Apps like theScore didn't exist when Michael MacCambridge grew up in Kansas City in the 1970s, back when it was harder for a kid to follow the hometown team. Late Royals games that ran past his bedtime sometimes ended after the morning newspaper went to print. The sports section relayed who led through seven innings.

The suspense dogged MacCambridge, now an author of sports history books, as he left for grade school.

"Only when I came home and got the afternoon paper could I find out the final score of the game that had been played nearly 24 hours ago," MacCambridge said. "That is what's so hard to explain to modern sports fans: What a wasteland it was. Maybe you could get lucky and get a final on the radio. But it was a challenge."

MacCambridge lived through a transformation. Everything about sports changed in the '70s. The debut of "Monday Night Football" popularized nighttime broadcasts and helped condition a national audience to crave round-the-clock coverage. The creation of free agency and rogue leagues empowered and enriched players. Gains were made that promoted racial integration and women's inclusivity.

The decade's innovations and iconic athletes, from Hank Aaron to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Muhammad Ali, inspired MacCambridge's latest work: "The Big Time: How the 1970s Transformed Sports in America," which was published this week. Every era sparks change, but this rollicking period is when the games we love became a cultural phenomenon, commercial juggernaut, and 24-7 obsession.

Before his book launched, MacCambridge spoke to theScore about the decade's key characters, indelible sights, and lasting effects.

"By the end of the '70s, you could see the broad contours of what sports has become today, which is this multimedia, pervasive common ground that has insinuated itself into all the different parts of American life," MacCambridge said.

"At a time when America is more balkanized, narrowcast, and divided than ever before, sports is the last really big tent. You could start seeing that happen by the end of the '70s in a way that didn't exist at the beginning of the '70s."

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

theScore: How did you experience sports in the 1970s?

MacCambridge: I was 7 years old when the decade began. Fans tend to romanticize sports when they were growing up and falling in love with sports. Your sense of wonder is activated in that decade. I wanted to take a step back from my own emotional experience and try to understand the larger themes.

Growing up in Kansas City, I lived in an apartment complex. There were players from the Chiefs who lived in my building and the next building over. It was an era when players lived in apartment buildings instead of owning them. The Chiefs' offices were about 10 minutes away in the middle of a park area. There were only about 10 people working there and a practice field out back.

Sports were much less corporate, much less sophisticated, and the stakes were a lot lower then because players were being paid a lot less money. Sports was something different by the time we got to the end of the '70s.

How did the '70s legitimize sports fandom? What happened that enabled millions of people to obsess over them?

You have to go back to the assumptions that were made at the beginning of the '70s. There was still a feeling that pro football - which, by then, was America's most popular sport - was too male, too marginal, too parochial to succeed on prime-time network television. But with the advent and success of "Monday Night Football," that showed there was a broad audience.

It's not a coincidence that in 1971, a year after "Monday Night Football" debuts, we have the first World Series game in prime time. In '72, the Olympics goes to every night in prime time. In '73, the NCAA has the first national championship game in prime time. "Monday Night Football" opened the door.

Fans had been so regional in their interests and awareness. As more sports were on TV, as more sports pages became national in their outlook, fans were more national. By the time you get to the '80s and the launch of ESPN, fans are able to follow the games in a way they couldn't (in the past).

The decade's top athletes included tennis legend Billie Jean King. She beat Bobby Riggs, the chauvinistic retired major champion, in straight sets in the 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" as 45 million viewers tuned in. As you note in the book, it's possible no athlete ever delivered under so much pressure. What did her victory mean to some of the women you interviewed?

The match was played in Houston, of course. There was a big viewing party in New York City. It gathered a lot of the women who were at the forefront of second-wave feminism. A lot of them weren't sports fans, but they knew this was a moment. There's a scene in the book with the actress Marlo Thomas, who starred in the TV series "That Girl," sitting in front of the TV and saying this was the most important moment of her life.

Talking to women coaches, athletes, and administrators, it was clear that across the country that night, there was this thing. It was a circus, and there was nothing tangible improved by it one way or the other. Billie Jean King would have been the first to say that she could not have beaten one of the top 100 male players at the time. But because that match had gotten so much attention and had broad societal resonance, it felt huge.

King would have known going into the match that if she lost, that's what she was going to be remembered for - just as that is what Bobby Riggs is remembered for today, 50 years later.

Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run in 1974. He got death threats and racist hate mail while pursuing Babe Ruth, then was celebrated for breaking the record. What did Aaron's chase signify about that time in American life?

It was important for Aaron to step up and share with the public the nature of the hate mail he received. I think it showed people a side of the country that a lot of middle-class, white sports fans hoped did not exist. It was a reminder that it did exist.

It put a mirror in front of the American sporting public, which tended to congratulate itself for its open-mindedness, for its embrace of Black athletes. It showed how many people were virulently racist, threatening, and dangerous.

The stress of that was clearly immense. I'm not sure another athlete who didn't have Aaron's character would have weathered that so well. But he did it. I quote from a biography of Aaron. (Braves teammate) Dusty Baker said, "Hank was a little bit like your dad." He didn't bring his problems home to you. You knew he had adult problems, but he didn't dwell on them.

It was the single most-known record in American sports. Even someone who didn't follow sports knew Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs. That was what made it so historic.

Does anything in sports today compare to the spectacle of Muhammad Ali's violent, epic championship fights?

I don't know if there's ever been an event that was as anticipated as that first Ali-Joe Frazier fight. (Contesting the "Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden in 1971, Smokin' Joe beat Ali by unanimous decision after 15 rounds.)

You have to consider the time, Ali's place in the culture, the fatigue with the Vietnam War by then, and the sense among some middle-class Americans that Ali was unpatriotic (for refusing the Vietnam draft). You have more people watching the Super Bowl today than would have watched the first Ali-Frazier fight, but it doesn't have the political ramifications.

Who you were rooting for in that fight said something about what kind of person you were, what your politics were, who your friends were, what your attitude about the country was. It was more true then than, I think, any sports event today.

The American Basketball Association and World Hockey Association courted superstars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius Erving, Bobby Hull, and even Gordie Howe in his mid-40s. How did players benefit from the competition these short-lived leagues created?

You're right: The leagues were almost inevitably short-lived. There was no real research done on whether it would be a good idea to have a pro football franchise in Shreveport, Louisiana, or a hockey team in Houston. But there was new money there. Before the advent of free agency, players had essentially been indentured servants. It gave players a choice.

When Howe was with the Red Wings and winning MVP awards and Stanley Cups, he still had to work a job in the offseason to make ends meet. He had a neighbor who was a businessman who would take his boat to the lake every weekend. Howe couldn't afford that. When the WHA came offering hundreds of thousands of dollars, Gordie Howe happily took it, and understandably so.

What did players like Oscar Robertson in basketball, Curt Flood in baseball, and John Mackey in football risk or sacrifice when they fought for free agency to be established?

They risked their careers. They risked their time after retirement within the industry of their respective leagues.

Oscar Robertson was one of the smartest basketball players ever. A lot of people feel he would have been a great coach or general manager. He never got a chance because he was essentially blackballed by the NBA owners for challenging the reserve clause. (Across sports, this stipulation bound a player to his current team even after his contract expired.)

Curt Flood, after a short stint with the Washington Senators, never really got another chance to work in baseball, even though he was a veteran who was very accomplished and knew the game well. John Mackey never got a coaching opportunity after his career ended with the Baltimore Colts. It was stark. It was obvious.

In each of those major sports, the athletes who were risking their careers were African-American. I asked the Steelers' Hall of Fame defensive lineman Joe Greene about that. He said it probably wasn't a coincidence. He thinks the Black players, partly because of the civil rights movement, were more keenly tuned in to issues of freedom and choice and options.

Because of that, the Floods, the Mackeys, the Robertsons were more willing to take that step. Athletes of today have followed in their footsteps and should appreciate the sacrifices they made.

You mentioned Joe Greene. He won four Super Bowls with the Steelers dynasty and starred in a legendary Coca-Cola commercial. What place did the athletes of the '70s occupy in pop culture?

People started to see athletes as performance artists, if you will. Entertainers.

When you look at the last truly mythic figure in American sports, Julius Erving, during his days in the American Basketball Association, that was not just about being a wonderful basketball player. The thing that drew fans to Erving was the way he played basketball. He was a performer in the same way that (the great ballet dancer Rudolf) Nureyev was a performer.

I can remember talking to Hubie Brown, who coached the Kentucky Colonels, one of the Nets' great rivals during the ABA years. He said he had to tell his team, "If Erving comes anywhere near the lane, just foul him. I cannot risk him doing some whirling dervish, 360-degree dunk, and turning the home crowd against me."

Hubie Brown talks about his center Artis Gilmore, one of the best shot-blockers in the ABA, facing off against Erving, and Erving at 6-foot-6, who gave eight inches away to Gilmore, elevating above Gilmore. His armpit is above Gilmore's head as he's dunking over him. That sense of theater, moment, drama, performance - that sense of, "You have to come here, you have to see this" - was what made Erving special.

The ABA didn't have a national television contract. Erving was the last superstar to attain that status without most people in the country seeing him. Like I said, I grew up in Kansas City. Most of the kids I knew in the mid-'70s, their favorite player was Julius Erving. They'd never seen him play. They just saw pictures, heard stories, loved the big afro and the stars-and-stripes Nets jersey. It was clear that he was a departure (from the norm).

The ABA played with a red, white, and blue ball. It popularized dunk contests and the three-point line. In any sport, what was your favorite innovation or rule change to result from the '70s?

This isn't a specific rule but an entire sport. Billie Jean King and her husband at the time, Larry King, launched World Team Tennis. It was a really interesting take on tennis, which had historically been a country-club sport and very polite, proper, clapping after the point. King recognized that Americans responded to team sports more than individual sports. If you could make tennis a team sport, you could reach a broader cross-section of people.

Those early years of World Team Tennis, they had an innovative scoring system. You played five sets: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles. You didn't score by the sets won. You scored by the number of games won. If you lost two sets 6-4 but won the third set 6-1, you are now up 14-13.

You had to win the last game to clinch the match. There are these great fifth-set stories of teams coming back and running off four, five, or six games in a row to send it to sudden death. Crowds really got into it.

World Team Tennis had two challenges. It was trying to fit into a very crowded tennis schedule, and it also was launched before the age of cable television. If it would have launched a decade later, we might still be following World Team Tennis in the spring in the United States.

On X, formerly Twitter, @Super70sSports celebrates the decade's eccentricities. How often do you check out that account?

I love it. I even mention it in my bibliographic essay. Ricky Cobb does a great job there. It speaks to how wild and off the grid some of the aspects and athletes from that decade were.

There's a tendency to attribute innocence to any past era. After spending two and a half years on this book, I think it would be incorrect to describe the '70s as an innocent era. It was certainly a less self-conscious era. Hair was long. Inhibitions were low. There was shag carpeting on the walls.

One thing I tried to do with the book was put all of the changes into a broader context. Sports moving to prime time on network television. Free agency giving athletes a measure of liberation. Integration becoming more the rule than the exception. Women getting involved in unprecedented numbers as athletes, coaches, administrators, journalists. But there were still things that happened in the '70s that didn't make any kind of sense.

There was a picture in one of Billie Jean King's autobiographies. It was a little bit after the "Battle of the Sexes" that she'd won. She's on this Hollywood soundstage. She's dressed in frontier, "Little House on the Prairie" garb. She's sharing a dance with the Penthouse magazine editor Bob Guccione on "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour."

I don't know what led to it, but it was something that happened in the '70s. I think the takeaway is there was more living than thinking done during that decade.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

TGIF, albeit on the Friday, the 13th! But, lucky for you, that means we’re one day closer to game No. 2 of the Canucks regular season. We dive into the MLB playoffs, Russell Wilson's continued struggles, as well as looking ahead to what's in-store for the B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps.

Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli drops by with his weekly update, and dives headfirst into Conor Garland trade speculation and what the change in agents means for all parties involved. Frank gives his take on possible destinations for Garland, and whether CBJ and Nashville might be involved. We also discuss NHL teams playing a man short in games, and what teams like Ottawa and Buffalo are doing in terms of signing their young talent for significant term and money that could pay off in the long-run. 

Jeff Paterson, the host of the Rink Wide: Vancouver podcast, joined the guys, rinkside from Canucks practice, with details on who’s healthy & who isn’t with only 1 day left before the rematch with the Oilers. We ask Jeff about the trade speculation around Garland. Matt focuses on the same topic for today’s edition of the Welcome Matt. Have a great weekend and thanks for listening, everyone! Presented by Applewood Auto Group.

Follow us on social (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok & YouTube). Powered by Go Goat Sports

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Team Canada is promoting from within for the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championship.

Alan Letang will serve as head coach of the squad, Hockey Canada announced Friday. The 48-year-old was an assistant coach on the Canadian side that claimed gold in Halifax last winter.

Letang has been the bench boss for the OHL's Sarnia Sting since 2021. He previously occupied the role of interim head coach with the same league's Owen Sound Attack after joining them as an assistant in 2016.

Letang guided Canada's summer under-18 team to the gold medal at the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and was an assistant coach for the team that won the tournament one year earlier. He did the same for the championship squad at the 2020 world juniors.

The Canadian coaching staff will also include Gilles Bouchard of the QMJHL's Sherbrooke Phoenix, Shaun Clouston of the WHL's Kamloops Blazers, and Scott Walker of the OHL's Guelph Storm.

Former NHL defenseman Brent Seabrook is joining the team's brass in an unspecified position. He'll make his international management debut after playing 15 NHL seasons. Seabrook represented Canada numerous times as a player. He won Olympic gold in 2010, silver and gold at the WJHC in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and gold at the under-18 worlds in 2003.

The 2024 world junior tournament will take place from Dec. 26, 2023, through January 5, 2024, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Team Canada - the two-time defending champion - will hold its selection camp in Oakville, Ontario, from Dec. 10-13.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Takes, Thoughts, Trends is theScore's biweekly hockey grab bag.

The NHL's schedule makers sure know how to take advantage of a marketable player. Check out Chicago's slate to start the Connor Bedard era:

• Sidney Crosby's Penguins on Opening Night
• Presidents' Trophy-winning Bruins a day later
• Hockey Night in Canada in Montreal on Sat., Oct. 14
• Hockey mecca Toronto on Mon., Oct. 16
• Stanley Cup-contending Avalanche on Oct. 19
• Home opener against reigning Cup champion Vegas

That's six marquee matchups over the first 12 days of Bedard's career.

He lived up to the hype in his first two games, which aired on ESPN and TNT. He recorded an assist in 21:29 of action against Pittsburgh and a goal in 21:44 against Boston. Heading into Friday's games, the 18-year-old is tied for the league lead in shots (11) and has the second-most shot attempts (18). He's been less productive in the faceoff circle, going 8-for-25, though that's typical for rookie centers.

So much can happen in the next 80 games, and there will be bumps. But what's clear already is that Bedard is more Crosby than Connor McDavid. Like Crosby, he's both powerful and graceful, and he uses his backhand to generate offense. His demeanor on and off the ice is Crosby 2.0: comfortable but reserved, serious but polite, and no moment too big.

Bedard, whose shot is considered elite by NHL standards, showcased his patented drag-and-release style multiple times in his first two games. "Nifty" is a word that comes to mind when watching him operate in the offensive zone. An average shift length of 1:03 is definitely too high, but with that the No. 1 criticism through six periods of hockey, the kid's off to a stellar start.

"I don't see a reason why he can't get 40 goals," TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette said on a preseason conference call with reporters.

To Bissonnette, 80 points in Year 1 is a fair projection for No. 98.

"He's built like a brick shithouse," Bissonnette said of Bedard's lower-body strength. His Martin St. Louis-like quads should allow him to "take the punishment that's going to come his way, having to go up against first-line centers."

Hall of Fame-bound goalie Henrik Lundqvist sees 60-80 points for the rookie. "Is he a guy who can have 80, 90 points? Absolutely," the TNT analyst said. "But, to me, it's going to come down to how competitive his team is."

Couturier looks good as new

Welcome back, Sean Couturier, and take a bow.

The 2020 Selke Trophy winner returned Thursday after a whopping 663 days on the sidelines, helping the Flyers beat the Blue Jackets in Columbus. Couturier, 30, skated 20:39 - tops among Philadelphia forwards - including 3:06 on the power play and 2:03 on the penalty kill, and recorded an assist.

The strongest sign old Couturier is back: he didn't look tentative, despite undergoing two back surgeries over the past 22 months. Never a flashy player, Couturier provided Patrice Bergeron-esque stability at center.

Philly outscored Columbus 3-0 in all situations with Couturier on the ice and controlled 76% of the expected goals at even strength.

"As the game went on, I felt better and better, " Couturier, who won 11 of 20 faceoffs, told reporters.

It won't be surprising if Couturier adds another trophy to his collection by season's end. The Masterton is awarded to the NHLer "who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey."

Snow will 'be missed'

Longtime NHL executive Brad Treliving spoke beautifully Thursday about Chris Snow's optimism, wit, intelligence, strong-willed nature, and love for life during a memorial service in Calgary. Snow, a member of the Flames' front office since 2011, died Sept. 30 after a lengthy battle with ALS. He was 42.

Snow, an assistant GM, created Calgary's analytics department. He was very detail-oriented and leaned on skills learned as a former journalist to present data in an uncomplicated way. "When I'm trying to sell a story to the GM or coach, if it doesn't look good, how are they going to be convinced that everything under the hood is good?" Snow asked his team.

David Johnson, a former analyst who worked under Snow for six years, never saw his boss' drive to win a Stanley Cup slip while he was ill, nor his ability to do his job to the best of his ability. Snow losing his voice meant more texting, not less communicating. He courageously fought back against ALS' complications.

"He was never in a bad mood. He was always cheerful," Johnson recalled Wednesday. "Even when there's issues going on - data's incorrect or there's technical issues, whatever - it was never unpleasant. 'There's this issue, can you have a look at it?' That's it. He was very easy to work for in that respect."

You wanted to live up to Snow's high standards, Johnston added, because at the end of the day, he wanted what was best for you and for the organization.

"The two things he loved most was spending time with his family and sitting in the front office talking hockey," Johnson said. "He's going to be missed."

The Adin Hill Won the Cup effect

CapFriendly is an invaluable resource. It's where you go for any and all contract details, and it also helps paint a picture of league-wide trends.

Did you know that as of Thursday morning, nine NHL teams were spending less than 6% of the $83.5-million salary cap on goaltending? (Tampa Bay is counted here, but only because Andrei Vasilevskiy is on injured reserve.)

Think about that: A quarter of the league has allocated next to nothing to arguably the sport's most important position. Los Angeles, a club with Stanley Cup aspirations, is spending a league-low 3%, or $2.5 million, on goalies Pheonix Copley and Cam Talbot. Let's call this the Adin Hill Won the Cup effect.

At forward, meanwhile: Toronto, Dallas, Washington, the Islanders, and New Jersey lead the NHL in cap percentage spent, all at 63% or higher. The Maple Leafs, Stars, and Devils are offensive powerhouses and should get their money's worth. The Capitals and Islanders appearing in the top five is less of a compliment - too many bloated contracts up front.

Carolina's the most interesting case for spending on defense. Among four teams allocating 35% or more of the cap to the blue line, the Hurricanes have by far the best personnel, with Brent Burns, Jaccob Slavin, Dmitry Orlov, and Brett Pesce headlining the seven-player group. The other teams at or above 35% - Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis - all have at least one problematic contract. Exhibit A: Damon Severson, at best a second-pair guy, who Columbus is paying $6.25 million through 2030-31.

Parting shots

Unforced error: Sometimes the NHL can't get out of its own way. Over the last 12 months, the league's gone from fully supporting special-initiative nights, to being spooked by a handful of players choosing not to wear Pride Night warmup jerseys, to banning the use of Pride Tape. So much of the good associated with Hockey Fights Cancer Night, Military Appreciation Night, Pride Night, and Black History Night has been reversed. And for what? McDavid, Morgan Rielly, Scott Laughton, James van Riemsdyk, Zach Hyman, and Anthony Duclair are among many NHLers to express displeasure with the timeline of events. Talk about failing to read the room.

Dying art: Something I didn't discuss in my 24 predictions for the 2023-24 season piece but that's worth mentioning here: slap-shot usage will continue to plummet, because the modern NHL power play usually features four forwards and one defenseman and has for the most part ditched clappers from the point. Instead, east-west passing is prioritized so that quick, hard, deceptive wrist and snap shots are unleashed from high-percentage areas, like the inner slot. The windup time needed for a proper slap shot has become too burdensome in all situations, with the pace of play simply too high. Defensive players and goalies have more than enough time to prepare for a slap shot.

Expansion gem: While Matty Beniers may prove to be a superstar down the road, Seattle's currently a team without one. Instead, the Kraken lineup's filled with quality NHLers. Asked prior to the season for his most underrated teammate, Beniers chose 26-year-old defenseman Will Borgen. The 6-3 righty may play an unsexy game (mean in the corners, good first pass, motor that doesn't quit), but he's ultra effective on the second pair alongside Jamie Oleksiak. General manager Ron Francis was widely criticized for several of his 2021 expansion draft picks, but it's safe to say he unearthed a gem in Borgen, a 2015 fourth-rounder plucked from the Sabres.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Daniel Alfredsson is back with the Ottawa Senators organization with no official title, president of hockey operations Steve Staios told Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch.

"At this point in time, it's best for him to be around the players and the coaches quite a bit more," Staios said. "We're going to see how this evolves, but he's officially back with the organization."

Alfredsson was on the ice for Ottawa's practice on Friday morning.

Alfredsson is widely regarded as the best player in Senators history. He played 17 seasons with the club from 1996-2013 and is the franchise's all-time leader in goals (426) and points (1,108). In 2016, he was the first player to have his number retired by the organization and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year.

Alfredsson worked as Ottawa's senior adviser of hockey operations after his playing career but decided to leave the organization in 2017 when his contract expired after two seasons.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.