacks the complicated legacy of North American professional women’s leagues: the original National Women’s Hockey League (1999–2007), and the later NWHL launched in 2015 — the first U.S.-based league to pay salaries — which eventually rebranded as the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). The overlap of these leagues, combined with the PWHPA’s touring circuit, splintered talent and divided attention, but it also highlighted what was missing: a single, unified, and financially sustainable league. These years of struggle, advocacy, and experimentation ultimately set the stage for the PWHL’s 2023 launch.

We’ll explore how the Mark Walter Group, Billie Jean King, and a coalition of powerful allies turned that vision into reality, and why the league’s first collective bargaining agreement matters so much for players seeking true professional standards. Donkin also unpacks the drama and exhilaration of the inaugural 2024 season — from record-breaking crowds to the intensity of Boston–Montreal showdowns — and explains how the league is balancing rapid growth with the need for long-term sustainability.

Finally, we look ahead: what does expansion to markets like Vancouver and Seattle mean for the league’s future? How will the PWHL navigate the ongoing battles for sponsorship, broadcast exposure, and cultural relevance in a crowded sports marketplace? And most importantly, how will the next generation of girls growing up with the PWHL on TV — and in their hometown arenas — reshape what professional hockey looks like in North America?

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