Past Our Prime

The November 1, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated featured World Series MVP Johnny Bench on the cover, captured in the middle of the Cincinnati Reds’ dominant World Series sweep of the New York Yankees. The Big Red Machine had just claimed its second straight championship, and the magazine celebrated the team’s power, precision, and place among the greatest clubs of the decade. Inside, the focus stayed largely on baseball’s fall classic, but the sports world of late 1976 was full of other stories waiting to be told — including one unfolding up the Hudson River at West Point, where a lanky quarterback named Leamon Hall was quietly rewriting Army’s passing record book.

Hall’s 1976 season stands as one of the most prolific aerial campaigns in Army football history. The 6-foot-5 junior threw for 2,174 yards and 15 touchdowns on 344 attempts, numbers almost unheard of for a service academy team in that era. He was never a dual-threat option quarterback; he was a pure passer who forced the Black Knights to open up their offense. By the time his career ended he owned virtually every meaningful passing record at West Point — single-game, single-season, and career — and remains one of the most productive quarterbacks the Academy has ever produced.

This week on Past Our Prime we welcome Army football historian Omar-Rashon Borja, West Point Class of 2021 and a lifelong Cadets fan. Omar explains how Hall blossomed under head coach Homer Smith, who adjusted the offense to take advantage of his strong arm. He also takes us back to the 1940s, arguing that the 1944 Army team — which outscored its opponents 504-35 across nine wins — might be the greatest not only in program history but in all of college football. Omar walks through the three Heisman winners — Doc Blanchard, Glenn Davis, and Pete Dawkins — and makes the case that Davis may have been the best player Army ever put on the field. We ask him what it meant for the country to see the Cadets at their absolute peak during the final years of World War II, when college football still ruled the American sports landscape and the team from West Point stood at the center of it.

It’s a powerful look back at some of the biggest names in college football history — men who suited up when the nation needed them most — and we have the perfect historian to tell their stories. Omar-Rashon Borja joins us this week on Past Our Prime.

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On the cover of the October 25, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated stand two Hall of Famers—Dave Cowens and Julius Erving—as four ABA teams prepare to join the NBA and the Doctor arrives to change the league forever. Cowens, the relentless Celtic center fresh off a championship, shares the spotlight with Dr. J just as the merger brings dazzling new talent into the established league. Inside the magazine, the Big Red Machine rolls over the Yankees, George Foreman steamrolls another challenger, and Seattle Slew announces himself as a future champion.

Julius Erving appeared on that cover in a New York Nets uniform, symbolizing the ABA’s arrival in the NBA, yet the image was already outdated by the time the magazine hit newsstands. Just days earlier the financially strapped Nets had sold their transcendent superstar to the Philadelphia 76ers, a transaction that instantly altered both franchises. The Nets lost the player who defined them and slipped into years of struggle, while the 76ers gained the cornerstone of a new era that would carry them to the 1977 Finals and a championship in 1983.

Bob Ryan joins Past Our Prime for the fifth time and takes us inside the seismic shift of the 1976 ABA-NBA merger, beginning with the immediate impact Julius Erving had on the league. Ryan recalls first seeing a young Erving as a sophomore at UMass, when the future Doctor dropped 26 points and 18 rebounds long before the afro and the nickname. He walks through the wave of talent the merger delivered and how the 76ers, armed with Dr. J, looked ready to claim a title only to run into a Bill Walton-led Portland team at the absolute peak of its powers.

Ryan also explains why Dave Cowens briefly left the Celtics after Red Auerbach made one of the worst decisions of his career by trading Paul Silas, reflects on the “tortured soul” that was Jerry West, and shares that John Havlicek would never have retired when he did had he known how great Larry Bird was going to be. The same intensity that made Cowens great also made the Silas trade especially hard to accept. So much so that Cowens walked away from the game for a bit and famously took a job driving a taxi around Boston before eventually returning. It’s a rich conversation about a pivotal moment in basketball history—and Bob Ryan was there to see it all and now to tell it all… this week on Past Our Prime.

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Chuck Foreman was one of the NFL’s most versatile and exciting running backs of the 1970s, a key weapon in the Minnesota Vikings’ run of success that included three Super Bowl appearances. Nicknamed “The Spin Doctor” for his elusive running style, Foreman was as dangerous catching passes out of the backfield as he was carrying the football. Named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1973 and a five-time Pro Bowl selection, he became a central figure in the Vikings’ offense alongside quarterback Fran Tarkenton and helped define an era of Minnesota football built on toughness, creativity, and winning.

The October 18, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated featured Foreman on the cover in a dynamic action shot by photographer Walter Iooss Jr., captured while rushing against the Chicago Bears on October 10 in Bloomington. The cover highlighted his powerful presence during another tight Vikings victory—a 20-19 “squeaker” in which Minnesota dominated the first half before the Bears surged back in the second. Inside, Robert F. Jones’s story “The Two-for-One Special” detailed the back-and-forth contest and underscored how the Vikings continued their habit of winning close games that season with Foreman as a central force in their potent offense.

On the Past Our Prime podcast, Foreman joins a growing list of Vikings legends that includes fellow great Fran Tarkenton and his dear friend Ed White, the very first guest in the history of the show. He talks about how coach Bud Grant helped mold him into the game’s original dual-threat back, leading the entire NFL in receptions as a fullback in 1975 while scoring 22 touchdowns, then following it up with another Pro Bowl season in 1976. Foreman explains how that innovative Vikings offense was really a precursor to the famous West Coast offense, yet never quite gets the credit it deserves.

He gets honest about how losing all those Super Bowls and being branded a “loser” still stings to this day, because those teams were loaded with great players and even greater men. Foreman also reflects on finishing second in the 1975 MVP voting to his quarterback and close friend Tarkenton, and shares stories about learning to catch the ball in the brutal, freezing Minneapolis weather—conditions that became a real home-field advantage for the purple and gold. The great Chuck Foreman, this week on Past Our Prime.

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The October 11, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated featured Cincinnati Reds slugger George Foster on the cover, at a time when the Big Red Machine was chasing its second consecutive World Series championship. Foster was becoming one of baseball’s most feared power hitters, joining Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Pete Rose in a lineup that overwhelmed opponents. The Reds would go on to sweep the Phillies in the NLCS and the Yankees in the World Series, cementing their place among baseball’s all-time great teams.

This week on Past Our Prime, we welcome former major league pitcher and longtime Reds broadcaster Chris Welsh as we look back at that incredible team from half a century ago. Welsh tells us how Foster developed into one of the game’s most dangerous hitters—and reveals the funny side of George that fans rarely got to see.

Welsh also shares how Pete Rose helped him get one last shot in the big leagues, bringing him back to his hometown Reds. He explains how he broke into broadcasting with no experience, no résumé and no credentials beyond a love of baseball—and somehow turned that opportunity into a career spanning more than three decades. He also reveals how Marty Brennaman gave him the nickname “The Creeper” and tells a hilarious story about how he avoided getting intimate with Reds owner Marge Schott.

Chris Welsh has been in baseball for over 40 years, and he's got the stories to match... and he shares a good deal of them this week on Past Our Prime. Download, listen... like... you know the drill.

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The 1976 Maryland Terrapins had their breakout season under quarterback Mark Manges, a 6'3", 220-pound junior out of Cumberland, Maryland, who landed on the October 4, 1976 cover of Sports Illustrated under the headline “Maryland on the Move,” captured mid-scramble against Syracuse by photographer Walter Iooss Jr. Manges, a dual-threat “tackle-busting” quarterback who passed for 1,145 yards on just 139 attempts while also rushing for 448 yards and clearing holes for his running backs, helped lead Maryland to an extraordinary 11-0 start that season, pushing the Terrapins to a No. 6 national ranking before the team ultimately fell to Houston 30-21 in the Cotton Bowl. His performance earned him First-team All-ACC honors, and the cover appearance remains one of the signature moments in Maryland football history — a program that, as the SI piece on his legacy later noted, became more popular in the state that fall “than crab cakes.”

That same October 4, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated also featured a photo of another quarterback making his mark that fall: Mike Rae of the Oakland Raiders. When starter Ken Stabler went down with a knee injury early in the season, the former USC Trojan stepped in against the Houston Oilers on September 26 and delivered a steady 13-of-22 performance for 170 yards and two touchdown passes to Cliff Branch in a narrow 14-13 victory that kept the Raiders undefeated at 3-0. Rae’s calm, efficient play provided exactly the insurance John Madden’s team needed.

Rae would start twice that year and win both games, including a 24-0 victory over San Diego in the regular-season finale while Stabler rested. His steady presence helped stabilize a loaded Raiders squad that went on to win Super Bowl XI at the Rose Bowl — the same stadium where Rae had capped off a perfect national championship season for USC under coach John McKay just a few years earlier.

Mike Rae swings by the Past Our Prime podcast to talk about what it was really like being the guy who had to step in whenever Kenny “The Snake” Stabler went down for that multi-talented 1970s Raiders team. He gets into all the bigger-than-life personalities around him — owner Al Davis running the show his own way, John Madden pacing the sidelines, and of course Stabler himself. Rae also reflects on returning to the Rose Bowl for the Super Bowl, leaving Oakland for Tampa Bay and reuniting with his college coach, starting his career in the CFL, and wrapping things up in the USFL. And yeah… he drops a great story about the ultimate Raiders super fan, James Garner — Mr. Rockford himself. It’s a fun one.

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The September 27, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated put Ken Norton on the cover under the headline “All Set to Slam in the Rubber Match,” previewing his highly anticipated third and final showdown with Muhammad Ali, set for September 28 at Yankee Stadium—the last fight ever held at the original ballpark. The trilogy stood at a fascinating 1-1 split: Norton had famously broken Ali’s jaw to win a decision in their first bout back in 1973, while Ali had claimed a close, disputed decision in their 1975 rematch, setting up a rubber match billed as a true toss-up between two evenly matched heavyweights.

Despite most ringside observers and commentators feeling Norton had done enough to win the fight, Ali was awarded a controversial 15-round unanimous decision, retaining his WBA, WBC, and Ring heavyweight titles in what remains one of the most hotly debated verdicts in boxing history—a result so contentious that Ali himself later admitted, “Kenny’s style is too difficult for me. I can’t beat him, and I sure don’t want to fight him again.” This despite the fact that Ali never lost a rematch, going 5-0 against Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and Leon Spinks.

It was one of the many traits that made Ali the greatest Larry Merchant recalled when we recently chatted us from his home in Southern California. Born in 1931 in New York, Merchant rose from newspaper columns at the Philadelphia Daily News and New York Post to become the definitive voice of boxing on television. Joining HBO in 1978, he spent 35 years as its lead ringside analyst, delivering sharp, fearless commentary and post-fight interviews alongside Jim Lampley and others on countless championship bouts. Known for his poetic insights, skepticism of hype, and memorable confrontations—most famously telling Floyd Mayweather he wished he were 50 years younger so he could kick his ass—Merchant elevated the role of the boxing analyst. A Sam Taub Award winner and inductee into both the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame, he is widely regarded as the greatest television boxing analyst of all time.

Larry Merchant steps into the squared circle of the Past Our Prime podcast to lace up and talk the historic fights he witnessed ringside over the decades. He takes us back to 1938, when his old man let him stay up late to listen to the second Joe Louis-Max Schmeling war on the radio—and from that night on, the kid was hooked for life. He reflects on the great Muhammad Ali and how even Nelson Mandela, locked away in a South African prison cell, followed the Champ’s every move. Merchant answers the ultimate question: who was the best pound-for-pound fighter he ever laid eyes on. He zeros in on that unforgettable night in Japan when he first knew Iron Mike Tyson was in serious trouble against Buster Douglas, then fast-forwards four years to the night his colleague and friend George Foreman shocked the world by reclaiming the heavyweight crown at age 45. A living boxing historian who covered everyone from Sugar Ray Robinson to Sugar Ray Leonard, Merchant never backed down from firing the toughest questions at the toughest guys in the game. Larry Merchant… all 95 years of him… on the Past Our Prime podcast.

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Jimmy Connors capped off a dominant tennis season by capturing the 1976 U.S. Open, defeating rival Björn Borg 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 in a thrilling four-set final at Forest Hills, a result that snapped Borg's 19-match winning streak and improved Connors' career head-to-head record against him to 6-1. It marked the second of what would eventually become five U.S. Open titles for Connors, cementing his place among the sport's all-time greats, tied for the most Open-era U.S. Open championships alongside future legends Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. The victory earned Connors the cover of the September 20, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated, capturing him at the height of his powers and popularity as, in many ways, the toast of New York.

On the women’s side of things, Chris Evert delivered one of the most dominant performances in U.S. Open history that same year, capturing her second title at Forest Hills by winning all six of her matches by a staggering combined score of 72-13. Her run extended a clay-court winning streak pushing toward 101 consecutive victories, closing out the tournament with a lopsided 6-3, 6-0 defeat of Evonne Goolagong in the final. Evert herself described feeling "spacey" throughout the week — a state many athletes would recognize as being fully "in the zone" — and her dominance was so complete that it sparked genuine debate about a growing talent gap in the women's game, commentary Evert brushed off even as observers wondered whether anyone, including a young up-and-comer named Tracy Austin, could challenge her for years to come.

Curry Kirkpatrick, the celebrated Sports Illustrated writer whose vivid prose captured both champions' runs that year, joins us on Past Our Prime to revisit that unforgettable Forest Hills tournament from the inside. Kirkpatrick shares firsthand memories of covering Connors' gritty triumph over Borg and Evert's near-flawless march through the women's draw, along with insight into Borg himself — the mysterious, icy-cool Swede whose immense talent and unreadable composure made him one of tennis's most fascinating enigmas, even in defeat. And no conversation about that tournament would be complete without Ilie Nastase, the brilliant but combustible showman whose infamous meltdown against Hans-Jürgen Pohmann threw the entire event into chaos — Kirkpatrick reflects on what it was like witnessing that madness unfold in real time, and how Nastase's genius and volatility were often two sides of the very same coin. And he talks at length about the greatest rivalry in tennis history… Chrissy v Martina… and how that intense rivalry has blossomed into a lifelong friendship.

Curry joins POP for the sixth time and is better than ever as we talk about the golden age of American tennis by the man who saw it all... on Past Our Prime.

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Bert Jones was one of the NFL’s most talented and colorful quarterbacks of the 1970s. The Baltimore Colts selected him with the second overall pick in the 1973 NFL Draft, and the “Ruston Rifle” quickly earned a reputation for his powerful arm, toughness and fearless style of play. He was named NFL Rookie of the Year in 1973 and helped transform the Colts from a 2–12 team in 1974 into an AFC East contender just a year later.

The September 13, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated featured Jones on its NFL preview cover, a reflection of just how quickly he and the Colts had risen. Jones talks about facing—and beating—the infamous Sports Illustrated jinx. He also takes us back to 1975, when the Colts stumbled out of the gate at 1–4 before finally jelling and reeling off nine straight victories to win the division over Don Shula’s Miami Dolphins.

Jones followed that turnaround with a sensational 1976 season, joining his friend Johnny Unitas and Earl Morrall—and later Peyton Manning—as Baltimore Colts quarterbacks to win NFL MVP honors as well as another AFC East title. Jones tells us the best quarterback he ever saw was actually Archie Manning, Peyton’s father. And the best player he ever went up against was a member of Pittsburgh’s legendary Steel Curtain defense—but it might not be who you think. He also laughs about the time he gave Howard Cosell an inside scoop that turned out spectacularly wrong and shares his thoughts on the painful day the Colts left Baltimore.

Jones joins a remarkable Past Our Prime guest list of NFL greats that includes Larry Csonka, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Jack Ham and many more. It’s a fascinating trip back to the NFL of the 1970s with one of the era’s greatest and toughest quarterbacks—talking about the games, the characters, the triumphs, the disappointments and the memories that have lasted for nearly 50 years. Bert Jones on Past Our Prime.

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The September 6, 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated — the magazine's annual College Football Preview — carried the bold headline "Michigan Is No. 1," featuring a close-up cover shot of Wolverines sophomore quarterback Rick Leach. The pick reflected genuine optimism around Bo Schembechler's program, with Leach, a dual-threat talent, taking over as full-time starter after a rocky freshman finish that had cost Michigan a shot at the Rose Bowl. That '76 season proved Leach's breakout campaign — he'd start all 12 games, lead Michigan to a 10-2 record and a No. 3 final ranking, and never lose to Ohio State again — making SI's early faith in him look remarkably well-placed.

Notre Dame's preseason outlook that same year was far more tempered, coming a year removed from Rudy Ruettiger's iconic final play against Georgia Tech in November 1975. Second-year coach Dan Devine, still working to fill Ara Parseghian's enormous shoes, had endured a rocky 8-3 debut season that didn't include a bowl bid, and a promising young backup quarterback named Joe Montana suffered a season-ending shoulder separation before 1976 even began, forcing Devine to lean again on returning starter Rick Slager. The Irish opened ranked No. 11 but were promptly throttled 31-10 by ninth-ranked Pittsburgh and Tony Dorsett — ironically, a Panthers team that would go on to win the national championship that year. Notre Dame recovered to finish 9-3 with a Gator Bowl win over Penn State, quietly building the foundation that would carry Montana and the Irish to a national title just one season later.

Ruettiger's own path to Notre Dame was defined almost entirely by persistence rather than natural talent — undersized, dyslexic, and academically underprepared, he was rejected multiple times before finally gaining admission in 1974, then walked onto the football team with no scholarship and virtually no chance of meaningful playing time. His singular moment of glory came on that November day against Georgia Tech, when Devine sent him in for the final play, allowing Rudy to record a symbolic sack and get carried off the field by his teammates. Nearly two decades later, his story became the 1993 film "Rudy," starring Sean Astin, which took real dramatic liberties but nonetheless struck such an emotional chord that it transformed Ruettiger's story into an enduring symbol of perseverance recognized far beyond the world of sports.

Rudy joins us to walk through the three dreams that defined his life — getting into Notre Dame, making the football team, and finally, the achievement he says mattered most, actually earning his Notre Dame degree. He shares a remarkable story about Kobe Bryant once telling him how deeply his journey had resonated with him, reflects on which was truly harder — cracking Notre Dame's admissions wall or getting his story made into a movie — and takes us back to the gut-wrenching anxiety of the week before the Georgia Tech game, when he feared his moment might never come. And he explains that his lone sack wasn't luck at all, but years of preparation meeting a single instant.

A man who built an entire life chasing down dreams, and who'll tell you the journey mattered every bit as much as the destination, shares his incredible story this week — Rudy, on Past Our Prime.

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Reggie Jackson graced the August 30, 1976 cover of Sports Illustrated during the single strangest season of his Hall of Fame career — his lone year as a Baltimore Oriole. Fifty years later, the cover still surprises people who forget he ever played for anyone besides Oakland, the Yankees, or California. Jackson wasn't winding down; he was a superstar in his prime when A's owner Charlie Finley cut his salary 20% while dismantling Oakland's three-peat championship roster, prompting Jackson to refuse to sign and Finley to trade him to Baltimore that April. Even then, Jackson held out for a bigger deal and didn't report for a month, finally signing a $200,000 contract for that one season before moving to the Bronx Zoo in 1977.

A decade later, Jackson would wind down his career in Oakland — and the person who watched it happen up close, night after night, was Susan Fornoff. A University of Maryland journalism grad who cut her teeth at the Baltimore News-American and USA Today, Fornoff took over as the A's beat writer for the Sacramento Bee in 1985, becoming one of the pioneering women fighting for real locker room access rather than the token accommodations most teams offered at the time.

That fight produced one of the sport's most infamous incidents of hostility toward women reporters. A's slugger Dave Kingman froze Fornoff out of the clubhouse and refused to speak to reporters in her presence after his 400th home run, before escalating in 1986 by sending her a live rat in a box with a tag on it that read, “ My name is Sue”— an act that drew a $3,500 fine from the club but little in the way of contrition from Kingman himself. Fornoff went on to co-found the Association for Women in Sports Media in 1987, and in 1993 turned her experiences into the memoir Lady in the Locker Room: Uncovering the Oakland Athletics, chronicling sexism both in the clubhouse and inside sports departments, with a cast of characters that included Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Tony La Russa, Dennis Eckersley, Dave Stewart — and Reggie Jackson himself.

Now Fornoff joins Past Our Prime to bring that history full circle, centering the conversation on Jackson's final major league season in 1987 and offering a beat reporter's view of Mr. October as his career wound down. She talks candidly about the Kingman incident, recalling a gut sense that something was off with him in the days before it happened, and reflects on how, even four decades later, the moment still carries weight for her in ways she didn't expect. From there she widens the lens to where women in sports media stand today, contrasting the hostility she faced breaking in during the '80s with the far more accepted — if still imperfect — landscape now. The author of Lady in the Locker Room is now Lady on the Podcast: Susan Fornoff, on Past Our Prime.

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