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Past Our Prime

Past Our Prime

By: Scott Johnston
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 Growing up on boxscores, the Game of the Week, and Sports Illustrated, three longtime Sports TV Producers reflect back on the world of sports through the lens of old issues of SI from 50 years ago. Larry Csonka and the Dolphins; Reggie Jackson and The Swinging A's; The Wizard of Westwood; The Golden Bear and Muhammad Ali are just a few of the many heroes showcased weekly by Scott, Bill and Marc on the Past Our Prime podcast. Stay up to date on what happened in the past as they go back in time and return to the glory days of sports week by week, issue by issue of Sports Illustrated starting in January of 1974 Baseball & Softball Football (American)
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Episodes
  • 71. Foolish Pleasure & Jacinto Vasquez win the Derby

    71. Foolish Pleasure & Jacinto Vasquez win the Derby
    May 12 2025
    In the middle of the 70’s horse racing was huge, and in the middle of it all in 1975 was Hall of Fame jockey Jacinto Vasquez who had the pleasure of riding some of the greatest horses of that era. And on May 12, 1975, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as he helped guide Foolish Pleasure to victory in the Kentucky Derby. The great horse had lost but once entering the race at Churchill Downs, yet some didn’t think he could handle the distance. They were wrong. Vasquez knew he had the right horse at the right time to win his first Derby. The same held true 5 years later, when aboard Genuine Risk, he won it again. Only one of three fillies to win the Derby ever and the first since Regret in 1915! Despite being on the Kentucky Derby winner, Vasquez would get off of Foolish Pleasure to mount another great horse and another filly later that summer of ’75 when he rode Ruffian in a match race against Pleasure. One of the greatest horses ever, Ruffian had been in 10 races since May of 1974… and won all of them… in fact, in all 10 races, she won wire-to-wire. That’s right, she never trailed in a race. And in the 8 stakes races she entered, she set new stakes records in all 8 of them. But on that summer day at Belmont Park against Foolish Pleasure, Ruffian broke down, breaking two bones in her right foreleg. After surgery, the great thoroughbred came out of anesthesia and reacted poorly. She had to be put down. Vasquez and the racing world mourned the loss of one of the top 100 American horses of the 20th century. With over 5,200 wins, and a member of the United States Racing Hall of Fame since 1998, Vasquez is one of the all-time greats, but he tells us on the Past Our Prime podcast, that great horses make great jockeys and he would know. He also recounts the three times he beat Secretariat… the only jockey to ever beat the iconic horse three times. And he tells us why he was suspended from racing for a year and how to this day he vehemently denies the charges that were brought up against him. Vasquez is one of the all-time greats and at 81 years old, you can hear the competitive fire still burn inside of him when he recounts his rides on Pleasure, Ruffian and Forego or his battles with other great jockey’s of his time such as Angel Cordero and Willie Shoemaker. It was a great time for fans of horse racing and Vasquez was one of the greats. Listen and subscribe to the Past Our Prime podcast for weekly shows that look back at sports icons like Jacinto Vasquez wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Dan Shaughnessy on Fred Lynn and the '75 Sox

    Dan Shaughnessy on Fred Lynn and the '75 Sox
    May 5 2025
    In the spring of 1975, the Red Sox came racing out of the gate led by a trio of outfielders who were making a mark in the American League… Dwight Evans first came on the scene in 1972 and was now the everyday right fielder. Joining him in ’75 in left was future Hall of Famer Jim Rice who would have a spectacular rookie season finishing 3rd in the league in the MVP race and 2nd in Rookie of the Year. That’s because the guy manning center in Fenway had an even better first season in the bigs. Fred Lynn would go on to become the first player ever to win MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season, a feat only matched one other time when Ichiro Suzuki did it in 2001. And for Lynn and the Sox fans, it was love at first sight. The 23-year old kid won the CF job out of Spring Training and never looked back… He would finish the season with a .331 average, 21 home runs and 105 RBI’s while also winning a Gold Glove for his defense prowess in centerfield. It was a season for the ages for Lynn and the Sox that culminated in one of the All-time classic World Series matchups between the Sox and the Big Red Machine that went 7 games after one of the most famous October HR’s ever... a shot by Carlton Fisk that won arguably the greatest World Series game ever played… That Game 6 contest was a moment in sports where the people of Boston for years would ask… ‘Where were you for Game 6?” The answer for a young Dan Shaughnessy was… Fenway Park… Years before the Hall of Fame writer was hired by the Globe to cover the team he grew up loving, Dan was there with his sister taking in one of the greatest games he ever witnessed… and he’s seen a lot… from that Game 6, to Bucky Dent’s blast in ’78, to the euphoria of Dave Henderson’s HR that helped propel the ’86 Sox back to the World Series to the Buckner play that same October that kept the curse alive to Boone’s HR in ’03 and the comeback that ended 86 years of futility in 2004… Shaughnessy has literally covered it all. The author of a dozen books including One Strike Away, The Curse of the Bambino, and Reversing the Curse: Inside the 2004 Boston Red Sox, nobody knows the Sox of the last 50 years than this kid from Groton, MA who’s had a birds eye view of it all and access to the players and team like no other. Shaughnessy tells us on the Past Our Prime podcast how his friend and mentor Peter Gammons told them all to watch out for this kid from USC who was going to be the next big thing in Boston and how Freddie Lynn started hot, and never stopped in that magical Rookie season of ’75. It would be almost 30 more years before the Red Sox broke the curse and Shaughnessy relives the highs, the lows, the ups and the downs of that Sox ride beginning 50 years ago, when a kid from L.A. took New England by storm and had a season we're still talking about on the Past Our Prime podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • 69. Gar Heard and the Buffalo Braves

    69. Gar Heard and the Buffalo Braves
    Apr 28 2025
    It’s April 28th, 1975 and the best basketball player in the NBA plays in Buffalo. Bob McAdoo wins the MVP for the Buffalo Braves who are in the playoffs and taking on Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes and the Washington Bullets in a fierce series that would eventually go 7 games. One of the unsung heroes for the Braves is on the cover of Sports Illustrated from 50 years ago as he soars to the basket during game four of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The 6’6 forward had a standout college career for the Oklahoma Sooners where he was the schools 2nd all-time leading scorer and all-time leading rebounder at the time of his graduation. Playing for John McLeod at Oklahoma, Heard averaged 21.7 points and 12.5 rebounds per game in his senior year. Taken by the Supersonics in the 3rd round, Heard didn’t do much in his first two years in Seattle before being traded to Chicago and then in 1973 to Buffalo… and it was there where his NBA career took off. Playing alongside McAdoo and Randy Smith, Heard did the hard work averaging a double-double in his two years and helping take the team to their first two playoff appearances… But after a successful 1974-75 season, Heard was shocked when he was dealt yet again… this time to Phoenix where he once again would play for head coach, John McLeod. The Suns were languishing in the West before Heard’s arrival, but soon they took off… Playing in a league high 86 games, Heard once again averaged a double-double as the Suns made the playoffs and beat Seattle in 6 games and the defending champion Warriors in 7 with Heard once again averaging 14 points and 11 rebounds to advance to the ’76 NBA Finals. Awaiting the Suns were the Celtics and with the series knotted at two games each, game 5 was played on the parquet floor in Boston… and what a game five it was. Some call it the greatest NBA playoff game ever played. In one of the craziest finishes of all-time, the Celtics took a 2-point lead with 1 second left to play in the 2nd overtime. That’s when Gar Heard made the basketball version of The Shot Heard Round the World. A 20-footer over the outstretched hands of Don Nelson that hit nothing but the bottom of the net. On to the 3rd overtime it went where the luck of the Celtics Green finally prevailed and won the series in 6 games. But for one moment… one second to be more precise… Gar Heard made a shot of a lifetime. On the Past Our Prime podcast, Heard tells us all about the shot, and the technical foul Paul Westphal and the Suns took on purpose to help give them a shot… a shot Heard says was meant for him to take! Heard tells us how shocked he was to be dealt from cold and snowy Buffalo to the desert in Arizona in the middle of the 75-76 season and how Coach McLeod mentored him both in college and the pro’s. Heard’s career was more than just one miraculous shot and he tells us about the block he had on a young Keith Wilkes baseline jumper that helped knock off the Warriors and send the Suns to the Finals. A week after the Giants Bobby Thompson hit the Shot Heard Round the World in New York it’s Gar Heard’s turn to do it… this time in Boston. Just a few miles away from where the original Shot Heard Round the World took place two hundred years earlier in April of 1775. One of the greatest shots in NBA history and Heard tells us all about it on the Past Our Prime podcast. Listen and subscribe to the show for your weekly dose of sports history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 11 mins

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