Past Our Prime

There was a time when the winner of the Indianapolis 500 was a household name in America. AJ Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Under, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears to name a few. Legends of the sport and none were any bigger than Johnny Rutherford who won the 500 in 1974... and in 1976... and in 1980... that's right, he took the checkered flag 3 times in 6 years... but on the Past Our Prime podcast, he'll tell us about the one that got away in 75 that still eats him up to this day...

We'll talk about some of the scariest crashes of his career including one where he somehow avoided disaster when two others died at the Brickyard in 1973... and the one in 66 that kept him from racing for years... until he returned better than ever.

The biggest wins and disappointments from one of Auto Racing's all-time greats... Lone Star JR recollects on the highs and lows of a career that 50 years ago became immortalized when he won the Indy 500 for the first time.

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It's July 17, 1974 and Dodgers pitcher Tommy John is in the midst of his best season in baseball. He's 13-3 with an ERA of 2.59 and helping lead Los Angeles to first place in the NL West. And then in the 3rd inning that day against the Montreal Expos, one pitch changed his season, his career and the course of baseball history.

One pitch.

Tommy John was hurt, and while they tried resting his sore left elbow, that wasn't doing the trick and on September 25, 1974, Dr. Frank Jobe performed the surgery and when he was asked what it was called he said, “Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction of the elbow using ipsilateral palmaris longus tendon graft”. Understandably, he grew tired of having to say that and referred to it as "the surgery I performed on Tommy John." And soon enough, Tommy John surgery was part of the American lexicon.

Now, 50 years after undergoing this groundbreaking surgery, Tommy joins us on the Past Our Prime podcast and talks about that time in his life, the rehab, and the comeback that allowed him to win 164 games after returning from the surgery named after him. His 288 career wins is more than anyone but Roger Clemens who is not in the Hall of Fame, and the 188 No Decisions he endured are the most in baseball history... but the true irony of TJ not being a Hall of Famer -- yet -- is that had he not had to have Tommy John surgery, he certainly would have gotten to 300 wins... the golden ticket to Cooperstown.

It's a look back at a time when this arm injury ended many careers, until Tommy John said to Dr. Jobe... not me. Let's fix this.

And that's just what they did.

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If one was asked who is the most successful coach in UCLA history, John Wooden's name would quickly come to mind... but what if I told you there was a coach who had almost double the National Championships of the famous hoops coach? Yes, Al Scates, the other Wizard of Westwood won 19 titles with his UCLA Bruins in 48 years of coaching volleyball. And even though he has been retired for a number of years, he left the program in good shape as they just won their 2nd straight Championship this month... how was he so good? He'll tell you one simple reason... good players.

Players like Jim Menges... an All-American under Scates and part of the 1974 National Championship team, he graduated, and headed back to where he came from... the ocean... and one of the true legends of Beach Volleyball started an amazing career on the sands of Southern California beaches... He and his partners dominated the Beach Volleyball scene for much of the 70's with Menges and his UCLA buddy Greg Lee winning a still record 13 tournaments in a row at one point.

It's two of Volleyball's most successful men in one show. A Hall of Fame Coach and a Hall of Fame Player talking wins, spikes, digs, championships, and mostly.... good times on the Past Our Prime podcast.

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The 1974 NBA Finals was a classic 7-game affair between the Celtics and the Bucks in which the road team won 5 games, including the final 4 contests. The Bucks won a thrilling double overtime game 6, in Boston to bring it back to Milwaukee. All the momentum was with the Bucks.

But there was one thing in Bostons favor: Celtics Pride.

Boston Globe Hall of Fame writer Bob Ryan literally wrote the book on that titled Celtics Pride: The Rebuilding of Boston's World Championship Basketball Team. It was the first Championship for the C's without Bill Russell and Ryan tells us how Boston shocked the Milwaukee Bucks and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to win banner #12.

Could the Bucks have won had they had their star point guard, Lucius Allen? Lucius seems to think so. But a knee injury sidelined Allen for the series and the Celtics took advantage of that.

Ryan and Allen join us for a wonderful discussion of what took place 50 years ago and what could have been. The favorites Kareem and Oscar vs the underdogs Havlicek and Cowens.

A Finals for the ages on the Past Our Prime podcast.

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They were known as the Broad Street Bullies. They never met a fight they didn't want.

They would beat you up... and then they would beat you down...

But most of all... they would just beat you. And for two straight years they did just that in winning back-to-back Stanley Cups.

Bernie Parent was the last man of defense for those great Philadelphia Flyers teams and came up with shutouts in clinching Cup wins two years running. A 2-time Conn Smythe winner as well as a 2-time Vezina Trophy recipient, Parent had a Hall of Fame career in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia. A city that loved him and that he loved right back---then and now.

Parent tells us about how he almost celebrated that first win too soon, how his boyhood idol mentored him into a future Hall of Famer, and how he has stayed sober for the past 46 years!

It's a great talk with one of the greatest goalies to ever play in the NHL as we look back on the Flyers Stanley Cup Championships from May of 1974 on the Past Our Prime podcast.

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It was the year after Secretariat owned the horse racing world... the 100th Running of the Roses... the biggest field in Kentucky Derby history... The Sport of Kings was riding high and in Arkansas, a 15-year old prodigy was taking it all in. Randy Moss has been covering horse racing since he was 13 years old... yes, you read that correctly... at age 13, he was giving out picks on the ponies in the local paper... and now, he's about to cover his 44th Kentucky Derby. Cannonade won the 74 race with Angel Cordero in the saddle with fellow Hall of Famer, Woody Stephens the trainer. Could they possibly surpass the level of excitement Secretariat had provided a year earlier? What about the state of racing in 2024? And who does Moss like in this years race? We talk with an expert in the field of horse racing as they head towards the gate... on the Past Our Prime podcast.

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It's 1974, and Jenny Fulle wants to play ball... Little League baseball.

With the boys.

That's gonna be a problem. Undaunted by being rejected at every turn, she writes a letter to President Nixon setting in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead her to being the first girl to ever legally play Little League. She was a pioneer 50 years ago and continues that to this day as a visual effects producer for such Major Motion Pictures as Apollo 13, Seabiscuit, Lord of the Rings and many more.

It's a great chat with a girl who just wanted to have fun... playing with the boys... and hitting dingers... Join us for an illuminating conversation with a woman who changed the sports landscape for girls half a century ago on the Past Our Prime podcast.

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We know who hit #715--Hank Aaron.

We know who threw #715-- Al Downing

Now meet who caught #715 -- Tom House... correction... Dr. Tom House.

The former MLB pitcher turned Quarterback guru talks about the night Hank hit that record breaking home run... how Aaron's mother was ready to die for her son... and how he caught the ball and became a part of Hank's Hall of Fame exhibit...

House went on to get his PhD in psychology and helped Nolan Ryan pitch until he was 46. Then he turned his attention to the NFL, and guided Drew Brees and Tom Brady to play into their 40's.

He's lived an incredible life and shared many of his insights and interesting stories on the Past Our Prime podcast.

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How does 383 strikeouts sound? 24 wins? 40-40 anyone?

Who would have been the top pick in a 1974 Fantasy Baseball Draft? Former Dodgers Vice President of Communications Gary Miereanu joins the boys to talk about some of the stars from 50 years ago who might have gone in the first round of a Rotisserie Baseball League draft heading into the 1974 season. It's a bonus segment from the Past Our Prime podcast to celebrate the start of baseball now... and then!

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The 1974 baseball season was littered with players who would one day be enshrined in Cooperstown. But on the cover of the Sports Illustrated issue was Pete Rose, one of the few who isn't in the Hall of Fame, but not because Pete couldn't play... he was the MVP in 1973, and is baseball's all-time leader in hits, but.... well, you know... Former Sportswriter and VP of Communications for the Dodgers, Gary Miereanu joins us to look back at a phenomenal time in baseball as the National Pastime was still king of the Sports World in America. Willie Stargell, Steve Garvey, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer and the Toy Cannon, Jimmy Wynn are a handful of the players we discuss in this episode. And as a bonus, a 2nd episode where we do a mock draft of a first round of fantasy baseball... if there was such a thing back 50 years ago.

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