North, Jiggetts share 20 years of sports memories
The memories were flowing Thursday night at Arlington Park's Million Room restaurant.
Mike North and Dan Jiggetts have been talking sports on WSCR 670-AM radio and other local outlets for 20 years, and the duo hooked up one more time for an anniversary broadcast.
“They've been quite a pair,” said master of ceremonies Howard Sudberry, Arlington Park's director of marketing and communications. “You never know what's going to come out of their mouths.”
A good crowd was on hand for the landmark reunion, which featured former Bears Jimbo Covert and Steve McMichael and Blackhawks broadcaster Eddie Olczyk as guests.
“We've had all sorts of fun, and we've covered a lot of things,” North said at the outset.
The trend continued at the anniversary show.
North and Jiggetts discussed the NFL bounty scandal, concussions and Peyton Manning with Covert.
The Bears' former standout offensive tackle offered his opinion on the current concussion epidemic in football.
“Fundamentals stink,” said Covert, who now shuttles between his native Pittsburgh and Chicago as CEO/President of President and C.E.O. of The Institute for Transfusion Medicine. “They stink because they don't hit in (training) camp. If your superstar gets hurt it's like, ‘What are you doing?'”
When McMichael took the stage to be interviewed, he handed North a hot dog.
“I think it's the same one you sold me a couple years ago,” McMichael said to North, a former hot dog vendor.
McMichael had some more fun comparing his Super Bowl ring from the 1985 Bears to the ring he won in 2009.
As head coach of the Chicago Slaughter, McMichael led his team to a 14-0 record and Continental Indoor Football League championship.
“Somebody said, ‘Your 2009 Slaugther ring is bigger,'” McMichael said. “I said, ‘Obviously, you don't know the McCaskeys.'”
Olczyk, who played for the Blackhawks and now works in the TV booth for his hometown hockey team, talked about the upcoming playoffs.
“This will be a (Hawks) team capable of making a run based on who they get in the first round,” Olczyk said.