Sports History Network

Imagine getting all of your equipment at the beginning of the long football season. Shoulder pads, pants and pads, and of course a helmet. You look and the head piece looks a bit funny... it has no chinstrap. This is how it was in one era of football, and FootballArchaeology.com's Timothy Brown explains.

From Tim's original TidBit article: Football Helmets Without Chin Straps

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Miss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well don't, because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website.

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

EPISODE SUMMARY

CHECK OUT THE NFL IN THE 1970S FACEBOOK PAGE

Pro football has provided a showcase for the many different wide receivers who buckled up their chinstraps during the 1970s. Prior to the 1978 rules changes which great benefitted those pass catchers, however, pass receiving was a very difficult job. Defensive backs enjoyed a lot of freedom to practically annihilate everyone of their foes who attempted to roam through their zone coverages downfield…before the NFL’s competition committee decided to make things a bit easier for the league’s passing offenses.....

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

Nick Webster, John Turney, and others over at the Pro Football Journal have painstakingly helped us know how players prior to the NFL officially adopting some statistics fared in comparison to today's athletes on the gridiron. Nick joins us in this episode to tell us how they did it and bring some good old-time football memories back to our modern times.

Join us at the Pigskin Dispatch website and the Sports Jersey Dispatch to see even more Positive football news! Sign up to get daily football history headlines in your email inbox @ Email-subscriber

Don't forget to check out and subscribe to the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel for additional content and the regular Football History Minute Shorts.

Miss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well don't, because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website.

Today, we are focusing on Andy Russell, who passed away February 29th at the age of 82. I interviewed him back in 2012 and the audio you’re about to listen to is from that interview. Russell played linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1963 through 1976. He was on two of the Steelers Super Bowl Championship teams and went to seven Pro Bowls. He is a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers All-Time Team, in the Pittsburgh Steelers Ring of Honor, and is in the Pittsburgh Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was a true pleasure to get to know Andy Russell, and he will be missed.

This episode contains snippets from my 2012 interview with Andy Russell.

Football Learning Academy Website:

To learn more about the FLA, go to: https://www.football-learning-academy.com

Social Media:

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FootballLearn1

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/footballlearningacademy/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@footballlearningacademy

Music By:

Jeff Nixon, Safety for the Buffalo Bills from 1979-84.

When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

And, you may ask, who is Joseph T. Sternaman?

Sternaman was more commonly known as Joey Sternaman during his professional football playing days from 1922 through 1930. As such, Joey was actually the very first quarterback of the Bears when the team incorporated in Chicago in 1922. He was also the head coach of the Duluth Kelleys in 1923 as well as the player/owner/coach of the short-lived Chicago Bulls in 1926 when that team was a member of the original American Football League. And, for a short time, he was also a part-owner of the Chicago Bears!

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

WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND

Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below.

Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy

When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL

Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/

The Official PFRA Podcast is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

LINKS

The Official PFRA Podcast Website

The Professional Football Researchers Association Website

EPISODE SUMMARY

The PFRA Podcast welcomes former NFL player Ray Ellis. Jon & George chat with Ray about his career with the Eagles, Browns, Ohio State and more. He has had quite the life in the game of football.

THE OFFICIAL PFRA PODCAST BACKGROUND

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.

University of Iowa star Caitlin Clark may be the best college basketball player this season. This season she is without a doubt the most well known. She is one the verge of surpassing a record that most basketball historians felt would never be broken.

Clark is set to surpass Pete Maravich as college basketball's all-time leading scorer, a record set back in 1970.

In this episode of Historically Speaking Sports, we will take a look back at the college career of the man they called "Pistol Pete". A player that averaged more than 40 points per game in a time in college basketball that freshmen were not allowed to play varsity, no shot clock and no three pointers.

Later in the show we will send a shout out to the very first NBA Dunk Contest that took place 40 years ago in McNicholls Arena in Denver.

The contest featured some of the most iconic dunkers in basketball history including Julius Erving, Dominque Wilkins, Clyde Drexler and Darrell Griffith.

Yet the competition was won by a little known forward of the Phoenix Suns at the time that was known as the "Flying Sun" or "The Slambassador" or "The High-Attolla of Slamola" But is is best remembered for being the backbone of the one of the most snake-bit teams in the late 1980's.

To contact the show, you could e-mail us at [email protected] or on Twitter at @Historically Sp2.

Gridiron Greats Magazine podcast is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

With Special Guest 1977 Topps Paul Cintura

GRIDIRON GREATS MAGAZINE BACKGROUND

Gridiron Greats covers 150+ years of North American football history and memorabilia. It was founded in 2002 and published by Franklin Rose who then turned over to Bob Swick and Swick Enterprises starting with Issue 23.

Editor and publisher, Bob Swick has been collecting football cards since 1965. He has written about football cards and memorabilia since 1990 for several major sports collecting publications including Sports Collectors Digest and had his own column, Turning The Pages.

He self-published Bob Swick’s Football Times in the 1990s; he has been interviewed in Tuff Stuff, the Giants Report, the Packers Report, and the Beckett Football Monthly magazine. He has also been a contributor to the Beckett Annual Football Price Guide. Bob also collects programs, yearbooks, media guides, ticket stubs, pocket schedules, and team photos of the Green Bay Packers, of which he is a shareholder.

He is also a member of The Professional Football Researchers Association. Bob brings his expertise to the magazine in the form of his love of all things football-related. His BA in journalism and MS in Economics brings a unique focus to the niche of football memorabilia and history.

We want to thank everyone who takes the time to subscribe to and support Gridiron Greats Magazine. Besides our knowledgeable, generous contributors and most talented illustrator, Jared Kraus, all administrative activities are performed by Bob Swick and his wife, Brenda. Thank you all for your support. We are ever so grateful.

See our Contributors page for a bio on some of our fantastic writers. Without them, this magazine would not exist. We are grateful for their continuing support.

If you would like to be a contributing writer, or subscriber or want to advertise in Gridiron Greats, please contact the Publisher via the information above. Portions of the material presented are the opinion of the contributing writers and not necessarily those of Swick Enterprises, LLC. 

CONTACT US If you are interested in any particular football topic that you would like to either see featured in Gridiron Greats or would like to write about, and if you have a Super Collection you want to be considered for an upcoming publication please feel free to contact Bob via email. 

John Heisman is one of the more famous early football coaches, especially since he has the college game's most prestigious end-of-the-year award in his honor. Heisman is known for many events and innovations in football history, one of them being the winning coach in the most lopsided contest in history. Please note that the following link, if used to purchase, provides a commission to Pigskin Dispatch. Our guest, Sam Hatcher, gives us a whole new perspective on the 222-0 Georgia Tech win over Cumberland back in October 1916 in his book Heisman's First Trophy: The Game that Launched Football in the South.

Join us at the Pigskin Dispatch website and the Sports Jersey Dispatch to see even more Positive football news! Sign up to get daily football history headlines in your email inbox @ Email-subscriber

Don't forget to check out and subscribe to the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel for additional content and the regular Football History Minute Shorts.

Miss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well don't, because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website.

Danny Ainge was an incredible all-around athlete. He was only a 1x All-Star with the Celtics, but in high school he had scholarship offers for basketball, football, and baseball. He was the first high school player to be named an All-American in three different sports. He also played as a 2nd baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays.

CREDITS

Rick Loayza: Head researcher, writer, and voice

Jacob Loayza: Editor, producer, and publisher

MUSIC

"Take Care" by Julian Avila

"Horizons" by Roa

SPORTS HISTORY NETWORK

sportshistorynetwork.com

sportshistorynetwork.com/podcasts/basketball-history-101/

FACEBOOK

m.facebook.com/Basketball-History-101-103801581493027/

BUSINESS CONTACT

[email protected]