Good Seats Still Available

Youngstown State professor Denis Crawford ("The Life and Teams of Johnny F. Bassett: Maverick Entrepreneur of North American Sports") joins the 'cast for a jam-packed deep dive into the life of one of the most underrated, yet enormously influential pro sports figures of the 1970s/80s.   A third-generation scion of a prominent Canadian industrialist family steeped in both media and sports team ownership, John F. (Johnny) Bassett distinguished himself from his elders as a marketing-savvy showman with a P.T. Barnum-esque flair for spectacle and a penchant for challenging the traditional conventions of professional sports - notably with teams in leagues predicated on bucking the establishment: The World Hockey Association's Toronto Toros and Birmingham Bulls; The World Football League's Toronto Northmen/Memphis Southmen; World Team Tennis' Toronto-Buffalo Royals; AND The United States Football League's Tampa Bay Bandits   Through all his adventures, Bassett catered to the common fan, demanded fair treatment o