The Vault

CHICAGO (CBS) ― For 34 years, no matter what the big news of the day was, Chicagoans opened their newspapers eager to see what Mike Royko had written about it. For 10 years, Chicagoans have missed having that opportunity.

Royko died on April 29, 1997, 10 years ago Sunday, at the age of 64.

In Royko's career as a columnist with the Chicago Daily News, Sun-Times and Tribune, he ruffled more than a few feathers and even drew his share protests and threats. But to many people, he was as real his subjects and as tough as the gritty urban streets, and he became an embodiment of Chicago itself.

Royko was born in 1932 on the Northwest Side of Chicago, where his father owned a tavern in the Bucktown neighborhood. He struggled through high school and did not attend college, but instead found his way into journalism while serving in the Air Force in the early 1950s.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery worked with Royko at the Sun-Times, and explained how Royko caught the bug for writing and reporting.

"(Royko) recounted one time how he was in the service. He had fought in the Korean War, and one of his fellow soldiers threw a book on his bed roll and said, 'Hey Royko! Here's a book about Chicago. You might want to read it.' So he picks it up, and sees it's by a fellow named Nelson Algren, and on the overleaf it says, 'Straight from the slums of Chicago, a powerful story…' and (he said), 'The slums? What do they mean the slums? That's my neighborhood. That's not the slums,'" Flannery said.

Royko became enthralled by the book, Flannery said. And later, he found his way onto the Air Force base newspaper by falsely telling a commanding officer that he had worked for the Chicago Daily News, according to former Tribune managing editor F. Richard Ciccone in the book Royko: A Life in Print.

After being discharged, Royko was hired by the City News Bureau, a legendary local wire service that shut down at the end of 2005 after 115 years, covering the police and courthouse beats. That led to his hiring at the Chicago Daily News, where he spent his first four years covering Cook County government.

From Beat Reporter To Daily Columnist
But over time Royko's editors at the Daily News noticed that in his copy, he captured the personalities on the County Board rather than focusing only on the board's daily business, Ciccone wrote. This led to the start of his column in 1963.

From the beginning in his columns, Royko became a hit with readers with columns about politics, organized crime and colorful characters, fired off at corrupt public officials, wrote fictional dialogues between himself and a blue-collar friend named Slats Grobnik, and quizzed readers on the minutia of his beloved Chicago Cubs.

But Royko gained accolades especially for championing the civil rights movement during the 1960s. He was sent to Selma, Ala., in 1965, and praised Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s work in Chicago.

Royko also became well-known for attacking Chicago machine politics, a subject which culminated in his 1971 biography of then-Mayor Richard J. Daley, Boss. The book chronicled the mayor's rise to power, the methods precinct captains used to hunt for votes, and what many called an attack on protesters by police in 1968 that Daley was accused of defending.

Many called it an unfair and biased portrayal of the senior Mayor Daley, but it made number 4 on the New York Times bestseller list within a few weeks, Ciccone wrote.

In 1972, Royko won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

The Move To An Old Enemy
When the Daily News shut down in 1978, Royko moved to the Sun-Times, which, like the Daily News, was owned by the Marshall Field family at the time.

But in 1984, the Field family sold the Sun-Times to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Royko immediately defected to the Chicago Tribune.

The move came as a shock for some, since Royko had bashed the Tribune on a regular basis during his tenure at the Daily News and the Sun-Times, criticizing the newspaper's longtime perceived bias toward the Republican Party. But Royko's openly disliked Murdoch even more, to the point that he wrote "no self-respecting fish" would be wrapped in a paper he owned. The Sun-Times sued to keep Royko from writing for the Tribune, but lost.


Kudos And Controversy
Royko was beloved for his championing of civil rights and challenges to politicians and other authority figures.

But late in his career, a few of his columns were reviled to the point that demonstrations were held in front of Tribune Tower.

One column that drew a heated response included a rebuke of African-American names. Royko later apologized, calling it "a pretty bad column."

After another column about Pat Buchanan's plan for immigration reform that was perceived as biased against Mexican-Americans, protests were held in front of the Tribune Tower and many called for Royko's dismissal.

Royko also struggled with trouble in his personal life. Royko was a heavy drinker, best known as a patron of the Billy Goat Tavern on Lower Michigan Avenue, a bar which remains popular with local journalists.

Many said his lifestyle was to blame for two incidents in which he had brushes with law enforcement. In 1977, Royko was arrested on accusations that he threw a bottle of ketchup at some bar patrons, and in 1994 he was arrested for drunken driving.

But after Royko's death from an aneurysm in 1997, it was the power of his column and the might of his words that were remembered.

In the decade since Royko's death, it has become far easier to write an opinion piece or commentary, with a blog available to anyone with so much as an Internet connection and a knack for words.

But whether blogger or traditional columnist, most would likely agree it is difficult to imagine one that would make the imprint Royko did.

As Ciccone wrote: "It is doubtful that in the current or foreseeable future, a single writer will be able to raise a public outcry, influence an electorate, ridicule the most powerful, and defend the weak the way Royko did for so long. He was not only the best. He was the last."

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