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I got to know Bill Jauss personally back in the '80s. Bill had gone to high school at Northwestern Military Academy in Lake Geneva while my Dad was teaching there and he remained close with my parents for decades afterward. Even after my Dad died in 1972, Bill would drop the occasional note to my Mom just to see how she was doing. When I was a journalism student at UW, Bill critiqued a couple of my pieces. He was nice, but the basic message was I needed to work at it harder (he was right).

One of the most memorable afternoons I've spent was in the mid-'80s sitting in the beer garden at Bernie's after a Cubs game with Bill Jauss, my Mom and the Marvelous Marvene. Our sons were there as well, but they spent most of the time running around the place. Little boys aren't really good at sitting around listening to the grownups talk. Now the beer garden at Bernies was the backyard of the tavern, covered in gravel. There were picnic tables set up and a couple of horse troughs with kegs set up in ice. On a pleasant Chicago summer afternoon, it could be quite lovely. Burgers, brats, some peanuts and a few Old Styles were a perfect setting to catch up with Bill. Bill had covered the game and arranged to meet us at the bar after he filed his story. We spent 3-4 hours just talking about life and sports and a whole bunch of memories. His memories of my Dad as his physics teacher were pretty interesting. People who recognized him kept interrupting us, but Bill was gracious to everyone, even the guys who had sampled the wares from the horse troughs too often.

Just a really great guy and one helluva sports journalist. I'm sorry today that I wasn't better about staying in touch.