sports commentary

A tip for amateur athletes: The pros are way better than you think

John U. Bacon — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 06:00:00 +0000

A lot of amateur athletes think they’re not that far from the people who play their sports for a living.

Well, when Michigan Radio Sports commentator John U. Bacon tried out for Detroit’s minor league hockey team, he found out that just isn’t so – and he found out the hard way.

A few years ago – okay, a bunch of years ago – I bit on a bet I never should have touched.

I was writing for the Detroit News, and a top minor league hockey team called the Detroit Vipers played at the Palace.

So, I got to thinking: just how big is the gap, really, between the pros, and beer league players like me?

Good question. And even better if I didn’t try to answer it. But, being the hard-hitting investigative journalist that I am, I had to go down to the Palace, and find out.

An unqualified success: The story of Eddie Kahn

John U. Bacon — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 06:00:00 +0000

In the Michigan hockey program’s 90-year history, some 600 players have scored more than 10,000 total goals. But the man who scored the team’s very first goal 90 years ago, might still be the most impressive one of the bunch.

This is the story of Eddie Kahn.

Big money pushing kids out of the Big House

John U. Bacon — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:39:52 +0000

A 'seat license' is a fee fans pay just to reserve the right to buy the tickets.

They call it a donation, even though every single one of us apparently decided to donate the exact same amount, or lose our tickets. But that allows us to call it a tax deduction.

It's hard to call that honest, or cheap.

In fairness, Michigan was the last of the top 20 programs to adopt a seat license program, in 2005.

It started gradually, and left endzone fans alone.

But this week, Michigan pushed the seat license for the best tickets up to $600, and even people in the endzone will have to cough up $150 per ticket, just for the right to buy them.

In the past decade, the total cost of my two tickets on the ten-yard line has more than tripled, to over $1,700, which makes you wonder just how we got here.

The Olympics and The Things You Actually Want to Watch

John U. Bacon — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 10:30:00 +0000

The London Olympics features 26 summer sports, with 39 disciplines, and 302 separate competitions, in a desperate attempt to get everyone to watch.

So you’ve got the Ancient Sports, or the Events No One Watches Anymore, like horse riding, rifle range, and archery -- also known as, Things You Did in Summer Camp, But Stopped Doing After You Learned How To Drive and Talk To Girls. Why not include making moccasins and key fobs?

College Football playoff problem solved!

John U. Bacon — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:01:03 +0000

A committee of 12 university presidents recently approved a plan to create a four-team playoff for Division I college football – the last major sport to have one. That has Michigan Radio sports commentator John U. Bacon wondering what good will come of it – if any.

Well, it’s finally upon us. No, not the apocalypse – Mayan calendar be damned – but a bona fide, Division I, college football playoff.

Remembering Bob Chappuis, WWII hero and 'Mad Magician'

John U. Bacon — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:30:56 +0000

One of Michigan Football's most famous players died earlier this month. Bob Chappuis played for the Wolverines in the '40s. He was a College Football Hall of Famer and a World War II hero. But that’s not how Chappuis described himself.

You can read about Bob Chappuis’s heroics as a World War II tailgunner, or as a Michigan Wolverines tailback, just about anywhere -- from his Time magazine cover story in 1947, to his obituary in the New York Times last week. But my favorite stories are the ones he told his granddaughters.

I met Chappuis in 2000, while writing a story about his famous Michigan football team. But I really got to know him when I coached his grandson Bobby’s high school hockey team.When Bobby went to Culver Academies for a post-grad year, I joined the family to see him graduate.

We all relaxed in a hotel suite, eating and drinking, while Chappuis’s teenage granddaughters goaded him to tell stories. He could not refuse them, but he shared stories you couldn't find in magazines -- like when his father told him he could go to any school he wanted -- except Ohio State.

Chappuis skipped the part about leaving college to volunteer for the Army, where he served as an aerial gunner on a B-25. But his son interjected to explain how their granddad’s plane was shot down over Northern Italy, forcing the crew to parachute behind enemy lines.

Chappuis waved it off. “Everybody says we’re heroes. But what kind of idiot wouldn’t jump from a burning plane?”

He told his granddaughters how they hid in a ditch behind some bushes while Italian soldiers marched by. One of his crewmates grabbed a knife, and motioned to attack. Chappuis grabbed his shoulder, pushed him down and whispered, “They’ve got us outnumbered 30 to 3, and they’ve got guns. I think you’ve seen too many Hollywood movies. We are staying put.”

Smart move. They were rescued by a family, who hid them in their attic. They buried the Americans’ identifying clothing – but Chappuis drew the line at his Michigan ring. “This stays with me,” he said.

Women in sports: Title IX and the "Battle of the Sexes"

John U. Bacon — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:28:03 +0000

This week, the University of Michigan celebrated the 40^th anniversary of Title IX, with a host of speakers and panels discussing the historic legislation and its impact on girls, women and the United States itself.

Before Title IX, only one in 30 girls played high school sports.

Today, more than half do.

After a single paragraph, and an unforgettable tennis match, that changed our nation forever.

It all started pretty quietly.

Just a sentence buried in the back of the Education Amendments Act of 1972.

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

Life lessons from South Africa's Makana Football Association

John U. Bacon — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:00:58 +0000

A few weeks ago, I visited Cape Town, South Africa. It’s a famously beautiful city, right on the ocean – but that’s not what I took away from this trip.

Going the extra mile to get that interview

John U. Bacon — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:00:45 +0000

While I was writing “Three and Out,” the Michigan football players challenged me to join their workouts in the weight room.

I did – and soon discovered it was one of the dumbest decisions of my life – and one of the best career moves.

I’d heard so much about these modern gladiators and their weight room heroics that I wanted to find out for myself just how much harder it really is compared to what the average weekend warrior puts himself through just to avoid buying “relaxed fit” jeans.

The plan was simple: I would work out with these guys three times a week, for six weeks -- “if you last that long,” said Mike Barwis, Michigan’s former strength coach. But there were four signs that I shouldn’t be doing this.

When I asked Barwis if I should prepare by lifting weights, he said, “No, it’s too late for that!” Well, that’s one sign.

Shawn Hunwick's unlikely run at Michigan ends, and new doors open

John U. Bacon — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:29:26 +0000

One of the most unlikely careers in the history of University of Michigan sports ended last weekend, in overtime.

Two years ago, Michigan’s hockey team was in danger of snapping its record 19-straight NCAA tournament bids.

They finished seventh in their league – unheard of, for Michigan. So, the only way to keep the streak alive was to win six straight league playoff games to get an automatic NCAA bid.

Oh, and they had to do it with a back-up goalie named Shawn Hunwick, a 5-foot-6 walk-on who had never started a college game until that week.

It didn’t look good.

But the kid caught fire.

Madness: Three Big Ten rivals share the title

John U. Bacon — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:29:21 +0000

The Big Ten basketball experts knew exactly what was going to happen this season before it even started. Michigan State would battle for another title, while Michigan would be stuck in the middle, fighting for a tournament bid.

And that’s exactly how it started. The Spartans jumped out to first place, and had it all to themselves with just two games left. The Wolverines spent most of the season in the middle.

The experts looked pretty smart – until Michigan started mastering head coach John Beilein’s unconventional system.

A sad step backward in Michigan football history

John U. Bacon — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The University of Michigan can boast highly ranked schools and colleges, dozens of nationally recognized sports teams and countless famous graduates.

And on matters of social justice, Michigan has often led the nation, not followed it.

But one Saturday, 78 years ago, Michigan took a sad step backward.

Hockey from different sides of the rink

John U. Bacon — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:00:23 +0000

I’ve coached high school boy’s hockey teams for almost a decade. But a few years ago, I spent two years helping out the Michigan women’s hockey team – and I learned a lot more than they did.

It’s worth noting that I’m comparing only high school boys and college women, based solely on my observations of two hockey teams. Your mileage may vary.

My education started on day one.

Reflecting on Super Bowl XLVI

John U. Bacon — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:36:41 +0000

It’s been five days since the Super Bowl, just enough time to give us a little perspective. Was it a football game? A concert? A competition for the Clio Award? Or some bizarrely American combination of all three?

Let’s start with the least important: The football game.

You might have caught bits of it, squeezed between the ads and the show. Those were the people who ran really fast and wore clothes.

For the Super Bowl’s first 30 years, most of the games were boring blowouts. I suspect even the players can’t recall the scores. But the halftime shows and the ads were hard to forget, and often featured a member of the Jackson family having his hair ignited or her wardrobe mysteriously malfunction.

National signing day is like game day for college football coaches

John U. Bacon — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:33:35 +0000

The most important day of the year for a college football coach is not the home opener, the big rivalry game or even a bowl game. It’s national signing day, which falls on the first Wednesday in February.

On signing day, the end zone is not grass or Astroturf, but a fax machine tray. Only when a signed National Letter of Intent breaks the plane of that tray does it count.

A couple years ago I got a chance to see the sausage get made – and it’s not pretty.