Happy Birthday Mike!
Our friend Mike Royko would have turned 86 years old today.
Mike Royko and a Visit from President Bush
in 1991, President Bush came to Billy Goat for a visit and to meet Sam. Sam calls Mike and excitedly tells his assistant over the phone, “The president wants to know if Mike is here. I tell him no and then he wants to know where he usually sits and I show him and he…
Royko’s Raiders
Royko’s Raiders deliver another trophy - Mike Royko (back row, second from right), Don DeBat (back row, third from left), Tim Weigel (front row, far right)
Reporters love to dig. That’s why we’re 20 feet underground.
Billy Goat Tavern has always been a hangout for Chicago’s reporters. Every bar stool has a story. The original Billy Goat on Madison Street attracted reporters who covered events at the Chicago Stadium across the street. When Billy Goat moved his tavern to its current location under Michigan Avenue, reports flocked to the new subterranean Goat…
Billy Goat Tavern Moves Under Michigan Avenue
In 1964, the original Billy Goat Tavern on Madison St. closed. By this time, the new place has been open for seven months in what was a quick-to-fail Chinese restaurant on Hubbard Street in the basement of the year-old Apollo Savings % Loan building. This gives the new Billy Goat Tavern a classy formal address,…
Mike Royko and the Dollar Bill Eating Goat.
This story is from the book “A Chicago Tavern” and was told by Tim Weigel: “One night after a loss, we headed to the tavern to lick our wounds and gargle a few beers. After a while Sam brought a goat in for a drink. The goat smelled pretty bad and Mike kept feeding the…
We wish you were here to watch all of this.
We’re sure you and Billy Goat are loving this from above!
Mike Royko on Donald Trump
Mike Royko wrote about Donald Trump several times, and thanks to Google News we can find them in their archives. Check out what Mike had to say about The Donald 25 years ago: “The Trump stumped for once” http://bit.ly/1XWn2X0 “Trump may be cad or scoundrel, but certainly not a cheapskate” http://bit.ly/1XCw9vz “2 Trumps are worse than both” http://bit.ly/1sfBzRJ…
The Ghost of Mike Royko
“I miss Mike very much,” Sam says in May 2000. “I see Mike three, four times. Matter of fact, I see him three days ago. Mike come by here. It was when he was dead. I ask him if he remembers when I said, ‘Mike, if anything ever happen to me, I want you to…
Tim Weigel Remembers a Softball Party at Billy Goat
“One night after a loss, we headed to the tavern to lick our wounds and gargle a few beers. After a while, Sam brought a goat in for a drink. The goat smelled pretty bad and Mike kept feeding the goat $1 bills. Then someone hands Mike a $10 bill and the goat eats it.…