EPISODE 329: The 1963 AFL San Diego Chargers - With Dave Steidel

December 17, 2023

After last week's ugly, team-record 63-21 drubbing by the Las Vegas Raiders, and the subsequent dismissal of its head coach and general manager - it's been a (yet another) rough season for the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers. While family owner/scion Dean Spanos tries (again) to plot a plan forward, we look nostalgically back to the franchise's early years in San Diego as one of the charter entries in the iconoclastic American Football League - an era that produced the club's (still) one-and-only championship in 1963.

AFL history chronicler Dave Steidel ("The Uncrowned Champs: How the 1963 San Diego Chargers Would Have Won the Super Bowl") helps us zero in on the story behind that AFL title-winning season - with an in-depth revisit of iconic coach Sid Gilman's blockbuster squad, featuring revered Charger greats like Tobin Rote, John Hadl, Paul Lowe, Keith Lincoln, Chuck Allen, and future Pro Football Hall of Famers Lance Allworth and Ron Mix.

Plus: we debate whether the '63 Chargers could have truly beaten the NFL champion Chicago Bears that season for a definitive (albeit mythical) pre-merger American pro football title.

The Uncrowned Champs: How the 1963 San Diego Chargers Would Have Won the Super Bowl - buy book here

Remember the AFL: The Ultimate Fan’s Guide to the American Football League - buy book here

AFL Trivia & Tales - buy book here

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EPISODE 294: California Dreaming - With Dan Cisco

March 5, 2023

We head West this week to pay a visit to the "California Sports Guy" Dan Cisco ("California Sports Astounding: Fun, Unknown, and Surprising Facts from Statehood to Sunday"), and stir up a rich bouillabaisse of little-known factoids about defunct, previously domiciled and otherwise forgotten teams and leagues who once called the Golden State home.

Discover the reason why Oakland was chosen as an inaugural franchise in 1960's American Football League debut - and why its original name was hastily changed to "Raiders" just weeks before its first game.

Follow the move of the Pacific Coast League's original Hollywood Stars to San Diego in 1936 to become the Padres - and how a talented young player named Ted Williams unceremoniously ended his pitching career there before making it to the bigs.

And learn which legendary NBA basketball helped launch the International Volleyball Association's Irvine-based charter Southern California Bangers franchise in 1975 - and ultimately become the league's commissioner two years later.

PLUS, we make a bevy of unsolicited suggestions for Cisco's inevitable revised edition (and you can too)!

California Sports Astounding: Fun, Unknown, and Surprising Facts from Statehood to Sunday - Buy book here

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EPISODE 144: Year-End Holiday Spectacular – With Paul Reeths & Andy Crossley

December 22, 2019

We put the wraps on an event-filled 2019 with our first-annual holiday roundtable spectacular featuring the return of fellow defunct sports enthusiasts Paul Reeths (OurSportsCentral.com, StatsCrew.com & Episode 46) and Andy Crossley (Fun While It Lasted & Episode 2) – for a spirited discussion about the past, present and potential future of “forgotten” pro sports teams and leagues.

It’s a no-holds-barred look back on some of the year’s most notable events and discoveries, including:

The short rise and quick demise of the Alliance of American Football;
Major League Soccer’s (unsustainable?) expansion to thirty teams;
The folding of the Arena Football League – again;
Major League Baseball’s minor league contraction plan; AND
Raiders NFL football moves on from Oakland for good.

As well as some predictions on what might transpire in 2020, as:

The second coming of Vince McMahon’s XFL kicks off in February;
Baseball celebrates the Negro Leagues’ 100th anniversary;
Las Vegas takes its biggest sports gamble yet with the Raiders;
The MLS Players’ Association flexes its pre-season bargaining muscles;
The Chargers and Clippers grapple with second-fiddle status in LA; AND
Mark Cuban’s Professional Futsal League . . . well, your guess is as good as ours!

Support the show by getting the Ultimate Shave Starter Set from Dollar Shave Club for just $5!