When John Madden began calling into his local San Francisco radio station in 1997, it signaled the beginning of a nearly 20-year conversation between the football legend and morning-show host Stan Bunger, as host of “Mornings with Madden.” Writes in: My Radio Life With. An American Legend’ (Triumph Books, published Tuesday).
What made the discussion on KCBS even more remarkable was not that Madden did it five days a week, at exactly 8:15 in the morning, but that it occurred at a time when the Super Bowl-winning coach was at the peak of his illustrious broadcasting career. And, thanks to the video game bearing his name, he was making more money every year than any other NFL player.
Bunger writes, “You have to remember about 40 years of American culture to know who John Madden was.”
“John Madden was a big damned deal, but not big enough to show up every day, ready to shine on local radio.”
Simply put, Madden is synonymous with football.
Not only was he the television face and voice of the nation’s most popular sport, broadcasting on CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC’s “Monday Night Football” from 1979 to 2009, his name was also featured on the best-selling sports video game. , and he was the man who led the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl victory in 1977 and had the highest career winning percentage of any NFL coach.
‘Mornings with Madden’ stems from the immense sense of loss that Stan Bunger felt when Madden passed away in December 2021, a loss also felt by friends, family, colleagues and millions of fans across the United States. “The sense of duty came from my belief that this story needed to be told,” says Bunger, “and there’s really no one but me to tell it.”
However, Bunger is keen to point out that his book is not another biography or ghost-written memoir. He writes, “What it is: The inside story of a less reported part of a remarkable man’s life.”
For Madden, their chat was an opportunity to connect with his hometown radio station. ,[They were] A chance to relax, tell stories, and impart your own wisdom and knowledge.”
But they were also a chance to stay in touch with his countless fans in the country.
“What amazed John was the fact that he had three audiences and everyone called him by a different name,” says Bunger. “People who knew him from his Oakland Raiders days called him ‘Coach.'” The millions who watched him on all those NFL broadcasts called him ‘John.’
“And the mostly young crowd playing the “Madden NFL” video game called him ‘Madden.’ He answered them all.”
However, to Stan Banger, they were not only radio gold but a treasured friendship held over the airwaves where two men ruled the world. “The truth is that we were playing it one day at a time, having long conversations,” writes Bunger. “Rarely have we realized the depth of the connection between John and KCBS listeners.”
They didn’t just discuss football.
From family life to roadside food, from philosophy to health, wealth and knowledge, the two men touched upon all subjects.
However, essentially, Madden addressed sports more generally, such as, for example, his love/hate relationship with golf. “It’s great, except I can’t play,” he told Banger. “I’m terrible. And you get to a point where, if you’re awesome and you care, it equates to frustration.
“So the main thing is you don’t care.”
On the rare occasions when he hit a good shot, he would say: “The blind squirrel finds an acorn.”
Food was his favorite subject. “Koch loved food, loved thinking about food, loved talking about food,” writes Bunger. Just don’t start him on grits. “I never got any grain,” he said. “Oatmeal is like mush. There were two things I didn’t like as a child: I didn’t like liver and I didn’t like pulp.
“And then I was an adult. “I still don’t like the liver and I still don’t like the pulp.”
Madden tackled each subject with characteristic enthusiasm, and left behind an endless list of what Bunger calls “Maddenisms”, such as “Don’t get the hose out until you know where the fire is.” Give” or “Don’t worry about the horse” blindly, just load the wagon.
Bunger had another personal favorite: “If you’re going to eat cherries in the garden, make sure they’re worth the stomach ache.”
As the author explains, this is typical of the way John Madden’s mind works. “Taken literally, Coach is talking about what happens if you can’t wait to dig out a bag of freshly picked cherries, something he loved to do when he was visiting his grandchildren. -would take his granddaughters to the garden he owned,” he writes.
“But look a little deeper and you have a classic Maidenism: a reminder that short-term gains sometimes bring long-term pain.”
In fact, there were so many memorable phrases that Banger regretted, even if jokingly, never monetizing Madden’s lyrical flourishes. “I guess if we were smarter, we would have created a ‘Madden Quote of the Day’ calendar or sold some of her wisdom T-shirts,” he writes.
Madden was particularly outspoken when it came to medical matters, always beginning his responses with the words, “I’m not a doctor, but…”
For example, on one show, Bunger mentioned that he had a frog in his throat and wondered if the coach had any solutions. “Yes,” Madden replied. “What you do is you stick your hand over your mouth down to your elbow. Insert it no deeper than your elbows and then bend your knees and turn your toes out.
“And then put your head between your knees and pull everything out. That will work.”
Even when Coach Madden took time out to make phone calls, he made sure to get back as quickly as possible. For example, in 2015, he had open heart surgery and was visited in the hospital by Bunger’s friend Jim Gilmetti, who asked him how he was feeling, at which point Madden tore off his cloak, revealing that Where the surgeons had cut them.
‘How do you think I feel?’ He replied.
However, by 2018, Madden’s declining health prevented him from making calls, but KCBS always kept its position open for him, awarding him the new title of “Senior Investigative At-Large Correspondent” in the hopes that he would become a Day can come back to the show.
But he never did that.
John Madden died on December 28, 2021. He was 85 years old.
“In the same way some people save voicemails after loved ones die, I kept my text message string with Coach,” writes Bunger. “I just saw the message I sent her two months before my planned retirement date, letting her know about my plans.”
“His response, verbatim: “When you say you’re going to retire, you’ve done it.”
Appropriately, the preface to “Mornings with Madden” is written by legendary quarterback Peyton Manning, who keeps a photo of himself with Coach Madden on the wall of his office in Denver, Colo.
“John became someone we all felt we knew. She had a special ability to be herself in a world full of people who seemed to be trying too hard,” he writes.
“I know from my relationship with John that he was intelligent, funny and loyal.
“He was the kind of guy you wished you could hang out with every day.”
