Thirty years ago, I had an idea for a magazine called Sports Memories. As the name suggests, it would have covered sports from the past related to what was going on in the present day.
If that idea sounds familiar, i.e., The Replay, that’s no coincidence.
I had a demanding job and young kids back then, so Sports Memories became just that: a memory. (It would have become a memory even if I had pursued the idea because the Internet came along soon after, wiping out most general interest magazines.)
Fast forward to earlier this year when I was having coffee with Chris Cillizza, a friend and former colleague. As he was telling me about the success of So What, his Substack on politics, I had an idea: What if he and I published a Substack on sport nostalgia.
Six weeks later The Replay launched.
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Chris is well known from his time at CNN and as a regular guest on Tony Kornheiser’s podcast. He has 600,000-plus followers on X (formerly Twitter).
I’m not well known and have few followers on X. (A confession: I’ve never tweeted.) But I had a long career in the media business, first as a reporter and editor, and later as an executive with the company that publishes The Atlantic magazine.
Twenty years ago, I left The Atlantic and my wife Susan and I started Bethesda Magazine, which covers Montgomery County, Maryland where we live. That business grew and expanded—and we sold it three years ago.
The Replay is more than a new business venture for me. It’s personal. Sports memories are the memories of my life—from when I was growing up in Connecticut, to when I had young kids, to when Susan and I were getting to know each other.
My oldest sports memory is of my brother Josh, who is four years older than I am, listening to New York Rangers’ games on his transistor radio in the 1960s. I can still hear the play-by-play announcer, through the static, talking excitedly about Ed Giacomin, the Rangers goalie. (My brother, with whom I had an intense rivalry, loved the Rangers and Yankees. I grew up loathing both teams. And still do. But that’s a post for another day.)
My most cherished sports memories are about the people I was with or where we were—rather than the games themselves. There was the time my father took me and my brother Josh to the old Madison Square Garden to see the Rangers play the Blackhawks. My father told a guard that our last name was Hull and asked if we could meet Bobby Hull. The guard, believe it or not, led us to the Blackhawks dressing room and spoke to another guard at the door. A few minutes later Bobby Hull, Dennis Hull and Stan Mikita came out to say hello. The memory still gives me chills.
And then there was the time I took my son Sam, then 7, to watch a Nebraska football game in Lincoln in 1996. I don’t know why, but I’ve been a diehard Cornhuskers fan for as long as I can remember. For years I had dreamed of going to a game at Memorial Stadium. I can still remember the sights and sounds as Sam and I walked around the campus, went to the boosters’ brunch at the Cornhusker Hotel before the game, and then were engulfed by the sea of red when we walked into the stadium. The game itself wasn’t memorable—Nebraska beat Baylor 49-0—but the shared experience with Sam is something I don’t think either of us will forget.
In the coming months, I’ll be writing about other sports memories of mine—and asking you to tell us about yours.
For now, I want to thank you for subscribing to The Replay. Chris and I are just getting started.
Sorry to hear you are a corn husker, but that won’t stop me from following and supporting the Replay.
Very much enjoying this Substack so far, and yes, I'm already a paid subscriber!