Sports' Forgotten Heroes

Craig Wood was known to the golfing world as the “Blonde Bomber’ for his prodigious drives. He was also pretty dangerous with a putter in his hand. But, Wood, for all his big drives and magic on the greens was missing one thing when it came to a popularity contest – he was not flamboyant at all. In fact, he pretty much kept to himself. He figured he would let his game do his talking. And, his game was pretty darned good. In fact, with a bounce here, a putt made there, or just one other break, and Wood would be much better known, after all, Craig Wood was the first golfer in history (and one of just two overall) to lose each of golf’s four Major Championships in a playoff. In 1933, he lost in a playoff in the Open Championship to Denny Shute; in 1934, he lost the PGA Championship in extra holes to Paul Runyan; in 1935, he was the cruel victim to Gene Sarazen’s miraculous “Shot Heard Around The World” and then lost in a playoff to the Squire; and in 1939, Wood lost in a playoff to Byron Nelson. But Wood kept af

  Andre Lacroix, the all-time leading scorer in the history of the World Hockey Association (WHA), is on this edition of Sports’ Forgotten Heroes. A member of the WHA Hall of Fame, Andre totaled more points than any other WHA player, more assists and played in more games. Lacroix’s career started in the 1967-68 NHL season with the Philadelphia Flyers. But after a trade to the Chicago Black Hawks and a disappointing season in which he was relegated to part-time status, Andre was offered a fresh start with the newly-formed Philadelphia Blazers with a rival new league – the World Hockey Association. Andre jumped at the opportunity and proceeded to put up staggering numbers. In fact, Andre became just the second player in hickey history to record at least 100-assists in a season. He led the WHA in scoring three times, once broke the 50-goal barrier and helped put the WHA on the map. Despite all Andre did, however, the WHA just couldn’t overcome poor ownership, and minimal fan support. On this episode of SFH, me a

The 1976 NBA Finals featured a mediocre team in the Phoenix Suns and the historic Boston Celtics. Boston, including the previous season and the first two games of these NBA Finals had won 8-straight against Phoenix. The Suns, who had gone 42-40 during the 1975-76 regular season, got on a roll. First, they downed the Seattle Supersonics 4 games to 2 and then they took out the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors in seven games to advance to their first Finals. Boston, meanwhile, had gone 54-28 during the regular season, defeated the Buffalo Braves in six games and the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals to setup this unlikely Finals showdown. Boston, coached by Tom Heinsohn and led by greats John Havlicek and Don Nelson, also had a terrific bench and budding star in Jojo White. The Suns were led by Paul Westphal (who was a part-time player for the Celtics the previous season), rookie Alvan Adams and the little-known Ricky Sobers. On this episode of Sports’ Forgotten Heroes

Pete Sampras is not, necessarily, a name that most tennis fans think about when discussing the greatest to ever play. However, upon closer examination, especially when it comes to the greatest American men to ever play, not only should Sampras be considered, statistically speaking, he should be considered the best to ever play. Period. While Jimmy Connors won the most singles tournaments in the history of the game, Sampras’s 14 Grand Slam championships are a phenomenal number. At the time he won his 14th, no other male player in the history of the game had won that many. The problem Sampras has is that his reign as the man who had won more Grand Slam championships than anyone else in history was short-lived. While it took him 13 years to win them all, beginning with his improbable win over Andre Agassi in the championship match of the 1990 U.S. Open and ended with his win in the 2002 U.S. Open over Agassi once again, it didn’t take the amazing trio of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to surpass

Their names are not the most recognizable when talking about the New York Rangers and hockey history: Arnie Brown, Dave Balon and Orland Kurtenbach. One name that is very recognizable is that of Walt Tkaczuk. All four played a pivotal role in one incredible game in 1970 – the final game of the regular season in which the New York Rangers needed a series of events to occur in order to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs after what had been one of the most promising seasons in franchise history had transformed into one of the most disappointing due to series of injuries beginning with a Brad Park broken ankle. In this game on April 5, 1970, all four players played a crucial role in vaulting the Rangers into the playoffs; and on this episode of Sports’ Forgotten Heroes we use the game as a device to talk about the careers of Brown, Balon, Kurtenbach, Tkaczuk and the colorful coach of the Rangers – Emile Francis. Each had terrific careers, but with the exception of Francis, it would be tough to devote an entire

Spec Sanders was somewhat of a football phenom. In fact, his days at the University of Texas made NFL teams take notice and in 1942 the Washington Redskins made Sanders the first-ever Longhorn to be taken in the first round when they selected him sixth overall. However, Sanders never put on the wine and gold of Washington. Following his days at Texas, Sanders joined his brothers in the Army as the U.S. was in the midst of World War II. Following his days in the military, a new league came calling, the AAFC and one of its new teams, the New York Yankees. Sanders took a chance on the new league and team and wound up putting on a show unlike anyone before him. Playing tailback and quarterback, it took Sanders just a bit to get going and by his second year he was a star rushing for over 1400-yards and scoring 18 touchdowns while also throwing for over 1400-yards and 14 touchdowns. But age and knee injuries were catching up and after just three years, Sanders called it quits. However, after taking off the 1949 sea

Tom Fears was a record-setter. When he broke into the NFL as a rookie in 1948, he caught 51 passes. His second year, the split-end caught an NFL-record 77 passes and scored nine touchdowns. He broke his own record in 1950 with 84 passes for 1,116-yards and seven touchdowns. In a game against the Green Bay Packers that year, Fears hauled in an NFL-record 18 passes. The NFL had never seen anything like Tom Fears before, especially when you consider the NFL was still a league that was basically a running game. But the Rams of the late 40s and early 50s were a high-flying, high-scoring team that took advantage of the skills of Fears and quarterbacks Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin. After his playing days were over, Fears remained in the game working his way up the ranks as a coach ultimately landing the job as the first-ever head coach of the New Orleans Saints. Of course, expansion teams usually find winning difficult, and the Saints were no exception. After three-plus years, Fears was let go. But he didn’t

On November 6, 2020, the National Hockey League lost a great one, Jim Neilson. A phenomenal defenseman for the New York Rangers for 12-years of his 16-year career, Neilson was the quintessential stay-at-home defenseman who made opponents pay. He’d stand them up at the blueline, hit hard, made opposing forwards think twice before planting themselves in front of the net. One fo Jim’s proudest accomplishments was when his teammates, Eddie Giacomin and Gilles Villemure won the Vezina Trophy in 1971. Neilson’s contributions to the their stellar goals-against-averages played an important role in their winning that trophy. But Jim was more than just a contributor. He was a leader. One of the team’s most important cogs as the Rangers went from pretender to contender and nearly pulled off the impossible when they took the Bobby Orr-led Boston Bruins to six games in the 1972 Stanley Cup Finals. Perhaps, had the Rangers found a way to win, Jim Neilson might be better remembered. But the fact is, he’s not, and that’s tru

Jerry Izenberg might not be a recognizable name to most sport’s fans, but it’s one that will be eternally remembered when it comes to all sports. You see, Jerry Izenberg is one of the greatest writers to ever put pen to paper when it comes to covering the games we love to watch. Jerry spent time at several newspapers, most notably though, he spent most of his career writing for a paper that so few know (unless you live in or near New Jersey), the Newark Star-Ledger. Jerry also wrote, produced and directed sport’s specials and documentaries and authored several books including: “Once There Were Giants” … “The Greatest Game Ever Played” … “No Medals for Trying” … “Rozelle: A Biography”. While Jerry might not be as well-known as some of his contemporaries who wrote for larger newspapers, guys like Dave Anderson, Red Smith, Jim Murray, Jimmy Cannon, Shirley Povich or Frank Deford, doesn’t mean he was every bit as good – or better. So many couldn’t wait to get a copy of the paper every morning to read Jerry. But J

One of the fastest players to ever grace the gridiron was the 5-foot-4 Buddy Young. A native of Illinois, Young played for the Illini before joining the AAFC (All America Football Conference) and later the NFL where he enjoyed great success with the then Baltimore Colts. Buddy’s speed and quickness is what made him a threat on the field. At Illinois, the first time Buddy ever touched a football, he ran 64-yards for a touchdown. The second time he got a hold of the ball, he ran 30-yards for a touchdown. In fact, his first year with Illinois, he scored 10 touchdowns to tie the team record of the legendary Red Grange. In the pros, during Buddy’s 9-year career, he scored 17 touchdowns on the ground, caught passes for another 21 touchdowns, scored two touchdowns on punt returns and four on kickoffs, including a return of 104-yards. While Buddy was making a name for himself on the football field, one can only wonder how much more notoriety he would have garnered had he decided to stick with a different sport, one i

When the United States entered World War I, it signaled the end, for a while, to the landscape of college football. So many of the young men playing the game, put their college careers on hold, withdrew from school and joined the military to fight for their country. They left school and found themselves in “training camps” across the U.S., learning how to fight and preparing for deployment to help defeat Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, the Ottoman Empire. Thankfully, a majority of these men, young and older, never left the U.S. as the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. But, while they were training, the college stars of the day, and college stars who had preceded them still had a thirst to play the game. So they formed teams, challenged other camps and, ultimately, schedules were created, games were played, playoffs staged and championships won. War Football was a “thing”. Games between military bases were highly contested and replaced America’s thirst, for the time-being, to watch college football. In fa

Charley Trippi is not a name most NFL fans are familiar with. And that’s a shame, because Charley Trippi was one of the game’s most outstanding players during his nine years from 1947 through 1955. Trippi was a star for the Chicago Cardinals beginning on the day he arrived in 1947. A runner-up to Glenn Davis for the Heisman Trophy, winner of the Maxwell Award and the leader of a very formidable Georgia Bulldogs team that won the 1943 Rose Bowl, Trippi was the first overall pick in the 1946 NFL Draft. But he was also being courted by the New York Yankees. Yes, Trippi was not only a talented, all-purpose football player, he also swung a might bat and the Yankees wanted him. However, then-Cardinals owner Charles Bidwell told Trippi to visit the Yankees, get their offer and no matter what they offered him, he would beat it. And that’s exactly what Bidwell did. So, Trippi turned down the Yankees, signed with the Cardinals and led Chicago to the 1947 NFL Championship. In fact, in the championship game against the P

The Chicago Bears are an NFL original. Well, sort of. During their first year of play, 1920 the inaugural year of the NFL (known as the American Professional Football Association before adopting the name – National Football League), the Bears were actually known as the Decatur Staley’s. And, much to the surprise of most football fans, even those in Chicago, George Halas was not the founder of the Staley’s. While Papa Bear controlled the Staley’s in 1920, the Staley’s were actually the brainchild of A.E. Staley who owned a starch company in Decatur, Illinois and created the team to help boost company morale. What a team it was! In 1919, their only year of play, the Staley’s lost their first game, 3-0, and then went on an incredible streak in which they won their final 6 games and outscored their opponents over that time 294-10. But, Staley said he was losing too much money on the team and wound up selling it to Halas. But, while they were a company team playing in an industrial league, they certainly made a na

Pop Warner is one of the greatest football coaches in history when it comes to the collegiate level. But, as great as he was, he is probably best known for his name being associated with youth football. Despite a career that saw him win four national championships with Pitt and Stanford, most football fans have no idea about just how great a coach he was. Completely consumed by the game, his innovations are legendary, some of which are still prevalent in today’s game: the single wing, the double wing, the spiral, blocking techniques – even equipment! Pop could be out on a golf course, suddenly disappear and be found drawing up a play. It just hit him and he couldn’t wait to write it down. Pop’s start in the game was really by fluke. He was one his way to Cornell where he wanted to play baseball. The football coach saw him and asked him to try out for the Big Red. He did, and he caught the bug in a big way. Jeffrey Miller, author of “Pop Warner: A Life on the Gridiron,” joins me on this episode of Sports’ Forg

Sometimes superstars of the game are forgotten. There’s no real explanation for this. They just fade away with time, and this is the reason I launched Sports’ Forgotten Heroes. To remember the stars whom time has forgotten and for this episode, episode No. 89, this certainly holds true – Dutch Clark. A member of the inaugural class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Dutch was certainly on the of greats of the game – especially during his playing days which took place from 1931 through 1938. He took off the 1933 season to coach football on the collegiate level, but went back to the NFL in 1934. In six of his seven years, he was named first-team All-Pro playing quarterback. But he was also a terrific running back and led the NFL in touchdowns on three occasions. As a kicker, he was terrific as well kicking 72 extra points and 15 field goals. Clark broke into the NFL in 1931 after taking a year off from the game following a Hall of Fame college career for Colorado College. In fact, in Dutch’s first professional s

There was a time when Chicago was home to three NFL teams: the Bears, the Cardinals and the Tigers. The Tigers didn’t last long, but the Bears and Cardinals, as football fans know, still play today. While the Bears still call Chicago home, the Cardinals have since moved to St. Louis and now call Arizona (Glendale) home. But it was in Chicago where the Cardinals celebrated their greatest successes winning the NFL Championship in 1925 (although it took a few years before they accepted the title) and 1947 when they beat the Philadelphia Eagles. The Cardinals greatest year might have been 1948 when they went 11-1, but lost the championship game to the Eagles 7-0 in a huge snowstorm. There is so much history about the Cardinals time in Chicago and the relationship the team’s owner, Charles Bidwell, had with the Bears owner, George Halas. Both men helped save each other’s team – and that’s just one of the stories Joe Ziemba discusses with me on this edition of Sports’ Forgotten Heroes. Joe is quite a passionate Chi

On August 5, 2020, just a short time ago, Horace Clarke passed away. During the peak of his playing days (1965-1974) one could argue that Clarke was one of the faces of the New York Yankees. Sure, whenever you’re on a team with the legend – Mickey Mantle – you’d be hard-pressed to say anyone but The Mick was the face of the franchise. But, there was much fanfare around Clarke. While he wasn’t the greatest, he personified what the Yankees were during this down time in their illustrious history. In fact, in 1966, the Yankees finished last for the first time since 1912 when they were known as the New York Highlanders. Clarke first learned to play the game in Frederiksted, U.S. Virgin Islands; and it’s there, Frederiksted, where Horace Clarke is best known as a hero. After all, so few Major League baseball players hail from the tiny island. Clarke caught the eye of scouts in his early 20s and worked his way through the Yankees minor-league system in short fashion and in order moving from Class D, to Class C, and

The American League was founded by a few men, but two are largely given most, if not all, of the credit: Charles Comiskey and Byron Bancroft “Ban” Johnson. Despite what history tells us, there was a third gentleman who deserves just as much credit; and if Comiskey and Johnson were alive today, they would most likely concur – Tom Loftus. The three men spearheaded the idea of taking on the National League at a time when several leagues were trying to make a “go” of it. The Players League, the American Association and the Western League were the most noteworthy. With the exception of the Players League which lasted just over a year, all other comers were regarded as “minor” leagues, that is until the American League was hatched. In fact, the National League agreed to recognize the American League as a “major” instead of a minor league. But there was a lot of work to be done. Johnson, who wanted to create a league that would play a more fan-friendly style of baseball instead of the rough-and-tumble National Leagu

Tom Sestak is not a name familiar to many football fans. And that’s a shame because it should be. In fact, when those outside of Buffalo think about great defensive players who suited up for the Bills one of the first names that comes to mind is Bruce Smith. Certainly one of the greatest to ever play the game, Sestak wasn’t that far behind. During his career which spanned just seven seasons from 1962 through 1968, Sestak was regarded by many as the best defensive tackle in all of football, NFL or AFL. Drafted as a tighten out little McNeese State University, Sestak possessed size and raw ability. Bills coach Lou Saban immediately liked what he saw out of Sestak and converted him from TE to DT. The Bills had drafted Sestak in the 17th round of the 1962 AFL draft and his choice to go to Buffalo instead of Detroit (the Lions drafted him in the 16th round of the NFL Draft) wound up being the smartest move of his career. Had Sestak gone to Detroit, the Lions coach – George Wilson – might not have had the foresight

When you think of the New York Yankees of the 1950s the names that come to mind are those of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford. One name that very few mention, or even remember, is that of Gil McDougald. And, that’s a shame because McDougald was just as important to that dynasty as anyone else. Sure, he didn’t slug homeruns at the prodigious rate of Mantle, nor did he hit the ball like Berra or bring the heat like Ford. But what he did do was this: come through in the clutch, play a solid defense at second, third and short, made very few errors, had as accurate an arm as anyone in the game, showed up to play every day, and by many accounts, he was one of the key ingredients to a team that won eight pennants during his 10-years in pinstripes to go along with five World Series Championships. McDougald made his debut with the Yankees in 1951 and won Rookie of the Year honors by leading the Bronx Bombers with a .306 batting average. This, after he skyrocketed his way through the minor leagues. Known for a