Posted July 14, 2010
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who died yesterday, was known for his temper and once worked for volatile Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes as a graduate assistant.
There’s Busy…and Then There’s Mike Max
If it seems like Mike Max is everywhere it’s because he is. Sort of. The 45-year-old sports journalist is a full time employee of both WCCO TV and WCCO Radio. He also produces and hosts “The Sports Show” seen on WUCW, Ch. 23 every Sunday night.
Max’s work week totals 70 hours or more. He is both a sports reporter and anchor for Ch. 4. He also hosts “Life to the Max,” a 30 minute show on the station Saturday nights that profiles sports newsmakers (John Wooden and Michael Jordan included). Max’s week night talk show on radio is filled with local sports news and guests, and the program is sometimes sandwiched between his 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. anchor duties at the TV station.
The weekly routine includes spending “quality” time (usually mornings) with wife Jennifer and the couple’s two young children. And Max can often be found working out at a Life Time Fitness club during the week and at church on Sundays. There’s occasionally time for friends and recreational pursuits like hunting, but his calendar is full with just the normal weekly activity including prioritizing family activities.
No wonder he called his show “Life to the Max.” Not that he’s complaining about a great professional and personal life. Long hours are something he prepared for growing up in Gaylord, Minnesota and later attending Hamline University in St. Paul. Sports and education filled his life including at Hamline where he played both baseball and basketball. The routine of school, sports and part time work became routine.
“I think that’s why it’s easy for me to work a lot of days and a lot of hours because I just got used to that because I was so active in sports and what not,” Max said.
Max is modest about his work ethic. Does he believe, though, that his weekly hours distinguish him from other sports journalists, a profession that isn’t identified first for work ethic? “Oh, I don’t know that people would perceive much of that,” he said. “I don’t work hard to distinguish myself as much as I work hard just because I think it’s the right thing to do. …”
That work ethic has helped achieve a career that even in college he never foresaw. He once thought coaching might be his calling, or perhaps selling insurance. He started out as a business major at Hamline before one class and teacher changed his direction.
“I was majoring in business and took a video production class for fun and my professor said you seem to have a passion for this,” he recalled. “I really enjoyed putting a video together. She said you should try to go get an internship in this and I didn’t even know an internship existed. And that’s when I started knocking on doors and finally I got in to Ch. 4. … It wasn’t like I set out to be a reporter. I literally kind of fell into it that way.”
After college, he used his relationship as an intern at WCCO TV to be hired as a sports producer. After awhile he was working for both Ch. 4 and the station’s cable entity Midwest Sports Channel. Later came the opportunity at WCCO Radio. Whether it was producing or being on the air, Max realized he had a passion for sports journalism.
“I like to focus on short term,” he said. “Having grown up competing (in sports)…the closest thing…is reporting. It is the greatest challenge in the business...being a great reporter, I think.”
Max Delivered the “Scoop” on Tubby Smith
Max broke the story locally in 2007 that Tubby Smith was on a private plane headed from Kentucky to Minnesota, likely to become the Gophers new basketball coach. Smith, of course, did accept the job and Max considers that his biggest scoop, breaking news that he collaborated with sources.
Max has contact information for hundreds of sources who he knows must feel they can trust him. “Because I’ve played sports I’ve always had great respect for guys that are in sports because I know how hard it is to get to where they are,” he said. “I know how hard it is to make it with the St. Paul Saints, let alone the Minnesota Twins. …I know how hard it is to be good at it (playing sports.)”
Max has had to work hard at more than reporting. His on-camera presence now is more polished than years ago. How did he improve?
“Beat yourself up a lot,” he answered. “I grew up right here in this market. Maybe I should have gone somewhere else. It all worked out, but…most people don’t start here. But I mean I’ve done everything. I’ve taken voice lessons, acting lessons. I’ve done all kinds of things because they never thought that I was great natural talent. ... So I had to really work. I always thought I knew what I was talking about but I had to really work at diction, at communicating, at relaxing and all those things. I did all those things to help on that end of it and there is no substitute for repetition. Looking at yourself. Don’t like that, don’t like that. Lots of stuff like that.”
Ask Max about interesting characters he’s known and he mentions Brett Favre and Michael Jordan. Then he brings up Sid Hartman’s name, the 90-year-old outspoken Star Tribune columnist, WCCO Radio personality and regular guest on “The Sports Show.”
“…There’s no bigger character than Sid Hartman,” Max said. “I think he’s the most fascinating guy I’ve ever been around because he’s so driven. He’s so good and he won’t quit. He just keeps goin’ and goin’ and goin’. He just amazes me.”
Max believes Hartman has greeted each day of his adult life with the attitude he must prove to the world he’s worthy. A sports executive in town offered that analysis to Max years ago and he’s bought in. “I don’t know where that comes from but I think that’s pretty apropos,” Max said.
Other regulars on the “The Sports Show” are Star Tribune columnist/KSTP radio host Patrick Reusse and former WCCO Radio host Dark Star. Hartman and Star have had their on-air confrontations but Max said the two might then turn around and go out for dinner.
Sports Journalism Can Fuel Egos
In both the media and sports worlds there is no shortage of egos. To be successful the ego probably needs to be in play but not destructive. Max was asked how he keeps his under control.
“I think that’s a battle,” he said. “I think the worst thing that can happen to you sometimes is you get complimented by people. I think in Minnesota we really live in the (type of) society that if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. …But you don’t see all the people that don’t say anything to you that think you stink.
“I will tell you the one thing that has kept me humble over the years is I’ve seen people that I didn’t think were very good, and I’ve seen people go up to them and tell them how great they are. They may be don’t think I am any good either.
“But you’re constantly battling that (ego) because this is an intoxicating profession in some respects that you’ve got to be very leery of I think, and really guard against. It’s easy to get sucked up if something goes well.”
There’s another challenge that Max is well aware of and that’s the cultural change in how the news is reported. The delivery systems including TV, radio and web have become more diverse leaving those in the news business trying to figure out how they can both most effectively and profitably report the news to consumers. Max isn’t sure what the rapidly changing landscape will look like in the future but he’s sure there will be a need for successful reporters.
“If you do your job well, if you become a great reporter, then there'll be a need for you and it won’t matter what the media mix is,” he said. “But I think the more interesting question is what’s the media going to be.”
Mike Max, though, is too busy week-to-week to worry a lot about the future.
Mike Max
