1. Mike Royko briefly attended Wright Junior College and then enlisted in the US Air Force in 1952.
19 Facts About Mike Royko
1. 2.
On becoming a columnist, Mike Royko drew on experiences from his childhood.
3.
Mike Royko began his newsman's career as a columnist in 1955 for The O'Hare News, a US Air Force newspaper, the City News Bureau of Chicago and Lerner Newspapers' Lincoln-Belmont Booster before working at the Chicago Daily News as a reporter, becoming an irritant to the City's politicians with penetrating and skeptical questions and reports.
4.
Mike Royko covered Cook County politics and government in a weekly political column, soon supplemented with a second, weekly column reporting about Chicago's folk music scene.
5.
Mike Royko's column appeared five days a week until 1992, when he cut back to four days a week.
6.
In 1984, Rupert Murdoch, for whom Mike Royko said he would never work, bought the Sun-Times.
7.
Mike Royko's goal is vast power for Rupert Murdoch, political power.
8.
In 1976, a Mike Royko column criticized the Chicago Police Department for providing an around-the-clock security detail for Frank Sinatra.
9.
Mike Royko auctioned the letter, the proceeds going to the Salvation Army.
10.
In 1973, Mike Royko collected several of the Grobnik columns in a collection titled Slats Grobnik and Some Other Friends.
11.
Mike Royko's columns were syndicated country-wide in more than 600 newspapers.
12.
Mike Royko produced more than 7,500 columns in a four-decade career.
13.
Mike Royko married Carol Duckman in 1954, and they had two sons, David and Robert.
14.
Mike Royko suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died on September 19,1979, Royko's 47th birthday.
15.
In 1986, Mike Royko married Judy Arndt, who had worked as the head of the Sun-Times public service office and was a tennis instructor.
16.
Mike Royko was a fervent devotee of 16-inch softball as a player and team sponsor.
17.
Mike Royko was a life-long fan and critic of the Chicago Cubs.
18.
The Reds achieved an upset outcome in a four-game sweep of the A's, with Mike Royko's sponsorship propelling the Ex-Cubs Factor theory into the spotlight.
19.
Mike Royko's body is entombed in Acacia Mausoleum, Acacia Park Cemetery, just outside Chicago.