Posts and episodes from Yesterday’s Sports podcast.
In 1975, the cover of Sports Illustrated identified Soviet weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev as “The World’s Strongest Man.” Few could contradict that claim. His achievements spoke for themselves. At the time, Alekseyev was preparing to win his sixth consecutive World Superheavyweight Championship. What Made Alekseyev So Powerful? When he was just 11 years old, Vasily was put to … Read more
Fifty years after he retired, Joe Kapp is still the only QB in history who played in the Rose Bowl, a Grey Cup championship game, and the Super Bowl. After a successful college career at Cal, Joe Kapp began his professional football career in 1959, playing for the Calgary Stampeders. Then, in 1961, Calgary traded … Read more
Today we’re going to discuss the 1970s rivalry between the Oakland Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Raiders joined the American Football League in 1960 and sputtered. The team notched only three winning seasons in its first seven years. That direction changed in 1967 when the Raiders went 14–1 before losing to the Packers in … Read more
‘The Thrilla in Manila’ would be the third time that Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier squared off. In the first fight, held at Madison Square Garden in March 1971, Frazier defended his heavyweight title with a 15-round unanimous decision. The second fight in January 1974 also took place at Madison Square Garden. That one would be … Read more
The world will always look forward to the Summer Games, but the world will always look back on the Summer Games of 1972. Outstanding performances, considerable controversy, and great tragedy make it so. The 1972 summer games are the first Olympic games I can remember watching. The 1972 games were in Munich, West Germany. The … Read more