Good Seats Still Available
“Good Seats Still Available” is a curious little podcast devoted to the exploration of what used-to-be in professional sports. Each week, host Tim Hanlon interviews former players, owners, broadcasters, beat reporters, and surprisingly famous "super fans" of teams and leagues that have come and gone - in an attempt to unearth some of the most wild and woolly moments in (often forgotten) sports history.
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347: Powering Forward - With Dean Tolson
05/06/2024
347: Powering Forward - With Dean Tolson
During the late 1960s, Dean Tolson ("") emerged as a standout prep basketball talent during his junior and senior years at Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri. His prowess on the court attracted the attention of a bevy of college recruiters, leading him to accept a full scholarship offer from the nearby University of Arkansas. Despite literally not knowing how to read or write, Tolson defied significant odds, and became one of the most renowned players in Razorbacks history. In 1974, Tolson was drafted by both the NBA's Seattle Supersonics and the ABA's New York Nets - eventually joining the Sonics to play under the tutelage of the legendary Bill Russell in Seattle, and showcasing his talent on a national stage. An 11-year journeyman career followed, with stops in the Eastern Basketball Association (Hazleton Bullets), the CBA (including a 1980 league championship with the Anchorage Northern Knights), and pro leagues in both Greece and the Philippines. After retiring from basketball, Tolson made the courageous decision to re-enroll at the University of Arkansas, determined to pursue his education authentically - repeating all four years of college and finally obtaining his degree through legitimate means. Remarkably, he returned to the university once again at age 52, earning a master's degree with magna cum laude honors. Tolson's journey, from his challenging upbringing in an orphanage to his remarkable academic achievements, serves as a powerful indictment of a system that often prioritizes athletic talent over educational accountability. His story sheds light on the pervasive issue of athletes being "passed along" without facing the academic rigor expected of their peers. Yet, amidst these challenges, Tolson's story is a beacon of inspiration - showcasing resilience and determination to overcome formidable odds to (eventually) achieve success. + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: : SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS) (promo code: SEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): https://amzn.to/4btrTJ7 FIND & FOLLOW: Website: X/Twitter: Instagram: Threads: Facebook: YouTube:
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346: Roller Derby's Los Angeles Thunderbirds - With Scott Stephens
04/29/2024
346: Roller Derby's Los Angeles Thunderbirds - With Scott Stephens
It's our first journey into the chaotically exciting history of "professional" roller derby with former skater and long-time keeper-of-the-flame Scott Stephens ("). From the moment he laced up his first pair of roller skates at age six in mid-1960s Los Angeles, roller derby became more than just a sport to Stephens – it became his passion. In the midst of the craze sweeping through the city, Stephens found himself captivated by the electrifying energy of the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, whose thrilling matches were locally (and nationally) televised, and whose star performers rivaled the fame of players on established sports teams like the Dodgers, Rams and Lakers. As he honed his skills at the T-Bird Rollerdrome in Pico Rivera, Stephens' love for skating soon transformed into an unexpected opportunity as he discovered the team's urgent need for new talent. From 1978-81, Stephens dove headfirst into the exhilarating world of Roller Games, immersing himself in every aspect of the sport – from the adrenaline-fueled races around the track to the underground culture teeming with colorful characters and unconventional lifestyles. Stephens takes us on a nostalgic exploration of some of roller derby's storied past, as well as the outsized role of its most iconic team. + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: : SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: SEATS): (promo code: GOODSEATS) BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2019): https://amzn.to/3y0y0Go FIND & FOLLOW: Website: X/Twitter: Instagram: Threads: Facebook: YouTube:
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345: From Vancouver to Memphis - With Łukasz Muniowski
04/22/2024
345: From Vancouver to Memphis - With Łukasz Muniowski
It's a special mea culpa episode this week, as we welcome back Szczecin University (Poland) history professor and Łukasz Muniowski () for a deep dive into the drama of the NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies move to Memphis in 2001 - and an assessment of the winners and losers some 23+ years since. While Muniowski's current title on the topic () has been out since October, your humble host not only lost track of the book's publishing date, but also the entire audio file of our conversation (originally recorded back in August 2023) - until a recent cloud backup surfaced a redundant version. It's worth the wait, as we tackle the origin story of the Grizzlies' move from Vancouver's GM Place (now Rogers Arena) to Memphis' Pyramid (and eventually FedEx Forum), the numerous other destination cities rumored in the process, the outsized personalities involved, the motivations behind such a hasty move only six seasons after becoming an expansion franchise, and the aftermath - including whether the Memphis version of the club can be labeled a "success," despite winning only two division titles since bringing pro hoops to Beale Street. + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: : SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GSA20): (promo code: GOODSEATS) (promo code: SEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): https://amzn.to/3xNvWBr FIND & FOLLOW: Website: X/Twitter: Instagram: Threads: Facebook: YouTube:
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344.5: The NFL’s 1943 “Steagles” - With Matt Algeo [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
04/14/2024
344.5: The NFL’s 1943 “Steagles” - With Matt Algeo [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
[A dip into the archives for a one of our first-ever episodes from 2017 - by request!] Author Matt Algeo () 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.
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344: The Evolution of Sports Media - With David Bockino
04/08/2024
344: The Evolution of Sports Media - With David Bockino
Former ESPN ad researcher, and current Elon University professor of communications and sport management David Bockino () helps us trace the evolution of the sports media industry - with historical points of interest both obvious (e.g., the 1958 NFL Championship Game; "Sports Illustrated" magazine; ABC's "Monday Night Football;" the 1979 launch of cable's ESPN); and subtle (1967's live multinational "Our World" TV broadcast; World Series Cricket; 1981's short-lived Enterprise Radio Network; AudioNet/Broadcast.com; and virtual graphics pioneer SportVision). + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: : SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GSA20): (promo code: GOODSEATS) https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats (promo code: SEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2024): https://amzn.to/49AopDi FIND & FOLLOW: Website: X/Twitter: Instagram: Threads: Facebook: YouTube:
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343: Baseball History Landmarks - With Chris Epting
04/01/2024
343: Baseball History Landmarks - With Chris Epting
We reach back into the vaunted Good Seats library stacks this week for a deep dive into one of Tim's favorite sports reference books - - with its (prodigious non-fiction) author . Now in its third edition, Roadside is everything you'd imagine from the title: a detailed, geographic cataloging of over 500 important events in North American baseball history, including historical data, trivia, photographs, and lore - highlighting birthplaces of baseball legends, ballparks, museums and halls of fame, final resting places, and dozens of former locations no longer standing. Join us for an aural road trip across some of baseball's most recognizable landmarks and forgotten out-of-the-way points of interest! + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: : SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GSA20): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2010): https://amzn.to/3PItVwv FIND & FOLLOW: Website: X/Twitter: Instagram: Threads: Facebook: YouTube:
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342.5 [PROMO DROP] "Ways To Win"
03/26/2024
342.5 [PROMO DROP] "Ways To Win"
Sharing something special, an episode of the new podcast "Ways to Win" - where coaches Craig Robinson and John Calipari use their on-court wisdom to solve off-court problems. In this first episode (recorded before the start of the NCAA basketball tournament!), there's no better way to kick off March Madness than with President Barack Obama (and Craig’s favorite brother-in-law), who drops by to break down his bracket. Find out who’s in his Final Four and how far he thinks Coach Cal’s Wildcats will go (even if Cal doesn't want to know). Plus, the guys chat about how Cal's preparing his players for the first round of the tournament and what it takes to lead teams under pressure. You can listen to more episodes of Ways to Win
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342: "Boston Ball" - With Clayton Trutor
03/25/2024
342: "Boston Ball" - With Clayton Trutor
We bust some brackets this week in honor of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, with a look back at the old East Coast Athletic Conference and the coaching cradle of city of Boston - with return () guest Clayton Trutor (""). Before the formation of the original Big East Conference in 1979, much of DI college basketball in the US Northeast and Mid-Atlantic was part of a loose patchwork of small conferences and independents that collectively fed into the not-really-a-conference ECAC umbrella for post-season playoffs, helping winnow at-large bids for a still-small NCAA tournament. Trutor helps set the stage through the early-career Boston exploits of three eventual Hall of Fame coaches: "Before Pitino became the face of the Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville programs, before Calhoun turned UConn into a national power, and before Williams brought Maryland to its first national championship, all three of these coaches cut their teeth in front of modest-sized crowds in the crumbling college gymnasiums of Boston during the 1970s and early 1980s. "'Boston Ball' charts how this trio of coaches, seemingly out of nowhere, started a basketball revolution: Pitino at Boston University, Calhoun at Northeastern University, and Williams at Boston College. Toiling in relative obscurity, they ignited a renaissance of the “city game,” a style of play built on fast-breaking up-tempo offense, pressure defense, and board crashing. Pitino, Calhoun, and Williams took advantage of the ample coaching opportunities in 'America’s College Town' to craft their respective blueprints for building a winning program and turn their schools into regional powers, and these early coaching years served as their respective springboards to big-time college basketball." + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: : SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GSA20): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): https://amzn.to/3vtBrUX FIND & FOLLOW: Website: X/Twitter: Instagram: Threads: Facebook: YouTube:
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341: "Pro" Wrestling's Origin Story - With Jon Langmead
03/18/2024
341: "Pro" Wrestling's Origin Story - With Jon Langmead
We squint hard this week for a look into the story of American "professional" wrestling's formative years - with pop culture writer Jon Langmead (). Langmead takes us inside the raucous period roughly between the mid-1870s to the early-1940s - where genuine competitive wrestlers and opportunistic amusement-minded promoters (both heavily influenced by the country's booming carnival circuit) together codified the now modern-day conventions that transformed a legitimate, physically demanding sport into melodramatic mass entertainment. Central to Langmead's narrative is the life and career of Jack Curley - a fledgling turn-of-the-century boxing promoter whose fortunes turned when he began touting wrestling matches in big US cities like Chicago and New York - where by the late-1910s, his monthly shows regularly sold out Madison Square Garden. Join us for a look back at the foundational years of "professional" wrestling, - before Vince McMahon and the WWE, and even prior to the "golden era" of the National Wrestling Alliance on early television - where colorful athletes like “Strangler” Ed Lewis, Frank Gotch, the “Masked Marvel,” Jim Londos, “Gorgeous George” Wagner, “Farmer” Martin Burns, and “Dynamite” Gus Sonnenberg ruled the day - and defined the "sport." + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: : SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GSA20): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2024): FIND & FOLLOW: Website: X/Twitter: Instagram: Threads: Facebook: YouTube:
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340: Baseball's "New York Game" - With Kevin Baker
03/11/2024
340: Baseball's "New York Game" - With Kevin Baker
Harper's Contributing Editor and novelist/historian extraordinaire Kevin Baker ("") brings his blended affection for (and evocative portrayals of) both "The Big Apple" and the "National Pastime" - to make a compelling case for New York City as the rightful center of the baseball universe. From Alan Moores' review in Booklist: "Baseball fans beyond Gotham’s gravitational pull might bristle at the notion that New York was the epicenter of the creation and growth of the game. But Baker’s raucous, revelatory, lovingly detailed account will win them over from the first pitch. Baker lays out the early history of the game in the city, then seamlessly weaves together the vibrant origin stories of the New York Yankees, New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, and the city’s Cuban and African American teams, right up to the eve of Jackie Robinson’s 1945 signing with the Dodgers. "He vividly recreates the recklessly ambitious, breathtakingly corrupt, alcohol-fueled world of Tammany Hall politics—which were followed by the reforms of Fiorello La Guardia—that steered, and were sometimes even steered by, the game. Dozens of near-mythic and also too-human figures parade through the pages, from John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Fred Merkle, Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott, Leo Durocher, Casey Stengel, Red Barber, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and Branch Rickey, to an array of crime bosses, team owners, and mayors. "Then there was Babe Ruth, whose gaudy statistics, irrepressible personality, and seismic impact on the game, the city, and the entire nation outshone even his legend, as Baker convincingly argues here. A spellbinding history of a game and the city where it found itself." SUPPORT THE SHOW: : SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GSA20): https://newspapers.com BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2024): https://amzn.to/3TvWgsf FIND & FOLLOW: Website: X/Twitter: Instagram: Threads: Facebook: YouTube:
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339: Early-Day WNBA - With Marie Ferdinand-Harris
03/04/2024
339: Early-Day WNBA - With Marie Ferdinand-Harris
It's a celebration of women's hoops this week, as we look back at the "early days" of the Women's National Basketball Association - including stops with the oft-forgotten Utah Starzz and San Antonio Silver Stars - with three-time league all-star Marie Ferdinand-Harris (). A first-round pick in the WNBA's fifth-ever draft in 2001, Ferdinand was a dominant shooting guard at LSU prior to her 8th-overall selection by Utah - a formidable presence inside the paint and outside the arc, skills honed from leading title-winning teams at Edison High School, in the heart of Miami's historically poor "Little Haiti" neighborhood. After a stellar 11-year pro career (including turns with the league-original LA Sparks and Phoenix Mercury), Ferdinand-Harris is one of the unsung pioneers of the WNBA, part of a first generation of players that helped solidify the foundation for an organization whose success was not guaranteed at the time - but now is firmly rooted in the American pro sports infrastructure. + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: : : SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?aff=2 BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2024): https://amzn.to/4bWEQvZ GIVE UNTIL IT HURTS: : https://www.belikecj.org/ FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram: Threads: Facebook: YouTube:
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338: 50 Years of San Jose Earthquakes Soccer - With Gary Singh
02/26/2024
338: 50 Years of San Jose Earthquakes Soccer - With Gary Singh
It's a "retcon" special this week, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the most colorful and persistent franchises in American pro soccer history - with a return visit from guest Gary Singh (). As one of four West Coast expansion teams (along with the Los Angeles Aztecs, Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps) added for the North American Soccer League’s breakthrough 1974 season, the original San Jose Earthquakes were an immediate hit both on the field (finishing second in an all-new Western Division, led by league-leading scorer [and guest] Paul Child) - and in the stands, where they averaged 15,000+ fans a game to a less-than-modern Spartan Stadium, more than double the league average at the time. Though never regular championship contenders, the ‘Quakes cultivated a rabidly loyal fan base that became the envy of clubs across the league – until the NASL’s ultimate demise ten years later. Fragments of the club soldiered on semi-professionally in the following years, but the appellation (along with some of the previous cast) returned in earnest in 1999, when the management of San Jose’s struggling (and unpopularly named) Major League Soccer “Clash” sought to rekindle some of the original NASL team's magic; by 2001, the second iteration of the Earthquakes were contending for and winning MLS Cup and Supporters’ Shield titles. However, stymied by an inability to construct a soccer-specific stadium in the area, owner-operator Anschutz Entertainment Group pulled up stakes and relocated the club to Houston (Dynamo) for 2006 – taking further championships with them. Nonplussed San Jose fans revolted – and a new “expansion” franchise was quickly announced by MLS officials, with plenty of structural caveats that ensure today’s now-third incarnation of the ‘Quakes rightfully retains all of its accumulated heritage and rich legacy. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2024): https://amzn.to/48oMwEc (2015): https://amzn.to/42ZNkOL FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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337: The 1990-91 Minnesota North Stars - With Kevin Allenspach
02/19/2024
337: The 1990-91 Minnesota North Stars - With Kevin Allenspach
Veteran Minnesota sportswriter Kevin Allenspach () takes to the ice with us this week, as we look back at one of the most improbable playoff runs in NHL history - one that came the closest to giving the self-professed "State of Hockey" its first Stanley Cup championship - a title that still eludes the region to this day. Throughout much of the 1990-91 season, the Minnesota North Stars were among the worst-performing clubs in the National Hockey League - and dead last at the box office. Rumors of the team's possible sale to new owners of the team were swirling, and the threat of relocation was real. Distractions notwithstanding, the North Stars gritted their way into the playoffs, winning only 27 of 80 regular-season games. And against all odds, they upset both the Presidents' Trophy-winning Chicago Blackhawks and the regular season's second-best St. Louis Blues in the first two rounds - followed by a dispatching of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Edmonton Oilers in the Campbell Conference Finals. Despite ultimately losing the Stanley Cup Finals to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the underdog North Stars managed to capture the imagination of Twin Cities hockey fans (not to mention a certain club public relations intern) during their unexpected postseason run - enough to spark renewed hope for the franchise's future. Allenspach, of course, tells us otherwise - culminating in the team's relocation to Dallas in 1993. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?aff=2 BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2024): https://amzn.to/48pbyTw FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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336: Lost Tales of the MISL - With Tim O'Bryhim
02/12/2024
336: Lost Tales of the MISL - With Tim O'Bryhim
We celebrate the launch of the new "" Substack series with its author and return () guest Tim O'Bryhim ("" & ""). O'Bryhim's long-form pieces promise to bring to light myriad stories from the legendary original Major Indoor Soccer League - a pioneering pro soccer circuit that remains surprisingly under-chronicled, despite its outsized influence on the game's history in the US, including its role in helping mainstream the art of entertainment-flavored presentation now commonplace in big-time sports. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): SUBSCRIBE/BUY/READ/WATCH EARLY & OFTEN: (Substack; free subscription: https://misl1980s.substack.com/ (2014): (2020): https://amzn.to/48bNTGb FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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335: On the Diamonds of Des Moines - With Steve Dunn
02/05/2024
335: On the Diamonds of Des Moines - With Steve Dunn
Iowa baseball chronologist Steve Dunn ("") joins for a surprisingly rich journey into the history of professional baseball in the Hawkeye State's largest city - currently home to the Diamond Baseball Holdings-owned Triple-A affiliate of the National League's Chicago Cubs. Besides today's Iowa Cubs, the city of Des Moines has been home to minor league baseball in various forms since 1887 - featuring a long list of stars that have played or managed clubs there, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Feller, Satchel Paige, Red Faber, Buck O'Neil, Ryne Sandberg, Tony LaRussa, Charlie Grimm, and Stan Hack. Dunn walks us through some of Des Moines baseball's most noteworthy ballparks (such as Western League Park, home of the first night game featuring a permanent lighting system on 5/2/1930); circuits (like the long-forgotten Three–I [Class B] League featuring the reborn 1959-61 Des Moines Demons); barnstormers (the Negro League "All Nations" club); and eyebrow-raising team names - from Midgets to Prohibitionists to Undertakers. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: SEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): https://amzn.to/4bqMApS FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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334.5: The National Bowling League – With Dr. Jake Schmidt [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
01/29/2024
334.5: The National Bowling League – With Dr. Jake Schmidt [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
[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 () 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: (promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?aff=2 BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2017): https://amzn.to/3Ogt6Kj FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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334: Atlanta's "White Ice" - With Tom Aiello
01/22/2024
334: Atlanta's "White Ice" - With Tom Aiello
Valdosta State University history professor (and guest) Tom Aiello ("") returns after a two-year absence - for an enlightening look at the curious cultural history of the city of Atlanta's awkward relationship with professional hockey. In his new book "," Aiello interestingly juxtaposes the National Hockey League's aggressive expansion in the late 1960s/early 1970s (including a new WHA-hastened Flames franchise in 1972), against the city's de facto status as the "capital of the Deep South" - and its population's rapidly changing racial and socio-economic contours. To wit: For its own part, Atlanta had been watching as White residents left the city for the suburbs over the course of the 1960s. As the turn of the decade approached, city leadership was searching for ways to mitigate white flight and bring residents of the surrounding suburbs back to the city center. So when a stereotypically White sport came to the Deep South in 1971 in the form of the Flames, ownership saw a new opportunity to appeal to White audiences. But the challenge would be selling a game that was foreign to most of Atlanta’s longtime sports fans. Against that backdrop, of course, the Flames (1972-80) lasted but only eight seasons - and its NHL successor Atlanta Thrashers (1999-2011) did not fare much better in the face of similar and arguably even more pronounced circumstances. And yet, the "dream" of another franchise lives on. Might Atlanta get a third chance to finally make pro hockey stick? What's changed (and hasn't) in the region's demographic landscape and economic calculus? Listen in and find out! + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: SEATS): https://www.royalretros.com/?aff=2 BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2024): https://amzn.to/3vFQw5z FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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333: "Soccer Tom" Mulroy
01/15/2024
333: "Soccer Tom" Mulroy
We buckle up this week for a wild and revelatory ride across 50+ years of big-time soccer in the United States with one of the biggest unsung heroes of the American game - and unquestionably, one of its most prominent "keepers of the flame." The professional and personal life journey of "Soccer Tom" Mulroy ("") virtually parallels the 1970s-to-1990s boom-bust-and-boom-again roller coaster of soccer's early modern history in the US - and today thrives in tandem with the sport's long-overdue cultural acceptance. In a pro career spanning five leagues and nearly a dozen franchises (including Good Seats bucket-list stops with the MISL Hartford Hellions, ASL Cleveland Cobras, NASL Miami Toros & 1986-87 AISA champion Louisville Thunder) Mulroy's on-field exploits mirrored the chaotic nature of a game still struggling to find its footing among North America's competitive sports landscape. After his playing days, Mulroy evolved into the sport's indefatigable go-to goodwill ambassador, bringing Pied Piper-like enthusiasm to the domestic masses yearning for soccer literacy in the wake of breakthrough milestones like World Cup '94, the launch of MLS, and the international success of both the US Women's & Men's National teams. To understand the life of Tommy Mulroy is to understand the growth of US soccer itself! + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): https://amzn.to/3U2lfnG FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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332: Super Series '76 - With Ed Gruver
01/08/2024
332: Super Series '76 - With Ed Gruver
We turn back the clock 48 years ago this week for a revisit of one of the most consequential contests in the history of the National Hockey League - with sports historian Ed Gruver (""). The dust jacket of Gruver's new book sums it up thusly: "In late 1975 and early 1976, at the height of the Cold War, two of the Soviet Union’s long-dominant national hockey teams traveled to North America to play an eight-game series against the best teams in the National Hockey League. The culmination of the “Super Series” was reigning Soviet League champion HC CSKA Moscow’s face-off against the defending NHL champion Flyers in Philadelphia on January 11, 1976. Known as the “Red Army Club,” HC CSKA hadn’t lost a game in the series. Known as the “Broad Street Bullies,” the Flyers were determined to bring the Red Army team’s winning streak to an end with their trademark aggressive style of play. "Based largely on interviews, Ed Gruver’s book tells the story of this epic game and series as it lays out the stakes involved: nothing less than the credibility of the NHL. If the Red Army team had completed its series sweep by defeating the two-time Stanley Cup champion Flyers, the NHL would no longer have been able to claim primacy of place in professional-level hockey. The Stanley Cup, the most famous trophy in sports, would be devalued if the Flyers fell to the Soviets. Gruver also describes how the game and series affected the styles of both Russian and NHL teams. The Soviets adopted a more physical brand of hockey, while the NHL increasingly focused on passing and speed." + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2024): https://amzn.to/48Mg6UT FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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331: The NASL's San Antonio Thunder (+ More!) - With Derek Currie
01/01/2024
331: The NASL's San Antonio Thunder (+ More!) - With Derek Currie
It's the adventure-filled story of how a late-60s-era Scottish top-league footballer helped start the first-ever professional soccer circuit in the then-British colony of Hong Kong - punctuated by an unexpected off-season loan to one of the most forgotten franchises in North American Soccer League history. Derek Currie (" ") joins us live and direct from his home in Bangkok,Thailand for an anecdote-rich romp through the international pro soccer scene of the 1970s/early 1980s - including his memorable Texas summer of 1976 wearing the "Stars and Stripes" for the NASL's oft-overlooked San Antonio Thunder! + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): https://amzn.to/3H0snJm FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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330: The 4th Annual(-ish) Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular!
12/25/2023
330: The 4th Annual(-ish) Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular!
We press the rewind button on a most interesting 2023, and peer ahead into the uncharted waters of 2024 with our fourth-annual(-ish) Holiday Roundtable Spectacular - featuring three of our favorite fellow defunct sports enthusiasts: Andy Crossley ( & ); Paul Reeths (, & ); and Steve Holroyd (, & Episodes , , , & ). Takes of varying temperatures fly as we review some of the most inspiring and curious events of the past year, debate who and what might be next to wobble into obscurity, and conjecture about future scenarios for the next generation of defunct and otherwise forgotten pro sports teams and leagues - including: USFL 2.0 + XFL 3.0 = TBD 2024 Oakland A's to Las Vegas (maybe) Major League Cricket MiLB ownership consolidation The Savannah Bananas Premier Lacrosse League: from tour to teams Professional Box Lacrosse Association (RIP) Women's pro volleyball MLS vs. US Soccer NBA, NHL & MLB expansion/relocation rumors NWSL expansion & TV deal Women's hockey 3.0: PWHL PLUS, we speculate on the dubious third reincarnation of the Arena Football League! + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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329: The 1963 AFL San Diego Chargers - With Dave Steidel
12/18/2023
329: The 1963 AFL San Diego Chargers - With Dave Steidel
After last week's ugly, team-record 63-21 drubbing by the Las Vegas Raiders, and the subsequent dismissal of its head coach and general manager - it's been a (yet another) rough season for the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers. While family owner/scion Dean Spanos tries (again) to plot a plan forward, we look nostalgically back to the franchise's early years in San Diego as one of the charter entries in the iconoclastic American Football League - an era that produced the club's (still) one-and-only championship in 1963. AFL history chronicler Dave Steidel ("") helps us zero in on the story behind that AFL title-winning season - with an in-depth revisit of iconic coach Sid Gilman's blockbuster squad, featuring revered Charger greats like Tobin Rote, John Hadl, Paul Lowe, Keith Lincoln, Chuck Allen, and future Pro Football Hall of Famers Lance Allworth and Ron Mix. Plus: we debate whether the '63 Chargers could have truly beaten the NFL champion Chicago Bears that season for a definitive (albeit mythical) pre-merger American pro football title. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: "" (2015) "" (2008) "" (2023) FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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328: Raycom Sports - With Founders Rick & Dee Ray
12/11/2023
328: Raycom Sports - With Founders Rick & Dee Ray
We adjust our TV antenna rabbit ears back to the late 1970s for the origin story of one of the most influential firms in modern-day sports media - with Rick and Dee Ray, the founders of televised college sports juggernaut Raycom Sports. In their new George Hirthler-penned memoir "," the Rays rewind the videotape to a time when a new technology called "cable" was still in its infancy, and the American television landscape was largely defined by a web of powerful broadcast network-affiliated stations - save for a handful of scrappy alternative "independent" signals in each market. While pro sports filled plenty of prime/weekend network TV windows, and individual teams provided a steady slate of in-season games to local indie station audiences - regularly scheduled D-I college sports was virtually non-existent outside of limited national broadcasts featuring only big-name schools. It was against this backdrop that an entrepreneurially minded local station programmer and a never-say-no ad executive saw an opening for regularly scheduled regional broadcasts of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball that not only delighted rabid fans throughout the Southeast, but also laid the groundwork for a sports syndication force that would eventually rewrite the rules for college sports media - and beyond. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: "" (2023) FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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327: Scottish Soccer Summer Dalliances - With Mark Poole
12/04/2023
327: Scottish Soccer Summer Dalliances - With Mark Poole
The 1960s were a tumultuous, but crucial period in the development of professional soccer in the United States and Canada - with teams from Scotland, of all places, playing a particularly interesting role. The dividing line for the modern North American pro game, of course, was the breakthrough, near-live (two-hour-delayed) NBC-TV network telecast of the 1966 World Cup final between eventual champion England and West Germany - the first-ever national standalone broadcast of the sport. Prior to that watershed, it was sports entrepreneur Bill Cox's that imported full major European & South American teams to play in a senior-level competition in largely East Coast urban centers and first-generation immigrant communities. Among the ISL's regulars were three Scottish sides - including , which played four seasons and made the 1960 final. Immediately after the World Cup, no fewer than three groups of eager sports owners sought to launch a full-fledged domestic North American league; by 1967, two competing circuits bowed - including a hastily-assembled , featuring full-team ISL-like imports - but under noms de plume of North American cities. Front and center were Scottish stalwarts - masquerading as the District of Columbia's "." UK football writer Mark Poole ("") tells us the stories behind these two curious Scottish contributions to US pro soccer history. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: "" (2023) FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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326.5: Lamar Hunt & the American Football League - With Michael MacCambridge [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
11/27/2023
326.5: Lamar Hunt & the American Football League - With Michael MacCambridge [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]
[By popular demand, an archive re-release of guest and "" author Michael MacCambridge - from his first appearance on the show from March 2017!] Sports author/historian Michael MacCambridge ("") 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: (promo code: SEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2012): https://amzn.to/3T0FL7G FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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326: NFL/USFL Football "Survivor" Steve Wright
11/20/2023
326: NFL/USFL Football "Survivor" Steve Wright
11-year pro football offensive lineman and budding Renaissance man Steve Wright ("") helps us check off a few new boxes in our obsessive quest for forgotten sports franchise completism. Before his post-career exploits as the 10th-place finisher in the 22nd season of the CBS reality competition series "Survivor" (" "), and as the inventor of pioneering sideline cooling-mist tech firms Cloudburst and Mist & Cool, Wright blocked and tackled for some of the game's most exciting teams during the 80s and early 90s - including the Dallas Cowboys, the Baltimore and Indianapolis versions of the Colts, the Los Angeles incarnation of the Raiders, and the 1985 USFL Championship Game finalist Oakland Invaders. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: "" (2023) BUY/WATCH EARLY & OFTEN: "" (DVD: 2011): https://amzn.to/47AaWKM "" (Prime Video): https://amzn.to/40ICA6h FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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325: Pro Tennis' Polychromatic 1970s - With Joel Drucker
11/13/2023
325: Pro Tennis' Polychromatic 1970s - With Joel Drucker
Veteran writer, columnist & "" podcast host Joel Drucker ("") stops by to drop some serious knowledge on how the decade of the 1970s transformed the sport of professional tennis into the global juggernaut it is today - including pivotal turning points such as: The groundbreaking World Championship Tennis (WCT) and Virginia Slims Circuit tours that brought standardized scheduling, big-time media exposure and unprecedented prize money to both the men's and women's pro games for the first time' 1973's paradigm-shifting intergender "Battle of the Sexes" competition between inveterate hustler Bobby Riggs and female icon Billie Jean King - an international spectacle whose result both transcended tennis and changed the face of American sports; and World Team Tennis - the innovative, ahead-of-its-time rethink of how the pro game could be played - featuring city-domiciled, co-ed, team-oriented match play on colorful playing surfaces in front of raucous crowds in major indoor arenas from coast to coast. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2004): https://amzn.to/46cdPQQ FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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324: Football's Enigmatic Coach George Allen - With Mike Richman
11/06/2023
324: Football's Enigmatic Coach George Allen - With Mike Richman
Football biographer Mike Richman ("") joins us for a decades-long journey back into the old-school NFL (and USFL) exploits of one of pro football's most intense and enigmatic sideline characters. From the dust-jacket of "": "George Allen was a fascinating and eccentric figure in the world of football coaching. His remarkable career spanned six decades, from the late 1940s until his sudden death in 1990 at the age of seventy-three. Although he never won a Super Bowl, he never had a losing season as an NFL head coach and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002. "In '', Mike Richman captures the life and accomplishments of one of the most successful NFL coaches of all time and one of the greatest innovators in the game. A player’s coach, Allen was a tremendous motivator and game strategist, as well as a defensive mastermind, and is credited with making special teams a critical focus in an era in which they were an afterthought. He had a keen eye for talent and pulled off masterful trades, often for veteran players who were viewed to be past their prime, who then had great seasons and made his teams much better. "In addition to his coaching feats, Allen had an idiosyncratic and controversial personality. His life revolved around football 24/7. One of his quirks was to minimize chewing time by consuming soft foods, giving himself more time to prepare for games and study opponents. He lived and breathed football; he compared losing to death. Allen had contentious relationships with the owners of the two NFL teams for which he was the head coach, the Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Rams. Richman explores why he was fired by those teams and whether he was blackballed from coaching again in the NFL." + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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323: Play-By-Play Pioneer Marty Glickman - With Jeffrey Gurock
10/30/2023
323: Play-By-Play Pioneer Marty Glickman - With Jeffrey Gurock
It's an episode that's hopefully as "Good! Like Nedicks!" - as we take a biographical look back at the rich and influential life of pioneering New York City sports broadcaster Marty Glickman - with biographer/Yeshiva University history professor Jeffrey Gurock (""). From the dustjacket: "For close to half a century after World War II, Marty Glickman was the voice of New York sports. His distinctive style of broadcasting, on television and especially on the radio, garnered for him legions of fans who would not miss his play-by-play accounts. From the 1940s through the 1990s, he was as iconic a sports figure in town as the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle, the Knicks’ Walt Frazier, or the Jets’ Joe Namath. His vocabulary and method of broadcasting left an indelible mark on the industry, and many of today’s most famous sportscasters were Glickman disciples. To this very day, many fans who grew up listening to his coverage of Knicks basketball and Giants football games, among the myriad of events that Glickman covered, recall fondly, and can still recite, his descriptions of actions in arenas and stadiums. "In addition to the stories of how he became a master of American sports airwaves, Marty Glickman has also been remembered as a Jewish athlete who, a decade before he sat in front of a microphone, was cynically barred from running in a signature track event in the 1936 Olympics by anti-Semitic American Olympic officials. This lively biography details this traumatic event and explores not only how he coped for decades with that painful rejection but also examines how he dealt with other anti-Semitic and cultural obstacles that threatened to stymie his career. Glickman’s story underscores the complexities that faced his generation of American Jews as these children of immigrants emerged from their ethnic cocoons and strove to succeed in America amid challenges to their professional and social advancement." + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): https://417helmets.com/?wpam_id=3 (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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322: The New York Cosmos' "Pelé Years" - With Charles Cuttone
10/23/2023
322: The New York Cosmos' "Pelé Years" - With Charles Cuttone
Veteran New York-based sports writer/public relations pro Charles Cuttone has seen just about everything in his nearly 50 years of promoting professional sports across the Gotham sports scene - dating all the way back to 1974 as a fresh-faced elementary school intern with the World Football League's ill-fated New York Stars. While the WFL gig (and team, for that matter) didn't last long, it was his next experience that following spring - with a rag-tag but ambitious pro soccer outfit called the New York Cosmos - that both solidified a budding career interest in sports PR, and yielded a ring-side seat to one of the most indelible stories in 1970s sports history. In his new book "" - visually co-created with the exquisite imagery of legendary sports photographer George Tiedemann - Cuttone recounts the three-season, two-and-a-half-year phenomenon known as Pelé - and how the world's then-greatest player (and arguably, most famous athlete) transformed not only a earnest club and its backwater league, but also a "foreign" game into the mainstream consciousness of American sports. + + + SPONSOR THANKS: (promo code: GOODSEATS): (promo code: GOODSEATS): BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: (2023): https://amzn.to/3tLxmKD FIND & FOLLOW: Website: Twitter: Instagram (+ Threads): Facebook: YouTube:
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