An Army of Normal Folks - Bob Muzikowksi: If I Get Half, My Neighbor Gets Half (Pt 2)

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

After accidentally moving next to the worst housing project in America, Bob Muzikowski dug in. He started a little league for its kids, then intentionally moved into the hood on Chicago’s West Side, and started the largest inner-city little league in the country there. Finally, when Bob sold part of his company, he donated 50% of his earnings to build a world-class school there called Chicago Hope Academy. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an Army of Normal Folks, and we continue now with part two of our conversation with Bob Musickowski, right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Hey, everyone. It's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the homestretch and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs,

friends of Katie's to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha B., Roy Wood Jr., and Charlamagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on,

this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society,

but who have never been interviewed before. Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account, or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed.

I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like, be respectful. We're made out of the same things. Bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere.

Elian Gonzalez. Elian, Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian, Elian. Elian, Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami.

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation, something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Piece, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is your country falling apart? Feeling tired, depressed, a little bit revolutionary? Consider this, start your own country.

I planted the flag. I just kind of looked out of like, this is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. There are 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Everybody's doing it. I am King Ernest Emmanuel. I am the Queen of La Donia. I'm Jackson I, King of Capriburg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Montonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. Why can't I create my own country? My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong? No country willingly gives up their territory. I was making a rocket with a black powder, you know, with explosive warheads.

Oh my god. What is that? Bullets. Bullets. We need help! We still have the off-road portion to go. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. And we're losing daylight fast.

That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Success in America today, black, white, Latino, whatever you are, is moving as far away from any suffering as you could possibly move. Right? That is so true. Yeah, you don't want to be down. Someone called me, so we live a mile from the United Center where the Bulls and the Blackhawks play.

And people say, well, I got off the highway early, I'm in this real bad neighborhood. I'm like, that's my corner. You're in my corner. It's going to be okay. So, me, you probably don't know this, so I'm gonna do it with you real quick. The whole reason this podcast exists is because that Catholic over in the corner, otherwise known as my Pain in the A** producer, and the reason he's a Pain in the A** producer is because all producers are that, interviewed me. I was frustrated that day and kind of got on my soapbox and I said, there's neighborhoods that we drive by in every major metropolitan area all over

the country every single day. We don't want to have a flat tire. That's where we don't want our car to break down because we're convinced if we have to get out and change flat tire here, we're going to get mugged and lose our life and our wallet and everything else. And then as we pass by safely, we kind of exhale. And as we look down that road or over that viaduct and we see all that despair and all that disenfranchisement, sadness and poverty and loss, we think to ourselves, man, somebody oughta do something about that one day. As if the government's gonna swoop in after being woefully inadequate for the past 10 decades, they're all of a sudden gonna swoop in and become effective,

or maybe the people on CNN and Vox are gonna swoop down and help us. And the answer is, we need to tilt that rear view mirror to the left about 15 degrees and maybe think, maybe I could do something about that one day. And you can, and you don't have to do, like everyone thinks, let's macro fix the inner city. It's islands of strength and hope, right?

Little parishes, little church, Lawndale Community Church in Chicago, they own like 15 city blocks worth of houses, pizza, those guys are really down and dirty doing it. And so it's islands of strength and hope, little churches, little youth programs, sports programs, we just need 10 times more of those. Little spots of need and community. Young life, Fellowship of Krishna, Chicago, our athletic center.

Our athletic facilities are nicer than anything in the nicest suburb of Illinois. All right, hold on. We got to get to that to explain it. So you get married because you get set up on the New York dating game where 30% fit and you're making, I guess you're making some money again now. Yeah, my wife's money. And so, but I wanted to be out of New York City, so we moved because, you know, alcohol is anonymous.

I say, stay away from people, places and things. People used to hang out with places, used to go with them. Which is, that's your entire world. Yeah, and even, New York's a big city, but you can still bump in on old girlfriend, right? So we moved to- If you remember. The victim, I remember. So, we moved to – If you remember her. A victim. I remember her.

So, we moved to Chicago because the only other place you could trade foreign currency and she's got a new job off the internet. Old buddy of mine has a new office in Chicago, Tom Mitchell. So, we move out, figuring we're going to stay for a year maybe and we have just a day to look and on Saturday we find a beautiful rehab brownstone, two stories, three bedrooms, two baths, fireplace, like a thousand a month in New York, it'd be 5,000. So we take it.

And the next morning I go for a run and a block away, I come around a corner and there's 20, 15 story projects, Cabrini Green Housing Project. I had moved by mistake a block away from the worst housing project in America. Is that really true? Yeah. You didn't know. Yeah. So people-

I mean, you're a smart guy. How'd you not know? We came in from the, as he knows, from the lakeside. Seriously? Yeah. I mean, we had a U-Haul behind it and a couple phone calls. So this is 33. And the building is still there. It's gorgeous where we were living.

So at night, I'm sitting on my deck that night, and they were, pop, pop, pop. And I'm thinking, this must, it was May. It was around Memorial Day. And I thought, this must be a patriotic neighbor of this year. So I go for a run in the morning. Division and Sedgwick.

So on the corner are two baseball diamonds with high grass. It's called Carson Field because a police officer named Fred Carson had been shot dead on that field and it hadn't been used in a while, you could tell. And so I went for a run and the cops, it was Sunday morning, I could see the Sears Tower, I figured I'm going that way. And the cops pulled me over and said something like, what the hell are you doing here? They actually said, what the fuck are you doing? So I said, I just moved here from New York.

And they're laughing. I go, this is Cabrini Green, pal. So a couple months. The bottom line is they saw a white dude running around. And they're like, you're going to get killed. Which isn't going to happen. Because if you're white, you're a cop or social worker or something. You're 1,000 times because if you're white or you're using your cop or social work or something If you're a thousand times safer if you're white, you know, I'm definitely not a vice lord or a gangster disciple, right? Yeah

I don't fit that so So that's an illusion that because you're white they're gonna want me to you know Anyway that you're more muggable so And a guy running is not he doesn't have a wallet probably. Yeah, so So, and a guy running is not, he doesn't have a wallet probably. So I started to have a catch with some of the boys, we're working. You start to have what? A catch.

There were a bunch of kids on the corner and a guy was playing baseball, he had like six kids, Al Carter, he's playing baseball with them. So I went over, started to help him out, bought a box of balls, a bunch of baseball gloves, and I'm goofing around with these kids. Sold it. You see these kids running and you just go home and say... I'm running and I see every time I'm running or going by there on my car there's a bunch of kids on the field. Not like six or seven.

Yeah, so you're like I'm gonna buy some stuff and go throw it. Yeah, I'm goofing around. Everybody played baseball. And I played freshman through college so I'm decent at baseball. So I gave them 50 flyers and scotch tape and said look take these flyers and put them on the telephone wall and I showed him how to do it. Little League try out Saturday 10 a.m. maybe we'll get some more maybe we get six or seven more boys we could have a team and we'll go play my friends in the suburbs their kids. So that Saturday 300 kids show up.

300. And so we were part of Williamsport. You know what that says? That there's nothing else to do for these kids. Yeah, well, not that. On the field there, and it's right there and it's a baseball diamond and the kids want to do something organized. Do you have any help?

Yeah, I had about four buddies. You and four guys. Paul O'Connor, Joe Guinan, Tina. So that, I went home that Monday and I bought 40 Little League Baseball bats and I put them in long stem rose boxes, right? And I sent them to the 40 guys I knew who either liked baseball, cared about poor kids or something. And at that point, I'm only in Chicago for you, not even a year.

But I knew a bunch of guys because they were my clients and friends of friends and all kinds of stuff. So I invited them to a thing at the nice little health club that has a bar, restaurant and buffet. And I signed a Batman. So I said, you must come. So everybody shows up or has their assistant show up with their goofy baseball bat and a long stem rose box.

And I said, I need you to sponsor a team. It's $1,500 for uniforms and equipment. And I need somebody to coach it. You can't just give me money. So they said, well, where is it? And I said, you said, you bumbled it. And everybody knows Cabrini, but we made the fields look really nice. Two diamonds.

And so a bunch of guys, everybody ended up Northern trust, Northwestern mutual, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, all these companies were coaching. The first year was 16 teams, and then it grew to 64, shrunk a little bit with COVID and making a comeback now. So nothing to do with baseball. It's about how would a guy from the board of trade, or a guy, one of my coaches was in residency, played baseball at Boston College,

he's an orthopedic surgeon, how would a guy like that ever meet a Cabrini-Green kid if he wasn't his coach? Explain what that is. So you're never gonna meet a meet a Cabrini-Green kid if he wasn't his coach? Explain what that is. So you're never going to meet a kid from Cabrini-Green. Yeah, but I don't even know what that is. Explain that.

Cabrini-Green. Named after Mother Cabrini. There's a movie about her this year, right? She was canonized. Was an Italian project that became this, the one by White Sox Park was the biggest, but the worst, most notorious housing project in America was Cabrini Green housing project. So, and when you say that in Chicago, everybody knows, everybody knows, and everybody goes, oh, that's just now completely knocked down and we moved everything to the west side,

three miles west Cabrini Green. Now, our current field, a two bedroom is 500 grand. Wow. So, and they did a great job at mixing. So every fourth unit and the rentals is for someone who has no money. They did a pretty good job of providing for people, you know, and actually if you said, well, people were saying, well, I've been there 20 years and like, well, if you haven't paid rent in 20 years, you really don't have too much to say in my mind. Right. Right. So, um,

look, so you just, it's like you said earlier, so now the baseball thing, people, my friend Paul O'Connor adopted three of the kids. He's got grandkids from these kids. So, um, and, and we started a high site, uh, scholarship program. A lot of good things came out of that. So how you were 30 or so when you did this. Yep. All right. So basically let's just be kind of melt this down.

You're going on a run. Some cops say you're crazy. You notice some kids, you have the kids put some flyers out. And within a year, you've got 14 baseball teams. 16 in the first year. 16 being sponsored by and coached by.

Northern Trust, bankers, guys you'd never think. So now you're introducing people to one another who would never have cross paths. That's right. And it's getting a lot of notoriety, not by my choice. When you give quietly, so your left hand, because it's a big corner with two diamonds on it, you got to kind of dead end in it to go to it. So it's in a visible spot, right? So the day of the game one Lakers Bulls, I remember it Jordan, it was the first year the Bulls won it 1991. So this one, the league started. And actually the Lakers won the first game with man and the Bulls swept them. But we were on ABC seven right after the game. They did a little special on a three minute

thing on it. Well, that's huge. Yeah. And so it got out there. What's illustrated diamonds in the rough and a lot going on. So we didn't Yeah. I know how that works. I was minding my own business, coaching a football team in Memphis and sometimes things happen. People find you. And you know what, if it inspires some good people, I'm a writer, because then we did

the East Harlem Little League and we did it in the South. So the league grows second year. We had five kids killed in the first season. One of my boys, Brian Dix, Bill Ramos and I, who was an orthopedic surgeon. What are the age are these kids? Little League Baseball, 9, 10, 11, 12. And you had 9, 10, 11, 12 year old kids get killed?

Oh yeah. We bought a kid a bicycle for his birthday and they killed him for his bike. Brian Dixon, yeah. What does that do inside you? Me? It pisses me off. I was going to say, you're the guy that grew up next to the dude who got 60 stitches from Muhammad Ali and got anybody said he did that. Yeah, but then nobody had a gun. Nobody had a gun. You could just get your ass kicked. Yeah. No, the point is who you are and tough Catholic kid and all that, how grew up all that when I hear that it

breaks my heart but it also pisses me off yeah look this the gang look I'm in my 60s I could kick these guys in skinny little it before this the the older gang guys in their 60s and 70s they had to be like Mike Tyson to be out of the game right Sam Dillon lived in my basement he was head of the Blackstone Rangers then got born again and saved with him and so we had an apartment downstairs that are... so we moved to the west side. That's because everyone... let's move to a bad neighborhood and make it good. Plus, we built a brand new brownstone. If you do it in a bad neighborhood, you know it's half the price.

Right? We'll be right back. So we started having kids and I had a basement apartment for recovering guys and Sam Dillon lived there. When he got out of prison, a guy asked, could you help this guy out? He's born again, coming out of jail. And so I had lunch with him and I said, I went to jail. I'm trying to relate to him.

I went to jail for two days for a bar fight right he says I said what you going for he goes actually I could cook he had a stutter but he was jacked jacked up muscled up guy maybe in his 40s I could kill around about 20 but I just got caught on the one so people said why you gotta let those guys live in your basement I'm like man the toughest guys in the neighborhood live with me. It's going to mess with you like that. And a fiercely protective. What you're saying is these guys today, they're just shooting up stuff.

And they can't even shoot. You're so with that. If you got 16 bullets in there, you might hit with one. Right. So, but there's just a bunch of gods. They got. Well, sorry, ladies. It Thank God. Sorry ladies. It's true. Sorry, that'll be bleeped. There's a bleep.

Is there a bleep? Yeah, we'll bleep that. And you know, fatherless boys, in 1960, 87% of black children were born to married parents. Now it's 25%. And white people ain't much better. So, that's it. You know, even a bad dad told you, pick up your shoes, clean your, take a shower, wake up,

there's your books, read the book. So, now most of the kids are raised by women. So, I don't really know. And we have some super moms, great moms. I met a 43-year-old great-grandmother. What? Do that math. It's like 14, 14, 14. So, the kids are, they're not being, and you could say whatever you want or how bad the schools are and all, but the number one school is in your house. Right? So, and it's really been tough like that. I could be politically incorrect.

I don't care what anyone thinks. I'm up running for office. Although they've been talking about to me about that. So I, that's the issue. Look, even all morals aside, two people banging away at one rent and one car payment, it just works. Two people raising kids is easier. It just works better, right?

So... And like you said, it can actually be fun. Yeah, it could be fun, right? You got to be... Here's what Wayne Gordon Laundale Community Church told me. Your kids need to know they're part of something bigger than themselves and that they're your most important kid, but they're not the only important kid. And I think my kids growing up, my own kids and yet growing up where they have. So I have seven biological and I've been legal guardian for four African American boys, one

formally. So Tyrone, who's doing great. So I kind of, and I live in what was a mostly black neighbor. Now it's mixed a lot of Mexicans. They've become, I think a larger proportion of the city than African-Americans now. And so Chicago Hope outside of my own kids was an all black school.

And now we're like 40% Latino. We hadn't even gotten to that, Bob. So anyway, you keep screwing up the whole story. I'm really excited about that. Okay, so now we're going to go to it. You got the baseball. Yeah, things happen. Pick it up there. So they start to knock Cabrini Green down and so we move to the west side. We're just having our second kid and my wife decides to leave work and we build this house on the west side of Chicago and what people would think is a bad neighbor. And so Arden and Mancha is like if the Lord of the universe came down to earth, he had

a pretty nice place I think, heaven, pretty nice place. It's hard. And comes down here, gets his ass kicked. It doesn't look so good, right? You see the passion of crime. I mean, it's not going too good until he rises from the dead, but it is. So if he could do that, come down here, the least we could do is downsize a little bit, I think. And like you said earlier, we didn't need a bunch of people to do this. And so now we got a bunch of people drinking the Kool-Aid, doing it. The young kids out of Wheaton College, Notre Dame

and stuff, they're phenomenal. They're fearless. My kids are crazy fearless for Jesus. So my son, my kids were like the Jackie Robinson's of the little league, only they were the first white player. It was the inverse. And they were all staying in track. They go, how'd your sons get so fast? I'm like, grew up in a black neighborhood. You better run. You gotta get fast or go home.

So my son Ike is the principal of Chicago Hope. He, they all of Chicago Hope. They all went to Hope. And so his roommate just married my daughter Scout, who was Notre Dame's rugby captain. So he was living with a guy Ricky. Hold the time out. You have a daughter named Scout. Yeah.

Is that To Kill a Mockingbird? Yeah, she very much liked that character too. When she had a wedding, all the kids went, Scout's wearing a dress. Is that where it came from? Oh yeah. Yeah. My favorite character. of my favorite my favorite Bob Atticus Atticus finish I use the word to merrity to describe courage all the time because of Atticus Finch and I wanted my we have four I wanted to name my second daughter

Molly I want to name her scout and, Mollie. I want to name her scout and Lisa wouldn't let me. I love that name. This is my sixth. So we were running out of names at that point. So she, but she's very much like that character. So she was Notre Dame's rugby captain. So Ricky Manci. Your daughter? Yeah. So she, this kid comes in who I know since he's 14 came in as a gang banging Latin King at Hope gets born again, baptized him and his mother and his sister and is dating my daughter place for Carthage college. Small school football comes back and last year asked

me, could he marry him or scout? And I said, Ricky, I'm not worried about scout. I'm worried about you. You see her greatest hits film? So they get married. So he was living with Ike and moves out. So my son Ike has a three bedroom condo in the hood. So you know what he does? He meets a Venezuelan couple begging for money and they're two kids and he takes them. Those are his roommates then for the last year.

You're kidding me. He must have been paying, his name Isaiah from Isaiah 58, but we call him Ike. So he must have been paying attention to the sermon, right? So, and these people go to work every morning at seven in a chicken plucking factory and work their ass off, right? And so, and their kids get dropped off. And at Hope, we're a high school, but after school, there's always a hundred little kids running around

because the parents, if they're working or something, if we don't pick you up or if not, just go to Hope. Just go there. Hold it. We still hadn't gotten to Hope how it started. Yeah, we haven't gotten to High School. So, we moved to the West Side and we're homeschooled. So, we homeschooled K to 8. My wife's pretty smart. If you could afford a parent to stay home, it's pretty good. It's what everybody did for centuries before the last 150 years, right? They homeschooled the kids. So that went well. And then when the local Catholic school closed, look-

One of those 100 or whatever you said. I'm supposed to love the Lord my God with my whole heart, mind and soul, love my neighbors myself. So my kids could go for high school to St. Ignatius or Latin, or I could move to Wheaton where everybody all the Christian people This is these are good schools. I could do that or and then all their teammates from the little e they got to go to Fariot right or Juarez or some crane or Manley? Collins so How is this bad? Yeah, I was how is

Okay, that's right, Manly. Arshay Cooper's a great guy. Arshay's little league coach, Ken Alpart. Arshay played in our little league. Ken Alpart, yes. Ken Alpart, my Jewish friend. That is crazy. He rode for Penn when they won a national championship.

Yes, I remember that. For those of you listening, go back and listen to the R. Shea Cooper episode and this will connect. So Manley Crew. Manley was rough. His birth out of the Little League, because Ken Alpart coached in the Little League and he rode for Penn. That's the connection. Unbelievable. And I still talk to him once in a month. So your kids are about to go to high school, their options are infinite, but their friends options that they've come up living with around are manly, which is where Arshay went,

which is terrible. So I just had just sold a business to National Financial Partners. And I had, I paid off my mom's house and my mother's house and did the 50-50 thing and bought the local Catholic school to open up. So you bought the school? Bought a school. From the diocese? Yeah, we were the first Catholic school to open up. Totally. You bought the school, bought a school from the diocese. Yeah. We were the first ones they ever sold to. They rent a lot,

but if they sell that's emitting defeat. Right. So, because we, the little league was so strong and we had a good reputation, they sold it to me for a million nine and I would have paid five million from a church rectory, convent school, the structural engineer when he came there and said, Bob, if there's a tsunami, come here. This will be the last building. This thing is. So the Italian artisans built it really well. So we open up with 120 freshmen.

All of the kids are from the little league. The whole school has that come out. Hold it, hold it, hold it. You buy the facility for me and on from the Doss's. All right, that's a lot. Got a rehab. Then, Hold it, hold it, hold it. You buy the facility for Miannand from the Dosses. All right, that's a lot. Got a rehab.

Then that means the bureaucrats are gonna come in and tell you about the asbestos and everything. Oh yeah, that happened. How much did that cost? That was like 100. I was really surprised. That's it? It was mostly in the tiles and wrapped around the pipes.

Okay, so now you got two Miannand in the school. Okay. So now you got two million in the school. Yeah. Here come 125 kids. And we had to guarantee you all my stuff on that loan too. I did that and then I told you. When these kids show up for school, listen, the $2 million is amazing that you did that. But here's my question.

There's operating expenses coming. How does that get covered? Because yours is a private school. We're an independent school. My friends and I put in another three or four. So when you put in air conditioning, because it didn't have any, you've got to cut a hole in every single room, man.

And a whole bunch of things like that. So now we've got, and we did it in about six months, we made the school ready, looking beautiful, right? So we start with freshmen and sophomores, and we're playing football right out of the gate, right? So I have nobody to play, and he knows the story because it has to do with his alma mater. So, and his uncle. So I'm- Talking about Alex the producers. Alex the producer, Cortez. So we have nobody to play. I actually scheduled, we had one game and Brentwood Academy.

We're going to play Thanksgiving weekend. They come down here, just play them a JV game. I was about to say, what the hell? It was good. They would have scored a hundred. So we open up, somebody dropped football a month before the season. One school seat in Academy drops football. So that means there's nine teams out there with an empty date. So I'm home. Hey, I'm Bob from Chicago Hope I see you're empty on November. So I got my nine games and I open up with st

Ignatius college prep who's coaching these kids we had Renee Stewart who played in the NFL and we have Chicago has always had great staff and great people got it And I came up from Brentwood and Brad Perry, who was at Brentwood Academy. No kidding. So they came up and lived for you, came up for a year or just stayed for a year and got us going. And so we opened up with St. Ignatius and it's when it was the new field, the new AstroTurf field and track they had just set up and Steve Cortez was coach of the

JV team and said, look, Bob, I know you're brand new and if it gets ugly, I promise not to run up to score. So, I did use that in a pregame talk. So, my wife's at the game and some of our donors come at halftime and it's 26-7 and we're going, well, that's not that bad. And he says, no, we're winning. We ran them off the field. So So we beat him like 48 to 40. You did Chicago home beat the 16 on its student, St. Ignatius. Now they're not a football power at that time. They've gotten really good. But the fact is we won the game, which was really big for us. So picture you're paying playing. I have great pictures of that game with the Chicago skyline in the background of this beautiful a hundred year old Catholic school. And you kick there their so we're fast speed kills right. We had like four, four, four plays run the beer. So there's unlimited plays you could

do when you're running. Yeah, that's true. And we had Romel Robinson was lead later staffed at that. So we had a good team and we're all boys. Most of them I know since they're nine or 10 because I know them from the baseball program. So we really have good relationships going and then we've had we've had one losing season in the 20 years. We're good. I want to go back to I get you piled a bunch of money in it but how are you operating this thing? The operational cost because it's a private school and I don't guess many

people paying tuition. Yeah, no, they pay. Everybody pays. And if I had a billion dollars you'd pay. So right now cost about, cause you want everybody have a little skin. When it's snowing in Chicago, the public school kids often don't show up when it's snowing in Chicago, the Chicago hope kids show up because grandma's going, you, I'm paying 200 a month. Get your hands, right? You're going. So, you got to own it, right? So, and no one's ever been kicked out for money. We make them work in the summer or something. So, and so I got to get the rest of it. So, I'm getting two or three

thousand and I got to get 16. So, we raise a bunch of money from family. Is that what it costs, about 20 per kid to educate? About 16, 16. So, 13 short this year times 300, so I'm 4 million short. So we raise a bunch of money from mostly my clients because I know what they have. I invest their money. I'm like, don't give me no $10,000. Right? Not happening. Missing a zero, pal.

Right? So- You manage their money. You know what they can give. I know what they got. And we've done a really good job with them. So- You missed a million.

Right? So, you manage their money. I know what they got. You know what they can give. We've done a really good job with them. You're missing a zebra, pal. So, and we have that kind of relationship. And I like guys like that. I have never asked anyone for money. I just tell the story. At one point, they're going to say, how can I help? There's an awkward silence going on.

You're missing a zebra, pal. So, 15 years, and I remember the third year, I borrowed my life insurance cash value to pay for the house. I was like, I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house.

I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I'm going to get a house. I. You're missing a zero. I remember the third year I borrowed my life insurance cash value to make payroll, so it was tight. Wow.

Did your wife lose her mind? No, she used to be like that. The problem is with my pastor, my gifts are exhortation and compassion and hers are discernment and those two bang heads. But her passion was the school too, right? And so she's very involved, right? So, my wife is wicked smart. She's a smart girl in her homeschool. We'll be right back.

Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Astead Herndon. But we're also gonna have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr.

and Charlemagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before.

Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like, be respectful. We're made out of the same things, bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers.

Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba.

He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian, Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez.

At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban I know all too well. Listen to Chess Piece, the Elian Gonzalez story as part of the My Cultultura podcast network available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is your country

falling apart? Feeling tired, depressed, a little bit revolutionary? Consider this, start your own country. I planted the flag. I just kind of looked out of like this is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. There are 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Everybody's doing it. I am King Ernest Emmanuel. I am the Queen of La Donia. I'm Jackson I, King of Capriburg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Montonia.

Be part of a great colonial tradition. Why can't I trade my own country? My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong? No country willingly gives up their territory. I was making a rocket with the black powder, you know, with explosive warheads. Oh my god. What is that?

Bullets. Bullet holes. We need help! We still have the off-road portion to go. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on theHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Then the banks, it was the big short, right? So the banks started to donate foreclosures to nonprofits with audited financials. So I have a guy working for me, Kevin. He's one of those guys. He played rugby at Williams and when the University of Chicago MBA crashed and burned, and he's been with us from day one for 20 years, and he's one of those guys, you put him in the woods, he'll build a house. I think you kind of probably like that.

So we get the first donation from the bank and a foreclosure, put in 20 grand, sell it for a buck 50 and go. So we just flipped our 500th house. We're the largest nonprofit receiver of foreclosed homes in Chicago. You are kidding. So the real estate business pays the teachers plus the tuition plus donations. So when you put someone in a house, it's a big deal. So, I mean, I'm like George Bailey and it's a wonderful life when someone gets their house. Remember that Mr. Mancini?

Like you own a house? Hey, you want to get conservative. You see black people who own their house. You want to see people turn Republican quick. You want stop and frisk on your block when people are getting high on your doorstep. You want the cop to stop and frisk these guys. And if you get five or six houses on a block, the block turns. When you own it, you fix it.

You go down the street, I'll tell you who's renting and who's owning by the garden in front of your house. That's true. We flipped the house in Hyde Park for a million. It's not all like inner city house. And we're the banks CRA, they have to do Community Reinvestment Act. They give us like a six and a half percent, they aren't doing anything, right? They're acting like they're doing us a favor, right? Community reinvestment. They don't give us money. They just lend it to us.

So, and we have investors. So, I got a dozen guys who put in from a hundred grand to a million, they get a 5% coupon every year. They get 5% interest. Most of them rip the checkup. If I'm delivering that check in person, they're ripping that check up. interest. Most of them rip the check up. If I'm delivering that check in person, they're ripping that check up. That's important. But some of them take it. I'm like, my family office guy did it. Like, well, your family office guy. So then they got a deduction if they don't take it. If 5% look great until the last three years, right? 5% was when interest rate for 3% or 4%, 5% was when it just rate for three or 4%, five look great. So you're really strong arming your clients out of their money in the name of Jesus. Praise Jesus.

And the fair catch. Which I guess, I have to report it to my broker dealer every year. And so I don't really talk, just, hey, am I on a board? Yeah, I'm CEO of Chicago Hope Academy, but I don't talk about that that much because I guess I'm Technically, you know, we're getting money from people who are our clients to do some but that's their call, right? It's a 501 C3 audited funding and and the people in my business a lot of them support it, right? So So that's it's kind of wonderful. We're employing a bunch of guys

How long has the school been out your 20 this year 20. Yeah, Chicago 20 years. Yeah, and how many what's 310 we're high school right and we turned down 150 kids last year you turned down Yeah, cuz I just don't have the room So I have a 24 acre across from our new little league fields Which you could picture for little league diamonds where the center fielders are back-to-back Right on that beautiful field Alex knows about it Steve Cortez's uncle coach there for a couple years. On that field, we put our football field, right? I got 124 yards. So you better, that's why you got a helmet on, you hit that brick wall two yards beyond the end.

You're right there. Squeeze it across the street. 15 years ago, I see this beautiful building going up. It looks like a warehouse. I go in there. Michael Jordan's trainer, Tim Grover, builds the nicest basketball facility you've ever seen. Across the street, 50 yards from our little league field. He goes bankrupt and we buy out of foreclosure.

So Chicago Hope, our gym is as nice as any suburban gym. You have four full NBA courts, mahogany wood locker rooms, hot tub, cold plunge, you name it. Built for the NBA guys. And we buy it out of a room with a batting, our weight room looks like Clemson's. And so it's home for Special Olympics. They brought in, they stroked the check for a couple million dollars going in there. Joe Moglia made the down payment on the gym.

We ended up buying it for seven and a half. He was CEO of Ameritrade and now he's head football coach at Coastal Carolina. I know that story. He's phenomenal. Now he's head of football operations because of his asthma. He can't be down on the field the last three years. So Joe- How much do you think this thing cost to build this gym?

He built it for 12, we bought it for seven and a half. Looks pretty good. And then we put in a beautiful, so we have 24 acres there with a beautiful track and cast. That's where we want to build the new school and we go to six or 800. I can't imagine that every kid on earth wants to be in the school. Pretty easy to recruit there. We have kids that can barely read. We have a trades program now. We're in the second year of that for electricians.

Why can they barely read? Because they can't. They got passed through grammar school and shouldn't have passed. Can you catch them up? Yeah. So there's that great philosopher, Chris Rock said that. The great philosopher. If Johnny can't read, that's mommy's fault. If Johnny can't read because the electric bill hasn't been paying the lights around, that's daddy's fault. I'm daddy. And so the kids come in and then I got my valedictory and went to

Stanford last year. I got kids at Brown, Columbia. We got a couple of Vanderbilt. So our best kids are as good as anybody's. And then we got a bunch in the middle. We have two stationed in Poland right now in the US Army. I don't know if you know we have 20,000 American soldiers in Poland. I didn't know we had 20. You must think something might happen. I knew we had a bunch.

So anyway. I'm sorry to interrupt you, Bob, but when you started, you had how many kids? Was that first year that first year 90 90 kids how many were white? No, I won Sammy my daughter Sammy was in the first year kid. Yeah, and my second year bow came the night What is the demographics of school now 60% black? 30% Latino 10% white Asian, you know who comes the white kids who come with a home school 30% Latino 10% white Asian, you know who comes the white kids who come with a home schoolers No, kidding. You want a place that's serious about Jesus and there and the athletic side of it. We're good

we play the big schools and We were beating Whitney Young. It's a big notorious public high school in Chicago. It's a test in school. So it's for the smart kids and so all the smart black and white kids go, you know, and so, uh, we, we opened with them this year. We're meeting a 40. Have you ever thought about boarding at all? We did board some kids that we boarded. Uh, we had kids coming in from, uh, Vietnam, South Korea. We had a big, uh, house that we boarded them in and they stopped coming cause of COVID and I'll mix them in with like homeless black kids. And I love this stuff, right? I picked this kid up at O'Hare airport from Vietnam. So obviously if they stopped coming because of COVID. And I'll mix them in with homeless black kids. And I love this stuff. I picked this kid up at O'Hare Airport from Vietnam. So obviously, if they're coming here, they're rich kids.

And they're coming to a Christian school in the hood. And we have them in this beautiful building. And the kid is cranked up, Chance the Rapper. He's never been an American in his life. So I'm rooming him with Tyrone, right? And Tyrone's math scores go up and this kid's gotten hip. Tyrone's math scores go up and the kids are Vietnam. All these funny little math tricks and stuff. So, uh, so look,

I can't remediate you to Harvard, but I can make you a good man, right? We've probably six or seven Hope graduates who are police officers now. I was just playing in the gym with one of them the other day. So, you know, the great thing about our facilities is everybody could come. So I'll see a kid in there who's 30. He graduated 12 years ago. He's just in there working out, hanging out. I'll see all these little kids running around. It's a huge facility. The NBA draft combine is often in our gym. That's how nice it is. Wow. To shut it down for four days. They give us 25 grand.

They should give us a quarter million dollars. I think it should be much more. So yeah, I haven't gotten to them yet, but at a zero power. Yeah. So, but it's sort of a notorious place, you know, it's about three miles from downtown. What's your budget? Budget is on the gym. Tell them who played there the night before the election. And that whole. Oh, okay. So I get a call the Sunday before the Romney election at my house secret service calls that Obama wants to play basketball at hope for good luck. The morning of the elect presidential election for his second term. So we say, yeah, they got snipers on the roof, dogs sniffed the building. Arnie Duncan was there, Pippen, some of the bulls came, Obama comes, he says,

you look old. I said, I don't see no crowd around you neither, Paul. Remember that from Rocky? And he smokes cigarettes. So he's playing basketball. He's a lefty. Obama's probably 6'1", 1'7". He's a lean guy. So he could, you know, we weren't allowed to hit foul. Does he have a good shot? Yeah, if nobody's on him, he could hit it.

Okay. Arnie Duncan, the head of education, still played good, right? Janulis, who's secretary of state, could dunk. He's like 45. So they're all playing, but he asked me, hey, Bob, what's your secret sauce to having a great inner city school? And I said, Barry, if you want to fix an inner city school, put your own kid in it. He ain't doing that. He ain't doing that.

Look, you know who my black friends say the first black president was? Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton, yeah. Yeah. Jason the women, single single pirate grew up. Play saxophone, Astro turf in the bed of his truck. I'm glad this is a private show. We could say whatever we want as long as it's true. My black friends in Memphis went talking about Bill Clinton said, yeah, we knew he was a scallywag and a dog, but he was our dog.

Yeah, that's right. That is exactly how the black folks in the South felt about him, at least my friends. He went to, yeah, he's smart. Georgetown and Yale, right? Yeah. And he come from Trailer Park, just like JD Vance. Yeah, it's true.

You got to love that. No matter what color you are, same trailer. So my question is this, what is the budget of this school? The budget is about five and a half million dollars. The tuition rings in about one and a half. So I guess there's a four million dollar deficit. We make about 500 net renting that gym out for different things. So now you're three five.

Yeah, now I'm three five. We'll probably net a million and a half in real estate. Okay, so now you're two. Yeah, but that's just to stay flat. So right now we now have about 40 million in real estate, the school loans and about 15 in the bank. So where does the two come from? You're not getting interest. I'm not, I'm getting money from friends to Mowgli. We get a lot of people give us $5,000 on a thousand dollars. We got court,

I mean people want to support it. We got a couple big guys that give $100. All right. So what about school voucher thing? Wouldn't that be a big deal? Oh my gosh. So we had that for five years in Illinois under government. You had it?

For Bruce Rauner, yeah. You can take 5%. It was called Invest in Kids. So Illinois state income tax is 5% flat. So if you're making a million dollars, you pay 50 grand, you could steer that to Chicago. And people, I was like shooting fish in a barrel. And when Rauner lost to Pritzker,

they didn't have the guts to take it away. So now there's 25,000 mostly black and Spanish kids on these scholarships for any Catholic school, independent school in the city. And so, and it's like $50 million, it's not going to break the Illinois budget. They're giving 10 times more of that to the Venezuelans. So, Governor Pritzker, who's heir to the Hyatt Company, our 400 pound governor who talks about COVID and health, doesn't put it in the budget. So, they just didn't put it in the

budget. So, it didn't get voted down. So, last ended so it's gone now yeah we picked up a million seven off that last year and we lost it but to be fair we did it for 15 years without it but it put some little catholic schools out of business because they they got used and you could never get used to the government money there's a big there's a big governor bill lee here in tennessee is a huge school voucher guy. Did they have it here? Um, kind of, but not how he wants it to be. Um, but they're working on it. And look, I get both sides of the argument. One side is, if you strip that money out of the public schools,

you're just going to make them even worse. It's not true. It's not stripping money. They're having one less kid. So the kid is going, the money's following the kid. That's the argument. And then the other argument is if it costs $13,000 per kid in the state of Tennessee to send them to public school, if they choose not to go to public school, give them a $13,000 voucher to spend at any private school

they want to and let them choose how they're educated. Right, exactly. That's the idea. So we're 16, right? The public schools in Chicago spend 30 per kid. There you go. And the results are bad because it's from tough families, really tough situations,

and the good kids are going to the magnet and the other charters, right? The kids who a parent has some kind of means that public school and inner city continues to get degraded. But here's what's happened now. Nobody wants to say it. Our local school, Manly, where our Shea attended, when he was there, we're 1600 kids, right? It's a big school. There's 90 kids in there, 90, just plain 90.

They've gotten the charters and I haven't seen a big black family in 25 years. I used to see seven kids. They might have three different dads, but the lady's having a baby and if you had mentioned to her the word abortion, she might punch your lights out, man. Then I did it. There was an article on Sports Illustrated 15 years ago called The Vanishing Black Player and they wanted to talk to me about it. So they're saying, well, it's money. There's no money for fields. And I'm saying, no, that's not it. It's a father taught game. And if you

don't live around that guy, a grandfather father, you're probably not going to play baseball. You're going to want to play 80 79 basketball, that made them uncomfortable. Whatever. It made them uncomfortable. So, so, um, anyway, um, I'm not, Juliani comes to opening day. He was the mayor. So we throw out the first pitch. There was a major, Paul O'Neill, there was some Christian players there from the Yankees. And so, but everybody's gone by the three o'clock game, right? The 3pm game. And I'll remember it like, um, we had guys from the drug and alcohol rehab with the umpiring crew from the Christian drug and

alcohol rehab. So they're umpiring the game and as I'm hearing pop, pop, pop, pop, and there's a shooting battle going on from one rooftop to another one. The field's in the middle, but they're shooting out people over there. And I'm at midfield with these guys and they're debating between innings what caliber of weapon it is. And I'm like, the score's four, three. I'm up high behind the plate, which I love doing because you get to really control what's

going on. You got a big strike zone because you don't want kids walking all over the place. And so I just looked at them and like, forget it. We didn't even call anybody or something. The cops came at one point, but that league was phenomenal. That was great. And a bunch of people there really took it on. So that's why the Johnny Appleseed, they start one in Nashville, had one for a little bit on the other side of Nashville. What are you the CEO? Are you the grand poob out of the school? What?

No, I was, I was CEO of the school until three years ago. My son, like Brian, sir, retired chief operating officer of Guggenheim, who bought the Dodgers. So he did the Dodger deal when they bought the guys in Chicago on the Dodgers, Mark Walter. So, um, Brian is now chairman of the board. Oh, because there's a movement Bob Buford started called halftime. What are you going to do? You made a lot of money. You're going to go golfing in your sixties and seventies and eighties and eat dinner at five o'clock. So he's with all that talent you have and money. So Brian sir is now chairman of the board of Chicago home and we've got,

and your son is the principal. My daughter, the Notre Dame girl is at Michigan. So what are you doing? Just hanging around? I have, I'm the fan. I have influence. I still get the vote. You still are rounding up checks. Yeah. I'm still in it. We have, we say we have to stop becoming fob friends of Bob. So, uh, but you know, I'm happy to do it and there's no mention of retirement in the Bible. Right? We're going, if you're working out hard, I'm going to bench and squat, three placencies for retirement. So we can't run with the kids. But you can, if you're careful, you could still live with, I'm going to bench and squat three 15 this year and I'm going to come on.

Are you really? Yeah. I'm quite, I got two 85 the other day. And then we, they put on more and I felt like a truck was on my chest, but you're careful when you don't blow your shoulder out. It's 65. You're going to bench. Really? Yeah. I kind of hate you right now.

Yeah. And I'm a, I was a tight. I wasn't. I'd line. Yeah. I wasn't either. I was a safety. Be careful what you see today.

But that's, but that's, I had your guard now. You know, pull it. But that's, that's something you should still do. Everybody that. You should be lifting weights for older people. Grandma broke her hip. Why? She doesn't have any muscles around her hip.

When she fell, she had no muscles around her. So we're supposed to stay fit. You know, I'm walking that thin line. I don't know if you've seen these pads thing, these electric pads. So instead of putting heavy weights on, you have these electric pads on. Right. I've seen those. When's Tyson fighting that guy?

This week? Yeah. Did you see him yesterday or the day before something? I really like off. He actually punched the guy. Yeah, I like him a lot He's a really sympathetic character, right? Yeah, he is a sadder, you know, he had hit my favorite quote is from Mike Tyson What is everybody's got a game plan till they get punched in the face? Everybody's got a game plan until they get punched in the face. It's true. I have one more person come up to me, oh, we have a passion to start an inner city school. I'm like, I come here, I'll talk you out of it.

And if I can't talk them out of it, then they're going to do it. Is it? It'll take your whole life. It'll take your whole life. But would you give it again? Yeah, I would have done it a little differently, but I would have done it. What would you do different?

I wouldn't have had us be selling books. It's three blocks from my house. All my kids are there. I know all the kids. It's all the neighborhood, right? For me, I could roll with that because to whom I was forgiven much and my wife, so it was a little more painful for her a lot. I thought 95% of the stuff she wanted to happen happened, but some didn't.

Like Brentwood Academy, we can't, like we have in our handbook, if you cheat or you steal you're kicked out. Well freshmen always cheat or steal because they don't know. We have no locks on our lockers. We just don't steal. And if you do steal, I would come to the Micah Chapel and say, I have to, I'm responsible for it. So if somebody's iPad got stolen, I got to pay for it.

Only Bob. So you can only steal from Bob, right? And the freshmen inevitably steal because they don't get us yet, right? But my wife would be like, well, why do we have a rule book then? Because the kid's kicked out, he's going to join the vice-law, right? Let's make him mop the floor for two weeks. So there's a lot of, the main thing, the Christ center place, the scriptures on the walls, you're walking, we're solid like that.

We'll be right back. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted, but turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out, like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon, but we're also gonna have some fun, even though these days fun and politics

seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha B., Roy Wood Jr., and Charlemagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you.

Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working-class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society,

but who have never been interviewed before. Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits.

They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like be respectful. We're made out of the same things, bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On Thanksgiving Day 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian, Elian story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him.

Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Piece, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is your country falling apart? Feeling tired, depressed, a little bit revolutionary?

Consider this, start your own country. I planted the flag. I just kind of looked out of like, this is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. There are 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Everybody's doing it. I am King Ernest Emmanuel.

I am the Queen of La Donia. I'm Jackson I, King of Capriberg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Montonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. Why can't I create my own country? My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong? No country willingly gives up their territory.

I was making rocket with the black powder, you know, with explosive warheads. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Bullet holes. We need help! We still have the off-road portion to go. Listen to Escape from Zakistan.

And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We got approved. We're the only ones in history to get approved to be a charter school, 8,000 a year per kid. And then the women came from the city hall, I'd take the scripture off the wall. You can't have chapel till after school.

Yeah. So you can't lay hands on a kid. So the parents, we kicking Jesus out of our school. Unanimously in a packed chapel, turned the money. 8,000 a year per kid at that time. And I'm all choked up that we're standing for Christ and we're not going to take their money. But behind it, I'm Jerry Maguire. Show me the money.

No, not show you the money, Jerry. Show me the money. How do you say it, Jerry? So we don't take the 8,000 a year per kid under Mayor Daley and Arnie Duncan, who Mayor Daley and Aunty Duncan, who Mayor Daley said this, I don't care if you call it Jesus Christ High School. You guys do great work.

You should get it. I love Daley. Mayor Daley, he gave us the park on the corner. They want to take the park. He gave a Christian school a park. Daley was great. Okay. If you're doing good work.

Yeah. His father mass every day. The only thing he would come to every day, his assistant said that he asked to go to, because he has to speak at so many events, is the opening day of the Little League to throw out the first pitch. Because no one's bothering him.

He's eating hot dogs, throwing them. I mean, his father was mayor for 24 years, and he was mayor for like 25 or something like that. Right. So his father, here's a great Richie Daly senior story. The ACLU in the 70s, their law was passed, no major scenes or manures in public buildings anymore.

Yeah. Right? So the ACLU lawyers are up in D.C. so Daly invites, this is the father, early 70s, he invites the head of Moody Bible Institute, the head of the Archdiocese, the head of the Jewish line, and all to this meeting on a Friday afternoon with the ACLU up from Washington, no more major scenes in public, no more menorahs. So, they're all there.

From a guy who was personally there was the assistant to the head of Moody Bible Institute. So there's 10 Christian and Jewish people sitting in there while the ACLU is telling them, this is the seventies, Chicago's roughest now, right? So they always nod in his head, say, okay, we understand this Mr. Mayor. Yes, he understands. On Monday, there was a major scene in Menorah in every single public building. How? He just flipped them off. He just said, I understand and I don't care. He told them what they wanted to hear.

You come take them down. And what happened? Nothing. And they're still in there today. So that's good leadership. That is good leadership, but that's also seems like it's the stick of your school too. Yeah. So what's next, Bob?

We'd like to get this new campus built. If you have a $40 million check, I'll accept that. So it's about $40 million we've been approved to build. You're going to have to drop a few zeros, pal. I'll take four. Hey, it's better to get 100 guys with 10 grand. It sure is. Because if the big guy leaves, you got problems.

So what are you going to do? You're going to build a whole new campus? Yeah. We've already been approved. We have it all designed. What about the gym and all this stuff you've done? It walks right into the gym. It's right next to the gym.

Oh, you're adding to the campus. Our 24 acres, yeah, we're at. We're currently eight blocks away from the gym as our current school. So our kids have an eight block walk every day to get to practice. So are you going to try to connect that? Are you buying the land in the middle? No. We'll make the current school a K through eight and build a high school over there. I see. Yeah. So we already have all the plans and the board said this, look.

What about the funding, annual funding for all that? Well, we've got, we're flipping houses and raising money and people are giving money to stuff like this, right? So the voucher thing could come back. But I think that you have to go out on faith. And that's how everything got done. Look, we started, when people come who haven't been around for many years, like Brian Zimponi came and coached, he was like, are you kidding me? You're still open?

Like, that's crazy, right? Private school for poor kids so uh but there's a lot of people want to fund it we have actual results i see a lot of people getting money from what's the gait's wife and the other amazon ex-wife who god bless them give them to stuff like that's not effective i'm what they just got a million dollars and they don't i know what they do right uh the obama foundation always you know what the head of the Obama Foundation gets paid? $750,000. I'll take that job.

$750,000 a year. To be the head. So people do all that and all that building is a giant museum on the park. So I just think you come to hope this guy, Mike Kaiser, he's one of the best golf course builders in the world. He built Band in Dunes in Oregon and he pops by. I love this guy. He's got a 12-year-old car. He's worth a fortune.

He goes, I love Hope because when I come by unannounced, when I come by at 3 o'clock, there's 50 things going on, right? And you come, don't tell us you're coming. If you're done, just come and see the show. Because we, it's had a prison fellowship comes out of there, special Olympics, the cops run, there's 20 cops that lift in our gym, right? They'll come at lunchtime. That's awesome. They're in lunchtime with packing. They're on the bench with their gun. Our gym is like the safest place in the world. So it's really, there's a whole bunch of things

going on there. And we rented out to suburban, because you hit a button and you got eight volleyball courts. And all of a sudden, three nights a week, the gym gets white from 8 to midnight. And these volleyball groups, they pay us $25,000 a month to rent it. So we're really scrambling and hustling.

We got a little bit of a cushion now. And I think we really need to have something on. I think God called us to build on that land with the, having a really good trades program part of the school. And we can go to, you know, we'd be 600, 800. When you and your wife, gosh, what's her name? Tina. When you and Tina take stock of this facility and what's going to be that you're raising money for and realize it started because you went on a run and noticed six kids on a stoop

one day. What does that do for you? What does that make you feel like? It's good you asked me that because we don't celebrate the victories enough. You should though. I always like pushing. You should allow yourself to. Yeah. I'm better at that than she is. It's like now, remember Michael Jordan when he

was playing? Nobody except Rodman had crazy hair, right? Right. So I'm in the weight room and it's up to $250 to get a haircut. No kid will take me. They got those dreadlocks in their eyes and stuff. So when I left as seat president, I let that slide because I used to make the kids get haircuts, white or black. So now almost, I would say more than half the kids have that.

That takes a lot to maintain. And the reason why black people told me that it's because they're raised by women. So you're in front of the mirror since you're three years old. Aren't you cute? Oh, and so that's why they have all that look and that just now that's an interesting that just blows my wife's mind That blows my mind too. Good. And so that's not At the core with her son. This is our son letting that slide right because he doesn't think that's important So and he's in charge. So I'm saying at the job interview because he doesn't think that's important. So he's in charge. So I'm saying at the job interview,

you know, but I think that the most important things matter and there's a bunch of little things like that that just piss her off. But so she's a little hoked out. So she's taking a step back. We're always involved in fundraising people for dinner and that kind of thing. always involved in fundraising, people for dinner and that kind of thing. FCA- But I guess what I'm saying is, do you realize, are you able to celebrate? I mean- We got to do that more. There's an FCA that comes out of our defensive coordinator has had an FCA urban, right?

And he's our defensive coordinator too. So you come hope the whole back of our scoreboard is on the Eisenhower. They're one of the busiest house highways in Chicago. So it's really a visible. A lot of people don't know. They think it's a charter school or whatever, but I think we just need to do that more celebrate. Oh, we get to celebrate in heaven, right? You do get to celebrate in heaven, but Jesus wasn't a fun hater. I have a blast with that. We have a saying, BJ passed away last year, the guy who let me, so it's a beautiful monument with his picture on it and it has a little story about it.

And it says his favorite saying was, we didn't become Christians to be miserable. That's right. And so I don't want you to paint a picture with all the tragedies. We have hundreds of good things going on for every bad thing that happened. We have a blast. We are in the football. My head coach, Chris Millett, African-American, I played for Princeton. He was head of gang intervention under Daley and then Rahm Emanuel.

Chris about 53, 54, and he's a badass. It's all about leading kids to Christ the whole pro and so yeah it's you walk in the gym it says in huge letters to whom much is given much is required and so yeah we got to celebrate a little more just have a little more fun with it i'm better at that because i'm in the weight room with the kids i have a blast i just think you I just think you, my goodness, you know, half is a lot. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And it's should be celebrated. And I think maybe if you celebrate it,

um, maybe you bring more people into that tent. Yeah. Yeah. And where would Jesus live? Your whole point, would he be in the McMansions in the suburbs? Yeah, he'd be there. I think we might make people uncomfortable sometimes, right? So I've been great. I spoke down here in Nashville for some Christian equivalent of an inner city school there 18 years ago, probably. And somebody sold their house after that talk

and gave it like a big number So he should give the house because then he doesn't tie capital gains Don't sell any but my I get your point. I think that We I don't think we've even tapped the people who could support this a lot of it just go it's like that Joe Mowgli He's an old friend for many many years Grew up his father ran a fruit stand in the Bronx. So spritzkers could do a lot for you. Yeah, they could do a lot. Mark Walter Guggenheim guy, big giver to us, million dollar guy.

Wow. A year per year. And so Joe, 500 a year. There's a school here in Memphis called Pure Athletic, Pure Academy. The guy on it was a guest, Melvin Cole, and he is doing a private school, not charter, and it is all boarding, because he has to get his kids out of their environment. And they just, very similar,

a city school that was closed because of lack of student body. They bought it about three or four years ago and they're now rehabbing it and they're trying to do it. And it is just, you know, it is so much money to get the facility right. I should meet that guy. You should meet that guy. Just to encourage him. We name is Melvin Cole and he was, he was, uh, maybe we go by his, his, uh, he was a,

he spent time in prison drug guy actually flew back from Atlanta with a bullet in him bleeding wrapped was from Chicago. Right. And he got sent to prison and he watched a man get raped and he made a deal. He said, that can't happen to me because I will end up dead. If you can save me from that when I get out of here, I will dedicate the rest of my life to making sure kids don't have to come up like I did.

And he did, and he started this academy, and he's got kids. Are they open now? They are. And he's trying to go into the new building. He is, but he's got 30 kids, he bought a small piece of property, a house, and started a boarding school and a house,

built a campus out of it, has now bought this school and is, they are right now rehabbing the school to be open next school year on a full campus and boarding and everything and he is killing himself. Are there people like that? Can we help them? I don't know. I mean, that's who needs to be helping. You know, a good friend of mine support is Bill Haslam. Yeah. Who was a

governor here. Yeah. Bill Haslam is a good guy. Great guy. Great guy. He'd act like a 7-Eleven check out. You would never know. No, but he's also a guy that can add a couple of zeros. Yeah. Yeah. And I just wish more people knew about Melvin and maybe with your connections and I know where your heart and place is, maybe you could be encouraging to him. Maybe also there's other people that might be interested in his school. Yeah, no question. There are, um, and there's usually local people. Although I would say half our donors are from New York because I'm a New York guy. But, uh, but a lot of

the thing is it's just the pool of people in Chicago, New York to give to a school like yours is a hundred times the size of the pool in Memphis. But even in Memphis, there's some crazy old money here, right? Oh, there's some crazy old money. Look, if you're not a believer... There's some good people here. Yeah, like Kempens. He's great guy.

So if you're not a believer, have at it. Load up. But if you're a believer, and then my wife would say the problem with the bible belt is everybody thinks they're a christian so you don't really the other problem is the most segregated day in the south is sunday yeah but there's a lot of compassionate people would give to it there well look he's had some progress so somebody's giving him money he's somebody's had some progress so he's giving him money but I just hear your story and you are where he wants to be.

Yeah. So we're just making it up as we go along, right? I moved to the wrong neighborhood. I don't have a passion for inner city. I moved to the wrong neighborhood by mistake. I'm loving my neighbors myself. They happen to be black and poor. If they were Afghan, I would help them, right?

Or Irish or whatever. So but there's other, and to be fair, my business is to find wealthy people and invest their money, right? I don't have just wealthy people, but in general, my job is to keep rich people rich and make them richer, right? So that trade, don't getting fine. Which means you can tap into them. Yeah. Now, most guys, our peer group won't do that because then you used up a chip. Yeah.

Right? You used the chip and you would have done a business deal with them, but he gave to your charity and you can't ask him for something else. Yeah. Apparently, you feel like you just keep going back. Look, if you ask me, what do I want to be in my 50s and 60s? I want to manage the New York Yankees, but they didn't call me. So, I got to raise money.

You have to think of something you would rather not do than raise money from your friend. Oh my gosh, that's the most horrible thing you'd ever want to do. But the calling and the mission is bigger than Bob's ego. A.A. has so many greats, edging God out. Ego, E-G-O, edging God out. So I have never ever asked anybody for money. I just tell the story and we talk about it. And then eventually they're gonna say, like I said earlier, how can I help or give you go away money, right?

So. Where do people go to find out more about this school? ChicagoHopeAcademy.org. ChicagoHopeAcademy.org. Yeah, yeah. And they can help if they want to help. 3125196500 is my cell. That's a pretty cool cell.

Say it again. 3125196500. Why is that a cool cell? Because it's 6500. Oh, it's so, because you can snap it. I got it. I thought maybe the numbers meant something. I mean, with the stories of your life,

it could always mean something. Bob, from a dude who grew up in a rough New Jersey neighborhood to what you've accomplished through Columbia and your marriage and your family and the little leagues and the school as good a shape as you're in, I can't wait to see what you do next.

Yeah, I'm gonna do what he tells me. Man, thanks for coming to Memphis Tonia Store. Thank you guys. Appreciate you having me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And thank you for joining us this week. If Bob or other guests have inspired you in general, or better yet, to take action by donating to Chicago Hope Academy,

starting a school or a Little League, by volunteering at one or something else entirely, please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. You can write me anytime at bill at normal folks dot us. And I promise I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and on social. Subscribe to our podcast.

Rate it. Review it. Join the army at normal folks dot us. Consider becoming a premium member there. Any and all of these things that will help us grow. Join the Army at NormalFolks.us. Consider becoming a premium member there. Any and all of these things that will help us grow an Army of Normal Folks. The more people, the more impact. Thanks for our producer, Ironlight Labs. I'm Bill Courtney.

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