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

Pro Football in the 1970s is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Your Favorite Sport's Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Pro football in the current day and age seems to produce one or two different Cinderella teams every year. But that was not always the case, however. In the 1970s, you might see one Cinderella team every two or three years. They just were not that common during that era. A definite Cinderella team was the 1974 St. Louis Cardinals.

That season was not expected to bring a whole lot of success to the Cards. They had finished the previous three seasons with identical 4-9-1 records, and there were plenty of experts who suspected that a fourth straight losing campaign was going to be their lot in 1974.

Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.

PRO FOOTBALL IN THE 1970S BACKGROUND

Pro Football in the 1970s is a podcast dedicated to teaching fans about the history of the NFL during the 1970s, a time when the host (Joe Zagorski) grew up as a rabid fan of the game. Joe is also an author of multiple NFL books. See Joe's books below.

The NFL in the 1970s: Pro Football's Most Important Decade

The Year the Packers Came Back: The 1972 Resurgence

America's Trailblazing Middle Linebacker: The Story of NFL Hall of Famer Willie Lanier

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

Pro Football in the 1970s is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Your Favorite Sport's Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

During the 1970s, there were many men who played the position of quarterback in the National Football League. During the same time, there were also quite a few men who played that position fairly well, to the point that they had winning records, admirable statistics, and possibly had even won a championship or two....

Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.

PRO FOOTBALL IN THE 1970S BACKGROUND

Pro Football in the 1970s is a podcast dedicated to teaching fans about the history of the NFL during the 1970s, a time when the host (Joe Zagorski) grew up as a rabid fan of the game. Joe is also an author of multiple NFL books. See Joe's books below.

The NFL in the 1970s: Pro Football's Most Important Decade

The Year the Packers Came Back: The 1972 Resurgence

America's Trailblazing Middle Linebacker: The Story of NFL Hall of Famer Willie Lanier

Pro Football in the 1970s is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Your Favorite Sport's Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Pro football’s longest-enduring rivalry naturally involves two of its oldest teams, the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears.

Their first meeting began way back in 1921. In the 1970s, the rivalry blossomed into its sixth decade. These two natural rivals in the old NFC Central Division (now it’s the NFC North Division) met each other 20 times during the 1970s, with the Bears winning 11 of those games. I will try to take a closer look at some of the more entertaining of those 20 contests......

Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.

PRO FOOTBALL IN THE 1970S BACKGROUND

Pro Football in the 1970s is a podcast dedicated to teaching fans about the history of the NFL during the 1970s, a time when the host (Joe Zagorski) grew up as a rabid fan of the game. Joe is also an author of multiple NFL books. See Joe's books below.

The NFL in the 1970s: Pro Football's Most Important Decade

The Year the Packers Came Back: The 1972 Resurgence

America's Trailblazing Middle Linebacker: The Story of NFL Hall of Famer Willie Lanier

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!

Pro Football in the 1970s is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Your Favorite Sport's Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Perhaps no other era in the sport of pro football has seen the renewing and regurgitation of head coaches quite as much as what we are witnessing in this current era. It seems that when a head coach gets fired in the 21st century, his next opportunity to wear a headset on the sidelines is just around the corner. But did you know that during the 1970s, head coaches were moving around from team to team almost as often? It’s true!

This episode of Pro Football in the 1970s does not necessarily contain the best head coaches to go from one team to another during the decade. But it does contain the most noteworthy head coaches who traded one team’s colors for another. Let’s start at the beginning of the 1970s, and at the pinnacle of victory, which was simply put as winning the Super Bowl.

Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.

PRO FOOTBALL IN THE 1970S BACKGROUND

Pro Football in the 1970s is a podcast dedicated to teaching fans about the history of the NFL during the 1970s, a time when the host (Joe Zagorski) grew up as a rabid fan of the game. Joe is also an author of multiple NFL books. See Joe's books below.

The NFL in the 1970s: Pro Football's Most Important Decade

The Year the Packers Came Back: The 1972 Resurgence

America's Trailblazing Middle Linebacker: The Story of NFL Hall of Famer Willie Lanier

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

Pro Football in the 1970s is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Your Favorite Sport's Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

It was certainly a long wait, but in 1977, the wait was finally over. The Denver Broncos came into existence in the old American Football League back in 1960. 

A total of 18 years later, in 1977, pro football’s Rocky Mountain team finally made the playoffs. They had suffered through many losing seasons, and once in a rare while, a mediocre season. But that 1977 season was certainly glorious, as the Broncos indeed made it all the way to Super Bowl XII. But before they could go to the biggest game of the year, Denver would first have to handle the Pittsburgh Steelers at Mile High Stadium in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. It would be the very first postseason game in the team’s history, and even though it is largely forgotten today, would be celebrated, because it was their initial playoff contest.

Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.

PRO FOOTBALL IN THE 1970S BACKGROUND

Pro Football in the 1970s is a podcast dedicated to teaching fans about the history of the NFL during the 1970s, a time when the host (Joe Zagorski) grew up as a rabid fan of the game. Joe is also an author of multiple NFL books. See Joe's books below.

The NFL in the 1970s: Pro Football's Most Important Decade

The Year the Packers Came Back: The 1972 Resurgence

America's Trailblazing Middle Linebacker: The Story of NFL Hall of Famer Willie Lanier