The Miami Dolphins came into 1975 as a dynasty, but also as a team facing significant transition. Under the leadership of Don Shula, the Dolphins were on a run of five straight AFC East titles. That included three trips to the Super Bowl and two championships, including a historic perfect season in 1972. They continued […]
The Baltimore Colts had been in a three-year funk. After winning the Super Bowl in 1970 and reaching the AFC Championship Game in 1971, the Colts had fallen hard. Over 1972-74, they went a combined 11-31. The front office started over. Ted Marchibroda came in as the head coach. Second-year quarterback Bert Jones came into […]
Is this the year the Bills make their Super Bowl breakthrough? Or is decline about to set in? Let’s take a look.
The early part of the 1970s had been difficult ones for legendary DePaul basketball coach Ray Meyer. A tenure that saw him turn out consistently good teams over a career that started during World War II, had gone sour. The Blue Demons had consecutive losing seasons in 1970 and 1971. Over the next two seasons, […]
Digger Phelps had Notre Dame basketball on the upswing coming into the 1974 college basketball season. While he inherited a program in 1972 that had just gone to consecutive Sweet 16s, every single notable player from those teams was gone. Starting from scratch, Phelps won just six games in his first year in South Bend. […]
The 1975 Los Angeles Dodgers were coming off a breakthrough year. After four straight second-place finishes, they won the NL West in 1974 and went on to reach the World Series. The Dodgers were still a good team in ’75 but an old nemesis rebounded with a vengeance to leave Los Angeles on the outside […]
The Philadelphia Phillies had been in a funk for over a decade coming into the 1975 season. After a historic collapse cost them the National League pennant in 1964, the Phils had enjoyed just one winning season and were never a serious contender. Danny Ozark took the managerial reins in 1973, and he was accompanied […]
The 1975 Kansas City Royals had a wild ride. A young franchise in just its seventh season of existence played well early and raised hopes of the postseason. A summer skid brought despair, tension, and a managerial change. But that change gave way to a strong finish that, while coming up short of the playoffs, […]
The 1975 New York Yankees entered the season infused with optimism. The proud franchise hadn’t won the World Series since 1962 or even been there since 1964. Since divisional play began in 1969, they had yet to win the AL East. But they came close in 1974. And in the just-starting era of free agency, […]
As he entered his 10th season on the sidelines at Marquette, Al McGuire had turned the Warrior basketball program into a consistent winner. He was routinely winning 20-plus games and making the NCAA Tournament, in an era when both objectives were far less commonplace than is the case today. What he hadn’t yet done was […]
What Cincinnati had—at long last, after 35 years of waiting—was a World Series trophy. Had they lost this Series, this group of players would have had the “Can’t Win The Big One” tag trailing them around. Instead, they were just getting started on a dynasty.
The Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates were two teams that had already gotten familiar with each other in National League Championship Series play. The two teams met in 1970 and the Reds won in a sweep. They met in 1972 and the Reds won a thriller. Cincinnati and Pittsburgh got together one more time in the 1975 NLCS. And one more time, the Big Red Machine asserted themselves
