The Packaged Tourist Show

Tonight’s guest is author Bob Wirz. Bob has been a media specialist in the world of sports for over 60 years. A lifelong baseball fan Bob worked as a publicity director for the Kansas City Royals and, later, in newspaper, radio, and television work. For 11 years he ran the media office for Major League Baseball when Bowie Kuhn was commissioner of baseball. During the 2000s and early 2010s he was a weekly columnist for Independent Baseball Insider and for the past 38 years he has been the owner of Wirz Associates where he does sports consulting work.

In 2018 he published the book “The Passion of Baseball”, a memoir of his life’s journey from Nebraska to his close encounters with baseball history.

Last year Bob released his latest book “My Nebraska: Rich Memories of Growing Up in Rural Nebraska Decades Ago”, another affectionate memoir of growing up in the Cornhusker State.

Tonight, we will pay tribute to Bob Wirz’s literary works and his contributions to Major League Baseball.

Tonight’s guest is author Clayton Trutor. Clayton hales from Vermont and holds a Ph.D in U.S. History at Boston College. He presently teaches at Norwich University and is the state chairman of the Society of Baseball Research Vermont chapter. He has written several bios for SABR as well as articles and research topics for the society.

On February 1, 2022 his first book “Loserville: How Professional Sports remade Atlanta –and How Atlanta remade Professional Sports” was released.

And exactly three weeks ago his second book “Boston Ball: Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, Gary Williams, and the Forgotten Cradle of Basketball Coaches” has just been released.

It is a brilliant examination how three future great NCAA men’s basketball coaches started on their path to greatness while coaching men’s basketball at Boston College and altered basketball tactics forever with their innovations.

Tonight’s guest is author Marshall Patrick Garvey. Marshall lives in Northern California and has been writing for almost 20 years. His works have published by the Sacramento Bee, Screen Rant, Dodger Nation, the Richard Nixon Foundation, Teen Ink, the Pacific Coast League Historical Society, and Cygnus X-1.

10 years ago he founded Last Token Gambling, a video game blog that is now the mainstay of the gaming scene. And for a two-year period he worked as a history-book author and researcher for History Specialists.

Six weeks ago, Marshall published his book “Interstate ’85: Whitey’s Cardinals, Howser’s Royals, the Call, and the Battle for the Heart of Missouri”, a wonderful chronicle of the 1985 World Series.

Tonight’s guest is hockey author Sean McCaffrey III. Sean was once Editor-in-Chief of the DOI newsletter and website from 2002 to 2011. During that time period Sean was the promoter of WSU Wrestling from 2007-2012 where he worked as a writer, promoter, booker, agent, referee, announcer, commentator, and a jack-of-all-trades. In 2014 Sean launched the website DOINOW.com which is devoted to sharing thoughts and opinions of all aspects of New York sports.

Sean has published seven books “Tricks of the Trade volumes I, II, III, and IV”, “One Game at a Time”, “The New York Rangers Rink of Honor”, and the “Top 100 Villains of New York Rangers history”.

Tonight, we will discuss and pay tribute to Sean’s writing career.

Tonight’s guest is author Eric C. Gray. Eric was born and raised in New Paltz, NY and earned his college degree at SUNY at New Paltz. In the mid-1970s he made his way to San Francisco where he and his wife Lynn made their living working for the Department of Labor while raising a family.

Eric has loved baseball since the day he was born and in 2019 he published his first book “Bases to Bleachers: a collection of personal baseball stories from the stands and beyond” where Eric interviewed people from all walks of life who shared their memories of the most memorable game of baseball they ever watched or played. It didn’t matter whether the game was a major league game or minor league or even Little League. It was the memory that counted.

Last year Eric published his second book “Backyards to Ballparks: More Personal Baseball Stories from the stands and beyond” which picks up right where “Bases to Bleachers” left off.

Tonight, we will be discussing Eric’s brilliant writing career.

Tonight’s guest is author Rich Shmelter. Rich lives in Ohio and for the past 23 years he has written books dealing with sports history, Hollywood History, and True Crime (dealing with the Prohibition era).

In 1999 he published his first book a history on the Cleveland Browns. He has written books dealing with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Raiders NFL franchise and USC Trojans football program as well as Chicago Outfit gun man Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn.

Tonight, we will be discussing his latest release “Championship Diary: Super Bowl XVIII, Los Angeles Raiders vs. Washington Redskins January 22, 1984.”

Tonight’s guest is sports author Vincent Guerrieri. Vincent is an award-winning journalist whose works have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and online. He is a native of Youngstown, Ohio, a graduate from Bowling Green University and has published three books on Ohio Sports history.

His first book “Ohio Sports Triva” was released in 2011.

His second book “The Blue Streaks & Little Giants: More Than a Century of Sandusky & Fremont Ross Football” was released in 2013.

His latest book “Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports: Bottlegate, Bedbugs, and Burying the Pennant” was released in November 2022.

Tonight’s guest is author Jeff Kisseloff. Jeff lives today in Arizona but was born and raised in East Meadow, NY. For decades Jeff has blessed the literary world with three stunning oral histories dealing with Manhattan from the 1890s to World War Two; the creation and rise of television from 1929 to 1961; and an oral history of the protest movements of the 1960s. Jeff Kisseloff is also a devoted baseball fan and has released two books devoted to baseball: “Who is Baseball’s Greatest Hitter” and “Who is Baseball’s Greatest Pitcher”.

Tonight we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1973 New York Mets who won the National League pennant that year.

Tonight’s guest is internationally renowned sports author Roland Lazenby. If there were a wing in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts reserved for basketball writers, Mr. Lazenby would (and should be) an inductee in very high standing. Roland has written more than 60 sixty books covering NBA and college basketball and football. In 2014 Roland released his epic biography of Michael Jordan titled “Michael Jordan: the Life” which instantly became (and remains) an international best-seller which has been translated in a wide array of languages. Two years later Roland followed up his magnum opus with another magnum opus: “Showboat: the Life of Kobe Bryant” which has also become an international best seller that is being translated and released in a wide array of languages.

Tonight, we will discuss his latest masterpiece: “Magic” his much-anticipated biography of Lakers legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Tonight’s guest is esteemed football author Tom Danyluk. Tom hales from Oak Park, Illinois and has worked as a football writer for the past 30 years and has been a member of the Pro Football Writers Association since 1987 and has been writing for Pro Football Weekly since 2004.

His work has earned enormous and well deserved praise from his peers in the profession. Legendary football writer Paul Zimmerman declared in 2007 that, “Day in, day out football writing, I think the most knowledgeable person covering the game is Tom Danyluk.”

His first book “The Lost Super Bowls” was released in 2017.

His second book “None Yards: 30 years of John Madden in the broadcast booth” a verbal history of the late John Madden was released in 2018.

And his latest book “Majesty and Mayhem: Pro Football in the 1980s” was released in 2022 and has earned rave reviews among football literary critics.

Tonight, we will be discussing his third book “The Super 70s” a brilliant history of the NFL in the 1970s was released in 2019.

Tonight’s guest is author Sharon K. Connell. Sharon was born in Wisconsin but lived most of her adult life in Chicago and Florida where she worked in clerical positions in the medical field and in advertising. She is now retired and resides in Houston, Texas.

Although she defines her genre of writing as Christian Romance Suspense she has also published a cookbook and a multi-genre collection of short stories.

Sharon has also devoted her life to her Christian faith and has spent most of her life studying the Bible and graduated from the Pensacola Bible Institute.

Tonight, we will be discussing her latest release “Trust Never After” which was published on July 31.

Tonight’s guest is novelist Jeff Salter who goes by the name of J.L. Salter at Amazon. Jeff lives in Kentucky and worked nearly 30 years as a librarian. He was decorated veteran of the Air Force. In 2012 he published his first book “The Overnighter’s Secrets” and since then he has blessed his readers with more works like “The Ghostess and Mr. Muir”, the Rose Roamer Time Traveler Books “Cowboy Out of Time” and “Cowboy Joins the Fight”.

Tonight’s guest is football author Greg Tranter. Greg lives in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts and is a prominent Buffalo Sports historian, curator, and collector with expertise in Buffalo Bills history.

Last year he released two books “Relics: The History of the Buffalo Bills in Objects and Memorabilia” which he co-wrote with Jeffrey Miller and came out in February 2022 and most recently, “The Buffalo Sports Curse: 120 years of Pain, Disappointment, Heartbreak and Eternal Optimism” which he wrote by himself and was released last October.

Tonight, we will be discussing “The Buffalo Sports Curse”

Tonight we have a special guest: Pro Football Historian and author Terrence “T.J.” Troup. T.J. is one of the foremost historians of professional football. He is a regular contributor to “The Pro Football Journal”, “American Football Coaches Monthly”, and was the football coordinator/consultant for the 2008 George Clooney film "Leatherheads” and also the 2021 film “12 Mighty Orphans”. He wrote his first book in 2009 titled “This Day in Football” and in 2014 he wrote the “The Birth of Football’s Modern 4-3 Defense” a splendidly detailed tactical analysis of how NFL teams played defense during the 1950s and a must read for all serious pro football researchers.

Tonight, Coach Troup and I will be examining a topic that Coach Troup has been wanting to discuss for years: the relationship between Bears defensive coordinator the late Clark Shaughnessy and the man who succeeded him, future Pro Football Hall of Fame coach George Allen.

Tonight’s guest is historian and author Allan Andrade. Allan lives in Landenberg, PA and is a retired New York City Transit police lieutenant. Allan used his investigative skills in researching and interviewing the survivors and relatives of the Leopoldville tragedy.

The end result of those interviews are four books published between 1997 and 2008 which dealt with the sinking of the Leopoldville during World War Two: “Leopoldville: A Tragedy Too Long Secret”, “S.S. Leopoldville Disaster”, “Leopoldville: Remembrance for Valor”, and “Leopoldville Troopship Disaster”.

Tonight’s guest is novelist, columnist, and radio personality Candance Havens. Candance has been an entertainment critic for radio station 96.3 KSCS in Dallas, Texas since 1997 where she has interviewed many renowned Hollywood celebrities.

And for over 20 years she has published 35 books with the vast majority of her works in the romance and mystery genre (some under her name and some under her pen name Lucy Connelly) while also writing a biography of Joss Whedon (the creator of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Her works have resulted in her winning the Holt Medallion while receiving nominations for Readers’ awards.

This week we are commemorating the 160th anniversary of the Civil War battle of Gettysburg one of the greatest battles in Civil War History. And to help me mark this anniversary is Civil War expert: Dr. Christian Keller. Christian Keller is a professor of history at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA, a post he has occupied since 2011.

He also is the owner of Keller Enterprises where he buys, sells, and trades military toys.

He has also published five books since 2004 on the Civil War.

Tonight’s guest is author Rich Shmelter. Rich lives in Ohio and for the past 23 years he has written books dealing with sports history, Hollywood History, and True Crime (dealing with the Prohibition era).

In 1999 he published his first book a history on the Cleveland Browns. He has written books dealing with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Raiders NFL franchise and USC Trojans football program as well as Chicago Outfit gun man Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn.

Tonight we will be discussing his latest release “Professional Football Goes Hollywood: Professional Football and the City of Los Angeles’ rise to Prominence.”

Tonight’s guest is sports author David Finoli. David has written over 34 books dealing with his lifelong love affair for Pittsburgh sports. His books discuss the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Steelers, the Penguins, college powerhouses such as Pitt and Duquesne University.

Tonight, we will be discussing his newest release which he cowrote with Chris Fletcher, Frank Garland, Tom Rooney and Tim Rooney titled “Pittsburgh Sports in the 1970s: Tragedies, Triumphs, and Championships” a loving tribute to the Golden Age of Pittsburgh sports where the Steel City experienced the ecstasies of winning multiple World Series titles, Super Bowls, and one college football national championship in one decade.

Tonight’s guest is sports author Jonathan Daniel. Jonathan spent 20 years working in sports, both in front and behind the camera. He produced five seasons of “Rays Magazine”, a weekly TV show about the Tampa Bay Rays and he has worked as a sports producer for Fox affiliate stations in Tampa and Chicago. He presently works in communications at Indiana University.

In 2018 he published his first book “Phinally! The Phillies, the Royals and the 1980 season that almost wasn’t”.

And three months ago, Jonathan released his second book “Suds Series: Baseball, Beer Wars, and the Summer of ‘82” a delightful account on the 1982 baseball seasons and its top two teams the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers.

Tonight’s guest is author and poet Kris Bigalk [Bee-yahk]. Kris resides in Minnesota and is a part-time Executive Director of Trio House Press. She is also the Director of Creative Writing and an English professor at Normandale Community College.

In 2012 Kris released her first book of poems “Repeat the Flesh in Numbers”. In 2019 she released her second of poems “Enough”.

Her poetic works have appeared in a wide variety of literary magazines throughout the country and have earned great praise from reviewers.

Tonight’s guest is author David Vilhauer. Dave lives in South Dakota and when he is not working as President of Baseline Publishing LLC he is also the creator and owner of SD SportScene. In 2019 Dave published his first book “The Parent Trapped Within (A Guide to Sports Parenting) and that is what we will be discussing for tonight’s show.

Tonight’s guest is author Jeff Kisseloff. Jeff lives today in Arizona but was born and raised in East Meadow, NY. For decades Jeff has blessed the literary world with three stunning oral histories dealing with Manhattan from the 1890s to World War Two; the creation and rise of television from 1929 to 1961; and an oral history of the protest movements of the 1960s.

Jeff Kisseloff is also a devoted baseball fan and has released two books devoted to baseball: “Who is Baseball’s Greatest Hitter” and “Who is Baseball’s Greatest Pitcher”.

This week we are commemorating the 160th anniversary of the Civil War battle of Chancellorsville one of the greatest battles in Civil War History and Robert E. Lee’s greatest moment as a general. And to help me mark this anniversary is a renowned and well-respected expert on the battle: Dr. Christian Keller. Christian Keller is a professor of history at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA, a post he has occupied since 2011. He also is the owner of Keller Enterprises where he buys, sells, and trades military toys. He has also published six books since 2004 including two books which discuss Chancellorsville: “Chancellorsville and the Germans” which discusses the role German-American troops played in the battle and “The Great Partnership: Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and the Fate of the Confederacy” which discusses the great partnership between Lee and Jackson.

Tonight’s guest is a dear friend and fellow historian Dr. Eugene Betit. Gene comes from a military background. He served for 20 years in the U.S. Army as a military intelligence analyst and a German and Russian linguist. He was selected for the Soviet Foreign Area officer’s program and, later, went on to study Russian at Universities in California, Germany, and, finally, at Georgetown University where he finished with a Masters Degree and a Ph.D.

He published his first book in 2017 (a chronicle of his Walloonian ancestors) before releasing his second book Collective Amnesia in 2019.

Tonight, we will be discussing his latest book released last March “Unsung Patriots: African-Americans in America’s Wars” which examines the relatively unexamined role played African-Americans have played in America’s wars.

Tonight’s guest is science fiction author S. Evan Townsend. Evan has been called “America’s Unique Speculative Fiction Voice” and writes novels that cause thrills and rapid page-turning. Evan hales from the Pacific Northwest and served four years in the Army in the Intelligence field. After ending his military service, he got a B.S. from the University of Washington in Forest Resources. He presently enjoys life in Washington State with his wife, three sons, and his grandson. Evan has published 16 books since 2010. His latest work is “Death to the Emperor” which was released last December.

Tonight’s guest is author David Wilson. David has had a full career in education as a teacher and high school principal, but he has also been a journalist, director of communications, and author. He currently teaches online master degree coursework and holds local political office in a legislative role on the quorum court in Washington County Arkansas (located in the northwest part of the State).

Dr. Wilson’s latest book is called “I Grew Up in A Small Town”, about Corning, Arkansas, where he grew up in Northeast Arkansas. The town turns 150 years old this year and the book was written, in part, to help commemorate that event.

Tonight’s guest is author David Sumner. David lives in Indiana and was a former professor of Journalism at Ball State University for 25 years.

Exactly 60 years ago on this day in 1963 the now defunct Saturday Evening Post ran an expose accusing University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant of conspiring with former University of Georgia Bulldogs football coach Wally Butts to fix a 1962 game between the two schools which Georgia lost 35-0.

In 2018 David Sumner wrote his first book on college football titled “Fumbled Call” which deals with mysterious Bear Bryant-Wally Butts football scandal which took place during the early 1960s which led to trials in the Federal Courts that influenced libel laws regarding celebrities.

Tonight’s guest is author and Hockey and Pro Wrestling historian Greg Oliver. Greg lives in Toronto, Canada and has written 19 books (with more to come) since 2003. He co-authored five books in the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame quintet. Tonight, we will be discussing his two upcoming releases which he co-authored with their subjects: “The Woman who would be King: the Madusa Story” a bio on female pro wrestler Debrah “Madusa” Miceli and “Gibby: Tales of a Baseball Lifer” a bio on former Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons.

Tonight’s guest making a record fifth appearance on my show is author and Civil War historian William Connery.

William lives in the greater Baltimore-Washington DC area and for over ten years has been a writer for the Civil War Courier monthly magazine and a guest speaker giving talks on the Civil War. William has also worked for the Washington Times newspaper and once did weekend docent work at the Mosby Museum in Warrenton, Virginia.

In 2011 William published his first book “Civil War Northern Virginia 1861” and tonight we will be discussing the life and exploits of the subject of his second book which was published in 2013 titled “Mosby’s raids in Civil War Northern Virginia”, a biography of Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby.

Tonight’s guest is author Sheridan Barringer. Sheridan lives in Newport News, VA and worked for NASA for 37 years as a mechanical engineer and project manager. When Sheridan wasn’t working for NASA, he was pursuing his great love of researching the lives of Confederate cavalry commanders.

In 2016 he released his first book “Fighting for General Lee: General Rufus Barringer and the North Carolina Cavalry brigade”.

In 2019 Sheridan released his second book “Custer’s Rival: The Life of Confederate Major General Thomas L. Rosser”.

Last year he released his third book “Unhonored Service: The Life of Lee’s Senior Cavalry Commander, Colonel Thomas Taylor Munford, CSA”.

Tonight’s guest is author Bob Sampson. Bob lives in Southern Illinois and has written two books. His first, a biography of John L. O’Sullivan (a 19th century journalist, diplomat, and advocate for lost causes) came out in 2003.

His second book Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinoiswill be released on May 2 of this year. The book discusses how baseball swept through Illinois in the years following the end of the Civil War in 1865.

Tonight’s guest is author Edward Achorn. Ed lives in Massachusetts and is a Pulitzer Prize finalist (for his book Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln). When he is not writing books about Abraham Lincoln he has also published two excellent books on 19thcentury baseball Fifty-Nine in ’84 and The Summer of Beer and Whiskey.

Yesterday Ed released his fourth book the highly anticipated The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention that Changed History

Tonight’s guest is hockey author Jim Genac. Jim hales from British Columbia in Canada and is a former amateur hockey coach.

Tonight, we will be discussing his first book “Path to the Summit: Anatoli Tarasov and the History of Soviet Hockey part 1 (1946-1956) a masterful history of the origins of Soviet hockey.

Tonight’s guest is novelist Donny Hunt. Donny hales from Texas and has worked for various newspapers and radio stations while contributing to sports websites.

During the past five years he has written and published five novels. His first “Blessed Poison” was released in 2016. In 2017 he released “The Quest for Aranwa” and “Angel of Death”. In 2020 he released his fourth “Already Fallen” a sequel to his first novel “Blessed Poison”. And in 2022 Donny’s fifth novel “Reckless Passions” a sequel to “Already Fallen” and “Blessed Poison” was unleashed upon the world.

But when he isn’t writing novels Donny Hunt also indulges in his other passion: being a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan. Tonight, marks a special occasion for Cowboys fans. This is the 30th anniversary of Dallas winning Super Bowl XXVII against the Buffalo Bills. It was Dallas’ first Super Bowl victory in 15 years and tonight Donny and I will pay tribute to that great team.

Tonight’s guest is sports author Ian Kahanowitz. Ian S. Kahanowitz was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. After moving to Massachusetts in 1993 to attend law school, he has practiced law for the last twenty-two years. Ian is also a historian, whose major focus is on 20th Century history. Ian's love for baseball, combined with his love for the law and history has influenced him to publish his first bookin 2019: Baseball Gods In Scandal: Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and The Dutch Leonard Affair.

In 2021 he published his second book “NFL 1970: the Inaugural Season of the New NFL”.

Ian has published many articles on baseball and has a sports/ entertainment podcast called Genesis. The podcasts can be downloaded at YouTube.

He currently resides in North Attleboro, Massachusetts with his wife and two sons.

Tonight’s guest is author Roger Meyer. In 2000 Roger published his book “The First Mr. Basketball: The Legend of Bobby McDermott”, a bio of one of the greatest pro basketball players of the 1930s and the 1940s and inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988.

Tonight’s guest is author Brian “Chip” Martin.  Brian is a native of London, Ontario in Canada and has been a lifelong fan of baseball and is a member of the Society of American Baseball Researchers and has written many articles devoted to Canadians who have played Major League baseball.

Since 2013 Chip has released four books dealing with baseball but tonight, we will be discussing his latest book released last October “From Underground Railroad to Rebel Refuge: Canada and the Civil War” a compelling examination of Canada’s role in the Civil War as a haven for escaped slaves, Confederate spies, Klansmen, and post-bellum rebel generals and slave owners.

Tonight begins the Fourth Season of the Packaged Tourist and tonight’s guest making his record fourth appearance on my show is author and novelist Neil Perry Gordon. Neil lives in New York and during the past four years Neil has released nine books: A Cobbler’s Tale, Moon Flower, The Righteous One, The Bomb Squad, Hope City, Sadie’s Sin, Cape Nome, Otzi’s Odyssey, and the last volume of his Goldfield Trilogy, Denali.

Tonight, we will discuss two future books projects Neil is working on: “Thunder Falls: the education of Leopold Red Wolf” and "The Nazirite: the untold story of Samson and Delilah”.

Tonight’s guest is Baseball historian and author Bruce Markusen. Bruce has that dream job which all baseball fanatics lust for all their lives. He has worked as the Manager of Digital and Outreach Learning at the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, NY since 2013.

He has also been a columnist for the Hardball Times since 2009 and he is also a member of the Society for American Baseball Research.

He has published several books (mostly about baseball) but for tonight we will discuss a specific topic. This coming Saturday New Year’s Eve will mark the 50thanniversary of the tragic death of baseball immortal Roberto Clemente who perished while leading a mission of mercy to aid victims of a massive earthquake in Nicarauga.

Bruce Markusen is uniquely qualified to discuss Clemente’s career because in 2014 he published the book “Roberto Clemente: The Great One”.

Tonight’s guest is author David Sumner. David lives in Anderson, Indiana and was a former professor of Journalism at Ball State University (located in Muncie, IN) for 25 years.

He released his first book “Feature and Magazine Writing” in 2012 followed in 2017 by a biography of Georgia politician John Thraser.

In 2018 he wrote his first book on college football titled “Fumbled Call” which deals with mysterious Bear Bryant-Wally Butts football scandal which took place during the early 1960s and in 2021 ago he released “Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football’s Greatest Pioneer” which is available in kindle and paperback at Amazon.

Tonight we will be discussing his new release "Magazine Century".

Tonight’s guest is esteemed football author Tom Danyluk. Tom hales from Oak Park, Illinois and has worked as a football writer for the past 30 years and has been a member of the Pro Football Writers Association since 1987 and has been writing for Pro Football Weekly since 2004.

His work has earned enormous and well deserved praise from his peers in the profession. Legendary football writer Paul Zimmerman declared in 2007 that, “Day in, day out football writing, I think the most knowledgeable person covering the game is Tom Danyluk.”

His first book “The Lost Super Bowls” was released in 2017. His second book “None Yards: 30 years of John Madden in the broadcast booth” a verbal history of the late John Madden was released in 2018. His third book “The Super 70s” a brilliant history of the NFL in the 1970s was released in 2019.

And his latest book “Majesty and Mayhem: Pro Football in the 1980s” was released last February and is already earning rave reviews among football literary critics.

Tonight’s guest making his fourth appearance on my show is author and Civil War historian William Connery.

William lives in the greater Baltimore-Washington DC area and for over ten years has been a writer for the Civil War Courier monthly magazine and a guest speaker giving talks on the Civil War. William has also worked for the Washington Times newspaper and once did weekend docent work at the Mosby Museum in Warrenton, Virginia.

In 2011 William published his first book “Civil War Northern Virginia 1861” and in 2013 he published his second book “Mosby’s raids in Civil War Northern Virginia”.

Tonight we will be discussing the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg on the 160thanniversary of the battle.

Tonight’s guest is author Sharon K. Connell. Sharon was born in Wisconsin but lived most of her adult life in Chicago and Florida. She now resides in Houston, Texas. Although she defines her genre of writing as Christian Romance Suspense she has also published a cookbook and a multi-genre collection of short stories.

Sharon has also devoted her life to her Christian faith and has spent most of her life studying the Bible and graduated from the Pensacola Bible Institute.

Tonight we will be discussing her latest release “Tall Pines Sanctuary” which was published last August.

Tonight we have two special return guests: husband and wife writing duo Thomas Wolf and Patricia Bryan. Tom and Patricia reside in North Carolina. Tom has published books on his own dealing with baseball but in 2005 he collaborated with Patricia on their first joint release “Midnight Assassin” that examine a real life 1900 murder mystery that took place in Iowa.

Tonight, we will discuss their second joint book release “The Plea: The True Story of Young Wesley Elkins and his struggle for Redemption”. This book discusses the 1889 murder of an Iowa farmer and his young wife, the investigation and how the aftermath of that murder affected their young, frail son.

Tonight we have a special guest: Pro Football Historian and author Terrence “T.J.” Troup. T.J. is one of the foremost historians of professional football. He has written numerous articles for “American Football Coaches Monthly” and was the football coordinator/consultant for the 2008 George Clooney film “Leatherheads” and also the 2021 film “12 Mighty Orphans”. He wrote his first book in 2009 titled “This Day in Football” and in 2014 he wrote the “The Birth of Football’s Modern 4-3 Defense” a splendidly detailed tactical analysis of how NFL teams played defense during the 1950s and a must read for all serious pro football researchers.

Tonight Coach Troup and I will be revisiting the most famous Thanksgiving Day matchup in the history of the Packers-Lions Rivalry, the 1962 Thanksgiving Day game on its 60th anniversary.

Tonight’s guest is teacher and author Andrew Noone. Andrew hales from Green Hill Park, MA and has been a music teacher and specialist for the Worcester Public School system for the past 22 years.

In March 2021 Andrew published his first book “Bathsheba Spooner: A Revolutionary Murder Conspiracy”.

It is a story about an 18th century murder plot set in American Revolution involving people from both the British and the American sides of the struggle.

Tonight’s guest is freelance journalist and author Tom Dunkel. Tom has been a regular contributor to the Washington Post Magazine for the past 20 years and has also contributed articles for the New York Times magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Smithsonian to name a few.

In 2013 Tom published his first book “Color Blind: The Forgotten Team that broke Baseball’s Color Line” which drew rave reviews from many of America’s most prestigious newspapers and book reviewers.

Three weeks ago Tom released his latest book “White Knights in the Black Orchestra: the extraordinary story of the Germans who resisted Hitler” which, also, is drawing rave reviews from America’s most elite book reviewers and newspapers.

Tonight’s guest is journalist and hockey author Geoff Kirbyson. Geoff hales from Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada and has been a writer for the Winnipeg Free Press for decades while also contributing columns for Canadian Business Magazine.

In 2016 he published his first book “The Hot Line: How the Legendary Trio of Hull, Hedberg and Nilsson transformed hockey and led the Winnipeg Jets to greatness” a brilliant account of the one of the greatest scoring lines in hockey history and how their style of play altered hockey tactics forever.

In 2021 Geoff released his second book “Broken Ribs and Popcorn: how the Winnipeg Jets became the best team in the NHL’s most offensive era not to win the Stanley Cup”, an account of how the Jets rebuilt themselves during the 1980s after merging with the NHL in 1979.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of when the Winnipeg Jets were formed and became the flagship franchise in the World Hockey Association.

Tonight’s guest is Benoit Clairoux. Benoit lives in Verdun in Quebec and is a member of the Society of International Hockey Researchers. He is maintains the website histoirenordiques.ca devoted to the history of the Quebec Nordiques.

The Quebec Nordiques were one of the solid franchises in the WHA and competed in two AVCO Cup finals in 1975 and 1977. They merged with the NHL in 1979 and continued until the team moved to Colorado in 1995 where they became the Colorado Avalanche.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Quebec Nordiques.