243: The 3rd Annual Year-End Holiday Roundtable Spectacular!

12/13/21 • 112 min

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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 look back at some of the year’s most notable events, including:

COVID-19's continued wrath across the entirety of pro sports;
Cleveland says goodbye Indians - and hello Guardians;
The dubious reincarnation of the USFL;
Relocation threats from MLB's Oakland Athletics, the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes, and half a season's worth of the Tampa Bay Rays;
NWHL women's hockey reorg/rebrand to Premier Hockey Federation;
NPF women's softball suspends operations after 17 years; AND
The passing of challenger league pioneer Dennis Murphy.

Plus, we say goodbye to ESPN Classic!

COVID-19's continued wrath across the entirety of pro sports;
Cleveland says goodbye Indians - and hello Guardians;
The dubious reincarnation of the USFL;
Relocation threats from MLB's Oakland Athletics, the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes, and half a season's worth of the Tampa Bay Rays;
NWHL women's hockey reorg/rebrand to Premier Hockey Federation;
NPF women's softball suspends operations after 17 years; AND
The passing of challenger league pioneer Dennis Murphy.

Plus, we say goodbye to ESPN Classic!

Previous Episode

242: Pittsburgh's Civic Arena ("The Igloo") - With Dave Finoli

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 was world's first of its kind - making not just an attractive venue for music and entertainment, but big-time sports of all kinds. Over time, the Igloo became synonymous with its longest-running tenant - the NHL's Penguins - who became the building's main occupant as an expansion franchise in 1967, and saw three (of its total five) Stanley Cup title runs. But, of course, we remember the other teams that also called the Civic Arena home - including: basketball's Rens, Pipers & Condors; World Team Tennis' Triangles; soccer's Spirit & Stingers; arena football's Gladiators; lacrosse's Bulls & CrosseFire; and even roller hockey's oft-forgotten Phantoms. And don't forget Dr. J's Pisces too!

Next Episode

243.5: Arena Football League Founder Jim Foster [Archive Re-Release]

[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 franchises that comprised its inaugural “demonstration” season back in 1987 – and a mere fraction of the 19 clubs that competed during its heyday in the early-to-mid 2000s.

Much has happened to the league and the sport during those 30+ years, of course – and few doubt that the unique (and once-patented) excitement of arena football won’t eventually find a sustainable business model and a return to long-term stability.

In the interim, however, we delve into how it all began, with the first of our two-part interview with Iowa native Jim Foster – the inventor of arena football and the founder of the original Arena Football League – who takes host Tim Hanlon on rollicking excursion across the uncharted sports terrain of the 1970s and 80s that led to both the birth of a sport and the launch of a professional league, including:

Exporting professional American football to Europe decades before the NFL;
Discovering fans’ year-long appetite for pro football via the USFL;
Scribbling parameters for “indoor football” on a manila envelope while attending the 1981 MISL All-Star Game;
Tinkering on a shoestring with facilities, equipment, rules, and approaches to TV broadcast coverage;
Tapping into the nostalgia and cost economics of two-way players, as well as the fan appeal of “run-and-shoot” offensive action; AND
Defending the notion of centrally-controlled league ownership from franchise-hungry charter owners.