Actor Joe May has portrayed two massively iconic, and very different characters. As the voice of Thomas the Tank Engine parents everywhere will thank him for the half hour stretches of peace and quiet his show provides, while video gamers may know him as the voice of Michael Corleone  in the Godfather series from Electronic Arts. May also played Andy Button in the hit Showtime series Episodes with Matthew LeBlanc. But today he's here to talk about growing up in Calgary's golden sporting age , being a Gooner, and why he thinks an NFL franchise on London would flourish. 

In this Episode we visit with former Laker, Celtic, Knick and (most importantly) UConn Husky Travis Knight. Travis sheds light on his personal experience with issues of race and sports, his time playing with Kobe & Shaq and an ill-fated one year run with Rick Pitino and the Boston Celtics.

Jerry Recco provides the news for WFAN's hit morning show Boomer & Gio, but we talk to him about the college he put out of business, youth sports and his family connection with iconic 80's brand Members Only.

This week we talk with '74 born Dunstan Bentley of QPR NYC about our beloved Queens Park Rangers, ex-pat life, giant killings and why men aren't the best at making and keeping friends. 

This weeks reading: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193723508319718

This week we visit with UConn forward, turned coach, turned administrator Jamelle Elliott about growing up in Washington D.C. in the 80's, the legend she played for before Geno and the formative experience she shares with our first guest Jason La Canfora.

This weeks reading: "The role of newspapers in the formation of gendered national identity: Polish coverage of women’s and men’s basketball championships." Jakubowska and Ličen

This week on Spirit of '74 we visit with Guardian football (read: soccer) cartoonist David Squires about the demise of Bury FC, why keeping politics out of sports isn't really possible, his lifelong support of Swindon Town FC, fanzine culture, designing mascots and Louis van Gaal's favorite expletive. 

In Episode One of Spirit of '74 we visit with CBS Sports NFL Reporter Jason La Canfora. JLC talks in depth about why he cringes at the moniker NFL Insider, his utopian youth in Smalltimore, its outsized place in popular culture, Camden Yards, Len Bias and more. 

Finally, a podcast about the Greatest Generation.