Good Seats Still Available

Penn State University professor emeritus Murry Nelson (Abe Saperstein and the American Basketball League, 1960–1963: The Upstarts Who Shot for Three and Lost to the NBA) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss the oft-forgotten second incarnation of the ABL – and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer who willed it into being. In this hidden gem of an episode, Nelson describes:

• How the master promoter of the legendary Harlem Globetrotters attempted to parlay his influence in pro basketball circles into securing his own West Coast NBA franchise, only to be rebuffed;
• How the advent of reliable and speedy commercial air travel encouraged Saperstein to not only launch the upstart ABL, but with franchises in virgin pro basketball territories like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu, Hawaii;
• The peripatetic Washington-to-New York-to-Philadelphia Tapers, whose owner also secretly owned the relatively stable Pittsburgh Rens, featuring league superstar and future Hall of Famer Connie Hawkins;
• Why the ABL's (and Saperstein-owned) Chicago Majors outdrew the more-established NBA's cross-town Packers; and
• How an ambitious young shipbuilding scion named George Steinbrenner engineered a championship for his Cleveland Pipers franchise, only to sink the ABL the following season with an ill-fated plot to secretly bolt to the NBA.

This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Audible!

National Soccer Hall of Fame legend Rick Davis joins Tim Hanlon direct from his family-owned/operated Ellsworth Steak House in Ellsworth, KS for a revealing conversation about his pioneering career as one of America's first pro soccer superstars. Among the many highlights, Davis discusses:

• the circumstances that vaulted him from AYSO youth soccer in Claremont, CA to international fame with the NASL's star-studded New York Cosmos;
• the priceless on-field, in-game tutelage of world-class players like Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto;
• the challenges of balancing the often-conflicting demands of both club team and the US Men's National Team;
• the double-edged sword of the indoor game; and
• the NASL's controversial "Team America" experiment in 1983 that helped hasten the demise of the league - and cost Davis at least one friendship in the process.

This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Audible!

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. Thanks to Audible for sponsoring this week's episode!

Syndicated morning radio personality Terry Hanson (The Big Show with John Boy & Billy) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss the formative years of his renaissance career in sports and media, across three of the original North American Soccer League's more memorable franchises. Hanson waxes nostalgic about doling out "Americanized" first names to the Serbian-infused roster of 1976's Rochester Lancers; moonlighting in the Washington Diplomats broadcast booth with play-by-play pros Jon Miller and Don Earle; and marketing a reborn, Ted Turner-owned Atlanta Chiefs team that no one seemed to want to watch play outdoors, but everyone flocked to see play indoors. Thanks to Audible for sponsoring this week's episode!

Religious studies professor-turned-baseball-historian Bill Young (J.L Wilkinson & the Kansas City Monarchs: Trailblazers in Black Baseball) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss the life and legacy of one of baseball's most overlooked and underappreciated executive figures. Young recalls the photograph at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City that inspired him to pursue the telling of Wilkinson's story, and describes how the quiet-yet-influential pioneer affectionately known as "Wilkie": built one of the Negro Leagues' most formidable franchises from modest Midwestern barnstorming beginnings; ingeniously kept his club relevant during lean Depression-era times through innovations such as portable night-time lighting; and nurtured a stunning array of all-star players that transcended both Negro and Major league rosters – 11 of whom were ultimately enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Audible!

Author and Cleveland native Jim Sulecki (The Cleveland Rams: The NFL Champs Who Left Too Soon) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss his Pro Football Researchers Association award-winning book about the oft-forgotten first decade of one of the National Football League's most enduring franchises. Sulecki describes the Cleveland Rams' inauspicious first season in the shaky second incarnation of the American Football League in 1936; its struggles to remain competitive against entrenched NFL powerhouses like the Chicago Bears, New York Giants, Green Bay Packers, and Washington Redskins in the WWII-distracted years that followed; the team's surprising 1945 championship season (including one of the coldest NFL finals ever played); and owner Dan Reeves' not-so-unexpected move to the sunnier climes of Los Angeles just one month after winning the NFL title. This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Audible.com!

Long-time Kansas City Chiefs public relations director Bob Moore joins Tim Hanlon to recount his pre-NFL baptism-by-fire tenure as communications lead for the United States Football League's most successful franchise, the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars. Moore recalls the instant credibility boost of snagging General Manager Carl Peterson from the cross-town NFL Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles; credits Peterson's vision in building the USFL's most consistently dominant team from his mastery of the league's novel territorial draft system; laments the league's irrational zeal to expand by six teams in the first off-season as an unwitting hastener of its ultimate demise; and explains how the 1985 USFL champion "Baltimore" Stars never actually played a down inside "Charm City." This episode is sponsored by our audiobook friends at Audible.com!

Perennial NASL and MISL soccer all-star Clyde Best (The Acid Test: The Autobiography of Clyde Best) joins Tim Hanlon from his native Bermuda to discuss his 1970s/80s soccer adventures in the United States, emanating from his stellar, but challenging beginnings with England's First Division West Ham United. Best recalls his first matches in a five-team 1969 NASL, when the Hammers spent the summer masquerading as the "Baltimore Bays"; recounts a hot and steamy friendly a year later at New York's overcrowded crackerbox Downing Stadium, matching his childhood idol Pelé goal-for-goal; describes his magical first full season in the States ,winning both the NASL's outdoor and indoor championships with the Tampa Bay Rowdies; and waxes nostalgic on his subsequent career stops in Portland (Timbers), Cleveland (Force), Toronto (Blizzard), and Los Angeles (Lazers).

Award-winning ESPN 30 For 30 sports documentarian Mike Jacobs (The High Five; The Pittsburgh Drug Trials) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss his new film Bump & Spike, which recounts the curious tale of the 1970s International Volleyball League – the short-lived pro co-ed circuit hatched by Hollywood moguls, fueled by a basketball legend, and ultimately undermined by a combination of sketchy ownership and a US Olympic boycott. Jacobs relates how TV/movie producer David Wolper charmed his entertainment industry friends into co-founding the IVA; describes how volleyball-loving Wilt Chamberlain became the versatile promotional face of the league; explains how teams successfully blended star talent from both Olympic national teams and California beaches; and speculates as to why the IVA eventually collapsed under a "haze" of financial instability.

Emmy Award-winning TV producer and ESPN 30 For 30 sports documentarian Dan Forer (Free Spirits; Mike and the Mad Dog) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss the curious two-year odyssey of the American Basketball Association's colorful Spirits of St. Louis franchise, whose impact still continues to haunt the modern-day NBA, forty years after the team's demise. Forer describes the importance of mercurial star forward Marvin "Bad News" Barnes to both the club's success and the making of the documentary; why Spirits brother-owners Dan and Ozzie Silna declined to participate in the making of the film; how a baby-faced kid out of Syracuse named Bob Costas got his first professional sportscasting gig; and how three of the team's most talented players effectively lost their careers to the evils of drug addiction.