The Sportswriters on WGN and Chet's AM 1000 show got me through graduate school. Some of my favorite memories of graduate school are driving north on Lake Shore drive listening to The Sportswriters on a summer Sunday around 6:30pm, and getting to the office just as Floyd Brown would come on at 7pm. Work from 7-midnight and get organized for the week, then go home. [For you young ones, this was mainframe computer and 286 era, so any computing was done on campus, we had 11 graduate students sharing three 286 machines and three original Macs].

I was working on my research from 88-90, working 6 evenings a week, and Chet's show was prime time work time for me - I'd usually work 4pm-2:30am Monday-Thursday and then have team meetings on Friday afternoon before drinking. If Chet had a guest I didn't care about, that's when I focus on what I was doing, and I'd take breaks when somebody more interesting was on like a Jeff Torborg or a young and still interesting Michael Ray Wilbon.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Ive told this story many times but must have been Summer or 86, or 87, or 88. Mid summer hot as hell. Driving down on a Saturday down LSD and into Evanston on Sheridan. Right by the lake, stopped at a stop light waiting for the light to change green. To my left, I saw the oddest thing. There's this guy with all his car internal lights on. Like both lights from the sun shade mirror light, the front and back roof and back lights on. And the guy is full of make up. And it's the middle of the day!

He drove off and I was like what a werido. Then it struck me like when I got home that was Chet Coppock I just saw! Makes sense now. Guy was probably in love with himself during his heydey so had to have all the internal car lights on like he was going to go on air on a tv channel. Or just trying to get attention or chicks.