Historically Speaking Sports

There are teams that gain success with championships and superstar players. Yet very few teams become ingrained in the culture and identity of a city. From their debut in 1967 with the backdrop of the city's aerospace industry which gave Seattle its "supersonic" name to the rise of players such as Fred Brown, Dale Ellis, and Nate McMillian. Still others with colorful nicknames such as "Slick" and "The X-Man". This team from the "Emerald City" also had "The Wizard, "The Reign Man" and "The Glove". Throughout their history, the Seattle SuperSonics weren't just a team based in the Pacific northwest, they were a vibe. In this episode of the podcast, Dana Auguster and Charles Combs will take a look back at one of the most beloved franchises in NBA history which in a few years, may be making a triumphant return. The Seattle SuperSonics, the first pro sports team in the city of Seattle, was one of the most successful franchises in the NBA whos history is filled with a myriad of all star players and hall of famers including a star point guard that played in the teams early years that would eventually lead them to their only championship while serving as their head coach. Also we will talk about the team owner who not only threatened the NBA by taking his team to join with the American Basketball Association but also talked openly about leaving Seattle all together to be a direct rival to the Lakers in Los Angeles. Speaking of leaving town, we will also talk about the heartbreaking and controversial move in 2008 as the sonics left the pacific northwest to find literal greener pastures in Oklahoma City. Leaving an empty shell in the coffee Capital of the world and fans still waiting, still hoping and still holding onto the Green and Gold. Rounding out the episode we will send a shout out to the Sonics first bonified superstar. In the fall of 1970, a young player arrived in Seattle from the ABA named Spencer Haywood. He not only he took on the best of the NBA on the court, but he took on the league itself off the court and then -- in court. Paving the way for college underclassmen to be eligible for the NBA draft. To contact the show, please drop us a line at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

The Final Four returns to Indianapolis for the ninth time with four schools arriving in the Circle City with varying degrees of pedigree but a whole lot of Final Four history. This weekend four teams, UConn, who reached the tournament by erasing a 15 point Duke half time lead that climaxed with one of the most memorable shots in tournament history makes their way to the final four for the 8th time. Illinois, back in the final four for thie first time since 2005 aiming to win its fist ever Final Four, the school's first National Championship since 1915. Then there's Michigan, back in the Final Four since 2021 and trying to bring Michigan back to heights never before reached since 1989 when interim coach Steve Fisher led Glen Rice and the Wolverines to their title. Rounding out the Final Four field is the Arizona Wildcats. Its been 25 years since Arizona has been to the final four and nearly 30 years since the Wildcats cut down the nets led by coach Lute Olsen and point guard Mike Bibby.....that year U of A won the title in, of all places....Indianapolis. To contact the show please e-mail us at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com

Between 1972 and 1997 the Southeastern Conference in basketball grew in stature from just being a premier football conference. During that time of conference growth of both prominence and popularity, the team most emblematic of that growth in national prestige was located in -- of all places-- Baton Rouge Louisiana. And the leader of this team from the sidelines hailed from the hinterlands of North Dakota. In his episode of the Historically Speaking Sports Podcast, Co-hosts Dana Auguster and Charles Combs highlight the era of LSU Tigers basketball under the direction of Head Coach Dale Brown. During his tenure with the Tigers, Brown didn't just coach basketball at LSU, he made it matter in a football crazed state and made it a national brand. He took a program that had flashes of relevance and turned into a powerhouse that would go toe-to-toe with anyone in the country. This was the era of superstars such as Chris Jackson who would later become Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, whose scoring brilliance electrified the country and garnered comparisons to Pete Maravich. It was also the era of the unstoppable force of Shaquille O'Neal, a once in a generation talent who turned LSU into must see TV. And before them there was Rudy Macklin leading the Tigers to the final four, for the first time since the early 1950s But the Dale Brown era wasn't just about wins and NBA draft picks .It was about personality, passion and conviction. Brown was outspoken, emotional, sometimes controversial -- a coach who wore his heart on his sleeve and fought fiercely for his players. He believed LSU could compete with the blue bloods of college basketball and for stretches from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s ... it absolutely did. To contact the show please e-mail us at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com

Like any other pro sports league, the NBA is made up of players of different personalities, different perspectives and hale from different backgrounds. They all come from different areas of the country and now the world as the NBA has now become truly a global game. But in this episode, we will sharpen our focus to feature a special group of players and Hall of Famers that all have this one thing in common. In this special Black History Month episode Dana Auguster and Charles Combs are celebrating Black History Month and will highlight star players and Hall of Famers that came from Historically Black Colleges and Universities that helped grow the NBA to its current standing on the sports landscape. Those they will highlight include the greatest player in Chicago Bulls history......before Michael Jordan. Also a diminutive point guard that led the San Antonio Spurs to their first NBA championship. Charles and Dana will talk about a member of the Boston Celtics who won 10 NBA championships. Also a man who was part of the Warriors organization in different capacities for over 60 years. Also a player who was one of the most devastating scorers in NBA history during the 1970s who had a various amount of different nicknames and another player who authored not only one of the greatest moments of New York Knicks history, but the greatest sports moment in the history of Madison Square garden. Later in the show we will send a shout out to a coach who we consider the Eddie Robinson of college basketball. His coaching career spans nearly a half century at this Historically black college in North Carolina who compiled over 800 victories in his long career. Please like and subscribe to the show. To contact us email us at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

It is the NFL's version of an all-star game.The Pro Bowl, played every year the weekend before the Super Bowl, has become a glorified flag football game. But for decades the NFC and AFC would come together and play in a game that was sometimes as hard hitting as a postseason game with nothing more than just bragging rights on the line. Using the format of a Pro Bowl game, podcast hosts Dana Auguster and Charles Combs select players they view as the best players by position during their lifetimes. Dana Auguster will pick the best players from the AFC while Charles Combs select his favorite stars from the NFC. Don't forget to like and subscribe to the show and you could contact the show at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

We are in the mist of College Bowl season and this is the time of year where legends are born, where underdogs rise, dynasties show signs of cracking and one play could live forever.In this episode, Dana Auguster and Charles Combs are counting down their five most memorable bowl games that they have seen in our lifetimes.Along with the games, Dana and Charles will add personal antidotes about each game they are describing from personal remembrances to people who watched the game with them.Their list includes a miracle finish that placed a little known west coast college bowl game and an even lesser known football program on the map. Also on the list a couple of ties that includes one in which one of the coaches turned the tie into a charity event. And also we have a couple of wild finishes in perhaps the most prestigious of all the bowl games, authored by the same player in back to back years.Also Dana and Charles send a shout out to a sportscaster who was the lead broadcaster of some of these games that we're talking about who is considered the Voice of College football .To contact the show please send us an e-mail at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

In his episode of the Historically Speaking Sports Podcast, hosts Dana Auguster and Charles Combs discuss, and in some cases, debate on the cities that could be considered the best and worst sports cities in the United States. We breakdown in our opinion the Top Five Best Sports Cites, where celebrating championships come second nature. Places where championships, culture, loyalty and sheer sports madness collide to create something both unforgettable and special. These cities live and breathe their teams and often have the championship banners to prove. then here is the other side of the coin where we also rank in our humble opinion out Top Five Worst Cities, where heartbreak come standard, expectations go unmet, and hope is often the MVP. Whether its a lack of success, fan apathy, bad ownership or just years of pure misery, these cities have earned their place -though not the one their fans were hoping for. If you wish to contact the show, please e-mail us at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com

The year was 2002. The price of gas was roughly a $1.19 a gallon, a dozen of eggs were under a dollar and the biggest hits in Hip Hop was "Getting Hot in Here" by Nelly and the song from the movie Eight Mile "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. In the world of college football, the Miami Hurricanes were coming off of a national championship run and were looking to continue their 22-game winning streak, a streak that seemed to have no end in sight. However "The U" was beginning to hear rumbles from other programs looking to knock them off of their lofty perch. In this episode of the podcast, we will travel back to the year 2002 in College Football in our first episode of the series we call "A Year in the League" where we talk about all of the headlines, best teams and memorable moments that made that season so memorable. In addition of the Larry Coker coached Miami Hurricanes, there were other teams that included the USC trojans that were on the rise who were led by head Coach Pete Carroll and quarterback Carson Palmer who went on to win college footballs most coveted trophy. Another team that was making noise in college football that year was Oklahoma who had returned to glory after years of struggle that followed the exit of their legendary coach Barry Switzer and also will revisit one of the most improbable finishes in college football that fans have called the "Bluegrass Miracle". Yet that season climaxed in the desert of Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl when a team with a second year coach and a freshman running back pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year in one of the best national championship games ever and brought a national title to a place that hadn't celebrated one for more than a generation. Later in the show, we'll send a shout out to all of the schools in our home state and what they did in that season of 2002 including our alma mater who won their rivalry game for the ninth time in a span of 10 seasons.To contact the show, send us an e-mail at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail .com

Historically Speaking Sports co hosts Dana Auguster and Charles Combs are both natives of Louisiana and also the southern part of the United States where college football is more than just a sport. On Saturdays in the fall it is the south's secular religion. In this edition of this podcast, Dana and Charles highlight teams they they consider the best college football teams they had ever seen. The teams that are highlighted are some of the best college football teams ever. Most won championships. Some came close to winning. A couple won despite of on and off the field controversy. One team made the list that had two losses on the season but in the process had a Heisman Trophy winner and rewrote the NCAA offensive record books. Later in the show we will send a Shout Out to pair of coaches that were major parts of the college football landscape and had some of the best players and some championship season but for whatever reason, they both had fallen through the cracks of sports history. We have all that and more coming up on this all new edition of the Historically Speaking Sports Podcast. To contact the show you could drop us an e-mail at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

September 3rd, 1995 was the start of the 76th season of the National Football league. The San Francisco 49ers were the defending Super Bowl champions and every team was looking at the new season with new hope, possibilities and opportunities. For two of the now 30 teams in the National Football League however, the hope, possibilities and opportunities were new. On this early fall afternoon, in 1995 were the first games of the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville jaguars as newly minted members of the NFL. Though they both lost their opening games of the regular season, no one had any idea just 16 months later, some 497 days later, both would be playing for a right to play in Super Bowl XXXI. In this all new edition of the podcast, Co Hosts Dana Auguster and Charles will take a look at the first two seasons of the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars. Two franchises that shocked fans and football experts alike, crawling from expansion obscurity to the darlings of the NFL in just two seasons. Later in the show, we will send a shout out out one of the members of the Carolina Panthers team who embodied the leadership and toughness of that team that was one step away from the Super Bowl. An undersized linebacker who came up with the teams motto that it still follows today and thus far, the only player to have his number retired by the team.To contact the show with questions, comments or show ideas, please e-mail us at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.

There are teams that linger on in the memory long after they had vanished from the scene. One such team was the Brooklyn dodgers who was one if the winningest teams in the mid 20th century and had a storied and devoted following in the borough that was known as the bedroom of New York. The Montreal Expos was not as storied as the boys of summer Brooklyn Dodgers but over its 36 years of existence, "Les Expos" was as big to French speaking Canadians as Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and Pee Wee Resse was to Brooklynites. Hello this is Dana Auguster, and my co-host Charles Combs will be along shortly or this new edition of the new and improved Historically Speaking Sports podcast where we give you the best of sports from back in the day.As you have probably noticed we have a new theme song...so thanks to my main man Ron Tyke Oliver and Donovan D who wrote produced and performed the theme... thanks for that gentlemen In this episode of the podcast we will continue out Forgotten Franchise series with a team that is hardly forgotten by baseball fans.The Montreal Expos are maybe more popular now then they were 20 years ago where their existence were hanging by a thread and was ran my Major League Baseball. yet during there time in Montreal before their move to Washington DC, the expos had some of the greatest players in baseball history over the last 50-plus years. Those players included the likes of Rusty Staub, known as the Grande Orange' the teams first superstar. also the likes of Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, John Wetteland, Steve Rogers, Vladimir Guerrero, and a catcher nicknamed "The Kid". We have that coming up as well as as shout out to the original team in Montreal....the Montreal Royals that had at one time a who-who of players to play for this minor league team in the international league including one Jack Roosevelt Robinson and a heartfelt tribute to Chicago Cubs great Ryne SandburgTo contact the show you could send us an email at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.comThis is the Historically Speaking Sports Podcast, a member of the Sports History Network.

The 95th mid-summer classic, also known as the MLB All-Star game is now upon us as the best of Major League baseball converge on the city of Atlanta. In this edition of the Historically Speaking Sports Podcast, hosts Dana Auguster and Charles Combs get to get to select their own all-stars. With a mixture of Hall of Famers and other all-time greats, the co-hosts of the show will select from players over the last 45 years in Major League Baseball to fill out their fantasy rosters.Dana Auguster selected his best from the American League while co-host Charles Combs selected his favorites from the National League. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and also if you like to contact us please e-mail at Historically.Speaking.Sports@gmail.com.