EPISODE 241: Philadelphia's Spectrum - With Lou Scheinfeld

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 indoor arena - built ​quickly (in roughly a year) and specifically for the city's new NHL expansion franchise (the Flyers) - one that Scheinfeld and NFL Eagles co-owners Ed Snider, Jerry Wolman and Earl Foreman helped originally secure.

The Spectrum was an instant hit for the freshman Flyers - and for the defending NBA champion 76ers, who also joined the tenant roster that first year - as well as the darling of top rock artists and concert promoters, immediately enamored with the facility's surprisingly top-notch acoustics.

And of course, a bevy of forgotten sports events and franchises that we love to obsess about, including some of our all-time favorites: the NASL's Philadelphia Atoms 1974 indoor exhibitions with the Soviet Red Army team that eventually launched the MISL and its Philadelphia Fever in 1978; the multi-league indoor lacrosse Wings; Billie Jean King's WTT Philadelphia Freedoms; the Bulldogs of the mid-90s' Roller hockey International; and much more.

Blades, Bands and Ballers: How “Flash and Cash” Rescued the Flyers and Created Philadelphia’s Greatest Showplace - buy book here

EPISODE #103: MISL Indoor Soccer's Origin Story – With Co-Founder Ed Tepper

We celebrate our second anniversary with the intriguing background story of the original Major Indoor Soccer League, with the man who started it all – Ed Tepper. 

A commercial real estate developer by trade, Tepper actually got his start in pro sports ownership as the owner of the original National Lacrosse League’s Philadelphia Wings – only to switch allegiances to an inchoate indoor offshoot of the world’s most popular sport after a chance exhibition (between the 1973 NASL champion Atoms and the Russian CSKA “Red Army” team) at Philadelphia’s Spectrum on February 11, 1974. 

Originally interested in the game’s bespoke Astroturf-covered surface as a potential improvement for his fledgling box lacrosse club, Tepper (along with 11,700+ enthusiastic curiosity-seekers) instead became instantly attracted to the fast-paced action and high scoring of “indoor soccer” – and quickly resolved to make a professional sport out of it.

In this illuminating interview, Tepper recounts some of the notable events and influential people along the journey from concept to the MISL’s official debut kick (by Cincinnati Kids part-owner Pete Rose, no less) on December 22, 1978 at Uniondale, Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum – including:

• Convincing ABA Virginia Squires owner (and eventual MISL commissioner) Earl Foreman of the game’s potential;

• The instant credibility boost of signing American superstar goalkeeper Shep Messing;

• NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam’s on-again, off-again interest in the indoor game;

• How (and why) NFL owners Carroll Rosenbloom and Al Davis wanted in; AND

• The unsung role of TV executive Bob Wussler in garnering attention for the fledgling circuit.

PLUS: The untold tale of Tepper’s very own (barely one-season long) MISL franchise – the New Jersey Rockets!

Support the show by considering a purchase from one of our great sponsors: 503 Sports, Audible, SportsHistoryCollectibles.com, Streaker Sports, and Old School Shirts!

Classic MISL T-Shirts from OldSchoolShirts.com - click individual shirt photos or buy here

EPISODE #93: National Soccer Hall of Famer Bobby Smith

We close out an amazing second season of episodes with a special year-end conversation featuring the US pro soccer pioneer who is, at least indirectly, responsible for the creation of this little podcast.  

Just weeks after signing with the fledgling New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League in January 1976, league All Star Bobby Smith (along with fellow Philadelphia Atoms teammate Bob Rigby) was already out pounding the promotional pavement in support of his new club – including (unwittingly) a stop at host Tim Hanlon’s then-elementary school in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey to hand out recreational league trophies and sign autographs. 

The seeds of life-long pro soccer fandom were quickly sown, soon blossoming into an obsession with America’s most famous and successful franchise – and, over time, morphing into an enduring fascination with professional teams and leagues across all sports which, like the Cosmos and the NASL, ultimately came and went.

Defender extraordinaire Smith joins the podcast to discuss his remarkable American pro soccer career before, during and after winning back-to-back NASL titles (1977, 78) with the Cosmos – including:

• Winning his first league championship with the inaugural 1973 Philadelphia Atoms;

• A skills-enhancing off-season loan to Irish first division side Dundalk in 1974-75;

• Playing alongside world’s-best talent like Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia, and Carlos Alberto during his time in New York;

• Post-Cosmos stops with the NASL’s San Diego Sockers, Philadelphia Fury and Montreal Manic;

• Indoor soccer adventures with the MISL’s 1980-81 Philadelphia Fever;

• 18 caps with the US National Team during the 1970s; AND

• Induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2007.

A big thank you to all of our great sponsors this past year – SportsHistoryCollectibles.com, OldSchoolShirts.com, 503 Sports, and Audible!

Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos - rent or buy here

Philadelphia Atoms NASL & Philadelphia Fever MISL T-Shirts from OldSchoolShirts.com - click individual shirt photos or buy here

EPISODE #71: National Soccer Hall of Fame Coach Al Miller - Part Two

We conclude our conversation with National Soccer Hall of Fame coach Al Miller, who shares a wide array of additional recollections, anecdotes, musings, and insights from a legendary career across US outdoor and indoor soccer, including:

• An historic February 11, 1974 indoor game at Philadelphia’s Spectrum between Miller’s NASL champion Atoms and Moscow’s Red Army – generally acknowledged as the true genesis of the Major Indoor Soccer league four years later;
• The positives and the negatives of the New York Cosmos “superteam” that dominated the NASL in the late 1970s/early 1980s;
• Trading the Dallas Tornado’s cozy downtown confines of SMU’s Ownby Stadium for the major league bigtime of Irving’s Texas Stadium;
• The only-in-the-NASL saga of the one-year Calgary Boomers;
• Reuniting with Lamar Hunt via the 1983 Tampa Bay Rowdies; AND
• Helping the city of Cleveland end a 30-year pro sports championship drought with the 1993-94 NPSL season-winning Cleveland Crunch.

Please check out our great sponsors Podfly,  SportsHistoryCollectibles.com and Audible!

EPISODE #70: National Soccer Hall of Fame Coach Al Miller

In February 1973, the suddenly ascendant North American Soccer League hurriedly awarded a new franchise to Philadelphia construction magnate Thomas McCloskey, despite the league’s fast-approaching season start date of May 1st.  The result of some Super Bowl VII arm-twisting by Kansas City Chiefs (and NASL Dallas Tornado) owner Lamar Hunt after helping McCloskey secure last-minute tickets, the team that would soon become the Philadelphia Atoms had only three months to move from birth to first game. 

In desperate need of a head coach, McCloskey and GM/soccer novice Bob Ehlinger turned to a bright young Hartwick College coach named Al Miller to hastily assemble a roster and a playing style, which Miller quickly achieved with a handful of English lower-division journeymen married with a bevy of hungry, underappreciated American players from the college ranks – rapidly gelling into an NASL championship team that stunned the pro soccer pundits (including the editors of Sports Illustrated), and became a Philly fan sensation.

The immediate success of the Atoms and its decidedly American-style approach to the world’s game quickly thrust Miller into the US soccer coaching spotlight and set in motion a standout pro career that traversed the NASL, MISL and indoor NPSL (not to mention a brief stint helming the 1975 US Men’s National Team), and, ultimately a red jacket into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2008.

In the first of a two-part interview, Miller joins host Tim Hanlon to reveal some never-before-heard stories from the front lines of his pioneering coaching career, including the Atoms, the Dallas Tornado, the one-year Calgary Boomers, the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the MISL Cleveland Force, and the three-time NPSL champion Cleveland Crunch.   

We love our supporters Audible, Podfly and Sports History Collectibles – and you should too!

Winning Soccer - buy book here

EPISODE #61: Sports Promoter Doug Verb

If someone ever decides to build an American sports promotion Hall of Fame, the inaugural class will undoubtedly be led by this week’s special guest, Doug Verb.  In a career spanning more than 40 years in professional sports management, Verb’s remarkable career has included spearheading marketing, promotion, publicity, and television for some of the most innovative and memorable leagues and franchises of the modern era. 

One of the founding executives of both the pioneering Major Indoor Soccer League (along with sports entrepreneurs Earl Foreman, Ed Tepper, and previous podcast guest Dr. Joe Machnik), and the frenetic Arena Football League (with the sport’s inventor [and past two-part guest] Jim Foster), Verb additionally  served as president of pro soccer’s legendary Chicago Sting from 1982-86 – which, incredibly, drifted between playing in two separate leagues during his tenure (for one year, simultaneously) – the outdoor North American Soccer League and the indoor MISL. 

In our longest and more anecdote-filled episode to date, Verb vividly recounts the highs and lows of launching new teams, leagues and even sports themselves from whole cloth – with nary an operational blueprint or career roadmap to be found.  Buckle up for a wild ride through the woeful 1976 NASL Philadelphia Atoms, the “Rocket Red” pinball-like MISL, soccer for all seasons in the Windy City, and birthing indoor football. 

PLUS:  Kiddie City to the rescue; Earl Foreman’s “Brother-in-Law Effect;” getting paid in soybeans; and the curious one-game history of the Liberty Basketball Association! 

AND:  Verb reveals plans for a first-ever Major Indoor Soccer League reunion later this year in Las Vegas!

Thanks Podfly, Audible and SportsHistoryCollectibles.com for supporting the podcast!

Philadelphia Atoms apparel from Ultras - buy here

MISL apparel from Throwback Max - buy here

Chicago Sting apparel from Ultras - buy here