Glory Days

The Summer of 1984 and the 90 Days That Changed Sports and Culture Forever

By: L. Jon Wertheim

Narrated by: Chris Abell

A rollicking guided tour of one extraordinary summer, when some of the most pivotal and freakishly coincidental stories all collided and changed the way we think about modern sports

The summer of 1984 was a watershed moment in the birth of modern sports when the nation watched Michael Jordan grow from college basketball player to professional athlete and star. That summer also saw ESPN’s rise to media dominance as the country’s premier sports network and the first modern, commercialized, profitable Olympics. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird’s rivalry raged, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe reigned in tennis, and Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon made pro wrestling a business, while Donald Trump pierced the national consciousness as a pro football team owner. It was an awakening in the sports world, a moment when sports began to morph into the market-savvy, sensationalized, moneyed, controversial, and wildly popular arena we know today.

In the tradition of Bill Bryson’s One Summer: America, 1927, L. Jon Wertheim captures these 90 seminal days against the backdrop of the nostalgia-soaked 1980s, to show that this was the year we collectively traded in our ratty Converses for a pair of sleek, heavily branded, ingeniously marketed Nikes. This was the year that sports went big-time.

Top 10 sports book

For anyone who lived through the 80’s , this is a must listen. Great story , great listen

wow

A must for sports fans, especially those who were there & remember sports the 80s

A walk down memory lane that I didn't know about

An all around entertaining book that allowed me to look back on the sport and culture world of 1984 when I was 16 years old (and was blissfully unaware of what was happening in the moment) - and allowing me to look back through the lens of a 50+ year old reader knowing how influential that year was on my love of all things sports-related. Fun and light listening.

Story is great. Pronunciation of some names is awful

The research, arc and story are great. Abell’s pronunciation of some of the names is bad. Seems they could afford a second take.

Excellent nostalgia

Who knew so much important stuff all happened back in 1984? I was 12 and have vague memories of a lot of the events described here. Good times. The author was great, as was the narrator. Glory Days indeed.