Past Our Prime

The week of April 21, 1975 saw Jack Nicklaus on the cover of Sports Illustrated after he had won his 5th Masters in a classic tournament by one stroke over Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller. It was the Golden Bear’s 13th major championship and came one year after he had already been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Inside that issue was another excerpt from the book Nice Guys Finish Last by another Hall of Famer… Leo Durocher was put into Cooperstown after amassing the 5th most wins as a manager when he retired after the 1973 season with the Houston Astros with a total of 2,008 victories which now ranks him 12th all-time. In his 23 years as a skipper, Leo the Lip won one World Series which came in 1954 and went to another in '51 when his Giants overcame the Dodgers 13.5 game lead and won the pennant on the Shot Heard Round the World before beating the Yankees in 6 games.

It was one of the greatest comebacks in sports history and Bobby Thomson became a legend for his 3-run pennant winning HR off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers to complete the Giants ascent to the Fall Classic. A moment that will forever live in baseball lore that now 74 years later lives in controversy.

That’s because of a telescope, a buzzer and a scheme the Giants implemented that helped them figure out what pitches were coming and catapulted New York to finish the season winning 37 of their final 44 games and overtake the Dodgers on the final pitch of the final inning of the final game of their season prior to the World Series.

A fastball that Thomson knew was coming.

Author and journalist Joshua Prager heard about this story and started to investigate it, and soon he had enough to write a front-page story for the Wall Street Journal and in 2006, a book called The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World. He goes into great detail of how the Giants took their 3rd base coach, Herman Franks, and put him in the clubhouse in centerfield armed with a telescope and a buzzer to alter the course of baseball history.

Prager joins us on Past Our Prime and tells us how Thomson and Branca’s lives were both forever altered by that one pitch and how years later they were able to get past it and move on. He tells us how Franks confessed to him what took place right before he died, over 50 years after it all took place. And he tells us how a young 20-year old kid by the name of Willie Mays wanted to know what pitches were coming but didn’t want to come to bat in that bottom of the 9th inning and watched from the on-deck circle as Thompson connected for the famous/infamous 3-run blast.

Before the Astros banged their way to a World Series title in 2018 it was the Giants and Leo Durocher who were doing whatever it took to get an advantage back in 1951. Nice guys finish last but what about cheaters? In this case, they became world champs and we tell you how it all went down with Joshua Prager on this weeks Past Our Prime podcast. 

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The strongest man in the world 50 years ago was Vasily Alekseyev of the Soviet Union and there he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated on April 14th, 1975. The question is… was he a nice guy? Apparently the answer was no.

Because also in that issue was the 2nd part of a 4 part series from the book, “Nice Guys Finish Last,” from former player and Hall of Fame manager, Leo Durocher. The “Lip” was a heckuva ballplayer, spanning 20 years with the Yankees, Reds, Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers from 1925-1945. A 3-time All-Star, and 4-time World Series champion, Durocher ended his playing days as a player/manager in Brooklyn and would go on to retire as the 5th winningest skipper in MLB history.

Starting in 1939 with the Dodgers and then spending 8 more years with the Nw York Giants from 1948-1955, Durocher won his only World Series as a manager when Willie Mays and the Giants swept the Cleveland Indians in 1954. The next year was his last in New York and he wouldn’t manage again until the Cubs hired him in 1966. Chicago was 59-103 in his first season guiding the team but didn’t have a losing season in the remainder of his 5+ seasons at the helm. He would finish his Hall of Fame managerial career in Houston with another winning season in 1973.

On that ’73 teams was a young lefty who started 40 games for the Astros, completing 12 of them and amassing 279 innings pitched. Jerry Reuss was just 23 years old when he played for Durocher and the two had an adventurous time together with Durocher riding his young stud as often as he could, and Reuss often questioning the tactics of the veteran manager. It was a memorable season in Houston for the southpaw who would go on to win 220 games in his 22 years in the bigs.

Reuss tells us how he pranked Dave Parker when he and The Cobra met up with Muhammad Ali in an elevator while playing for the Pirates. He takes us to Candlestick Park on a warm June night in 1980 when he no-hit the Giants, and he recounts the time Ron Cey was beaned in the head by a Goose Gossage fastball in the ’81 world Series.

But more than anything we talk to Reuss about what was it like for a kid born in 1950 to play for a manager who had been managing in the majors for 23 years by the time their paths crossed in the Lone Star state. It was a bumpy ride to say the least. Reuss tells us that much of it was his fault and that he and Durocher didn’t see eye-to-eye most of the time. He goes on to tell us that years later they met up in the office of another Dodgers manager, Tommy Lasorda, and both admitted they could have handled things differently. Reuss and The Lip patched things up and shortly thereafter, Durocher passed away. 

One of the greatest managers in baseball history was a mercurial and difficult man who never finished last in his 24 years as a manager. Was it because he was a Hall of Fame manager or because only Nice Guys Finish Last? In Durocher’s case… probably a little of both. Listen, download, subscribe and review the Past Our Prime podcast.

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On March 31, 1975, the UCLA Bruins beat the Kentucky Wildcats 92-85 for the 10th and final championship under the legendary Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden. The greatest collegiate coach in U.S. history retired after his team’s 7-point win at the Sports Arena in San Diego. UCLA was the best in college basketball in 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 & 1975. An astonishing 10 titles in 12 years! Nothing in major collegiate sports compares to the dominance of what Wooden accomplished in his final dozen years in Westwood.

A week later, Steve Garvey was on the April 7, 1975 issue of SI, but the story that captivated the sports world was the final game of Wooden’s time at UCLA. The end of an era that will never be replicated… and he went out a champion.

Now in retirement at the age of 64, Wooden retreated to his home and continued to be a mentor to the many players who played for him at UCLA, notably, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Lucius Allen, Larry Farmer and countless others. His beloved wife Nell passed in 1985 and Coach fell into a deep funk. His children were deeply worried about the mental anguish the widowed Wooden was enduring with the passing of his wife after 53 years of marriage. Gradually he came out of it with the help of his family, friends, and players who visited with him regularly.

One of those who saw Coach Wooden on a regular basis for home visits was his podiatrist, Dr. Michael Levi. Michael would come often to check on the now 80+ year old Coach Wooden and the two soon became more than just a doctor-patient relationship. They would often have breakfast together and talk about family, life, baseball, God, books and any other topic that Wooden found interesting… which was everything. Michael would return home and write down everything that had taken place upon his visit with Coach… and in 2016, 6 years after Coach Wooden was laid to rest at the age of 99, Levi published a book with the help of former L.A. times writer Larry Stewart called, “Wednesdays with Wooden.”

Levi talks about how he went to a camp as a 6-year old and saw Wooden for the first time and how is father idolized the legendary Bruins coach. He tells us on the Past Our Prime podcast how he and Wooden became friends over their time together and how he was able to give his father the best birthday gift ever… lunch with Coach Wooden. Levi tells us about the depression that felled the Coach after the death of Nell and what brought him out of it and how the phone never stopped ringing at Coach Wooden’s house with players calling to check up on him constantly throughout the day…. Every day…

It’s an intimate and personal look at the most successful college coach in NCAA history from a man who checked on Wooden’s feet, and ended up getting a piece of his heart. Listen wherever you get your podcasts and hit that subscribe button while you’re at it.

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1975 was a banner year for Rookies in Major League Baseball. Fred Lynn broke onto the scene in Boston and won Rookie of the Year and MVP… the first player ever to do that. And in the National League, John, “The Count” Montefusco took home the honors of National League Rookie of the Year. The Giants hurler narrowly beat out The Kid, Gary Carter, who went on to have a Hall of Fame career as a catcher.

The only other player to get a vote for American League Rookie of the Year was Lynn’s teammate, a future Hall of Famer himself, Jim Rice who had a fantastic freshman year.

The 3rd Hall of Famer in that rookie class was a pitcher in Cleveland by the name of Dennis Eckersley. But he wasn’t the only young stud on that staff… Enter The Amazing Emu… Jim Kern. 

A non-drafted pitcher out of Midland, Michigan, Kern didn’t rise quickly through the minors and took a detour when he joined the marines in 1969. After a year of serving and 5 more in the reserves, Kern’s baseball career started to take off and after a brief callus to the bigs in ’74, he came up for good in ’75. As a starter he had inconsistent success but with Frank Robinson as his manager, he converted to a receiver in 1976 and a star was born.

One of the hardest throwers in the game, Kern took to his new role immediately, winning 10 games and saving 15 with an ERA of 2.37 over 117 innings. He was an American League All-Star the next three seasons culminating in 1979 when he won 13 games out of the pen and saved another 29 while amassing 143 innings with an ERA of 1.57. A season for the ages for the 6’5 flamethrower.

Unfortunately injuries plagued Kern for much of the rest of his career. He bounced around the league and other than a resurgence in 1982 for a bad Reds team, he never was as dominant as he was during that 4-year stretch from 1976-79…

On the Past Our Prime podcast, Kern tells us about his journey from being undrafted out of high school, to the marines to a 3-time All-Star reliever from 1977 to 1979. He tells us about his days in Cleveland that included playing for the first black manager in baseball history, Hall of Famer Frank Robinson and being on the same pitching staff as another Hall of Famer, Dennis Eckersley. Kern speaks fondly of many teammates including Gaylord Perry, Pat Dobson, Sparky Lyle and Boog Powell who taught this “dumbass rookie” as much about being a pitcher as anyone he ever came across. And this baseball character tells us about the best prank he ever took part in, and how Buddy Bell got his revenge! It’s a bunch of laughs with one of the funniest relief pitchers of the late 70’s who could throw the ball about as hard as anyone for a brief, yet electric time in Cleveland and Texas. The Amazing Emu, Jim Kern, on the Past Our Prime podcast. Download, listen, subscribe and review the show wherever you get your podcasts.

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After beating Joe Frazier and George Foreman in two of the biggest fights in boxing history, Muhammad Ali was looking for an easy win over somebody. Enter Chuck Wepner... This would be a walk in the park for the champ before he could move on to bigger things. Chuck had other plans.

After knocking Ali down in the 9th round Wepner told his trainer Al Braverman to start the car... "We're going to the bank, " he said. "We're millionaires." To which Braverman told his fighter, "You better turn around. He's getting up and he looks pissed off." For the remainder of the fight, Ali battered the challenger, opening up cuts above both of Wepner's eyes. But Wepner kept coming, and kept coming, and never stopped until 19 seconds left in the 15th round when Ali sent him to the canvas... and even then, Wepner got back up, but the fight was stopped.

He had given everything he had and then some and his courageous fight caught the attention of everyone... most notably a young Sylvester Stallone who would use this Wepner fight against Ali to write a screenplay about a fighter getting the opportunity of a lifetime, and coming this close to becoming the heavyweight champion of the world.

We know him as Rocky Balboa.

But another filmmaker also was interested in the story of Chuck Wepner. Enter Jeff Feuerzeig, who wasn't as interested in Rocky Balboa, but rather... The Bayonne Bleeder, Wepner. So Feuerzeig set out to tell the story of Wepner in an ESPN 30-for-30 documentary called

'The Real Rocky" and then followed that up by writing the screenplay for a feature film titled, "Chuck" starring Liev Schreiber. Nobody knows the story of Chuck Wepner better than Feuerzeig and he joins us this week on the 50-year anniversary of when this unheralded fighter got into the ring with the most famous boxer of all-time, and stood toe-to-toe with the great Ali for 15 rounds.

Feuerzeig tells how he first heard of Chuck as an 11-year old kid and the fight Wepner had against Sonny Liston that was the bloodiest battle one could imagine. The Sundance Award winning director for The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Feuerzeig tells the story of how over 30 years after the Ali fight, he was able to tell the story of the Real Rocky on ESPN's signature 30-for-30 series and how the ensuing court battle of the former marine Wepner, vs the Hollywood icon, Stallone was more a matter of honor and recognition than anything else.

March 24, 1975 had Chuck Wepner on the cover of Sports Illustrated... the day he and Ali battled in Cleveland, Ohio for all the world to see... Wepner's 15 minutes of fame, turned into 15 rounds of theatre... and Jeff Feuerzeig tells the story better than anyone and shares it with us on the Past Our Prime podcast. Listen, download, review... all that good stuff... wherever you get your podcasts.

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In 1975, the University of North Carolina basketball team was being led by two men... A 44 year old coach named Dean Smith, and a 19 year old Freshman Point Guard by the name of Phil Ford. The two of them were about to change the program forever. The ACC tournament was Ford's coming out party as he averaged 26 points a game and was named the MVP of the conference tourney as he helped the Tar Heels shock David Thompson and the defending champion Wolfpack in the finals to advance to the NCAA Tournament.

Ford would go from there to have one of the greatest four years in UNC basketball history finishing as the school's all-time leading scorer. As it turns out, this kid was golden as well. Playing for Smith again, he guided Team USA to a Gold Medal win in the 1976 Olympics. His junior season he led the Heels to the Final Four and the title game as a consensus first team All-American and in his final season, he once again was a first team All-American before winning the coveted John R. Wooden Award given out to college basketball's top player. When he was done, #12 would hang from the rafters and he still to this day is the #4 all-time leading scorer in North Carolina basketball history.

An eye injury would derail his promising NBA career which started as the #2 pick of the Kansas City Kings. He would finish his first year as the NBA Rookie of the Year and was well on his way to a long professional career before his vision was forever altered.

His playing days over, Ford would return to Chapel Hill in 1988 as an assistant coach under Dean Smith and in 1993 was on his staff for Smith's 2nd national title and first since another freshman sensation by the name of Michael Jordan won it all in 1982 for the Tar Heels. Ford would stay with Smith until he retired and then another three seasons before leaving in 2000. He tells us on the Past Our Prime podcast how much he loved and admired Coach Smith and how his spiritual guidance may have saved his life. He talks about that sensational ACC Tournament that in 1975 that led him to being on the cover of Sports Illustrated and how a year later he was one of 4 UNC players to bring home an Olympic gold medal for the USA. And he talks about the famous "Four Corners" offense that Coach Smith came up with, and Ford helped him perfect.

Before there was an Air Jordan, there was Phil Ford... the best point guard in the University of North Carolina's history and one of the best ever to do it... and he shares his insights and stories with us on Past Our Prime. Download and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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In 1947, Jackie Robinson changed the scope of sports and the entire country when he broke baseball's color barrier, becoming the first black man to play Major League Baseball. But it would take another 28 years for a man of color to play The Masters in Augusta, Georgia. That man was Lee Elder, and on March 10, 1975, Elder was on the cover of Sports Illustrated exactly a month from when he would tee off and change the sport of golf.

Elder was a fine golfer and won a tournament in April of '74 on the Tour that got him an invitation to play at Augusta. He would have to wait almost an entire year before his day would come, and he would tee off at The Masters. He wasn't playing his best golf at the time and missed the cut, but it didn't matter. He had captured the attention of the country and the world of golf would never be the same.

Laury Livsey is the PGA Tour historian and joins us on the Past Our Prime podcast to tell us more about Mr. Elder. How he almost didn't play in the Monsanto Open in '74 that he eventually won and earned him the right to play at Augusta in '75. How he basically taught himself how to play golf and was a late bloomer, dominating the Black Tour before joining the PGA Tour in the late 60's. and Livsey tells us Elder came out on fire, finishing in the money 9 straight times as a rookie on the Tour and taking Jack Nicklaus to a dramatic playoff that the Golden Bear won on the 5th playoff hole! And he tells us about a trip Elder took to South Africa in the height of apartheid with Gary Player so that kids could see a golfer that "looked like him."

Elder would go on to win 4 times on the PGA Tour and another 8 times on the Champions Tour... but it was the two rounds of golf in 1975 at The Masters that made him a legend, 50 years ago this month. Please listen to this historical man give us a history lesson on the breaking of the color barrier at Augusta this week on the Past Our Prime podcast on Apple, Spotify or anywhere where you get your podcasts. Thank you.

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Towards the end of the March 3, 1975 issue of Sports Illustrated a reader wrote in on the exploits of a little known swimmer who had appeared in two issues of SI the previous month. The woman wrote, "Thank you for a beautifully written piece on an incredible woman. Lynne Cox. How refreshing it is to read a story written by a man (Sam Moses) about a woman that does not go on about the color of her hair or how she looked in her bathing suit." What was noticeable is that Miss Cox was wearing a bathing suit, but not a wetsuit... despite the obvious need for one as she was a long distance swimmer who sometimes swam in temps that were below freezing.

When Lynne was 14, she and three other teammates swam the 31 miles it takes to cross the Catalina Island Channel... and that the beginning of a life like no other. She would go on to swim the English Channel, as well as a mile in 26 degree water in Antartica. Yes, you read that correctly... she swam for a mile in just bathing suit in below freezing temps.

But her most famous swim was in 1987 when she crossed the Bering Strait... it took her over 2 hours to go from Little Diomede in Alaska to Big Diomede in the USSR in waters that were 38 degrees. She was trying to raise attention to how close the two Superpowers were in proximity and to help bring an end to the Cold War. President's Reagan and Gorbachev both toasted her on her amazing accomplishment.

Cox is now 68 years old, and tells us how Russian doctors were prepared to help her immediately once she came ashore in the Soviet Union and how cardiac arrest was a real possibility. How the people of the islands were actually families who hadn't been able to communicate with each other in almost 50 years and began to rejoice and sing once she brought them together! She recalls a swim where she thought a shark might be in the water, but instead it was a pod of dolphins guiding her across the Cook Strait in New Zealand. She tells amazing stories because she has amazing stories to tell... and she does it on this weeks Past Our Prime podcast. You won't believe it unless you hear it. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts.

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In February of 1974, a high school junior by the name of Bill Cartwright showed up in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd after the Elk Grove start scored 62 points in a game. A year later, the senior was once again in SI as he was once dominating the high school basketball scene in Northern California. Soon, the hard-working, laid back 7-footer would be headed to San Francisco to play for the Dons... the 2nd Big Bill to dominate at USF.

And dominate is exactly what Cartwright did... a 3-time WCAC player of the year, he would have his #24 retired by his college, and then was drafted two picks back of Magic Johnson as the 3rd choice of the 1979 NBA Draft. And as a rookie he thrived being named an All-Star after scoring almost 22 points a game and pulling down 9 boards as well. And none of this load management for Bill... he played over 38 minutes a game in all 82 games that season. in fact, in his first 5 seasons he missed only 15 games.

But then disaster struck. Injuries to his left foot caused him to miss almost two full seasons of ball. All of a sudden this man who was never hurt, couldn't get on the court. His time in New York was never the same and in 1988 he was traded to the Bulls. This is when we say... and the rest is history.

The dominant big man became the starting center in Chicago and was a key player on the Michael Jordan led teams that won the first of three straight NBA championships from 1991-93. And when his playing days ended, he returned to Chicago under Phil Jackson and won 2-more NBA titles as an assistant coach.

Now over 50 years since the kid out of Sacramento was a face in the crowd, Bill joins us on the Past Our Prime podcast to tell us how his hard-working parents impacted his life... why he chose USF over UCLA and how he went from the frustration of two lost seasons in New York to the ultimate joy of not one, not two, but three NBA Crowns. A star player in high school, college and the NBA, 2-time championship-winning assistant coach, NBA Head Coach and now author of the book Living Life at the Center, Big Bill Cartwright is still the man in the middle...

Listen wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to the show.

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The final All-American to play for UCLA's John Wooden was Dave Meyers and on February 17, 1975, Meyers was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the leading man in the final championship run for the Wizard of Westwood. A bruising big man, Meyers was the center on a team that wasn't supposed to make another run at a title. The dynasty was ended by North Carolina State the year prior... right?

Not so fast. Wooden had one more run in him led by a group of guys who put the team first and checked their egos at the door. Along with Meyers was a tough shooting guard from Indiana by the name of Pete Trgovich who was one of four Bruins to average in double figures that year. After coming up short in the finals a year earlier, Trgovich and his teammates weren't about to let this final opportunity slip away.

A magical run was ahead of them that saw them fight and claw and take home the 10th National Championship in 12 years for Wooden and his Bruins and this one was as special as any of them... maybe more so.

Trgovich tells us how he motivated the team when they were down to Michigan in the first round of the tournament... how he felt for a kid who missed a big free throw for Louisville that allowed UCLA to win their semi-final matchup. And Trgovich gives a raw and honest take on his relationship with his coach. It wasn't what you would think... and the conversation the two had 20 years after Pete played for Wooden that the kid from Indiana has never forgotten.

It's a different look into the last year of Wooden's magical run at UCLA led by a different guy who calls 'em as he sees 'em... then and now. Honest and insightful, Pete Trgovich leaves it all on the line... just like he did when he was lacing it up at Pauley Pavilion 50 years ago. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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