June 17, 2025 • 45 mins
KG, Steve, Intern Jeff and John visit with St. Thomas Academy/St. Thomas College (OHHHHH GOOOOD for YOOOOU) legend (Actually, his dad was the legend), Nick Flood. They discuss Father's Day, the U.S. Open and start to reminisce about their friend (and actual legend) Vince Flynn as the 12th anniversary of his passing nears (June 19) Part 1 of 2. We had a lot to discuss.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:16):
Welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where once again, we
hope to inject the world with adose of the Minnesota kindness
that it desperately needs.
We got kg on the line kg.
Where are we calling you at?
More often than not, I'm in thisspot.
I'm in my car, uh, in transit aswe visit, uh, after a great
(00:37):
weekend of, uh, of racing inCanterbury.
But more importantly, I knowwe're gonna talk about it, uh, a
great weekend for all of us dadsto be couch potatoes and watch
some sports.
No kidding.
And, uh, as I understand, you'reheading off to a, uh, a movie,
event that you, participate inevery couple of months.
Yeah.
Tell us about that.
It's, yeah, I'm glad you asked.
Uh, during COVID, uh, when my,uh, depression over the fact
(01:01):
that movie theaters were nolonger open, we came up with an
idea with some friends.
Uh, there was five of us, andwe, we erected this movie club.
And the way it works is fivepeople in the club.
Three girls, two boys, and werotate picking a movie and we
rotate who provides the, thetakeout.
But we get together probablyevery other week and, um,
(01:23):
started during COVID, we show upsix o'clock.
We have the takeout from likesix until six 30.
The lights go down.
They have a big projectionscreen that comes out and we
watch the movie at six 30 and wewrap up by nine o'clock.
And tonight is movie number 126.
Holy smokes.
Which is pretty incredible.
Yeah.
So we've kept it going now for,for the five years since we
(01:45):
started.
And I always get a little extraexcited when it's my pick.
Oh.
And they get mad at me becausethey've, they've, you know,
given me some grief about mytheory on movies, and they've
called it the Gorg Line.
I believe that the best moviesyou've ever seen in your
lifetime were longer than twohours.
And a lot of the folks thatcongregate in this movie club,
like shorter movies, includingmy significant other, Chrissy.
(02:06):
We've talked about who's been onthe show, so tonight's movie's
almost two and a half hours, sothere's gonna be some, some
angst involved tonight, but it'sover the gorg line of two hours.
And just as you think top of thehead right now, John, think of
some of your favorite movies andI would guess they're over two
hours.
Well, most of the good ones are,you know, thank, the reason that
they are is because there's somuch good material, you know,
(02:28):
that they just couldn't cut itout.
But, so what is the, sotonight's your choice.
Yeah, tonight's my pick.
I'm going the, you know, we'rein the heart of baseball season,
so I, I like to have a theme.
So I'm gonna go with RobertRedford.
Oh.
In The Natural.
And I honestly, Marty Miller,who hosts this, has this
incredible.
You know Marty, right?
(02:48):
I do, yeah.
He's got the high tech stuff.
Oh yeah.
So he, I love picking out movieswhere the, the, the soundtrack
or the, the sound of the movieis as good as the movie.
And this is one of those moviesfor sure.
And they have a really coolsetup, so it all kind of ties
together.
How old do you suppose RobertRedford was when he made that
movie?
It'd be interesting to find outbecause, well, the movie, the
(03:11):
movie came out in 84, and Iwould guess he's, by that point,
he had to be at least 40 in his,I was gonna say late forties,
early fifties.
Right.
But that would make him 90something.
Now, you know what?
We won't worry about it.
He just was old to be a baseballplayer.
But the, the movie absolutelyworks.
(03:32):
And was it Glenn Close is inthat one, and, Robert Deval.
Oh yes.
Oh, that's gonna be fun.
Is there popcorn involved?
Yes, we do popcorn every week.
Real?
Oh yes, we do.
Real butter.
Yes, real butter.
Okay.
Because, and then, uh, I'massuming that there'll be some
raisinettes consumed.
(03:54):
So it's really cool.
We all bring, every once in awhile we, we, we bring a handful
of boxes of candy, the moviePeter Candy you get at Target or
Walgreens or whatever.
And so we have this, this reallycool crate that they keep and
they keep it fresh, obviously,but there's like 40 to choose
from.
Oh my God.
So you've got everything underthe sun.
(04:14):
Yeah, we do it right.
Like, you know, we're 125 intothis thing so far.
And it really is, it's somethingI look forward to.
It's simple.
Um, and you know, the five ofus, most of these ladies work
together.
Marty and I have been goodfriends for a long time, so
it's.
It's really fun.
Um, fun.
You know, you guys could dosomething similar because one of
(04:36):
my greatest movie experiences ofall time at, at a Friend's house
was, uh, when you and Becky usedto host those movie Nights
Outdoors.
Oh yes.
And you'd show the movie on theside of your house that you guys
have an awesome setup there.
It's a decent setup.
I just, the mosquitoes.
Ooh.
And you know, I'm not much of anoutdoorsman.
Yeah.
That's, uh, do, do you recallwhat your first movie that you
picked was?
(04:59):
I recall what the very firstmovie was Chrisy.
Okay.
Um, had first pick, whichthere's a lot of pressure
involved.
Oh my.
When you're nuo.
And he came up with the JaggedEdge and, oh, I gotta give her
high marks.
That was one heck of a pick.
And since I'm stuck in immensetraffic and really not moving
(05:19):
right now, I have a list.
Oh no.
I should forward, oh, yes I do.
No, keep your eyes on the road.
Well, we're barely moving.
In fact, we've come to a.
Yeah, this is, so Christystarted with Jagged Edge, my
first movie, ho Ho, one of myall time favorites.
I went to 1980 five's VisionQuest.
(05:40):
Oh.
Such a great soundtrack.
That's again what Marty set up.
I had to have that kind of soundgoing.
Yeah.
And it makes me almost wanna dopushups almost.
Uh, yeah.
You and me both.
I, Matthew Modine.
Holy cow.
What a great flick.
Nice cameo by Madonna in there.
Yes.
What crazy for you.
(06:00):
And the guy.
And the guy that was his, uh,his buddy.
The guy with the, uh, the, theNative American 16 Candles guy.
16 Candles guy.
Looks totally different.
Totally different, but Oh, greatPick, great pick.
I would like to, uh, shift gearsfor a moment.
we've got some people that'll bejoining us shortly and, we're
gonna be doing, a remembrance ofour friend Vince Flynn.
(06:22):
Uh, this week will be the, 12thanniversary of his passing, but,
we got one of his good buddiesfrom, high school and college,
Nick Flood coming in.
Let's talk about Father's Day.
Let's talk about the US Open.
Did you get to watch it?
Oh, lucky for me there was arain delay and we had a,
obviously a big crowd outtaCanterbury.
So when I got home from theracetrack, there was still the
(06:43):
whole back nine to go.
And even though I had, uh,severe routing interest in Sam
Burns, uh, with my power trip,morning show, uh, collaboration,
uh, picking him, uh, with thelast pick in the draft and
sitting on, you know, a, apretty nice score financially if
he ends up winning, even thoughI did not enjoy watching him
(07:06):
basically melt down.
Oh, did he melt down?
Um, oh man.
You know what I, I'll I'll saytwo things.
I, I didn't, I didn't like the,the rules of, I didn't like the
rules.
Uh, official not giving him adrop in casual water.
I thought that was a really badcall.
Well, he clearly, but to me heclearly didn't care for the call
either.
No.
And, and he, he had twodifferent officials come over.
(07:28):
So again, that's just life, man.
That's the US open.
You gotta, you gotta justovercome adversity.
But to me, the tournament waslost earlier, about an hour
earlier he had birdie number 10to get up by two shots.
Yep.
And he was looking great and hegot to number 11 and caught a
bad break.
And that's what happens in theUS Open.
And he hit a great drive, butit's a side hill, um, and hit
(07:50):
you three wooded.
And with all that rain, it wassuper soft.
Well, that sucker hit the hilland instead of bouncing forward
like Adam Scott on his drive,his sucked back 40 yards, went
into the rough and into a divot,and he ended up making double.
And to me, that's where it allstarted.
He got more frustrated with thatruling because of what happened
to him on 11.
(08:11):
And, and that's what the open.
We'll do it.
We'll test your medal and giveJJ Spawn a ton of credit.
This guy bogeyed five of hisfirst six holes.
Um, he had ejected himself fromcontention.
And you know, it's funny howsports work with momentum.
You, you've played it, you'vecoached it.
Momentum's a real thing and hehad lost his juice.
And that again, that rain delayof an hour and 15, 20 minutes
(08:35):
allowed the guys that werestruggling like JJ Spawn to
reset.
And he mentioned in his postround presser that his coaches
got down, sat with him and kindof recalibrated his focus about
what an opportunity this was.
And you look at guys like SamBurns and Adam Scott who've been
playing the meat grinder all daywith that pressure.
And it just seemed to go theother way with the guys at the
(08:55):
top of the leaderboard.
Normally, I would say, is this along story?
Um, while you were giving thatgreat review of the entirety of
the US Open.
Whoa.
our guest, Nick Flood.
Hello, Nick.
Hello.
John appeared.
You gotta put the mic to yourface.
There you go.
Hello, John.
So we have a tie in with Nick.
(09:15):
Hello Gordon.
Well, we have a tie in to the USOpen.
Hey Nick, because Nick's dad wasthe golf coach and my golf
coach, uh, at St.
Thomas.
Wait a second.
Back when we were both, uh, yes.
He coach you.
You played golf at St.
Thomas?
I did.
What.
(09:37):
Um, there you go.
Also here, our friend SteveBrown just showed up.
We tried to get a, the sportstalk out of the way before you
showed up.
That's okay.
That's okay.
And then we have our, uh,55-year-old intern sitting on a
stool because all thecomfortable chairs are being
used.
But, uh, back to the US Opengentlemen.
Welcome.
Uh, curious if, if you guys tookin the US Open, Steve, the US
(09:58):
Open is a golf tournament.
Was that this weekend?
That was this weekend.
It's typically played.
It's a little busy.
Alright.
What'd you have going on thisweekend?
I just, I got a lot going on.
I'll tell you about.
Oh, I know.
You got a lot going on.
It's all right.
It's all good.
What?
You had to have watched it.
I watched.
I watched.
It was great.
Yeah.
I did not, I was driving backfrom Boston Oh, wow.
After dropping our daughter offthere.
So you had you a new Notre Damehat?
(10:18):
I did.
That's very nice.
We stopped by and saw Gettysburgand Notre Dame and, uh, whoa.
Other stuff.
We'll get to, we'll get to youlater.
Okay.
We don't know.
We, this is all about Nick andVince tonight, but, but we, we,
we have to review the kindnessthat we witnessed at the US
Open.
Yeah.
Tell about it.
It was fantastic.
Really.
Kg since you're so good attelling stories.
(10:38):
What did you witness that, uh,that would've been appropriate
for the Kindness Chronicles on,Sunday afternoon, late
afternoon?
Well, I'll let you get to BobbyMcIntyre because that's, that's
a great angle there.
All these guys are, are tryingto win the biggest golf term of
their lives.
And for Adam Scott, he's at theend of his career.
The fact that he was inContentional, it was a great
(10:58):
story.
He's 44.
He has won a major championshipback in 2013 in Augusta, but
hasn't really contended in thesemajors and in quite a few years.
And so he has the heartbreakinground with Sam Burns where they
both collapsed.
He shoots 79.
It's a really tough day for AdamScott.
He waits around, uh, after hegets done to find JJ s Spawn and
(11:22):
give him the biggest hug.
And Adam, don't look at them aslike being great friends on the
tour, but he respects what anunbelievable life changing
moment this is for JJ s Spawn,and that's the kind of
sportsmanship and kindness thatI love to shine a light on.
And I know you've got a storytoo, John.
Well, and I just back to theAdam Scott thing, it was so
genuine, you know, he didn'tknow that there was a camera on
(11:45):
him.
Right.
And you could just see the joyin his eyes for JJ Spawn when,
you know, he came around thecorner.
But let's just, Adam Scott's gota pretty good life.
You know.
Oh God.
Yeah.
Pretty.
It's good to be Adam Scott.
It's good to be Adam Scott.
Good looking guy.
He's a good actor.
Not many guys can wear a whiteshirt.
Dad, that Adam Scott.
Sorry.
Oh my God.
(12:05):
Sorry.
I'm playing into the fact that Iknew.
I know.
Let's turn your mic off for 15,but I have, I haven't heard his
name that often, but No, butthis, where's Adam Scott from, I
think he's an Australia.
Yeah, he's an Australian guy.
Okay.
Oh, might take, but, but he's,he, he wore this white
Collarless shirt and it lookedreally good on him and Huh?
We talked in a show not longago.
(12:25):
How guys?
Many.
Yeah.
You don't like white shirts?
Not many, many guys can wearwhite shirt.
You know, I've never heard thatbefore.
That's a new theory.
You have I, well, you don'twanna see belly buttons or
something, I dunno.
Correct.
Take a look at some guys wearinglike white golf shirts.
Most of them shouldn't bewearing it, but that's a whole
young, young guys should bewearing'em.
It shouldn't be.
That's a whole story.
It's not unlike performing onstage.
You probably think long and hardabout what you're gonna wear.
(12:46):
Oh yeah.
Otherwise you sweat and itdoesn't look good.
Mm-hmm.
I, I wore a, a light blue shirttoday.
Terrible idea, John.
You know better.
I know.
We've been through this manytimes.
I this show a man breast sweat.
Terrible.
It was a terrible Get the, getthe line.
The line.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I've had that.
It was not a good scene.
Cut the grass.
I get that.
Um, but I, I do want to talkabout the, uh, the McIntyre
(13:07):
fella from, Scotland.
he was, in the clubhouse withthe winning score at the time.
Okay.
they have a camera on himwatching the 18th hole and deep
down inside, he's hoping thatspawn, you know, bogies the
hole.
Mm-hmm.
Of course.
Yeah.
So he wins.
Sure.
Two puts at best, or two puts atbest.
So at least they get to a, uh, aplayoff.
(13:29):
Spawn sinks, a 64 and a halffoot putt, the most incredible
putt, and it's the first timehe's ever won a major.
But it's also the, the, he's,he, he's 34, 35 years old, and
he had only won one tournamentpreviously.
And it was this year, earlierthis year.
And I mean, just what a lifechanging moment.
(13:50):
Mm-hmm.
And the guy bursts into tearsand the camera is on McIntyre
when he's.
Putting, you know, to see hisreaction.
Yeah.
And instead of kind of being acrybaby, sour grates b-word
about it.
he just starts clapping and youcan just tell that he's
genuinely pleased.
Such a mag a moment of sports.
The, the putt was so good.
(14:10):
It wa it was, it's have you notit, it was incredible.
It took about seven seconds togo in the hole.
Yeah.
Have you not seen it?
I haven't seen, dude.
I get my sports when I comehere.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well welcome to Sports page.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But what's funny is, is and AdamScott one.
Vic.
Adam Scott.
No.
Okay.
JJ Spawn won, God, sorry, sorry.
But on the 18th pole, VictorHovland, who's one of my
(14:33):
favorites.
Also can wear a white shirt.
Okay.
Alright.
I think it might be havingfeelings.
That's a clarification for you.
Yeah.
Um, anyways, he wasn't wearing awhite shirt, but he hits a, a
shot and it's, what is it?
About a foot behind.
Yeah, I was gonna say that wasthe kindest moment of the whole
tournament.
That was the kindest moment.
The whole tournament feet behindhim to give him the line was
fog.
Just to see the line of thisentire putt.
(14:56):
Have you ever golfed before?
Why?
Come on.
Just, why, why are you giving meall this?
Why am on you?
Let's hear about the kindness.
I don't care about the damnsports.
So H hits this putt.
And, um, spawn, kind of scootsbehind him to see where the
thing goes.
So he gets the perfect line asto where he ought to be putting
his putt.
It was just, it was fantastic,the whole thing.
(15:17):
It was magical.
Cool.
I honestly, I kind of gotgoosebumps, a little teary-eyed.
The guy behind him, what was hisname?
The guy that looked for theline?
Uh, he didn't lin, it's a cheesyjoke, but he didn't say nonan or
anything.
Did he try and, oh, no, I'msorry.
I couldn't help myself, youknow?
Um, let's go and speak whenspoken to, I'm sorry, Mr.
(15:41):
Hoffman, I just, uh, you know,we're gonna shift gears here.
Yeah.
we're gonna talk, about ourfriend, Vince Flynn.
Yeah., This week will be the12th anniversary of Vince's
passing.
And Vince was, without question,one of the most, like, he just
knew he was meant for bigthings.
Yeah.
You know, he was just one ofthose guys.
He always had this, he was justthis magical guy.
(16:04):
And I got to know Vince reallywell after college, hung around
with him.
He was at our wedding.
I think he had a twinkle forsome of Becky's friends.
Oh, yeah.
So, you know, he showed up atthe wedding and he, you know,
he, he, he was very popular.
Vince never had trouble finding,uh, friendship.
Right.
So to speak.
Right.
Yep.
Um, and maybe just for alistener that might be hearing
(16:25):
this for the first time,bestselling author, 14 novels.
Right.
That's a very good point.
Vince Flynn is a, thebestselling author went to St.
Thomas Academy.
Oh, good for you.
Just broke the needle on themachine there.
Uh, went St.
Thomas Academy.
Went to the College of St.
Thomas, graduated in 89, so hetook a little extra time while
(16:46):
he was at St.
Thomas.
But we have one of his pals,Nick Flood in the studio, Nick
turns out that he's a listenerto this podcast.
Yeah.
Um, and when Big Listener, biglistener.
Big listener, fantastic so muchthat he brought us a special
treat.
Kg, there's something here foryou.
John will have to give it toyou, but he, he listen enough
that he knows that he broughtthose, oh, you're the greatest.
(17:08):
He brought each of us a bag ofthe mini, uh, hundred grand,
grand bars.
Oh my God.
Very famous.
He is an avid listener.
Know?
I know.
It's unbelievable.
I think it was around Halloweentiming.
You guys were all whiningbecause you only got 100 grand
bar.
And I, I bought a, I bought abag for each of you.
K Oh my God.
(17:28):
Awesome.
What a guess what a guess us tobuy you a gift as a guest.
Unbelievable.
Thank you very much.
Well, we have t-shirts overhere.
They're medium, so that'll becomfortable.
Oh, that'll be great.
My wife will love it.
Yeah, it's very good.
So go, let's go back a littlehow we met Nick and how this
kind of, why he's right hereright now, aside from, it's a,
it's a Vince Flynn kind of day.
Nick shows up at our,scholarship night and I've known
(17:52):
Nick for 40 years.
Oh, you bet.
Was Nick was, uh, a greatathlete in high school.
Probably a good athlete.
In fact, I ran into, uh.
your basketball coach at St.
Thomas?
Steve Fritz.
Steve Fritz.
Okay.
Steve Fritz.
Okay.
Yeah.
Fritz was having breakfast withFather Malone on, uh, Saturday
morning at Joseph's.
Oh boy.
And I asked Father Malone to beon the podcast tonight'cause he
(18:14):
knew Vince as well.
And Father Malone's havingcataract surgery today, but
we'll get to that in a second.
Anyways, so Nick shows up and heintroduces himself as Nick
Flood, and I'm like, oh my God,Nick Flood, that guy's a legend.
What is he doing at this thing?
And I figured he must have had akid that was getting one of the
scholarships.
I thought, that's super cool.
He came because of the openinvite that you sent out to
(18:35):
everyone.
We sent out the open invite.
Yeah.
And he showed up and he sat upthere in the, uh, in the
balcony.
It was, I had a great spot inthe balcony.
Nice spot in.
Yeah, we saw you.
Yeah.
But, uh, just what a pleasureto, uh, to see you there and kg
and I spoke a little bit about,uh, about Nick and your brother
Tom Kg.
Take it from there.
(18:55):
Tell us about, you've got someNick Floods stories, the Flood
brothers.
Oh, no.
Oh, I got great memories.
I just bumped into Tom, I don'tknow, six, eight weeks ago in
St.
Paul.
And, and you know, Tom and Iboth went into the same, uh.
Education at St.
Thomas.
We were doing the get theteacher certificate, get the
coaching certificate, and makeyour way from there.
(19:16):
I minored in sportsbroadcasting.
So back then I was, and I endedup being a, a hockey coach I
coached at, at, at the highschool and college level and,
uh, did some phy ed teaching.
But, you know, John, uh, givesme a hard time because, you
know, like doctors, when youwanna be a teacher or coach, it
isn't a traditional four yearpath.
Sometimes it's five or six orseven years.
(19:36):
Right.
And, you know, I took my time.
It took my time.
So anyway, uh, had a bunch ofclasses with Tom and, and John
Strasberg, who I know, you know.
Oh yeah.
Just good times, obviously greatmemories.
And I, you know, I, I just lookback at, at your dad and, and
what a gentleman he was and Iwasn't a great golfer.
That's why John had the reactionhe did.
(19:56):
Yeah.
I've seen you golf.
I wasn't one of the top guys onthe golf team.
I, I wasn't, but I, but I lovedthe game and, and, and coach
Flood, um, what gave me a chanceto be a part of something and I,
I loved every minute of it.
Uh, but no, Tommy, Tommy and Iended up literally having almost
every class together.
And, uh, I have just greatmemories and, and because of
(20:17):
Tom, I hear all the stories of,of all the floods and as, as we
know, there are many of thefloods floating around St.
Paul's.
So it's pretty cool.
Yeah, there's a lot of us kg Soyou and Tom and Straus, you guys
must have had a few laughs Iwould think back in those four
or five years, huh?
Yeah, there was a test that wehad in our kinesiology class,
(20:37):
and it was a.
Uh, 100 points.
And you know, Straus is a bigbasketball guy and we get the
test back and none of us didquite well on this test, but
Straus got six outta 100 andcome six.
And so that's what I got on myallergy exam because that was a
card collector.
(20:58):
I knew that Dr.
J wore six and we, we startedcalling him Julius.
And to this day, to this day,some, almost 40 years later,
that Fluter still calls himJulius because of that six outta
100.
That's awesome.
What a great story.
Real quick, you know, we oftenrefer to you as a minor local
(21:18):
celebrity kg and you, you seemto celebrate that sometimes.
I do, yeah.
And you, you, especially theminor part, well, and you were,
you had a minor in sportsbroadcasting.
Can you imagine, had you had amajor in sports broadcasting,
what would I could have beenmore rose.
I blew it.
Yeah, well, you know.
You're doing.
I'm kidding.
(21:38):
Fine.
You're doing just fine.
We're hanging in there.
So, um, Nick, tell us about, uh,so you went to high school with
Vince?
I did, I did.
We called him Vinny.
Did you call him Vinny?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
All of a sudden he becomesVince.
What was that all about?
Yeah, that was kind of theofficial name.
Yeah.
Became very famous.
Is that when you first met himor were you little or No, no.
So, um, Vince, let's see.
(22:01):
Vince is, um, number five ofseven, I think.
I think that's right.
Or, uh, yeah.
And, and I'm number 12 of 13kids.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
So, so Vince and I, our olderbrothers went to high school
together at STA.
So Vince and I actually met atage nine or 10.
Okay.
We were probably in third orfourth grade, and we'd been
(22:22):
buddies since then.
And, um, so when we finally gotto STA together, you know, in
ninth grade, we knew each othervery well and all the lockers in
the hall were lined upalphabetically flooding Flynn,
and it was flooding Flynn.
We were next to each other for,oh my god, for four years
straight.
Sounds like a comedy duoFlooding Flynn?
(22:44):
Or was it, was it like the, wasit like the Stand By Me Friends?
Kind of, do you, did you eversee that movie with the little,
you know Yeah.
You were 12.
Yeah.
Great film.
Yeah.
Film pe.
Did you have a little Jerry PePosse?
Best, best, best You, best Candyin the World.
Right?
So I keep going.
I want to hear just how you grewup with him and what he was
like.
Just so, so as John said, Vince,Vince was a, he was a character.
(23:06):
He was, he had this, this bigpersonality and what you saw as,
as the author was no differentthan he was at nine or 10 years
old.
Okay.
I mean, the guy was, he was, hewas outgoing, he was comfortable
in his own skin.
He.
He talked to everyone, um, likehe knew them, um, within, within
(23:29):
10 minutes.
And some people were kind oflike, and he used to give people
a lot of, a lot of grief too.
So, you know, he wouldn't knowpeople very long and all of a
sudden he'd be laying into'emand making fun of'em.
And, and, but then eventuallyyou just kinda learn that, hey,
this is, this is genuine.
This guy isn't a clown, and he'snot putting on a show.
(23:53):
This is a genuine personality.
Um, so anyway, yeah, we, we werethick as thieves all the way
through, you know, third orfourth grade through college.
And then, um, did you playfootball at St.
Thomas too?
I did.
I played, I played my freshmanyear.
Okay.
And then, um, I also playedbasketball freshman year.
(24:14):
Yeah.
And then I decided to just stickwith basketball.
Your basketball guy?
Yeah.
So I, I'll never forget, therewas the first time I ever heard
the name Vince Flynn.
Freshman year at St.
Thomas, there was this clown, Ican't remember what his name
was, it was like Skippysomething or other from Buffalo
Grove, Illinois.
And he was talking about SkipMoore, like a circus clown that
(24:34):
he was Skippy Moore.
Yeah.
And he was doing animpersonation of Vince Flynn as
quarterback clowning in the, inthe huddle.
And he'd tap his, he'd betapping his, uh, and he'd, he'd
talking about Benny Flynn.
Vince Flynn.
Vince Flynn.
And I thought, who the hell isthis Vince Flynn guy that you
keep talking?
And Skippy Moore?
Is that who it was?
Yeah.
I'm pretty sure that's lunatic.
(24:56):
It was just the lunatic guy.
Blonde hair.
Yeah.
Where'd you see this clown?
He lived in the same dorm helived in, uh, Ireland Hall with
me.
Okay.
And he would show up uninvitedto different things.
And he was, he was justdesperate.
Just a goofy guy.
Desperate for attention.
Where Vince, on the other hand,was a guy who wasn't desperate
for attention, but people justpaid attention to this guy.
Yeah.
Just draws people.
(25:16):
He just drew people in.
Yeah.
Um, so anyway, so you played,you played football with him,
football, basketball, all theway through high school and then
football for a year.
And then, I mean, even aftercollege we continued, we, we had
a, uh, a two for one membershipat the Decathlon Club.
Oh, very nice.
(25:37):
Yeah.
So we were supposed to beroommates, but they'd just send
the bill to Vince's house andthen so Vince would pay it and,
you know, it was cheap, youknow, we were just outta
college.
Sure.
So it was 35 bucks a month orsomething.
But then all of a sudden he'dhit me with an invoice after
like 10 months and I have towrite him a three or 400 check.
(25:58):
Hey, can we keep up with this alittle better?
So anyway, um, yeah, all the wayuntil I got married.
Um.
And then, uh, the decathlonclosed down.
Yeah.
But yeah, that, um, when I gotmarried I went on my honeymoon
with the three ring binder formof Vinny's first book and read
(26:20):
it before.
And he, at that point, he hadhad some rejections going.
Yep.
And I said, well, do you wantthis back?
I said, by the way, I loved it,but do you want it back?
And he said, nah, hold onto it.
It might be worth somethingsomeday.
He said the same thing to me.
My and mine said the same rightthere.
Oh, were you okay with theswearing?
'cause I guess, uh, John overhere didn't like the swearing.
Yeah, no.
Um, so with the, with theswearing, I think he had cleaned
(26:42):
some of it up by then.
Okay.
Um, maybe someone had alreadygiven him a little feedback
clean to clean that up a littlebit for, you know, a good
Catholic boy.
I like that.
Well, my, my feedback to himwas.
You know, for starters, the, andI just have to, to mention that
this comes on the heels of the,uh, the tragedy that took place
in Minnesota.
(27:03):
Yeah.
The assassination of the, uh,uh, Melissa Hawkman, is that her
name, uh, the staterepresentative, and Nick being
the thoughtful Catholic lad thathe is, he's like, should we be
talking about this?
Because one of the things that,when you look back on Vince's
books, he foresaw what is goingon in the world today.
(27:25):
He wrote the books that he wrotebefore nine 11, like they were
prophetic, predicted they werenine 11.
I mean, it was insane.
That's, that's insane.
Why Gwen Glen Beck had him on.
I mean, he was a regular on, uh,uh, I just heard Rush Limbaugh
who was on this, on BillO'Reilly, Fox News had him on
all the time because he, it waslike he was prophetic about all
(27:46):
these things and it's because heimagined.
All of it before it took placebecause of his research was so
good.
But if you get the opportunityto read the term limits book,
you gotta, you gotta get on it.
I've, you know, I'm sure you'vegot one of the cloak and dagger
versions of it that I do.
I do, yeah.
So it's worth a bucks.
So that, that cloak and daggerstory, um, it was, it was
interesting, you know, with thegroup of friends that we had,
(28:08):
how when you're at that age andoutta college, certain guys get
married and certain guys don't,and they, you know, well it
ended up where, um, our buddyDan Wicker who was in your
class.
Oh yeah.
You know Dan?
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay.
Okay.
So, um, Dan lived with me reallyfor, for about three months.
'cause he's like, yeah, I need aplace to live.
And I said.
(28:29):
Great.
Um, you're welcome.
But just so you know, I thinkJill and I are gonna get
engaged.
So you got probably three to sixmonths here and, and w ses, I
think the three of us will bereally happy together.
No, you're out.
So what a great line.
That is.
Good.
(28:49):
So Dan, uh, he gets, he gets theeviction notice from, from my
house and buys a house and Vincemoved in with him because
Vince's best friend, Tom Tracy,yep.
Um, was also kind of marriedaround the same time and.
So he lived with Dodger, Tom,Tracy and uh, and JB Lloyd.
(29:11):
And then he kind of needed aplace to go.
So Wick stinks him in.
So the Wordsworth Avenue on thecloak and Dagger Press is
actually Danny Wicker'sbasement.
No kidding.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh wow.
So, yeah, I ran into Dan notlong ago.
He is still got a great head ofhair on him and stuff.
He doesn't look any differentother than a little more gray.
There's, he's kind of a silverfox.
(29:31):
He's got a little salt andpepper going on.
Uh, Nick, I have a question.
So go going a little bit backjust to when he, you guys were
both young.
Did Vince always have a, acreative mind and a, and a
really expansive, uh, you know,you know, imagination or did you
recognize that he might be apretty smart and, you know, a
lot of this pro guy?
A lot of this for me ishindsight.
(29:52):
'cause Yeah.
You know, when you're 10, 12,yeah.
15, 20.
It's just your friend Vince.
Right.
You know?
Yeah.
And you're not paying attentionto other people's things as much
as you're just your own littleworld.
Right, right, right.
But as Jeff just alluded to, Imean, some of these books, it's
almost like, go ahead John, justhave a candy bar.
It's our own one.
So good.
It's almost like he was justlooking into the future, 2, 3, 5
(30:17):
years out and, and some of thesethings would happen, you know,
after the Right.
But so where does thatimaginate, was he just studying?
So he, he was always, always bigon, on current events.
Okay.
And history.
Okay.
And, he was open about, abouthis dyslexia.
He was really smart, but schoolnever came easy.
(30:38):
Yeah.
For him or me, actually.
It's common for a lot of people.
Yeah.
So we, we worked hard for ourbees and our Cs.
CS get degrees, there we go.
There we go.
Um, anyway, yes.
He would say things, go lookingback on it in high school where
you're like, what, what are youtalking about?
What are you thinking about?
You know?
And now as you look kind ofgrown as a grown man, you look
(31:00):
back and you go, yeah, you know,Vince was right.
The, so he paid, the Indians gotthe shaft more than anybody in
history, you know what I mean?
He sort of paid attention.
He would say things like thatwhere it's like, you know, at 15
or 16 you're not thinking ofthose things.
Steve, you might be interestedin this.
Um, so I worked with, uh,Vince's brother for 18 years at
Salesforce and just saw himbefore I left for Boston.
(31:22):
But I.
His, um, Kevin said hi.
Uh, his mom and dad were sort ofright brain, left brain.
His mom was a wildlife artistand actually I think won an
award from Ducks Unlimited as acool, um, wildlife.
When you guys had JB Lloyd on,he talked a little bit about,
about going out to the Flynnhouse in, in college.
Mm-hmm.
I think part of my elementaryschool years, I, I grew up at
(31:47):
the Flynn House.
they lived in Apple Valley.
Yep.
And right across the street wasthis really steep hill called
Butte.
And they would close that thingdown in the winter.
And we would go out there and gotobogganing and sledding down
this hill.
Love after like our olderbrothers basketball games on
Friday nights, we'd go out thereand the next thing you know,
(32:07):
it'd be Sunday.
And we're still at the Flynnhouse going, well, we better get
home because we got it's funschool tomorrow.
Oh.
It was just a And where did yougrow up?
You were in St.
Paul.
I grew up right in the heart ofSt.
Paul.
Okay.
Uhhuh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right by, uh, just a few blocksfrom William Mitchell Law
School., What Steve was saying,was he always like this and was
he connecting the dots andthinking bigger picture and, and
(32:27):
I also think the large Irishfamily telling stories and
everybody kind of having tocompete for attention and Well,
and, and, and part of it is, youknow, we're.
His mother was, very artisticand she was a very talented
woman the dad eventually wentinto business, control data,
that type of stuff.
Mm-hmm.
But he was a teacher and coach.
So you, you look at this andyou've got this extremely,
(32:50):
driven hardnosed, coach, schoolteacher.
Then you've got this artisticmother she won awards with her,
her wildlife stuff and all this,and ducks and nature and all
this.
And then she just decided, I'm,I'm gonna start carving more.
And all of a sudden she was, Imean, she was just a really,
really talented woman.
(33:11):
Huh.
Um, and she did that right inthe living room of their house.
I mean, it was, I remember beingout there where.
Kathy would be out there with,you know, working all the time
and, you know, I kind look backon it now and go, were you, you,
he'd like to give it the Oh,good for you.
Like, like everyone that went toSt.
(33:31):
Thomas Thomas Academy wasrolling in the door.
I always Is that why does thatThen family parents broke their
back to send their kids toreally good private schools.
I mean, not to trade school.
Of course, of course.
But anyway, but, but you know,they had, you know, the dad had
a, a decent vehicle, but thekids all drove beaters and, and
(33:53):
there weren't that many of themand they shared them and, you
know, so it sacrifice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They sacrificed a lot.
And they were, um, like yousaid, this big Irish family.
Well, the last thing that'sgonna happen when you're the
fifth of, of that many kids, um,you know, when Vince needed to
be put in his place by his olderbrothers?
(34:15):
Yeah.
They, they didn't hesitate.
To do it.
And Vince, of course, kind ofdid the same thing with, with
Kevin and Tim as, as, as needed,you know, um, so there was
always, there was always, youknow, great stuff there.
It trickles downhill.
Yes.
Yeah, it really does.
So your brother Tom thenwould've been number 13 out of
13.
Tom?
Tom is the youngest of our, ofour clan.
(34:36):
Yeah.
Your oldest sibling, how mucholder than you?
So there's, there's 20 yearsbetween my oldest brother Sean,
right?
Yeah, yeah.
13 kids in 20 years.
Yeah.
That sounds like poor Kathy,Kathy at all.
The Susie family.
You know, I listen to, to Joe Reall the time and I know rookie,
but I had never met Joe.
So Joe, the difference betweenJoe and Joe's youngest brother
(35:00):
Paul, and, and Paul.
Is something like 16 years orsomething like that.
You know, these, the, thoseCatholic families, it's huge
change.
Yeah.
They were good at making babies.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you know, the all we hadwas a black and white tv and
that didn't work all the time.
So who knows?
Yeah.
You gotta do something with yourtime.
But incidentally, my mother knewyour mother when your mom was a
(35:22):
volunteer at St.
Joe's Hospital.
Are you kidding me?
No, my mom was the, I was justtalking about my mom doing that.
She, she was so excited tofinally get out of the house.
Yeah.
You know, and she started, shestarted volunteering at the
hospital.
She, yeah, my mom was thevolunteer coordinator and said
that your mom was just the mostlovely woman.
(35:43):
She was an unbelievable woman.
That's so fun.
I mean, she was, um, yeah,probably, probably the greatest
person I know.
Oh, that's what, amazing.
Absolutely, absolutely wonderfulwoman.
And she always, she was one ofthose people that, um, when you
talk to her.
She made you feel like you werethe most important person.
(36:04):
I love that in the world.
And kinda like Bill Clinton,your whole, your differently.
Sorry about that.
Anyway, um, some people arereally good at that.
I know what you're saying.
Yeah.
Some people, when you listen,when they, you talk to them,
it's like they got you in atractor beam.
Whether they really mean it ornot, they're so good at it.
Something interesting.
Well, and and you say about, um,the, the organization you're
(36:27):
with, meeting people at at thelevel.
On the level.
On the level, right?
Yeah.
Right.
My mother had this, this talentof doing that with anyone from
the age of 90 to three yearsold, my God.
And making them feel like.
You're it, you got all myattention.
Goosebumps.
That's cool.
Yeah.
God, I love that.
And that's really kind of yourmom to say and that's like
(36:49):
everyone that knew my mothersays she.
Oh, absolutely.
She worked at St.
Patrick's Guild for a littlewhile.
Oh really?
At the time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that story.
She couldn't run the register,so they would put her out on the
floor to sell stuff.
To sell stuff and then otherpeople would ring'em out and
That's great.
And Tim Doen, the old one wouldgo, best move I've ever made.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
(37:09):
Just with the people.
Fabulous.
KGI We only have you for acouple more minutes'cause you're
off to, uh, to watch TheNatural.
He's got a movie night tonightfor those you Oh, that's a great
movie.
It's a, it's, and it's k G'schoice.
Tonight he's got this littlemovie, my Dan movie club that I
have.
Movie club.
Nice.
Cool.
It's a good one.
Who's, who's part of this club,Kevin?
Well, it's, uh, Chrissy Bailey,my Significant other, and then
(37:31):
Tammy and Marty Miller, um, whoJohn knows quite well.
All right.
And where do they, where do theylive?
Uh, they live in the, uh, cozylittle suburb.
We like to call Edina.
Oh, good for you.
Just like a drop, a sound dropfor that.
So, so Gorgie, here's the bigquestion.
Are you stopping at a real movietheater to get your popcorn
(37:54):
before you view this tonight?
Or, or co he bringing somebutter or something?
He brings his own style.
Me.
Well, John's the butter man.
John brings the melted butter.
He more than I, John John's thebutter guy.
Uh, we, we pop the corn at theMiller's house.
I have brought the popcornthough.
I, I've gone to Candy Land,which is a St.
Paul staple and a still waterstaple.
John and I love Candy Land.
John, whenever we go theretogether, John and I walk in and
(38:16):
he says, listen, we want thebutter popcorn, and we'd like an
excessive amount of butter onthat popcorn.
It's so good.
The way I describe it is, as Isay, I'd like a shameful amount
of butter on that, right?
So yeah, this, this, uh, startedduring COVID guys and I told
John.
On, on the drive over, uh, thisis movie 1 26.
(38:38):
Wow.
The fifth person is Mary Cheezand, uh, oh, Mary.
Yeah, she, Mary and Tammy andChrissy all worked together back
in the day.
That's the connection.
Yeah.
And so when the theater shutdown during COVID, we all love
movies and we couldn't figureout what to do, so we can't put
this idea.
We meet every couple of weeks.
We bring takeout.
We have a little visit from likesix to six 30 and the movie
(38:58):
starts at six 30 done by nine.
So people can go out their livesand I get extra excited when
it's my pick, which it'stonight.
I'm very, very much lookingforward to see, I would say the
movie in forever.
You picked the natural, yousaid, right?
Yeah, this is, this is my pick.
So every fifth movie You sowasn't, wasn't Robert Redford
just a little bit old for thatrole when he played about that?
(39:19):
We were just, I mean, he had itto have been 40 something we
just got done talking aboutthat.
It, you know what, it ends upworking, um, because he does
struggle with, you know,physically in the movie, but he.
I had to guess he had to be inhis fifties.
Like he looked outta place, buthe pulled it off.
Redford, pull it off, pulled himout there.
(39:40):
I always think about that.
And uh, and then Reg Dunlop onthe blades, you know, oh my God.
He was probably a little old atthe time as well, but he was.
That's the, uh, the movie isSlap Shot.
Have you ever seen that one?
Oh, a classic.
I know the movie Inside Out.
Yes.
Very good.
Oggi Torp.
Oggi.
Torp.
Ogle.
Torp.
So, Kevin, before you, beforeyou sign off, I'm just gonna
(40:01):
share, you said you, you were ondad's golf team.
Uh, he needed a player one time,and I played one match at Mini,
at Minneapolis Country Club.
Oh, good for you.
And I hit, I hit every tree onthe course and shot about, I
shot about 110 and was on aSunday afternoon gorgie.
So you know how the coacheswould go off first and play and
(40:23):
then they'd just take off.
So I get home to Sunday dinnerand the old man says, well,
what, what did you shoot?
And I said, uh, oh.
I was terrible, dad.
I was absolutely terrible.
He goes, well, how bad?
I said, uh, I said, I shot 110.
And he goes 110.
He said, I could throw it aroundin 110.
(40:45):
He goes, you didn't tell anyonethat you're my son, did you?
Oh, no.
And for the listeners, likeCoach Flood looked like, uh,
Santa Claus.
Like we, we, like you looked athim.
He was just this lovable, um,just gregarious personality.
And I had a similar experience,Nick.
(41:06):
So my, the first meet I got togo play in was somewhere up in
near St.
Cloud.
We, we hopped in the, theshuttle bus and we went up there
and, and, and Coach Flood hasgot us all organized.
I'm in the last group.
Um, I'm in like the extras.
Sure.
You've got your dad being thegolf coach at St.
(41:28):
Thomas.
I've got my dad being thelongtime golf pro down at far.
So people assume, uh, thatapples actually can, what way?
And so I go up there and then Ishoot a bundle.
I somewhere in the nineties,probably in the upper nineties.
And you know, I got guys on myteam shooting in the.
And same thing.
(41:48):
I get done playing.
Um, and, and coach floods thereon the 18th hole and he sees me,
I'm, I'm clearly exhausted fromchasing that golf ball over.
Kingdom come and he puts his armaround me and he goes, don't
worry, you know, in the future,just know that we're probably
never gonna use your, here's alifesaver in the meantime.
(42:09):
That's great.
He's probably got his goaliestick out ready to play.
Yeah.
Hey, Kevin, I, I think of yourdad every time I drive past the
site of the, uh, the golf domethere down south in Lakeville.
didn't your dad have like a proshop in that, in that golf dome
or something?
I think Yes.
Yeah.
You, you were working, you gaveme a discount on a bag and a,
and a rain jacket at 1.0 longtime ago.
(42:31):
The Tennis Chronicles speaking.
I always take care of my own.
My, my dad's in assisted living.
He's 85.
He's got some dementia.
Um, but I will tell you, hestill.
Loves the game.
So obviously all weekend long hewas watching the US Open and you
know, we play in a fantasyleague together where I'll make
the picks, but I'll share withmy dad who the one and done pick
(42:53):
is.
So he knew we had John Rom, sohe was cheering for John Rom.
Uh, he, yeah.
It's, you know, you, you watchedyour parents leave and my dad's
probably not far away.
He is, had some health issues,but it's funny, they, they still
are who they are, right?
That that's right.
And he still gets angry, likewhen, when the golfer doesn't do
what he's supposed to do, why'dyou pick this guy?
You know, like his wholehappiness on the weekend is
(43:13):
laying in that bed, got up theassisted living place and
watching our golfer and so theleast John Rom could have done
is, you know, play a littlebetter golf.
But it's, uh, yeah, it's, um,the golf thing for me just
wasn't meant to be.
And you know, I had all theopportunity in the world.
I played a bunch as a young guy.
It just didn't take, I don'thave the mental fortitude or
(43:33):
patience for the game.
Yep.
I love watching it.
I don't enjoy playing it.
Yeah.
But you can still read a green.
You can read a green.
I can still put We were, whatwas that?
Were we at the Legends kg?
Were you sunk the pot that was85 feet.
Wow.
And let me tell you, you shouldhave seen how far off the ground
that guy came with hisexcitement.
(43:55):
Oh, he jumped up and he almost,we could almost fit like the St.
Cloud phone book underneath hisfeet.
It was, it was impressiveMemories of like, George Costan
is on a high note here.
Memories of Phil Mickelsonjumping at the Masters.
Huh?
Kg Oh God, that was so bad.
Alright, kg.
I know you gotta get, get toyour, uh, to your big event.
(44:17):
But, uh, thanks for taking thetime to, uh, visit with us.
We're gonna get back on a littlebit of Vince Flynn talk, but,
uh, any final thoughts sir?
Don't eat all my hundred grandbars.
Those better be there when I getthere the next couple of weeks.
We'll hold them for you.
You're, you're gonna have tomake a road trip across town to
get'em kg.
I know.
He gets.
Oh, I'll Thanks for doing that,Nick.
Yeah.
Uh, and stay outta Tommy.
(44:38):
I'll your brother take though Isaw a little while ago.
All please say hi.
All right, I will.
Take care.
Have fun.
Kg.
Bye Kevin.
Bye.
And with that, thanks Nick.
Off we go.
Welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where once again, we
hope to inject the world with adose of the Minnesota kindness
that it desperately needs.
We got kg on the line kg.
Where are we calling you at?
More often than not, I'm in thisspot.
I'm in my car, uh, in transit aswe visit, uh, after a great
(00:37):
weekend of, uh, of racing inCanterbury.
But more importantly, I knowwe're gonna talk about it, uh, a
great weekend for all of us dadsto be couch potatoes and watch
some sports.
No kidding.
And, uh, as I understand, you'reheading off to a, uh, a movie,
event that you, participate inevery couple of months.
Yeah.
Tell us about that.
It's, yeah, I'm glad you asked.
Uh, during COVID, uh, when my,uh, depression over the fact
(01:01):
that movie theaters were nolonger open, we came up with an
idea with some friends.
Uh, there was five of us, andwe, we erected this movie club.
And the way it works is fivepeople in the club.
Three girls, two boys, and werotate picking a movie and we
rotate who provides the, thetakeout.
But we get together probablyevery other week and, um,
(01:23):
started during COVID, we show upsix o'clock.
We have the takeout from likesix until six 30.
The lights go down.
They have a big projectionscreen that comes out and we
watch the movie at six 30 and wewrap up by nine o'clock.
And tonight is movie number 126.
Holy smokes.
Which is pretty incredible.
Yeah.
So we've kept it going now for,for the five years since we
(01:45):
started.
And I always get a little extraexcited when it's my pick.
Oh.
And they get mad at me becausethey've, they've, you know,
given me some grief about mytheory on movies, and they've
called it the Gorg Line.
I believe that the best moviesyou've ever seen in your
lifetime were longer than twohours.
And a lot of the folks thatcongregate in this movie club,
like shorter movies, includingmy significant other, Chrissy.
(02:06):
We've talked about who's been onthe show, so tonight's movie's
almost two and a half hours, sothere's gonna be some, some
angst involved tonight, but it'sover the gorg line of two hours.
And just as you think top of thehead right now, John, think of
some of your favorite movies andI would guess they're over two
hours.
Well, most of the good ones are,you know, thank, the reason that
they are is because there's somuch good material, you know,
(02:28):
that they just couldn't cut itout.
But, so what is the, sotonight's your choice.
Yeah, tonight's my pick.
I'm going the, you know, we'rein the heart of baseball season,
so I, I like to have a theme.
So I'm gonna go with RobertRedford.
Oh.
In The Natural.
And I honestly, Marty Miller,who hosts this, has this
incredible.
You know Marty, right?
(02:48):
I do, yeah.
He's got the high tech stuff.
Oh yeah.
So he, I love picking out movieswhere the, the, the soundtrack
or the, the sound of the movieis as good as the movie.
And this is one of those moviesfor sure.
And they have a really coolsetup, so it all kind of ties
together.
How old do you suppose RobertRedford was when he made that
movie?
It'd be interesting to find outbecause, well, the movie, the
(03:11):
movie came out in 84, and Iwould guess he's, by that point,
he had to be at least 40 in his,I was gonna say late forties,
early fifties.
Right.
But that would make him 90something.
Now, you know what?
We won't worry about it.
He just was old to be a baseballplayer.
But the, the movie absolutelyworks.
(03:32):
And was it Glenn Close is inthat one, and, Robert Deval.
Oh yes.
Oh, that's gonna be fun.
Is there popcorn involved?
Yes, we do popcorn every week.
Real?
Oh yes, we do.
Real butter.
Yes, real butter.
Okay.
Because, and then, uh, I'massuming that there'll be some
raisinettes consumed.
(03:54):
So it's really cool.
We all bring, every once in awhile we, we, we bring a handful
of boxes of candy, the moviePeter Candy you get at Target or
Walgreens or whatever.
And so we have this, this reallycool crate that they keep and
they keep it fresh, obviously,but there's like 40 to choose
from.
Oh my God.
So you've got everything underthe sun.
(04:14):
Yeah, we do it right.
Like, you know, we're 125 intothis thing so far.
And it really is, it's somethingI look forward to.
It's simple.
Um, and you know, the five ofus, most of these ladies work
together.
Marty and I have been goodfriends for a long time, so
it's.
It's really fun.
Um, fun.
You know, you guys could dosomething similar because one of
(04:36):
my greatest movie experiences ofall time at, at a Friend's house
was, uh, when you and Becky usedto host those movie Nights
Outdoors.
Oh yes.
And you'd show the movie on theside of your house that you guys
have an awesome setup there.
It's a decent setup.
I just, the mosquitoes.
Ooh.
And you know, I'm not much of anoutdoorsman.
Yeah.
That's, uh, do, do you recallwhat your first movie that you
picked was?
(04:59):
I recall what the very firstmovie was Chrisy.
Okay.
Um, had first pick, whichthere's a lot of pressure
involved.
Oh my.
When you're nuo.
And he came up with the JaggedEdge and, oh, I gotta give her
high marks.
That was one heck of a pick.
And since I'm stuck in immensetraffic and really not moving
(05:19):
right now, I have a list.
Oh no.
I should forward, oh, yes I do.
No, keep your eyes on the road.
Well, we're barely moving.
In fact, we've come to a.
Yeah, this is, so Christystarted with Jagged Edge, my
first movie, ho Ho, one of myall time favorites.
I went to 1980 five's VisionQuest.
(05:40):
Oh.
Such a great soundtrack.
That's again what Marty set up.
I had to have that kind of soundgoing.
Yeah.
And it makes me almost wanna dopushups almost.
Uh, yeah.
You and me both.
I, Matthew Modine.
Holy cow.
What a great flick.
Nice cameo by Madonna in there.
Yes.
What crazy for you.
(06:00):
And the guy.
And the guy that was his, uh,his buddy.
The guy with the, uh, the, theNative American 16 Candles guy.
16 Candles guy.
Looks totally different.
Totally different, but Oh, greatPick, great pick.
I would like to, uh, shift gearsfor a moment.
we've got some people that'll bejoining us shortly and, we're
gonna be doing, a remembrance ofour friend Vince Flynn.
(06:22):
Uh, this week will be the, 12thanniversary of his passing, but,
we got one of his good buddiesfrom, high school and college,
Nick Flood coming in.
Let's talk about Father's Day.
Let's talk about the US Open.
Did you get to watch it?
Oh, lucky for me there was arain delay and we had a,
obviously a big crowd outtaCanterbury.
So when I got home from theracetrack, there was still the
(06:43):
whole back nine to go.
And even though I had, uh,severe routing interest in Sam
Burns, uh, with my power trip,morning show, uh, collaboration,
uh, picking him, uh, with thelast pick in the draft and
sitting on, you know, a, apretty nice score financially if
he ends up winning, even thoughI did not enjoy watching him
(07:06):
basically melt down.
Oh, did he melt down?
Um, oh man.
You know what I, I'll I'll saytwo things.
I, I didn't, I didn't like the,the rules of, I didn't like the
rules.
Uh, official not giving him adrop in casual water.
I thought that was a really badcall.
Well, he clearly, but to me heclearly didn't care for the call
either.
No.
And, and he, he had twodifferent officials come over.
(07:28):
So again, that's just life, man.
That's the US open.
You gotta, you gotta justovercome adversity.
But to me, the tournament waslost earlier, about an hour
earlier he had birdie number 10to get up by two shots.
Yep.
And he was looking great and hegot to number 11 and caught a
bad break.
And that's what happens in theUS Open.
And he hit a great drive, butit's a side hill, um, and hit
(07:50):
you three wooded.
And with all that rain, it wassuper soft.
Well, that sucker hit the hilland instead of bouncing forward
like Adam Scott on his drive,his sucked back 40 yards, went
into the rough and into a divot,and he ended up making double.
And to me, that's where it allstarted.
He got more frustrated with thatruling because of what happened
to him on 11.
(08:11):
And, and that's what the open.
We'll do it.
We'll test your medal and giveJJ Spawn a ton of credit.
This guy bogeyed five of hisfirst six holes.
Um, he had ejected himself fromcontention.
And you know, it's funny howsports work with momentum.
You, you've played it, you'vecoached it.
Momentum's a real thing and hehad lost his juice.
And that again, that rain delayof an hour and 15, 20 minutes
(08:35):
allowed the guys that werestruggling like JJ Spawn to
reset.
And he mentioned in his postround presser that his coaches
got down, sat with him and kindof recalibrated his focus about
what an opportunity this was.
And you look at guys like SamBurns and Adam Scott who've been
playing the meat grinder all daywith that pressure.
And it just seemed to go theother way with the guys at the
(08:55):
top of the leaderboard.
Normally, I would say, is this along story?
Um, while you were giving thatgreat review of the entirety of
the US Open.
Whoa.
our guest, Nick Flood.
Hello, Nick.
Hello.
John appeared.
You gotta put the mic to yourface.
There you go.
Hello, John.
So we have a tie in with Nick.
(09:15):
Hello Gordon.
Well, we have a tie in to the USOpen.
Hey Nick, because Nick's dad wasthe golf coach and my golf
coach, uh, at St.
Thomas.
Wait a second.
Back when we were both, uh, yes.
He coach you.
You played golf at St.
Thomas?
I did.
What.
(09:37):
Um, there you go.
Also here, our friend SteveBrown just showed up.
We tried to get a, the sportstalk out of the way before you
showed up.
That's okay.
That's okay.
And then we have our, uh,55-year-old intern sitting on a
stool because all thecomfortable chairs are being
used.
But, uh, back to the US Opengentlemen.
Welcome.
Uh, curious if, if you guys tookin the US Open, Steve, the US
(09:58):
Open is a golf tournament.
Was that this weekend?
That was this weekend.
It's typically played.
It's a little busy.
Alright.
What'd you have going on thisweekend?
I just, I got a lot going on.
I'll tell you about.
Oh, I know.
You got a lot going on.
It's all right.
It's all good.
What?
You had to have watched it.
I watched.
I watched.
It was great.
Yeah.
I did not, I was driving backfrom Boston Oh, wow.
After dropping our daughter offthere.
So you had you a new Notre Damehat?
(10:18):
I did.
That's very nice.
We stopped by and saw Gettysburgand Notre Dame and, uh, whoa.
Other stuff.
We'll get to, we'll get to youlater.
Okay.
We don't know.
We, this is all about Nick andVince tonight, but, but we, we,
we have to review the kindnessthat we witnessed at the US
Open.
Yeah.
Tell about it.
It was fantastic.
Really.
Kg since you're so good attelling stories.
(10:38):
What did you witness that, uh,that would've been appropriate
for the Kindness Chronicles on,Sunday afternoon, late
afternoon?
Well, I'll let you get to BobbyMcIntyre because that's, that's
a great angle there.
All these guys are, are tryingto win the biggest golf term of
their lives.
And for Adam Scott, he's at theend of his career.
The fact that he was inContentional, it was a great
(10:58):
story.
He's 44.
He has won a major championshipback in 2013 in Augusta, but
hasn't really contended in thesemajors and in quite a few years.
And so he has the heartbreakinground with Sam Burns where they
both collapsed.
He shoots 79.
It's a really tough day for AdamScott.
He waits around, uh, after hegets done to find JJ s Spawn and
(11:22):
give him the biggest hug.
And Adam, don't look at them aslike being great friends on the
tour, but he respects what anunbelievable life changing
moment this is for JJ s Spawn,and that's the kind of
sportsmanship and kindness thatI love to shine a light on.
And I know you've got a storytoo, John.
Well, and I just back to theAdam Scott thing, it was so
genuine, you know, he didn'tknow that there was a camera on
(11:45):
him.
Right.
And you could just see the joyin his eyes for JJ Spawn when,
you know, he came around thecorner.
But let's just, Adam Scott's gota pretty good life.
You know.
Oh God.
Yeah.
Pretty.
It's good to be Adam Scott.
It's good to be Adam Scott.
Good looking guy.
He's a good actor.
Not many guys can wear a whiteshirt.
Dad, that Adam Scott.
Sorry.
Oh my God.
(12:05):
Sorry.
I'm playing into the fact that Iknew.
I know.
Let's turn your mic off for 15,but I have, I haven't heard his
name that often, but No, butthis, where's Adam Scott from, I
think he's an Australia.
Yeah, he's an Australian guy.
Okay.
Oh, might take, but, but he's,he, he wore this white
Collarless shirt and it lookedreally good on him and Huh?
We talked in a show not longago.
(12:25):
How guys?
Many.
Yeah.
You don't like white shirts?
Not many, many guys can wearwhite shirt.
You know, I've never heard thatbefore.
That's a new theory.
You have I, well, you don'twanna see belly buttons or
something, I dunno.
Correct.
Take a look at some guys wearinglike white golf shirts.
Most of them shouldn't bewearing it, but that's a whole
young, young guys should bewearing'em.
It shouldn't be.
That's a whole story.
It's not unlike performing onstage.
You probably think long and hardabout what you're gonna wear.
(12:46):
Oh yeah.
Otherwise you sweat and itdoesn't look good.
Mm-hmm.
I, I wore a, a light blue shirttoday.
Terrible idea, John.
You know better.
I know.
We've been through this manytimes.
I this show a man breast sweat.
Terrible.
It was a terrible Get the, getthe line.
The line.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I've had that.
It was not a good scene.
Cut the grass.
I get that.
Um, but I, I do want to talkabout the, uh, the McIntyre
(13:07):
fella from, Scotland.
he was, in the clubhouse withthe winning score at the time.
Okay.
they have a camera on himwatching the 18th hole and deep
down inside, he's hoping thatspawn, you know, bogies the
hole.
Mm-hmm.
Of course.
Yeah.
So he wins.
Sure.
Two puts at best, or two puts atbest.
So at least they get to a, uh, aplayoff.
(13:29):
Spawn sinks, a 64 and a halffoot putt, the most incredible
putt, and it's the first timehe's ever won a major.
But it's also the, the, he's,he, he's 34, 35 years old, and
he had only won one tournamentpreviously.
And it was this year, earlierthis year.
And I mean, just what a lifechanging moment.
(13:50):
Mm-hmm.
And the guy bursts into tearsand the camera is on McIntyre
when he's.
Putting, you know, to see hisreaction.
Yeah.
And instead of kind of being acrybaby, sour grates b-word
about it.
he just starts clapping and youcan just tell that he's
genuinely pleased.
Such a mag a moment of sports.
The, the putt was so good.
(14:10):
It wa it was, it's have you notit, it was incredible.
It took about seven seconds togo in the hole.
Yeah.
Have you not seen it?
I haven't seen, dude.
I get my sports when I comehere.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well welcome to Sports page.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But what's funny is, is and AdamScott one.
Vic.
Adam Scott.
No.
Okay.
JJ Spawn won, God, sorry, sorry.
But on the 18th pole, VictorHovland, who's one of my
(14:33):
favorites.
Also can wear a white shirt.
Okay.
Alright.
I think it might be havingfeelings.
That's a clarification for you.
Yeah.
Um, anyways, he wasn't wearing awhite shirt, but he hits a, a
shot and it's, what is it?
About a foot behind.
Yeah, I was gonna say that wasthe kindest moment of the whole
tournament.
That was the kindest moment.
The whole tournament feet behindhim to give him the line was
fog.
Just to see the line of thisentire putt.
(14:56):
Have you ever golfed before?
Why?
Come on.
Just, why, why are you giving meall this?
Why am on you?
Let's hear about the kindness.
I don't care about the damnsports.
So H hits this putt.
And, um, spawn, kind of scootsbehind him to see where the
thing goes.
So he gets the perfect line asto where he ought to be putting
his putt.
It was just, it was fantastic,the whole thing.
(15:17):
It was magical.
Cool.
I honestly, I kind of gotgoosebumps, a little teary-eyed.
The guy behind him, what was hisname?
The guy that looked for theline?
Uh, he didn't lin, it's a cheesyjoke, but he didn't say nonan or
anything.
Did he try and, oh, no, I'msorry.
I couldn't help myself, youknow?
Um, let's go and speak whenspoken to, I'm sorry, Mr.
(15:41):
Hoffman, I just, uh, you know,we're gonna shift gears here.
Yeah.
we're gonna talk, about ourfriend, Vince Flynn.
Yeah., This week will be the12th anniversary of Vince's
passing.
And Vince was, without question,one of the most, like, he just
knew he was meant for bigthings.
Yeah.
You know, he was just one ofthose guys.
He always had this, he was justthis magical guy.
(16:04):
And I got to know Vince reallywell after college, hung around
with him.
He was at our wedding.
I think he had a twinkle forsome of Becky's friends.
Oh, yeah.
So, you know, he showed up atthe wedding and he, you know,
he, he, he was very popular.
Vince never had trouble finding,uh, friendship.
Right.
So to speak.
Right.
Yep.
Um, and maybe just for alistener that might be hearing
(16:25):
this for the first time,bestselling author, 14 novels.
Right.
That's a very good point.
Vince Flynn is a, thebestselling author went to St.
Thomas Academy.
Oh, good for you.
Just broke the needle on themachine there.
Uh, went St.
Thomas Academy.
Went to the College of St.
Thomas, graduated in 89, so hetook a little extra time while
(16:46):
he was at St.
Thomas.
But we have one of his pals,Nick Flood in the studio, Nick
turns out that he's a listenerto this podcast.
Yeah.
Um, and when Big Listener, biglistener.
Big listener, fantastic so muchthat he brought us a special
treat.
Kg, there's something here foryou.
John will have to give it toyou, but he, he listen enough
that he knows that he broughtthose, oh, you're the greatest.
(17:08):
He brought each of us a bag ofthe mini, uh, hundred grand,
grand bars.
Oh my God.
Very famous.
He is an avid listener.
Know?
I know.
It's unbelievable.
I think it was around Halloweentiming.
You guys were all whiningbecause you only got 100 grand
bar.
And I, I bought a, I bought abag for each of you.
K Oh my God.
(17:28):
Awesome.
What a guess what a guess us tobuy you a gift as a guest.
Unbelievable.
Thank you very much.
Well, we have t-shirts overhere.
They're medium, so that'll becomfortable.
Oh, that'll be great.
My wife will love it.
Yeah, it's very good.
So go, let's go back a littlehow we met Nick and how this
kind of, why he's right hereright now, aside from, it's a,
it's a Vince Flynn kind of day.
Nick shows up at our,scholarship night and I've known
(17:52):
Nick for 40 years.
Oh, you bet.
Was Nick was, uh, a greatathlete in high school.
Probably a good athlete.
In fact, I ran into, uh.
your basketball coach at St.
Thomas?
Steve Fritz.
Steve Fritz.
Okay.
Steve Fritz.
Okay.
Yeah.
Fritz was having breakfast withFather Malone on, uh, Saturday
morning at Joseph's.
Oh boy.
And I asked Father Malone to beon the podcast tonight'cause he
(18:14):
knew Vince as well.
And Father Malone's havingcataract surgery today, but
we'll get to that in a second.
Anyways, so Nick shows up and heintroduces himself as Nick
Flood, and I'm like, oh my God,Nick Flood, that guy's a legend.
What is he doing at this thing?
And I figured he must have had akid that was getting one of the
scholarships.
I thought, that's super cool.
He came because of the openinvite that you sent out to
(18:35):
everyone.
We sent out the open invite.
Yeah.
And he showed up and he sat upthere in the, uh, in the
balcony.
It was, I had a great spot inthe balcony.
Nice spot in.
Yeah, we saw you.
Yeah.
But, uh, just what a pleasureto, uh, to see you there and kg
and I spoke a little bit about,uh, about Nick and your brother
Tom Kg.
Take it from there.
(18:55):
Tell us about, you've got someNick Floods stories, the Flood
brothers.
Oh, no.
Oh, I got great memories.
I just bumped into Tom, I don'tknow, six, eight weeks ago in
St.
Paul.
And, and you know, Tom and Iboth went into the same, uh.
Education at St.
Thomas.
We were doing the get theteacher certificate, get the
coaching certificate, and makeyour way from there.
(19:16):
I minored in sportsbroadcasting.
So back then I was, and I endedup being a, a hockey coach I
coached at, at, at the highschool and college level and,
uh, did some phy ed teaching.
But, you know, John, uh, givesme a hard time because, you
know, like doctors, when youwanna be a teacher or coach, it
isn't a traditional four yearpath.
Sometimes it's five or six orseven years.
(19:36):
Right.
And, you know, I took my time.
It took my time.
So anyway, uh, had a bunch ofclasses with Tom and, and John
Strasberg, who I know, you know.
Oh yeah.
Just good times, obviously greatmemories.
And I, you know, I, I just lookback at, at your dad and, and
what a gentleman he was and Iwasn't a great golfer.
That's why John had the reactionhe did.
(19:56):
Yeah.
I've seen you golf.
I wasn't one of the top guys onthe golf team.
I, I wasn't, but I, but I lovedthe game and, and, and coach
Flood, um, what gave me a chanceto be a part of something and I,
I loved every minute of it.
Uh, but no, Tommy, Tommy and Iended up literally having almost
every class together.
And, uh, I have just greatmemories and, and because of
(20:17):
Tom, I hear all the stories of,of all the floods and as, as we
know, there are many of thefloods floating around St.
Paul's.
So it's pretty cool.
Yeah, there's a lot of us kg Soyou and Tom and Straus, you guys
must have had a few laughs Iwould think back in those four
or five years, huh?
Yeah, there was a test that wehad in our kinesiology class,
(20:37):
and it was a.
Uh, 100 points.
And you know, Straus is a bigbasketball guy and we get the
test back and none of us didquite well on this test, but
Straus got six outta 100 andcome six.
And so that's what I got on myallergy exam because that was a
card collector.
(20:58):
I knew that Dr.
J wore six and we, we startedcalling him Julius.
And to this day, to this day,some, almost 40 years later,
that Fluter still calls himJulius because of that six outta
100.
That's awesome.
What a great story.
Real quick, you know, we oftenrefer to you as a minor local
(21:18):
celebrity kg and you, you seemto celebrate that sometimes.
I do, yeah.
And you, you, especially theminor part, well, and you were,
you had a minor in sportsbroadcasting.
Can you imagine, had you had amajor in sports broadcasting,
what would I could have beenmore rose.
I blew it.
Yeah, well, you know.
You're doing.
I'm kidding.
(21:38):
Fine.
You're doing just fine.
We're hanging in there.
So, um, Nick, tell us about, uh,so you went to high school with
Vince?
I did, I did.
We called him Vinny.
Did you call him Vinny?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
All of a sudden he becomesVince.
What was that all about?
Yeah, that was kind of theofficial name.
Yeah.
Became very famous.
Is that when you first met himor were you little or No, no.
So, um, Vince, let's see.
(22:01):
Vince is, um, number five ofseven, I think.
I think that's right.
Or, uh, yeah.
And, and I'm number 12 of 13kids.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
So, so Vince and I, our olderbrothers went to high school
together at STA.
So Vince and I actually met atage nine or 10.
Okay.
We were probably in third orfourth grade, and we'd been
(22:22):
buddies since then.
And, um, so when we finally gotto STA together, you know, in
ninth grade, we knew each othervery well and all the lockers in
the hall were lined upalphabetically flooding Flynn,
and it was flooding Flynn.
We were next to each other for,oh my god, for four years
straight.
Sounds like a comedy duoFlooding Flynn?
(22:44):
Or was it, was it like the, wasit like the Stand By Me Friends?
Kind of, do you, did you eversee that movie with the little,
you know Yeah.
You were 12.
Yeah.
Great film.
Yeah.
Film pe.
Did you have a little Jerry PePosse?
Best, best, best You, best Candyin the World.
Right?
So I keep going.
I want to hear just how you grewup with him and what he was
like.
Just so, so as John said, Vince,Vince was a, he was a character.
(23:06):
He was, he had this, this bigpersonality and what you saw as,
as the author was no differentthan he was at nine or 10 years
old.
Okay.
I mean, the guy was, he was, hewas outgoing, he was comfortable
in his own skin.
He.
He talked to everyone, um, likehe knew them, um, within, within
(23:29):
10 minutes.
And some people were kind oflike, and he used to give people
a lot of, a lot of grief too.
So, you know, he wouldn't knowpeople very long and all of a
sudden he'd be laying into'emand making fun of'em.
And, and, but then eventuallyyou just kinda learn that, hey,
this is, this is genuine.
This guy isn't a clown, and he'snot putting on a show.
(23:53):
This is a genuine personality.
Um, so anyway, yeah, we, we werethick as thieves all the way
through, you know, third orfourth grade through college.
And then, um, did you playfootball at St.
Thomas too?
I did.
I played, I played my freshmanyear.
Okay.
And then, um, I also playedbasketball freshman year.
(24:14):
Yeah.
And then I decided to just stickwith basketball.
Your basketball guy?
Yeah.
So I, I'll never forget, therewas the first time I ever heard
the name Vince Flynn.
Freshman year at St.
Thomas, there was this clown, Ican't remember what his name
was, it was like Skippysomething or other from Buffalo
Grove, Illinois.
And he was talking about SkipMoore, like a circus clown that
(24:34):
he was Skippy Moore.
Yeah.
And he was doing animpersonation of Vince Flynn as
quarterback clowning in the, inthe huddle.
And he'd tap his, he'd betapping his, uh, and he'd, he'd
talking about Benny Flynn.
Vince Flynn.
Vince Flynn.
And I thought, who the hell isthis Vince Flynn guy that you
keep talking?
And Skippy Moore?
Is that who it was?
Yeah.
I'm pretty sure that's lunatic.
(24:56):
It was just the lunatic guy.
Blonde hair.
Yeah.
Where'd you see this clown?
He lived in the same dorm helived in, uh, Ireland Hall with
me.
Okay.
And he would show up uninvitedto different things.
And he was, he was justdesperate.
Just a goofy guy.
Desperate for attention.
Where Vince, on the other hand,was a guy who wasn't desperate
for attention, but people justpaid attention to this guy.
Yeah.
Just draws people.
(25:16):
He just drew people in.
Yeah.
Um, so anyway, so you played,you played football with him,
football, basketball, all theway through high school and then
football for a year.
And then, I mean, even aftercollege we continued, we, we had
a, uh, a two for one membershipat the Decathlon Club.
Oh, very nice.
(25:37):
Yeah.
So we were supposed to beroommates, but they'd just send
the bill to Vince's house andthen so Vince would pay it and,
you know, it was cheap, youknow, we were just outta
college.
Sure.
So it was 35 bucks a month orsomething.
But then all of a sudden he'dhit me with an invoice after
like 10 months and I have towrite him a three or 400 check.
(25:58):
Hey, can we keep up with this alittle better?
So anyway, um, yeah, all the wayuntil I got married.
Um.
And then, uh, the decathlonclosed down.
Yeah.
But yeah, that, um, when I gotmarried I went on my honeymoon
with the three ring binder formof Vinny's first book and read
(26:20):
it before.
And he, at that point, he hadhad some rejections going.
Yep.
And I said, well, do you wantthis back?
I said, by the way, I loved it,but do you want it back?
And he said, nah, hold onto it.
It might be worth somethingsomeday.
He said the same thing to me.
My and mine said the same rightthere.
Oh, were you okay with theswearing?
'cause I guess, uh, John overhere didn't like the swearing.
Yeah, no.
Um, so with the, with theswearing, I think he had cleaned
(26:42):
some of it up by then.
Okay.
Um, maybe someone had alreadygiven him a little feedback
clean to clean that up a littlebit for, you know, a good
Catholic boy.
I like that.
Well, my, my feedback to himwas.
You know, for starters, the, andI just have to, to mention that
this comes on the heels of the,uh, the tragedy that took place
in Minnesota.
(27:03):
Yeah.
The assassination of the, uh,uh, Melissa Hawkman, is that her
name, uh, the staterepresentative, and Nick being
the thoughtful Catholic lad thathe is, he's like, should we be
talking about this?
Because one of the things that,when you look back on Vince's
books, he foresaw what is goingon in the world today.
(27:25):
He wrote the books that he wrotebefore nine 11, like they were
prophetic, predicted they werenine 11.
I mean, it was insane.
That's, that's insane.
Why Gwen Glen Beck had him on.
I mean, he was a regular on, uh,uh, I just heard Rush Limbaugh
who was on this, on BillO'Reilly, Fox News had him on
all the time because he, it waslike he was prophetic about all
(27:46):
these things and it's because heimagined.
All of it before it took placebecause of his research was so
good.
But if you get the opportunityto read the term limits book,
you gotta, you gotta get on it.
I've, you know, I'm sure you'vegot one of the cloak and dagger
versions of it that I do.
I do, yeah.
So it's worth a bucks.
So that, that cloak and daggerstory, um, it was, it was
interesting, you know, with thegroup of friends that we had,
(28:08):
how when you're at that age andoutta college, certain guys get
married and certain guys don't,and they, you know, well it
ended up where, um, our buddyDan Wicker who was in your
class.
Oh yeah.
You know Dan?
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay.
Okay.
So, um, Dan lived with me reallyfor, for about three months.
'cause he's like, yeah, I need aplace to live.
And I said.
(28:29):
Great.
Um, you're welcome.
But just so you know, I thinkJill and I are gonna get
engaged.
So you got probably three to sixmonths here and, and w ses, I
think the three of us will bereally happy together.
No, you're out.
So what a great line.
That is.
Good.
(28:49):
So Dan, uh, he gets, he gets theeviction notice from, from my
house and buys a house and Vincemoved in with him because
Vince's best friend, Tom Tracy,yep.
Um, was also kind of marriedaround the same time and.
So he lived with Dodger, Tom,Tracy and uh, and JB Lloyd.
(29:11):
And then he kind of needed aplace to go.
So Wick stinks him in.
So the Wordsworth Avenue on thecloak and Dagger Press is
actually Danny Wicker'sbasement.
No kidding.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh wow.
So, yeah, I ran into Dan notlong ago.
He is still got a great head ofhair on him and stuff.
He doesn't look any differentother than a little more gray.
There's, he's kind of a silverfox.
(29:31):
He's got a little salt andpepper going on.
Uh, Nick, I have a question.
So go going a little bit backjust to when he, you guys were
both young.
Did Vince always have a, acreative mind and a, and a
really expansive, uh, you know,you know, imagination or did you
recognize that he might be apretty smart and, you know, a
lot of this pro guy?
A lot of this for me ishindsight.
(29:52):
'cause Yeah.
You know, when you're 10, 12,yeah.
15, 20.
It's just your friend Vince.
Right.
You know?
Yeah.
And you're not paying attentionto other people's things as much
as you're just your own littleworld.
Right, right, right.
But as Jeff just alluded to, Imean, some of these books, it's
almost like, go ahead John, justhave a candy bar.
It's our own one.
So good.
It's almost like he was justlooking into the future, 2, 3, 5
(30:17):
years out and, and some of thesethings would happen, you know,
after the Right.
But so where does thatimaginate, was he just studying?
So he, he was always, always bigon, on current events.
Okay.
And history.
Okay.
And, he was open about, abouthis dyslexia.
He was really smart, but schoolnever came easy.
(30:38):
Yeah.
For him or me, actually.
It's common for a lot of people.
Yeah.
So we, we worked hard for ourbees and our Cs.
CS get degrees, there we go.
There we go.
Um, anyway, yes.
He would say things, go lookingback on it in high school where
you're like, what, what are youtalking about?
What are you thinking about?
You know?
And now as you look kind ofgrown as a grown man, you look
(31:00):
back and you go, yeah, you know,Vince was right.
The, so he paid, the Indians gotthe shaft more than anybody in
history, you know what I mean?
He sort of paid attention.
He would say things like thatwhere it's like, you know, at 15
or 16 you're not thinking ofthose things.
Steve, you might be interestedin this.
Um, so I worked with, uh,Vince's brother for 18 years at
Salesforce and just saw himbefore I left for Boston.
(31:22):
But I.
His, um, Kevin said hi.
Uh, his mom and dad were sort ofright brain, left brain.
His mom was a wildlife artistand actually I think won an
award from Ducks Unlimited as acool, um, wildlife.
When you guys had JB Lloyd on,he talked a little bit about,
about going out to the Flynnhouse in, in college.
Mm-hmm.
I think part of my elementaryschool years, I, I grew up at
(31:47):
the Flynn House.
they lived in Apple Valley.
Yep.
And right across the street wasthis really steep hill called
Butte.
And they would close that thingdown in the winter.
And we would go out there and gotobogganing and sledding down
this hill.
Love after like our olderbrothers basketball games on
Friday nights, we'd go out thereand the next thing you know,
(32:07):
it'd be Sunday.
And we're still at the Flynnhouse going, well, we better get
home because we got it's funschool tomorrow.
Oh.
It was just a And where did yougrow up?
You were in St.
Paul.
I grew up right in the heart ofSt.
Paul.
Okay.
Uhhuh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right by, uh, just a few blocksfrom William Mitchell Law
School., What Steve was saying,was he always like this and was
he connecting the dots andthinking bigger picture and, and
(32:27):
I also think the large Irishfamily telling stories and
everybody kind of having tocompete for attention and Well,
and, and, and part of it is, youknow, we're.
His mother was, very artisticand she was a very talented
woman the dad eventually wentinto business, control data,
that type of stuff.
Mm-hmm.
But he was a teacher and coach.
So you, you look at this andyou've got this extremely,
(32:50):
driven hardnosed, coach, schoolteacher.
Then you've got this artisticmother she won awards with her,
her wildlife stuff and all this,and ducks and nature and all
this.
And then she just decided, I'm,I'm gonna start carving more.
And all of a sudden she was, Imean, she was just a really,
really talented woman.
(33:11):
Huh.
Um, and she did that right inthe living room of their house.
I mean, it was, I remember beingout there where.
Kathy would be out there with,you know, working all the time
and, you know, I kind look backon it now and go, were you, you,
he'd like to give it the Oh,good for you.
Like, like everyone that went toSt.
(33:31):
Thomas Thomas Academy wasrolling in the door.
I always Is that why does thatThen family parents broke their
back to send their kids toreally good private schools.
I mean, not to trade school.
Of course, of course.
But anyway, but, but you know,they had, you know, the dad had
a, a decent vehicle, but thekids all drove beaters and, and
(33:53):
there weren't that many of themand they shared them and, you
know, so it sacrifice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They sacrificed a lot.
And they were, um, like yousaid, this big Irish family.
Well, the last thing that'sgonna happen when you're the
fifth of, of that many kids, um,you know, when Vince needed to
be put in his place by his olderbrothers?
(34:15):
Yeah.
They, they didn't hesitate.
To do it.
And Vince, of course, kind ofdid the same thing with, with
Kevin and Tim as, as, as needed,you know, um, so there was
always, there was always, youknow, great stuff there.
It trickles downhill.
Yes.
Yeah, it really does.
So your brother Tom thenwould've been number 13 out of
13.
Tom?
Tom is the youngest of our, ofour clan.
(34:36):
Yeah.
Your oldest sibling, how mucholder than you?
So there's, there's 20 yearsbetween my oldest brother Sean,
right?
Yeah, yeah.
13 kids in 20 years.
Yeah.
That sounds like poor Kathy,Kathy at all.
The Susie family.
You know, I listen to, to Joe Reall the time and I know rookie,
but I had never met Joe.
So Joe, the difference betweenJoe and Joe's youngest brother
(35:00):
Paul, and, and Paul.
Is something like 16 years orsomething like that.
You know, these, the, thoseCatholic families, it's huge
change.
Yeah.
They were good at making babies.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you know, the all we hadwas a black and white tv and
that didn't work all the time.
So who knows?
Yeah.
You gotta do something with yourtime.
But incidentally, my mother knewyour mother when your mom was a
(35:22):
volunteer at St.
Joe's Hospital.
Are you kidding me?
No, my mom was the, I was justtalking about my mom doing that.
She, she was so excited tofinally get out of the house.
Yeah.
You know, and she started, shestarted volunteering at the
hospital.
She, yeah, my mom was thevolunteer coordinator and said
that your mom was just the mostlovely woman.
(35:43):
She was an unbelievable woman.
That's so fun.
I mean, she was, um, yeah,probably, probably the greatest
person I know.
Oh, that's what, amazing.
Absolutely, absolutely wonderfulwoman.
And she always, she was one ofthose people that, um, when you
talk to her.
She made you feel like you werethe most important person.
(36:04):
I love that in the world.
And kinda like Bill Clinton,your whole, your differently.
Sorry about that.
Anyway, um, some people arereally good at that.
I know what you're saying.
Yeah.
Some people, when you listen,when they, you talk to them,
it's like they got you in atractor beam.
Whether they really mean it ornot, they're so good at it.
Something interesting.
Well, and and you say about, um,the, the organization you're
(36:27):
with, meeting people at at thelevel.
On the level.
On the level, right?
Yeah.
Right.
My mother had this, this talentof doing that with anyone from
the age of 90 to three yearsold, my God.
And making them feel like.
You're it, you got all myattention.
Goosebumps.
That's cool.
Yeah.
God, I love that.
And that's really kind of yourmom to say and that's like
(36:49):
everyone that knew my mothersays she.
Oh, absolutely.
She worked at St.
Patrick's Guild for a littlewhile.
Oh really?
At the time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that story.
She couldn't run the register,so they would put her out on the
floor to sell stuff.
To sell stuff and then otherpeople would ring'em out and
That's great.
And Tim Doen, the old one wouldgo, best move I've ever made.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
(37:09):
Just with the people.
Fabulous.
KGI We only have you for acouple more minutes'cause you're
off to, uh, to watch TheNatural.
He's got a movie night tonightfor those you Oh, that's a great
movie.
It's a, it's, and it's k G'schoice.
Tonight he's got this littlemovie, my Dan movie club that I
have.
Movie club.
Nice.
Cool.
It's a good one.
Who's, who's part of this club,Kevin?
Well, it's, uh, Chrissy Bailey,my Significant other, and then
(37:31):
Tammy and Marty Miller, um, whoJohn knows quite well.
All right.
And where do they, where do theylive?
Uh, they live in the, uh, cozylittle suburb.
We like to call Edina.
Oh, good for you.
Just like a drop, a sound dropfor that.
So, so Gorgie, here's the bigquestion.
Are you stopping at a real movietheater to get your popcorn
(37:54):
before you view this tonight?
Or, or co he bringing somebutter or something?
He brings his own style.
Me.
Well, John's the butter man.
John brings the melted butter.
He more than I, John John's thebutter guy.
Uh, we, we pop the corn at theMiller's house.
I have brought the popcornthough.
I, I've gone to Candy Land,which is a St.
Paul staple and a still waterstaple.
John and I love Candy Land.
John, whenever we go theretogether, John and I walk in and
(38:16):
he says, listen, we want thebutter popcorn, and we'd like an
excessive amount of butter onthat popcorn.
It's so good.
The way I describe it is, as Isay, I'd like a shameful amount
of butter on that, right?
So yeah, this, this, uh, startedduring COVID guys and I told
John.
On, on the drive over, uh, thisis movie 1 26.
(38:38):
Wow.
The fifth person is Mary Cheezand, uh, oh, Mary.
Yeah, she, Mary and Tammy andChrissy all worked together back
in the day.
That's the connection.
Yeah.
And so when the theater shutdown during COVID, we all love
movies and we couldn't figureout what to do, so we can't put
this idea.
We meet every couple of weeks.
We bring takeout.
We have a little visit from likesix to six 30 and the movie
(38:58):
starts at six 30 done by nine.
So people can go out their livesand I get extra excited when
it's my pick, which it'stonight.
I'm very, very much lookingforward to see, I would say the
movie in forever.
You picked the natural, yousaid, right?
Yeah, this is, this is my pick.
So every fifth movie You sowasn't, wasn't Robert Redford
just a little bit old for thatrole when he played about that?
(39:19):
We were just, I mean, he had itto have been 40 something we
just got done talking aboutthat.
It, you know what, it ends upworking, um, because he does
struggle with, you know,physically in the movie, but he.
I had to guess he had to be inhis fifties.
Like he looked outta place, buthe pulled it off.
Redford, pull it off, pulled himout there.
(39:40):
I always think about that.
And uh, and then Reg Dunlop onthe blades, you know, oh my God.
He was probably a little old atthe time as well, but he was.
That's the, uh, the movie isSlap Shot.
Have you ever seen that one?
Oh, a classic.
I know the movie Inside Out.
Yes.
Very good.
Oggi Torp.
Oggi.
Torp.
Ogle.
Torp.
So, Kevin, before you, beforeyou sign off, I'm just gonna
(40:01):
share, you said you, you were ondad's golf team.
Uh, he needed a player one time,and I played one match at Mini,
at Minneapolis Country Club.
Oh, good for you.
And I hit, I hit every tree onthe course and shot about, I
shot about 110 and was on aSunday afternoon gorgie.
So you know how the coacheswould go off first and play and
(40:23):
then they'd just take off.
So I get home to Sunday dinnerand the old man says, well,
what, what did you shoot?
And I said, uh, oh.
I was terrible, dad.
I was absolutely terrible.
He goes, well, how bad?
I said, uh, I said, I shot 110.
And he goes 110.
He said, I could throw it aroundin 110.
(40:45):
He goes, you didn't tell anyonethat you're my son, did you?
Oh, no.
And for the listeners, likeCoach Flood looked like, uh,
Santa Claus.
Like we, we, like you looked athim.
He was just this lovable, um,just gregarious personality.
And I had a similar experience,Nick.
(41:06):
So my, the first meet I got togo play in was somewhere up in
near St.
Cloud.
We, we hopped in the, theshuttle bus and we went up there
and, and, and Coach Flood hasgot us all organized.
I'm in the last group.
Um, I'm in like the extras.
Sure.
You've got your dad being thegolf coach at St.
(41:28):
Thomas.
I've got my dad being thelongtime golf pro down at far.
So people assume, uh, thatapples actually can, what way?
And so I go up there and then Ishoot a bundle.
I somewhere in the nineties,probably in the upper nineties.
And you know, I got guys on myteam shooting in the.
And same thing.
(41:48):
I get done playing.
Um, and, and coach floods thereon the 18th hole and he sees me,
I'm, I'm clearly exhausted fromchasing that golf ball over.
Kingdom come and he puts his armaround me and he goes, don't
worry, you know, in the future,just know that we're probably
never gonna use your, here's alifesaver in the meantime.
(42:09):
That's great.
He's probably got his goaliestick out ready to play.
Yeah.
Hey, Kevin, I, I think of yourdad every time I drive past the
site of the, uh, the golf domethere down south in Lakeville.
didn't your dad have like a proshop in that, in that golf dome
or something?
I think Yes.
Yeah.
You, you were working, you gaveme a discount on a bag and a,
and a rain jacket at 1.0 longtime ago.
(42:31):
The Tennis Chronicles speaking.
I always take care of my own.
My, my dad's in assisted living.
He's 85.
He's got some dementia.
Um, but I will tell you, hestill.
Loves the game.
So obviously all weekend long hewas watching the US Open and you
know, we play in a fantasyleague together where I'll make
the picks, but I'll share withmy dad who the one and done pick
(42:53):
is.
So he knew we had John Rom, sohe was cheering for John Rom.
Uh, he, yeah.
It's, you know, you, you watchedyour parents leave and my dad's
probably not far away.
He is, had some health issues,but it's funny, they, they still
are who they are, right?
That that's right.
And he still gets angry, likewhen, when the golfer doesn't do
what he's supposed to do, why'dyou pick this guy?
You know, like his wholehappiness on the weekend is
(43:13):
laying in that bed, got up theassisted living place and
watching our golfer and so theleast John Rom could have done
is, you know, play a littlebetter golf.
But it's, uh, yeah, it's, um,the golf thing for me just
wasn't meant to be.
And you know, I had all theopportunity in the world.
I played a bunch as a young guy.
It just didn't take, I don'thave the mental fortitude or
(43:33):
patience for the game.
Yep.
I love watching it.
I don't enjoy playing it.
Yeah.
But you can still read a green.
You can read a green.
I can still put We were, whatwas that?
Were we at the Legends kg?
Were you sunk the pot that was85 feet.
Wow.
And let me tell you, you shouldhave seen how far off the ground
that guy came with hisexcitement.
(43:55):
Oh, he jumped up and he almost,we could almost fit like the St.
Cloud phone book underneath hisfeet.
It was, it was impressiveMemories of like, George Costan
is on a high note here.
Memories of Phil Mickelsonjumping at the Masters.
Huh?
Kg Oh God, that was so bad.
Alright, kg.
I know you gotta get, get toyour, uh, to your big event.
(44:17):
But, uh, thanks for taking thetime to, uh, visit with us.
We're gonna get back on a littlebit of Vince Flynn talk, but,
uh, any final thoughts sir?
Don't eat all my hundred grandbars.
Those better be there when I getthere the next couple of weeks.
We'll hold them for you.
You're, you're gonna have tomake a road trip across town to
get'em kg.
I know.
He gets.
Oh, I'll Thanks for doing that,Nick.
Yeah.
Uh, and stay outta Tommy.
(44:38):
I'll your brother take though Isaw a little while ago.
All please say hi.
All right, I will.
Take care.
Have fun.
Kg.
Bye Kevin.
Bye.
And with that, thanks Nick.
Off we go.
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