Fresh off his appearance on last month's Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular , fellow defunct sports enthusiast Steve Holroyd returns to the show for a dive into the deep end of the "forgotten sports" pool, with a look back at the little-remembered, but ahead-of-its-time Pro Cricket from 2004. An attempt to quickly capitalize on the venerable sport's faster-paced Twenty20 format launched in England a year earlier, Pro Cricket was essentially a rogue creation formed outside of cricket's US an...
Jan 31, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 248
After hiding in plain sight for the better part of five years, we finally take an initial swing at the deeply fascinating story of baseball's original "lovable losers" - the St. Louis Browns. St. Louis native and keeper of the flame Ed Wheatley (" St. Louis Browns: The Story of a Beloved Team " & " Baseball in St. Louis: From Little Leagues to Major Leagues ") knows a thing or two about this most forlorn, but curiously beloved American League franchise of yore (1902-53); as the President of ...
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 247
As we continue to debate the general wisdom of resurrecting the intellectual property of the original short-lived 1980s version of the United States Football League - as well as question the viability of launching yet another spring pro football circuit - our attention this week turns to one of the eight chosen "franchises" for the new USFL launching this April. Of course, memorably well-supported originals like the Tampa Bay Bandits, New Jersey Generals, Birmingham Stallions, and the only two c...
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 246
We geek out this week with Sports Reference, LLC founder and president Sean Forman ( " The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues : Essays and Research for Overdue Recognition ") for an inside look into the complex and detailed process of integrating the statistics of the recently elevated Negro Leagues into the official records of Major League Baseball. Advocated for decades by countless baseball researchers and historians - and buoyed by MLB's long-overdue proclamation in December 2020 that seven of ...
Jan 10, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 245
Valdosta State University Professor of History and African American Studies Thomas Aiello (" Dixieball: Race and Professional Basketball in the Deep South ") joins our first podcast of the New Year - with an intriguing look into the tortuous history of pro hoops in America's Deep South. While NBA fans take today's Hawks and Pelicans as historical "givens," their very existences belie the Sunbelt South's complicated economic and social relationship with professional sports during the modern era -...
Jan 03, 2022•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 244
[More holiday fun with a re-release of a fan favorite episode from January 2018!] We conclude our two-part journey into the early history of the Arena Football League with founder and inventor Jim Foster, who recounts some of the most notable events of the league’s formative years – including a memorable 1987 “demonstration season” featuring: The February debut “Showcase Game” in suburban Chicago’s Rosemont Horizon between the hometown Bruisers and the Miami Vise – highlights of which later domi...
Dec 27, 2021•1 hr 47 min
[We celebrate the holidays with a re-release of a fan favorite episode from January 2018!] As the new year beckons, the fate of the Arena Football League – one of America’s most innovative modern-day professional sports concepts – hangs in the balance. With only four teams (the mutually-owned Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade, defending champion Philadelphia Soul, and a still-unnamed Albany, NY squad) confirmed for the upcoming 2018 season, the AFL will play with exactly the same number of ...
Dec 20, 2021•2 hr 19 min
We try to make sense of a decidedly bipolar 2021 with our third-annual Holiday Roundtable Spectacular - featuring three of our favorite fellow defunct sports enthusiasts Paul Reeths ( OurSportsCentral.com , StatsCrew.com & Episode 46 ); Andy Crossley ( Fun While It Lasted & Episode 2 ); and Steve Holroyd (Episodes 92 , 109 , 149 & 188 ). Join us as we discuss the past, present and potential "futures" of defunct and otherwise forgotten pro sports teams and leagues - starting with a lo...
Dec 13, 2021•1 hr 52 min•Ep. 243
Our "tour" of lost pro sports venues continues with another stop in the Keystone State, this time for a loving look back at the life and times of Pittsburgh's legendary Civic Arena - aka "The Igloo" - with Steel City native Dave Finoli (editor, " Pittsburgh's Civic Arena: Stories from the Igloo "). Originally constructed in 1961 for the city's Civic Light Opera, the Arena was an ahead-of-its-time architectural marvel - distinctively adorned by a massive 3,000-ton retractable steel-roof dome that...
Dec 06, 2021•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 242
Our GPS coordinates take us back to the "City of Brotherly Love" this week for a fond, first-person reminiscence of Philadelphia's legendary Spectrum - with one of its chief managerial architects, Lou Scheinfeld (" Blades, Bands and Ballers: How 'Flash and Cash' Rescued the Flyers and Created Philadelphia’s Greatest Showplace "). A state-of-the-art indoor sports and events mecca upon its opening in September of 1967, the facility dubbed "America's Showplace" was Philly's first true modern indo...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr 57 min•Ep. 241
After months of speculation, the first concrete pieces of confirmation of a possible return of the United States Football League were issued by Fox Sports' PR department last week. Despite a press release claiming to contain " everything you need to know " about the new USFL, a ton of important questions about the what, when, how, and even where of the proposed spring league still remain. What is known is that Fox will be a major equity owner of the new circuit, and will contribute a number of i...
Nov 22, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 240
The NBA's 75th anniversary season is well underway, and we take a reverential look this week at some of the league's most legendary dynasties, starting with its very first - the Minneapolis Lakers of the late 1940s/early 1950s - with sportswriter Marcus Thompson (" Dynasties: The 10 G.O.A.T Teams That Changed the NBA Forever "). While the Los Angeles version of the Lakers has been pumping out iconic clusters of championships since 1971 (including the Magic Johnson-led "Showtime"-era in the 1980s...
Nov 15, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 239
The Thom & Hawk Football Show is the only football podcast hosted by two long-time NFL vets, former teammates, AND current best friends. Each week, twice a week, join 10-time Pro-Bowler, Joe Thomas, and 7-year NFL vet, Andrew Hawkins as they bring you an unfiltered and insider’s perspective on today’s NFL that you’re not gonna get anywhere else. Listen every Wednesday as they welcome in guests, play some games, and make weekly picks as they weave through the NFL slate. And on Mondays, listen...
Nov 11, 2021•5 min
We return to the fascinating story of the pioneering National Women’s Football League (1974-88-ish) - and its overlooked role in the surprisingly resilient world of women’s pro football - with sportswriters Britni de la Cretaz & Lyndsey D'Arcangelo (" Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League ") The modern women’s pro game started modestly enough in 1967, when a Cleveland-based talent agent named Sid Friedman launched a barnstorming outfit known as the “Women’s Pro...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 238
By the time you hear this week's episode, the Atlanta Braves just may be celebrating their second-ever World Series trophy since moving from Milwaukee in 1956. If so, it would be the team's first title in 26 years, and only the second time in the region's modern sports history - or fourth, if you include the titles won by the now-defunct NASL's Atlanta Chiefs in 1968 and Major League Soccer's Atlanta United three years ago - that "The ATL" has been able to boast of any true major pro sports cham...
Nov 01, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 237
It's off to Vegas this week, baby, as we dig in to the fascinating backstory of two short-lived racetracks that lived fast and died hard trying to bring top-flight motorsports to Sin City in the late 1960s and early 1980s - with all the over-the-top theatrics, gambling connotations and underworld intrigue you'd expect from the "Entertainment Capital of the World." Racing writer Randy Cannon (" Stardust International Raceway: Motorsports Meets the Mob in Vegas "; and " Caesars Palace Grand Prix: ...
Oct 25, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 236
We pick up where we left off in our previous episodes 62 (with the "Whaler Guys") and 100 (featuring WHA-version franchise founder Howard Baldwin) for a comprehensive look into the former NHL franchise that regularly sells more branded merchandise than even some current league teams - the Hartford Whalers. Author Pat Pickens (" The Whalers: The Rise, Fall, and Enduring Mystique of New England's [Second] Greatest NHL Franchise ") walks us through the history and ongoing mystique of one of the Nat...
Oct 18, 2021•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 235
We take another crack at the history and mythology of the late, great North American Soccer League - this time through the eyes of sports filmmaker Rachel Viollet, whose new documentary " Big-Time Soccer: The Remarkable Rise & Fall of the NASL " makes its US debut at New York's Kicking + Screening film festival later this week. If that surname sounds familiar, it won't surprise you that Rachel is also the daughter of the late Dennis Viollet - one of the legendary Manchester United "Busby Bab...
Oct 11, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 234
Veteran sportswriter and Sports Broadcast Journal columnist Rich Podolsky (" You Are Looking Live! How 'The NFL Today' Revolutionized Sports Broadcasting ") joins the pod this week for an inside look at the TV pregame show that modernized how America experiences nationally televised pro football. While the concept of NFL pregame coverage dates back to the earliest days of the medium, it wasn't until 1974 that the format was produced live for the first time in full "wrap-around" fashion via the T...
Oct 04, 2021•1 hr 46 min•Ep. 233
It's a return to the Nation's Capital this week as we take a romp through Washington, DC's surprisingly rich pro basketball history with Brett Abrams ( The Bullets, the Wizards, and Washington, DC Basketball ). While today's astute District hoops fans know the current Washington Wizards were once known as the Bullets - the name under which the franchise won its one and only NBA title back in 1978, and from which it converted to its mystically less violence-connoted label in 1997 - lesser devotee...
Sep 27, 2021•1 hr 59 min•Ep. 232
We revisit LA's spirited pre-majors Pacific Coast League rivalry (begun in Episode 208: The Hollywood Stars - With Dan Taylor ) with a look at the team ultimately responsible for the demise of both - the Los Angeles Angels. Baseball author Gaylon White (“ The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels ”) helps us set the table for the club’s background story as the city’s preeminent minor league baseball franchise - seen through the lens of its triumphant pennant-winning seaso...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 231
University of Texas Permian Basin history professor Derek Catsam (" Flashpoint: How a Little-Known Sporting Event Fueled America's Anti-Apartheid Movement ") joins to delve into the intriguing story of how a relatively low-key South African rugby tour of the United States in 1981 became an unwittingly pivotal turning point in the nation's growing collective conscience against apartheid, and an influential test of American foreign policy. By the late 1970s, the US lagged significantly behind the ...
Sep 13, 2021•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 230
Quiz any fan of soccer in the US as to the origin of the professional game on American soil, and you're likely to get a myriad of answers - usually rooted in generational identity. If you're under 30, the 1996 launch of Major League Soccer looks like a logical starting point - 25 years old, 29 teams strong, and dozens of soccer-specific stadiums befitting a "major" sports league. Older MLS fans in places like Seattle, Portland, and San Jose point out the original versions of their current clubs...
Sep 06, 2021•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 229
Described as a "festive prison yard" by famed New Yorker baseball essayist Roger Angell during the 1962 World Series, San Francisco's famed Candlestick Park was equally loved and hated by sports teams and fans alike during its 43-year-long run as the dual home of baseball's Giants and the NFL's 49ers. Curiously (and perhaps illegally) built on a landfill atop a garbage dump at the edge of San Francisco Bay, the "'Stick" was notorious for its tornadic winds, ominous fogs and uncomfort...
Aug 30, 2021•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 228
It's been more than two years since we last checked in on the spectacular flame-out of the Alliance of American Football back in April 2019 - enough time, perhaps, to begin the process of dissecting how something so fresh and innovatively promising went so speedily to hell in a hand-basket. Documentary filmmaker Steven Potter (" Alliances Broken ") joins this week's 'cast to discuss his brand new movie - the first extended look at the dramatic and ultimately catastrophic story arc of a league th...
Aug 23, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 227
[ A re-release of a fan favorite episode from July 2017! ] National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee and three-time ABC-TV “Superstars” champion Kyle Rote, Jr. joins Tim Hanlon from his home in Memphis for an in-depth and wide-ranging conversation about his trailblazing journey as America’s first true native-born professional soccer star. Along the way, Rote, Jr. reveals: How a fortuitous heart-to-heart with his famous football star-father helped convince him to choose soccer over football for his p...
Aug 16, 2021•2 hr 27 min
Your humble host does his best this week to tamp down his inner fanboy as he sits down for a bucket-list conversation with one of his favorite players from the legendary New York Cosmos of the original NASL - winger extraordinaire Steve Hunt (" I'm With the Cosmos: The Story of Steve Hunt "). Abruptly transferred into the star-studded orbit of North America's burgeoning super-club at the tender age of 20 from his hometown (Birmingham) England First Division Aston Villa side in the spring of 1977...
Aug 09, 2021•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 226
We close the gap between our previous explorations of the National Hockey League's former California Golden Seals and Minnesota North Stars with a deep dive into the two-year curiosity that bridged between them - the unforgettably forgettable Cleveland Barons. Episode 111 guest and WKKY-FM/Geneva (OH) radio jock Gary Webster (" The NHL's Mistake By the Lake: A History of the Cleveland Barons ") returns the 'cast - this time to go deep into the baffling prelude, chaotic operations, and historical...
Aug 01, 2021•2 hr 1 min
We're absconding for a few days of summer vacation this week - but not before taking time to sit down for a thoroughly enjoyable interview with pro football enthusiast and friend-of-the-show Aron Harris - as a guest on his popular Sports History Network podcast " The Football Odyssey ." Tim and Aron obsess about all things defunct football - including spring circuits of the past (and still); challenger league rules innovations; sharing stadiums with baseball - and of course, the incomparable and...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 35 min
We mourn last week's passing of legendary sports entrepreneur and challenger-league impresario Dennis Murphy with a special archive re-release of our two previous interviews from September 8, 2019 (Episode 129) and August 30, 2020 (Episode 179). The brainchild behind some of modern-day sports' most audacious, convention-challenging "alternative" leagues - the American Basketball Association (1967-76), World Hockey Association (1971-79), World Team Tennis (1974-78), and Roller Hockey Internationa...
Jul 18, 2021•1 hr 42 min
