268: Behind the Scenes - With Charlie Evranian

Good Seats Still Available

Chicago sports fans of a certain age may remember the name Charlie Evranian atop the masthead of the executive suite (behind inimitable owner Lee Stern, of course) of the 1981 outdoor version of the North American Soccer League's Chicago Sting - when that club delivered the first major pro championship to the Windy City since 1963's NFL Bears. (Not to mention the team's first two barn-burning indoor NASL seasons at the former "Madhouse on Madison".) But Evranian's time leading the Sting of the early 1980s was merely a brief mile-marker along a fascinatingly peripatetic 20+ year journey across a litany of (mostly forgotten) teams and leagues in both the majors and minors of professional sports management - laden with unbelievable twists and turns that only a podcast of a certain genre could love. Evranian takes us on a wild ride alongside the likes of legendary front office figures like Bill Veeck, Ted Turner, Pat Williams, and Earl Foreman - for memorable stops including:

• leading baseball's Class A Greenwood (SC) Braves to two league championships;
• co-founding AHL hockey's minor league Richmond Robins;
• reinventing the mid-70s' Chicago White Sox; AND
• cleaning up an endless array of messes as the Major Indoor Soccer League's deputy commissioner.