About 9:10 a.m. last Sunday I stood outside the CBS Radio Building and saw the hardest working 96-year-old man in America arrive at work.
Sid Hartman’s Cadillac stopped near the corner of Seventh Street and Second Avenue South. The soon-to-be-centenarian exited from the front passenger seat and walked toward Dave Mona, Eric Eskola and me. It was almost time for the 35th anniversary show of WCCO Radio’s Sports Huddle.
Since 1981 Hartman and Mona have co-hosted the popular show that during most of the year draws more listeners than any other Sunday morning radio sports talk program in this market. For many years Eskola, while anchoring the WCCO newsroom, tossed on-air barbs at Hartman. Mona invited Eskola, who retired from WCCO Radio several years ago, to be in-studio last Sunday to recollect memories during the anniversary show.
Mona, 73, and Hartman have done almost 2,000 shows together—certainly making the Sports Huddle the longest running radio sports talk show in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and maybe in the country. “It’s pretty amazing to think about it,” Mona said. “When I started, I went there (to WCCO) the first day and thought, ‘Man, I am doing this show with this old guy.’ I am now substantially older than Sid was at that time. I was looking for part-time work, and the irony is I retired from my full-time job three years ago and I am still doing the part-time job.”
For decades Mona’s full-time job was being one of the most skilled public relations professionals in Minneapolis. His ability to soothe tensions and simplify communications has often been an essential attribute in working with Hartman who at times mystifies and upsets both his radio partner and listening audience.
But Mona and other admirers view the legendary Hartman as a treasured source of information about this area’s professional sports history. “There is really nobody like him anymore,” Mona said. “I see him sort of like an open-pit mine. My job is to do the mining and get the good stuff out of him.
“He talks about meetings in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and he was actually in the room (on) how we got major league baseball. It’s not some…secondhand thing. He was the ‘designated hitter’ by the Minneapolis Tribune; to sit at their seat at the table and make some of those things happen (with pro sports). To get him to talk about the Lakers, and getting major league sports here, and some of the great personalities over the years, I think that’s when the show is really at its best.”
Hartman and Mona fill two-and-one-half hours of air time—from 9:30 a.m. to noon—with more guests than any other local program even attempts. Hartman lines up most of the guests but Mona works his contacts too. Just before 9:30 a.m. last Sunday the two hosts compared guest lists and call-in times. Then armed with cups of hot chocolate, they made their way into the studio to do yet another show.
The two men spend minimal time together prepping for Sunday mornings. Their encyclopedic knowledge of local sports and deep network of contacts prepares them for the show. Hartman has been writing for Minneapolis newspapers since the 1940’s and has been on WCCO Radio since the 1950’s. Mona was a Minneapolis Tribune sportswriter in the late 1960’s and for years was a local freelance writer. He is also a Minnesota sports trivia savant.
The lineup of interviews on last Sunday’s show included Tracy Claeys, Marty Davis, Joe Friedberg, Chad Greenway, Dr. Bill McGuire, Paul Molitor and Dave St. Peter. Friedberg, a prominent Minneapolis attorney, and McGuire, the local pro soccer owner, were last-minute guests. Hartman will often instruct a studio coordinator to get so-and-so on the line for an interview to happen later in the program.
Last Sunday Hartman and Mona were talking about the controversy with the Gophers wrestling program and allegations involving Xanax. During a break in the show Hartman shouted out to studio coordinator Chris Ellston to call Friedberg so he could ask about legal implications. After the interview and off-air, Hartman was pleased. “That was the best idea I ever had,” he said.
Although Eskola has teased Hartman for years, he is an admirer who is grateful for the advice and support he received from the great man. Eskola retired from WCCO in 2010 after a long career that included his acclaimed coverage of the State Capitol beat.
“They’ve got just as many stiffs (at the Capitol) as when you worked there,” Hartman told Eskola and listeners on Sunday. “They screw everything (up). I hope they’re all wiped out.”
By wiped out, Hartman meant no re-election for Legislative incumbents. Also, don’t count on him carrying re-election lawn signs around town for Betsy Hodges if the Minneapolis mayor seeks another term. Hartman blames her for McGuire’s soccer stadium going to St. Paul and not landing in Minneapolis. “I’ll guarantee she will hear about that,” Hartman said.
When it comes to sports facilities, Hartman has forever used the Sports Huddle podium to rally support. New stadiums for the Twins and Vikings were crusades for Hartman who was pleased both facilities were built in Minneapolis.
Eskola praised Hartman last Sunday for his stadium campaigns. “He deserves great credit,” Eskola told Sports Huddle listeners.
Hartman grew up on Minneapolis’ north side in the home of an alcoholic father and sickly mother. Life was serious and Hartman adopted a strong work ethic at an early age. He learned to hustle for a buck and despite no college education worked his way into the newspaper business where his dogged determination made him a must-read reporter.
Hartman once tracked down Jets quarterback Joe Namath in the locker room showers for an interview, and got stunned Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire on the air for an interview when he was chasing baseball’s single season home run record and not talking to other media.
The McGwire interview was on the Sports Huddle in 1998 when the Cardinals were at the Metrodome. During the program Hartman instructed a show coordinator to call the Cardinals’ clubhouse attendant and tell him McGwire had an important personal call. Amazingly, McGwire took the call and while at first reluctant to do the interview, he gave in and discussed chasing Roger Maris’ single season record of 61 home runs.
Maybe one reason Hartman has worked so hard to fill the air time with guests is that he can be dismissive of the public and prefers talking with newsmakers. Mona has accused his co-host of being rude to callers, and sometimes exchanges between Hartman and listeners flop without getting started.
That was true years ago when Gene from Chisago City, Minnesota called the Sports Huddle to complain about how manager Ron Gardenhire was handling the Twins’ pitching staff. Hartman has long been a defender of managers, coaches and front office executives. He had this quick reply for Gene, “How the hell do you know what Gardy is doing? You’re from Chicago.”
Mona recalled that story in his 2008 book “Beyond the Sports Huddle—Mona on Minnesota.” Mona has known Hartman for decades—even dating back to the 1950s when Mona’s father Lute was the basketball coach at South High School.
Hartman and Mona were colleagues at the Tribune for awhile but Mona transitioned into corporate public relations. By 1981 he was building his own agency but was concerned about his future. He thought a part-time assignment working for WCCO Radio could add security for his young family.
Mona figured his journalism degree from the University of Minnesota in 1965 and years of communications experience including as the Twins beat reporter for the Tribune could generate interest from WCCO Radio program director By Napier. He was right and one day Napier surprised Mona with a phone call.
Napier asked if Mona was familiar with the Sports Huddle. The show was then a couple years old and aired for just 30 minutes between 10 and 10:30 a.m. Chuck Lilligren was the co-host with Hartman but Lilligren didn’t want to do the show any longer.
Mona said he knew about the program and Napier, who called on a Thursday, told Mona to report on Sunday for his first Sports Huddle. Mona had done an audition tape for WCCO but never hosted a radio show, and his first Sunday didn’t start well.
Upon arriving at the WCCO building, Mona found the doors locked. He raced to a nearby building and used a courtesy phone to reach the WCCO operator. She didn’t know who Mona was and why he was calling but he persuaded her to let him in the building.
Minutes from air time, Mona parked himself in the wrong studio. An engineer at the station then sent him to the studio where Lilligren and Hartman did previous shows. “It was now 10:03 a.m. and the local news was ending,” Mona wrote in his book.
As the familiar Sports Huddle theme began, Hartman entered the studio and asked if an apprehensive Mona knew how to turn the microphones on? “I had assumed that Sid had mastered the technological mysteries of radio during his first quarter century at the microphone,” Mona said in the book.
But not a problem. The engineer assured Mona he would get the show on the air.
As the Sports Huddle theme music approached its end, Hartman spoke once more. “Nothing against you, David, but this isn’t going to work. I’m going to ask them to cancel the show.”
Mona recalled Hartman’s pessimism in his book and that immediately after the vote of confidence the “on-the-air” button turned red.
Thirty-five years following that rocky beginning, Mona and Hartman are still “huddling” on Sunday mornings.
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