Yesterday's Sports

Yesterday's Sports is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

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EPISODE SUMMARY

With the Super Bowl having just been played, I wanted to take a look back at a team that many fans assumed was going to win the Superbowl but didn't. Some may have forgotten just how good the 1983 Washington Redskins were, but they were one of the most dominant teams of the 1980s, up until that fateful day on Jan.22, 1984.

Going into the 1983 season, the Redskins were the defending Superbowl Champions, having lost only one game in a strike-shortened 1982 season.

You can read the full blog post here.

YESTERDAY'S SPORTS BACKGROUND

Host Mark Morthier grew up in New Jersey just across the river from New York City during the 1970s, a great time for sports in the area. He relives great moments from this time and beyond, focusing on football, baseball, basketball, and boxing. You may even see a little Olympic Weightlifting in the mix, as Mark competed for eight years. See Mark's book below.

No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training: A Guide For People With Limited Time

Running Wild: (Growing Up In The 1970s)

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

Yesterday's Sports is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

With the Super Bowl having just been played, I wanted to take a look back at a team that many fans assumed was going to win the Superbowl but didn't. Some may have forgotten just how good the 1983 Washington Redskins were, but they were one of the most dominant teams of the 1980s, up until that fateful day on Jan.22, 1984.

Going into the 1983 season, the Redskins were the defending Superbowl Champions, having lost only one game in a strike-shortened 1982 season.

You can read the full blog post here.

YESTERDAY'S SPORTS BACKGROUND

Host Mark Morthier grew up in New Jersey just across the river from New York City during the 1970s, a great time for sports in the area. He relives great moments from this time and beyond, focusing on football, baseball, basketball, and boxing. You may even see a little Olympic Weightlifting in the mix, as Mark competed for eight years. See Mark's book below.

No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training: A Guide For People With Limited Time

Running Wild: (Growing Up In The 1970s)

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

***This is a Yesterday's Sports Vault episode, originally aired on June 1, 2021 for episode 26.****

Yesterday's Sports is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

So it was back to the drawing board once again. This time, though, Shula and his players not only wanted to get back to the Super Bowl, they wanted to win it.

And that’s exactly what they did in 1972. But the big story that year was something else: Miami was the first–and is still the only–team in NFL history to go undefeated.

With such a history-making season, you can understand why so much has been written and discussed about those 1972 Miami Dolphins.

But the greatness of those Miami Dolphins can’t be measured by ’72 alone. When combined with the outcome of the ’73 season the Dolphins may have had the best two-year run in NFL history. In those two years, Miami went a combined 32–2 and won two Super Bowls. The Dolphins outscored opponents 865–382 and had five shutouts.

The problem, though, is that Miami’s excellence in ’73 gets lost in the hoopla about the undefeated ’72 squad. And here’s the kicker: the two-loss ’73 Dolphins may have been better than the 1972 team. I’ve heard Don Shula and several former players say the same.

Just how good was Miami in ’73? Let’s do an analysis. Then I’ll draw a conclusion.......

You can read the full blog post here.

YESTERDAY'S SPORTS BACKGROUND

Host Mark Morthier grew up in New Jersey just across the river from New York City during the 1970s, a great time for sports in the area. He relives great moments from this time and beyond, focusing on football, baseball, basketball, and boxing. You may even see a little Olympic Weightlifting in the mix, as Mark competed for eight years. See Mark's book below.

No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training: A Guide For People With Limited Time

Running Wild: (Growing Up In The 1970s)

Yesterday's Sports is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this article, we’ll go over some MLB history and look at which teams have had 100-win seasons as I pose the question, what does a 100-win season mean if you don’t make it to the World Series? 

You can read the full blog post here.

YESTERDAY'S SPORTS BACKGROUND

Host Mark Morthier grew up in New Jersey just across the river from New York City during the 1970s, a great time for sports in the area. He relives great moments from this time and beyond, focusing on football, baseball, basketball, and boxing. You may even see a little Olympic Weightlifting in the mix, as Mark competed for eight years. See Mark's book below.

No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training: A Guide For People With Limited Time

Running Wild: (Growing Up In The 1970s)

Yesterday's Sports is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this article, we’ll go over some MLB history and look at which teams have had 100-win seasons as I pose the question, what does a 100-win season mean if you don’t make it to the World Series? 

You can read the full blog post here.

YESTERDAY'S SPORTS BACKGROUND

Host Mark Morthier grew up in New Jersey just across the river from New York City during the 1970s, a great time for sports in the area. He relives great moments from this time and beyond, focusing on football, baseball, basketball, and boxing. You may even see a little Olympic Weightlifting in the mix, as Mark competed for eight years. See Mark's book below.

No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training: A Guide For People With Limited Time

Running Wild: (Growing Up In The 1970s)

Yesterday's Sports is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this article, we’ll go over some MLB history and look at which teams have had 100-win seasons as I pose the question, what does a 100-win season mean if you don’t make it to the World Series? 

You can read the full blog post here.

YESTERDAY'S SPORTS BACKGROUND

Host Mark Morthier grew up in New Jersey just across the river from New York City during the 1970s, a great time for sports in the area. He relives great moments from this time and beyond, focusing on football, baseball, basketball, and boxing. You may even see a little Olympic Weightlifting in the mix, as Mark competed for eight years. See Mark's book below.

No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training: A Guide For People With Limited Time

Running Wild: (Growing Up In The 1970s)

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

Yesterday's Sports is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this article, we’ll go over some MLB history and look at which teams have had 100-win seasons as I pose the question, what does a 100-win season mean if you don’t make it to the World Series? 

You can read the full blog post here.

YESTERDAY'S SPORTS BACKGROUND

Host Mark Morthier grew up in New Jersey just across the river from New York City during the 1970s, a great time for sports in the area. He relives great moments from this time and beyond, focusing on football, baseball, basketball, and boxing. You may even see a little Olympic Weightlifting in the mix, as Mark competed for eight years. See Mark's book below.

No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training: A Guide For People With Limited Time

Running Wild: (Growing Up In The 1970s)