John U. Bacon

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.

Super Bowl XLVII: A 20-to-1 ratio of ads to action

John U. Bacon — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 06:00:00 +0000

Super Bowl XLVII provided us with thrills, spills and record electric bills – plus a football game somewhere in there.

Congratulations!

You not only survived that annual orgy of conspicuous consumption called the Super Bowl, you also survived the two weeks of endless stories without news that lead up to the big day.

And when the big game arrives, what is our reward? On the one day we actually look forward to watching TV ads, they were so bland and boring and just plain bad, we had no choice but to turn our attention to the actual football game.

The new year in sports: A good man is hard to find

John U. Bacon — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:00:00 +0000

With the college football season finally behind us, I wanted to write a simple college football roundup, ending in a sweet little story about a very good guy.

But every time I tried, some bad news got in the way.

The first obstacle was Lance Armstrong. In case you missed it – though I can’t imagine how – it turns out the man who came back from cancer to win a record seven Tours de France and write two best-selling books about his inspirational story, is a fraud.

Hockey: The greatest sport, run by the dumbest people

John U. Bacon — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 06:00:00 +0000

I’ve played hockey my entire life, so I’m biased. But when you combine ice skating, stick handling, passing, shooting and yes, body-checking, in one game, you’ve got it all.

Until they start playing lacrosse in the water or golf on skis, hockey will remain the hardest sport to play, and the most impressive to see played well.

There’s nothing like it.

So, for Detroit Red Wings fans, the NHL lockout was a nightmare.

Brady Hoke's sophomore slump

John U. Bacon — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 06:00:00 +0000

This time last year, Brady Hoke was the darling of Michigan football fans.

He’d charmed everybody at his first press conference, then led a team that had averaged just five wins a year to a 10-2 regular-season record, with thrilling wins over Notre Dame, Nebraska and arch-rival Ohio State.

Then he capped it all off with an overtime victory in the Sugar Bowl.

The man could do no wrong.

When he referred to injuries as “boo-boos” and Ohio State as “Ohio,” fans did not conclude he was an ignoramus who knew nothing about the greatest rivalry in sports, but a motivational genius, who understood exactly what the duel was all about.

Our national anthem is worth more than ten bucks

John U. Bacon — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 06:00:00 +0000

On Veterans Day, we generally honor our Veterans.

It’s a good idea, for lots of reasons: they served our country, often in unpleasant places, and in great danger, to keep the worst of the world away from our homeland.

My grandfather was a New York dentist who volunteered at age 39 to hop on a ship in the Pacific during World War II.

My dad graduated from medical school, then enlisted in the U.S. Army, which sent him and his new bride to Fulda, Germany, to guard the border.

Politicians need to learn from sports

John U. Bacon — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Whether your candidates won or lost this week, we can all rejoice that it’s finally over.

Or, we think it is. We can’t be sure anymore, can we?

All this made me ponder the relative craziness of politics versus sports. I got to thinking: Which is sillier? Playing politics, or playing sports?

As silly as sports are – and I seem to devote half my commentaries to that very subject – after watching the 2012 campaigns, I can tell you, it’s not even close: Playing politics is sillier, in a landslide.

Ann Arbor high school football players show better sportsmanship than coaches

John U. Bacon — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:06:18 +0000

Last week, the Ann Arbor Pioneer high school football team went across town to play long-time rival Ann Arbor Huron. It wasn’t the players’ performance during the game that made news, however, but the coaches’ behavior afterward. And the news wasn’t good.

Ann Arbor Pioneer came into the annual rivalry with Ann Arbor Huron, sporting a solid 4-3 record and a good chance to make the playoffs. Huron hadn’t won a game all year, and was simply playing out the season. The only stakes were bragging rights – and even those weren’t much in question.

Remembering Budd Lynch

John U. Bacon — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 05:00:00 +0000

His parents named him Frank Joseph James Lynch—but everybody knew him as Budd.

He passed away this week, at the age of 95. No, you can’t call that a tragedy, but you can call it a loss—one thousands are feeling.

In a week that included no Big Ten teams ranked in the top 25, the idiotic NHL lockout and, far worse, Jerry Sandusky’s sentencing, I’d rather spend my few minutes with you honoring a man who lived as long as he lived well.

Lynch was born in Windsor, Ontario, during World War I.

Denard Robinson, enjoy him while you can

John U. Bacon — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:00:11 +0000

Last week, the University of Michigan football team beat up University of Massachusetts, 63-13.

Okay, U-Mass was pretty bad. Even lowly Indiana crushed them.

But the Wolverines did exactly what they were supposed to do, and did it very well. Many Michigan fans complained anyway.

This is not uncommon.

A few years ago, Michigan blew out 15th-ranked Notre Dame team 38-0, the first shut out over the Irish in over a century. The next day, I challenged listeners on a sports talk show to find something to complain about.

Why Michigan's softball team knocks it out of the park

John U. Bacon — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:32:29 +0000

The University of Michigan softball team won the Big Ten title this year – for the fifth year in a row, and 15^th time overall. It went to the NCAA tournament – for the 18^th straight season. Winning titles is what they do.

And this was not even one of head coach Carol Hutchins’ best teams.

John U. Bacon: "You can either be a PR man or you can be a journalist... and try to tell the truth"

Christina Shockley, Vincent Duffy and Zoe Clark — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:25:12 +0000

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/michigan/local-michigan-993373.mp3

Michigan Radio's Sports Commentator John U. Bacon has a new book out. It premiered at number six on The New York Times non-fiction best seller list this week. Bacon was already well-known at the University of Michigan for the book he co-wrote with Bo Schembechler. So, it wasn’t difficult for him to get access to the Wolverine football program in 2008 when the team got a new head coach Rich Rodriguez, or Rich-Rod.

Bacon's plan was to write a story on the spread offense that Rich-Rod had used so successfully at West Virginia. But Bacon quickly found himself in the middle of a new, more complex story.

"It started out being a very simple story... and, now you realize, of course, three years later, the real story is off the field: it's what it's really like to be a player, what it's really like to be a coach, NCAA investigations, pressure, losing, ultimately getting fired... I don't think you have to be much of a football fan to follow this," says Bacon.

Michigan Radio's Christina Shockley spoke with Bacon about his new book, Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.

Wildcats Football: Northwestern's miracle season

John U. Bacon — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:57:13 +0000

The University of Michigan football team plays Northwestern in Evanston tomorrow for the first time since 2007. The undefeated, 12^th ranked Wolverines are seven-point favorites, but beating the Wildcats is no longer the easy game it used to be. Whatever happens this weekend, it can’t match what happened back in 1995 – one of my favorite sports stories.

Dedication to Michigan Football runs deep

John U. Bacon — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:30:07 +0000

With a night game scheduled in Ann Arbor tomorrow for the first time in Michigan football’s 132-year history, the town is buzzing.

But it’s fair to wonder just how we got here. I think I understand why.

George Will recently wrote that when archeologists excavate American ruins centuries from now, they may be mystified by the Big House in Ann Arbor. “How did this huge football emporium come to be connected to an institution of higher education? Or was the connection the other way?”

It’s a fair question, one I’ve pondered myself many times. When I try to explain to foreigners why an esteemed university owns the largest stadium in the country, their expressions tell me it’s – well, a truly a foreign concept.

Ken Burns said our national parks are “America’s best idea.” If so, then our state universities must be a close second.