Gridiron America

In the world of sports history podcasting, there is a curious little one that has carved out a niche covering the world of defunct leagues and teams from yesteryear. "Good Seats Still Available" has its roots in Tim Hanlon's youth, when he fell in love with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League, who unfortunately, like the league itself departed us to soon, and thus began for him an obsession for the stories of the teams and leagues of yesteryear. His pioneering podcast, which is soon approaching its 300th episode, has covered defunct leagues and teams from all sports, and Tim has interviewed many gridiron legends and icons, including Larry Csonka, Upton Bell, and Dave Meggyesy, all of whom helped shape the world of professional football in America. During this episode, Tim and Greg talk about his podcast and the challenges facing start up leagues in the 21st Century in the midst of a changing media and technological landscape.

Unpopular Essays on Sports History is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

HIGHLIGHTED SHOW

Unpopular Essays on Sports History

Supposition. We live in a golden age of sports.

I mean this not in the sense of athletes becoming stronger, speedier, savvier and smarter than ever before, nor in terms of the amazing access we have to live streams and stat feeds, instant insights and opinionating, the quirks and personalities of our celebrity heroes.

This, rather, is a golden age of sports in humanistic, historical terms. The truth is that the great majority of people today, willingly or not, have a direct and regular connection to organized and/or participatory sports in their everyday lives than anyone born before the 20th century.

In the United States, not a person alive can recall a time when sports was not a staple of the daily newspaper. For four generations, the notion that nightly news programs should devote up to one-quarter of their airtime to sports is taken for granted. Why do we take this for granted?

At Unpopular Essays on Sports History, everything is questionable.

Supposition: Those who play the games have ascended in the public eye to heights unimaginable in times past. Playing top-level sports can get today’s athlete into business, TV production, national politics – and just how did this happen?

At Unpopular Essays on Sports History, everything is up for examination.

Supposition: Sports – wherever they are played but particularly in these places where they are invented – effect culture, even pace it. One could argue that sports are more important than ever.

Corollary: Sports history, too, should be more important, yet is probably more disrespected and disavowed than ever.

At Unpopular Essays on Sports History, we love the past while marveling at the present, and wondering about the future.  

The “unpopular essays” of the title is a nod to Bertrand Russell, the logical positivist and my favorite philosopher. (Plus it’s a great excuse to get my BA degree to finally pay off.) And as we’re taught in philosophy, It’s not about answering the questions; it’s about making them clearer.

Three days a week, Unpopular Essays on Sports History will examine a moment in sports history, probe some modern ethos of our games, or speculate on what the past can teach the future – and all in 500 words or less – though probably occasionally throwing in the occasional longer interview. We’ll tour the spaces and times of the whole wide world of sports history about as quickly as Secretariat ran the Belmont Stakes.

Supposition: Sports history is fascinating, illuminating and fun. Join me, Os Davis, in making the questions of sports history clearer right here an Unpopular Essays on Sports History, an SHN production. 

Os Davis, host of Unpopular Essays on Sports History 

Os never played the games but has enjoyed a nearly 30-year career in sports writing, reporting, blogging, and podcasting. He has hosted/co-hosted and produced/co-produced podcasts on NFL football, CFL football, European basketball and sports movie review. For the Sports History Network, he currently writes and co-produces the historical fiction audiodrama Orville Mulligan: Sports Writer and will return soon with more episodes of Truly the GOATs (promise).

Learn more about the show on the Sports History Network.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sports History Network Theme Song

This theme song was produced by Ron "Tyke" Oliver of Music Meets Sportz

Talkin' Two Tone is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

HIGHLIGHTED SHOW

Please join me in welcoming Asher and Tyler to the Sports History Network. They bring to us their podcast, "Talkin' Two Tone: A Titans Podcast," where they talk all things revolving around their beloved Tennessee Titans. You'll of course get some up to date stuff with the current season, but they also take you back in time to reminisce some of the greatest moments in Titan history.

Learn more about the show on the Sports History Network.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sports History Network Theme Song

This theme song was produced by Ron "Tyke" Oliver of Music Meets Sportz

In this episode, Greg sits down with Canadian football historian and scholar, Dr. Frank Cosentino, to talk about his playing career and the CFL as a cultural institution in the 20th Century, especially during the time he played. They also discuss how the CFL dealt with the threat of the WFL in the 1970s, during which John Bassett planned on placing a franchise in Toronto. Lastly, they discuss the American expansion, changing sports landscape and the prospects of a successful CFL/XFL merger, should one ever be pursued again.

Scott was slated to join the conversation; however, just minutes before recording tornado warnings were issued for Birmingham and power went out. We are happy to report that eventually the weather cleared, and power was restored. 

Grey Cup champion, Vanier Cup champion, hall of famer, scholar, teacher, and professor emeritus are just a few of the ways one describes the greatest Canadian sports historian who has authored 18 books, and not just only on football. Drafted by the Hamilton Tiger Cats in 1960, Dr. Cosentino was in five consecutive Grey Cup games, 1961-65, including the first overtime Grey Cup game in 1961, the “fog bowl” in 1962 and the “wind bowl” of 1965. The team’s two Grey Cup wins were in 1963 and 1965. As a Tiger Cat he also played in the last of the CFL vs NFL exhibition games against the Buffalo Bills, in which Hamilton prevailed and he passed for the team's final touchdown.

In 1967, Dr. Cosentino was traded to Edmonton in 1967, led the team to a 9-6-1, and was named Edmonton’s nominee for the Best Canadian Schenley Award, after which he was traded to Toronto for the 1969 season. He finished his career after the 1969 season, playing in 141 regular season games and starting in 41, posting 20 wins, 19 losses, and two ties. He completed 482 passes out of 996 attempts for 7,678 passing yards with 53 touchdowns. 

While playing in the CFL, Dr. Cosentino continued his education, earning both a master's and doctor of philosophy degree. After his playing days ended, in 1970, he was named head football coach at the University of Western Ontario and assistant professor. In 1976 he moved to York University where he was professor and chairman of physical education and athletics for a five-year term. As a professor, he taught courses in sport history, and as a coach, won two Vanier Cups at Western in 1971 and 1974.  He is a member of Halls of Fame at McMaster, York, Western, and Ontario University Athletics; and in 2018, was named to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. 

Though retired, Dr. Cosentino continues to write and all of his wonderful books, which are required reading for students of Canadian football, are available at his website- www.valleyoldtimers.com.

When one thinks of Howie Mooney, their first thought is about sports and sports history. Currently, he is the host of the Sports Lunatics Show, a sports history podcast, on the FiredUp Network, a Toronto website. He also writes a sports history column there. Indeed, his first venture into the world of sports history came when he began researching his first Canadian sports history calendar back in 1986. His success with that venture led to Howie becoming the host of "The Ultimate Sports Quiz," an interactive call-in sports trivia program, on local television in Ottawa, Canada in 1991, which he hosted through the decade of the ’90s. 

Howie soon found himself covering the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders and the OHL’s Ottawa 67s for television. He was also selected out of many who auditioned to be the color commentator for Triple-A Ottawa Lynx baseball broadcasts and also covered the NHL’s Ottawa Senators for the magazine show "Overtime." Howie is also the co-author of "Third and Long: The Proud History of Football in Ottawa," which is available to read for free at www.archive.org. Howie’s new book, "Crazy Days & Wild Nights," is a collection of incredible and true stories taken from the pages of sports history. The audio book will be available on his website this year, with the book out for purchase in the summer.

In this episode, Howie recounts a number of stories from the book, including tales from the Toronto Argonauts sidelines, and the legend of Taro Tsujimoto. In addition, Greg and Howie talk about the upcoming spring football season in America and the CFL, including where the league is headed into 2023.  

One of the most popular genres of science fiction literature is that of alternate history, and in sports one of the most common questions asked among fans of all sports is, "what if?" For instance, what if Bo Jackson did not get hurt in that playoff game against the Bengals? What if Bartman had not interfered with that foul ball in Wrigley Field during the NLCS in 2003? What if Babe Ruth played his entire career in Boston? What if Muhammad Ali had lost or quit in his first fight against Sonny Liston? What if the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants had never moved to the West Coast? What if Vince Lombardi had become head coach of his hometown Giants instead of heading to Green Bay? What if Browns had not moved to Baltimore and displaced the CFL's Stallions? How would sports history, and our perception of it, be different today? The questions are of course endless...

In his book, "Gridiron Cup, 1982," Keegan Dresow asks two important questions... What if Bert Bell had been successful in getting war torn Europe to embrace the spectacle of gridiron football? And, what if Joseph Stalin had decided the Soviet Union would learn the sport and use it to wage a proxy war against the west on the gridiron. For fans of the TV show, "For All Mankind," in which the question of what if the Soviets had landed on the moon first is explored, readers will not be disappointed.  "Gridiron Cup, 1982," is available exclusively on Amazon Kindle.  His book imagines a world where it is gridiron football and not soccer football that is the most dominate team sport on the planet, and expertly weaves facts with fiction to present a look at a sports world that gridiron football fans can only dream about.

Keegan Dresow previously served as the head coach of the Avedøre Monarchs, in Denmark, and is the author of "Offensive Football Systems," which is also available on Amazon.  Presently, Keegan, a 2010 graduate from the UC Davis School of Law, is an attorney and is also a 2006 graduate of Pomona College, where he played four years of gridiron football for the Sagehens. His website is TotalAmericanFootball.com

The Official PFRA Podcast is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

HIGHLIGHTED SHOW

The Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) was founded in Canton, Ohio in 1979 to foster the study of professional football as a significant and athletic institution; to establish an accurate historical account of professional football; and to disseminate research information. In each episode of The Official PFRA Podcast, co-hosts George Bozeka and Jon Bozeka will discuss the storied history of pro football, including interviews with prominent pro football historians and authors, and former players.

Born in Canton within walking distance of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, George is the current President of the PFRA. He has had a number of articles published in the PFRA’s official magazine The Coffin Corner and he is the lead editor for the PFRA’s Great Teams in Pro Football History book series.

Jon has been a radio broadcaster in the Canton area since 2014. He has been involved in every facet of radio sports coverage including play-by-play and color commentary for local high school and college football broadcasts. He is also a stringer for CBS Radio’s Eye on Sports show covering all Cleveland Browns Sunday home games.

Learn more about the show on the Sports History Network.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sports History Network Theme Song

This theme song was produced by Ron "Tyke" Oliver of Music Meets Sportz

Thanksgiving Day, 1924. The recently-established tradition of the University of Pittsburgh Panthers football team hosting the Pennsylvania State Nittany Lions on the afternoon of the national autumnal holiday continues.

Orville Mulligan: Sports Writer is sent to cover the Pitt-Penn State “Keystone Classic” of 1924; in so doing, he discovers a throughline of the football-on-Thanksgiving tradition going back to 1621 (okay, actually, that’s going back to 1869) and reminds us that high-level football games on Thanksgiving are nearly as old as the official Thanksgiving holiday itself.  

Orville Mulligan: Sports Writer is an audio drama podcast from Number 80 Productions and the Sports History Network.

Thanksgiving and Football (or maybe Vice Versa) script & story by Os Davis.

Orville Mulligan: Sports Writer stars Doug Fye, Ilona Fye, and Eric Bodwell. Thanksgiving and Football (or maybe Vice Versa) co-stars, in order of appearance, Caedmon Holland, Forrest Hartl and Wayne Brett.

Additional direction by Eric Bodwell. Sound recording and primary editing by Don McIver.

The theme song of Orville Mulligan: Sports Writer is “the Dayton Triangles Rag” and was arranged and performed by Bruce Smith. 

Other tracks in this episode include

•  “Jazz Club” by Kriss (available through fair-use agreement via FreeMusicArchive.org);

•  “Litany of the Street” by Silverman Sound Studios;

•  “Bimini Bay” (1921) by the Benson Orchestra of Chicago; and

•  “Orville Mulligan: Sports Writer (Outro)” by David Liso of Dynamo Stairs.

Orville Mulligan: Sports Writer is produced by Os Davis and Darin Hayes. Series concept by Darrin Hayes.

Stay tuned for more episodes of Orville Mulligan: Sports Writer – coming soon!

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

HIGHLIGHTED SHOW - MINNESOTA SPORTS HISTORY SHOW

Each episode explores the rich history of Minnesota sports and considers its impact on the current cultural zeitgeist. The Minnesota Sports History Show strives to entertain as well as inform, tickle the sense of nostalgia, and share the joy and hardships of triumph and heartbreak. Episodes will range from musings about the Dome Dog era to interviews with athletes and sports personalities.

Learn more about the show on the Sports History Network.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sports History Network Theme Song

This theme song was produced by Ron "Tyke" Oliver of Music Meets Sportz

The Playbook is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

NETWORK SPONSORS

Row One - the vintage shop for sports history fans!

HIGHLIGHTED SHOW

Hello everyone, my name is Zach, and this is my co-host Jarod, and we are The Playbook Podcast. Where we are here to talk about the Past, Present, and Future of the Gridiron, The Hardwood, and even all the way out to the Octagon.

We are just two fans who not only love our sports teams but the play of the game and how it evolved from past to now. So get ready to open them playbooks with us and we hope you enjoy it.

Learn more about the show on the Sports History Network.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sports History Network Theme Song

This theme song was produced by Ron "Tyke" Oliver of Music Meets Sportz