I really only started listening to the Score in 2009. Mike North was gone by then. Sounds like an interesting guy. He was basically your meatball Chicago fan. Kind of wish the Score had somebody like him on there nowadays.

What was his downfall? He was obviously very popular at one point. Was he simply a tragedy of the downturn? Were you guys a fan of Pappy?

He did a dogshit morning show that lost to Mike & Mike and wouldn't accept a new contract that still would have paid him high 6s. He was a tragedy of being a dumbass who couldn't tell success from greatness.

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He was the most important figure in the Score's early years, but eventually decided to go solo and his show went heavy into politics and lame segments like the Real Estate Game where he would list a home's description and callers competed to guess the listing price. Signed a megadeal for $7.5m over five years, but when that expired, refused to sign a new deal for $800k a year, which I'm sure he regrets.

I always liked him.

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That morning show was terrible. Wasn't it North, Huebner, and some chick?

He was paired with Dan Jiggetts at the start and they put on an incredibly entertaining midday show for several years before North decided he was the biggest star at the station and forced his way into other dayparts. He made a ton of money, but he was never as good with any other partners as he was with Jiggs.

He was the polar opposite of the "smart fans station" concept they have settled on recently, but far more entertaining and actually much more informative because they would ask difficult questions of team spokespeople and were not afraid to disagree with callers, guests, and other hosts during transition.

It was the golden age of the score and for many reasons the station will never reach that level ever again.

He was the biggest star at the station. And it was because there was nothing else like it at the time. The Jiggetts pairing was nothing special. See Monsters and Money in the Morning.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

North was responsible for the rise and the fall of The Score.

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He was on with Parkins a few days ago to talk about the 30th anniversary of the station. He was kind of emotional recounting how he told his wife he was a failure and saw no future better than his current job of picking up trash in Grant Park. Bebe convinced him to try radio, so he paid $200 a day to get a couple of hours of airtime on an obscure station. Eventually Danny Lee decided to create a dedicated sports station and North became the star.

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He really leaned hard into trying to be like Mancow.

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Succinct and spot on.

Also started to believe his own bullshit. The downfall of many men.

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He was a populist and embodied the station's original mission to be the voice of the fan. People loved and hated him. He held management more accountable than any media member ever has in this city. His popularity created an arrogance that the station only existed because of him. He meddled in sales, programming and hiring. He eventually engineered the breakup of the two most popular shows in the history of the station so that he could work mornings with a conservative political talk format. His moves beyond the mic were all disasterous for him and the station. A change was required, ushering in The Bernstein Era.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Lots of accurate statements here. In summary...this says at all.

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I like that phrase and I will use it in the future in real life without giving you attribution.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

That's what stands out to me (aside from the malaprops and mispronunciations). He would get into it with Ditka, Ozzie, Hub, and basically anyone. No one confronts guests anymore, which I guess is understandable as they won't come on again. Jesse Rogers deserves a lot of credit for producing in those days.

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I also think at some point he stopped being the authentic Mike North, and started playing the character Mike North.

I second this appreciation for the phrase, and it can be repurposed as a precaution to "never confuse success for greatness".

Well done Curious Hair.

I remember him setting Scott Skiles straight on his contract negotiations with the Bulls. His best work was mocking that arrogant SOB Riley about whether he would shave his head for a series victory.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

There is no doubt. I know several of his friends and family members who said that he definitely changed.

He started to become greedy, using the station as his own patronage office and elevating his wife to an agent. He became contemptible.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

But he bought diapers and formula for out-of-work producers!!

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That TV show was a decade after North hit his peak. Their radio show was great and neither matched the same success after the breakup. They played well off of each other. I still do not understand why they had to breakup McNeil and Boers when North wanted to go solo.

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Cornel West, step to the plate!

Northie was the best. For a while.

Bernstein and Jiggs....appointment radio. This is the event that set in motion B and B which was quite popular and fun...until it wasn't.

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

He also was threatening to (or did) sue Rodeo Vann.

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

I thought it was Danny Mac and Jiggs whose show lasted a nanosecond. Maybe Bernstein also had a stint before B&B?

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It was, sorry I was trying to be sarcastic about what would have happened if The Heavy Fuel Crew was NOT broken up.

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

Yeah, I don't think Duke and Harvard alums would have made for good radio. You need a meatball in the mix.

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Appreciate the score history lesson folks. Did other cohosts hate Murphy as much as they lead on? Mac and Boers would always rip on him. You still hear hosts ripping him on occasion now a days. Wish I could find audio of him calling Walter Payton "Wally".

"Wally" was an all-time classic Score moment, though the ironic thing is Murph himself probably played it the most on his own show.

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That about sums it up for me.

Those last years were quite the train wreck.

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