September 18, 2026 • 8 mins
Longtime Cincinnati sportswriter Bill Koch has written a book about Cincinnati icon Buddy LaRosa, "Buddy, The Life and Times of Cincinnati Icon Buddy LaRosa."
Order it at Amazon.com.
Bill joined us on ESPN1530.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
For years, we have talked with Bill Cook, the longtime
sports writer for the Cincinnati Post and the Cincinnati Inquirer,
covered the UC beat for years, wrote for GoBearCats.com. He's
also written a lot of really great books that focus
solely on sports, a ton of them related to UC basketball,
wrote a great book about Bob Huggins. A terrific book
(00:22):
about the history of the Skyline-Chile Crosstown Shootout. One on
Mick Cronin's first ever team at UC, which that's now
going on 20 years. His new book is not entirely
about sports, obviously, but it's very sports adjacent. It's called Buddy,
The Life and Times of Cincinnati Icon Buddy La Rosa.
(00:44):
Of course, the patriarch of La Rosa's. as we know it,
but has done and did so much more in this town.
And Bill's book is, I think, a terrific biography, but
there's lots of sports to it. Bill, it's awesome to
have you. I haven't talked to you in forever. What's
going on?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, I appreciate you having me on, Mo. Thanks.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Why did you decide to write a book about Buddy
La Rosa?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well, you're aware of the Buddy La Rosa, the La
Rosa High School Sports Hall of Fame. I'm on the
selection committee for that, have been for years. And about
a year ago, it was the 50th anniversary of the
Hall of Fame. And after one of our meetings, his sons,
Mike and Mark, told us a little bit about the history.
I knew how it got started, but they talked a
lot about their dad and the life that he's led.
(01:30):
And I thought, that's a pretty compelling story. I knew
his association with Aaron Pryor, which is a compelling story itself.
So I asked him if anybody ever tried to write
a book about Buddy, and they said no. So I
decided to do it.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
What things about him did you come to understand that
maybe you didn't know going in?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, I had no idea of his childhood and what
he went through. His father was a well-known local boxer
and also kind of a guy who got in a
lot of trouble, and actually he beat— Buddy's mother, when
Buddy was real little, and his mother, he did it repeatedly,
(02:10):
and his mother finally got tired of it one night,
and she waited for Buddy's dad to fall asleep, and
she hit him over the head with a candy dish.
Then she took Buddy, gathered up some belongings, and went
back to her childhood home on Queen City Avenue in
South Fairmount, and that's where Buddy grew up. He was
raised by his aunts and uncles and his grandma and
grandpa and his mom. And today he lives like three
(02:34):
miles from there in East Price Hill. So I didn't
know any of that, obviously. And actually, when his mom
divorced him, his dad was in the Mansfield Reformatory. That's
when he got the notice that the divorce was final,
which I thought was interesting. But Buddy, because of his
background with his dad in boxing, Buddy wanted to be
(02:54):
in boxing, but he was too little. He had a
doctor tell him, don't do this. You're going to end
up severely hurt. He did it anyway for a while.
He boxed in high school. He boxed a little bit
in the Navy. But what he really wanted to do
eventually was open a pizzeria. And the circumstances under which
he did that are pretty interesting, too. He was in
(03:16):
the Navy, in the Navy Reserves during the Korean War.
He saw that they had pizza parlors in Philadelphia. And
he thought, wow, we don't have anything like this in Cincinnati.
We should do that. Well, he grew up with a
family that Italian cooking was a big thing. His grandma,
his aunt, his mom, he grew up learning how to cook.
And they were at the San Antonio Festival one day
(03:39):
during the summer, and they had an Italian food booth.
And Buddy said, let's try pizza. and his aunt and
his grandma said, nobody's going to eat that, but he
talked them into it, and it was very popular, and
from that point on, that's where he got the idea
to open a pizzeria.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
When you mentioned Bill Cook is with us, the name
of the book, and he sent me an advanced copy, Buddy,
The Life and Times of Cincinnati Icon, Buddy La Rosa.
It's a terrific read. It's It's a story of Buddy.
It's a story of a Cincinnati icon. And as I mentioned,
it's so sports adjacent. When you mentioned the LaRosa's High
School Hall of Fame, I am I'm taking back to
(04:17):
when I was a kid. You would always see those
caricatures in the newspaper for like the LaRosa's Athlete of
the Week. Or you would go to LaRosa's and you
would see some of those in the stores themselves. I
know you still do to this day. How did that
come about?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Well, in 1974, there was a fire. The original arose
on Boudinot Avenue. And it put them out of business
for a time. And it threatened the very existence of
the restaurant chain and of Buddy's livelihood. And he didn't
know what to do. His insurance company was stiffing him.
And the Western Hills High School football coach, who was
(04:54):
a friend of Buddy's, he said, show me what the
damage is. Because the insurance company told him it was
going to be like nine months before he could reopen it.
And Buddy couldn't do that. He would have lost his business.
So he showed the damage to the football coach, and
he basically said, screw that insurance company. We'll get you
on your feet. So he had his players go over
there and help clean up the place and get it
ready for the repairs that needed to be made. The
(05:17):
repairs from West High and Elder and some from Oak Hills,
they went over and they helped Buddy out, and they
basically saved his business. So he wanted to do something
to repay them, and he came up with the idea
of starting the High School Sports Hall of Fame. That thing,
over 50 years, has honored 321 athletes. And there are...
Athletes in professional halls of fame like Ken Grophy Jr.,
(05:39):
Jim Bunning, Roger Staubach, Luke Kuechly, Tony Trabert, goes on
and on. Three members of the Hall of Fame have
won Olympic medals. It's really a unique thing, I think,
around the country and certainly spotlights how great high school
sports are in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
How do you get to be on the committee that
selects the honorees?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You know the guy who runs it? He went to
high school with him, and he respected my vast knowledge
of high school sports, and so he asked me to
be on it.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
All right. Yeah, that makes sense. Where do folks find
the book?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
For right now, it's only on Amazon. It will be
at Joseph F. Bookstore in a week or two. just
as soon as I get my order from Amazon. But
right now it's only at Amazon.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Compared to other people that you have written about, is
Buddy LaRosa the most unique?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Well, I've written about hugs, so that's going to be...
I would have to say he is. I mean, he
celebrated his 96th birthday a month or so ago, and
just his life story. Plus, at 96, he's still pretty lucid,
and he has a great memory. He told me details
from his childhood, and I don't know how he remembers it.
(06:56):
But one of his favorite stories is he likes to say,
he's told me this five or six times, and I
laugh every time. So people ask me where I live,
and I ask them, well, do you ever hear of
Indian Hill? And they go, oh, yeah, you live in
Indian Hill? And then he goes, no, no, no, I
live in East Price Hill. And then he pauses and goes,
(07:16):
not West Price Hill. They're too snooty over there. I
live in East Price Hill. Over and over again.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Buddy, the life and times of Cincinnati icon Buddy La
Rosa written by Bill Cook.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
If you've ever read one of Bill's books, you know
how good they are.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
This is a slightly different type of book than what
we're used to talking with Bill about. But again, I
read it in two days. A terrific read, a great
subject for my money long overdue. And I can't thank
you enough for joining us.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Thank you for having me, Mo.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
You're the man. That's the great Bill Cook.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
For years, covered sports for the Cincinnati Inquirer and the
Cincinnati Post. Long time on the UC beat. Buddy, the
life and times of Cincinnati icon, Buddy La Rosa. Again,
get the book at amazon.com. I was at Du Bois
bookstore two weeks ago, adjacent to the UC campus. And
there's like a whole rack of Bill Cook books. There's
(08:14):
the book on Bob Huggins. There's the book on the, uh,
the Mick Cronin's first ever UC team with guys like
Marvin Gentry and guys like that. There's the book he
wrote on the history of the skyline, Chile cross down shootout.
Bill is as, as good of a writer as you
will ever meet. And, um, it's a different type of
book than I'm used to reading from him, but an
enjoyable read. Nonetheless, 14 from a six o'clock.
For years, we have talked with Bill Cook, the longtime
sports writer for the Cincinnati Post and the Cincinnati Inquirer,
covered the UC beat for years, wrote for GoBearCats.com. He's
also written a lot of really great books that focus
solely on sports, a ton of them related to UC basketball,
wrote a great book about Bob Huggins. A terrific book
(00:22):
about the history of the Skyline-Chile Crosstown Shootout. One on
Mick Cronin's first ever team at UC, which that's now
going on 20 years. His new book is not entirely
about sports, obviously, but it's very sports adjacent. It's called Buddy,
The Life and Times of Cincinnati Icon Buddy La Rosa.
(00:44):
Of course, the patriarch of La Rosa's. as we know it,
but has done and did so much more in this town.
And Bill's book is, I think, a terrific biography, but
there's lots of sports to it. Bill, it's awesome to
have you. I haven't talked to you in forever. What's
going on?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, I appreciate you having me on, Mo. Thanks.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Why did you decide to write a book about Buddy
La Rosa?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well, you're aware of the Buddy La Rosa, the La
Rosa High School Sports Hall of Fame. I'm on the
selection committee for that, have been for years. And about
a year ago, it was the 50th anniversary of the
Hall of Fame. And after one of our meetings, his sons,
Mike and Mark, told us a little bit about the history.
I knew how it got started, but they talked a
lot about their dad and the life that he's led.
(01:30):
And I thought, that's a pretty compelling story. I knew
his association with Aaron Pryor, which is a compelling story itself.
So I asked him if anybody ever tried to write
a book about Buddy, and they said no. So I
decided to do it.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
What things about him did you come to understand that
maybe you didn't know going in?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, I had no idea of his childhood and what
he went through. His father was a well-known local boxer
and also kind of a guy who got in a
lot of trouble, and actually he beat— Buddy's mother, when
Buddy was real little, and his mother, he did it repeatedly,
(02:10):
and his mother finally got tired of it one night,
and she waited for Buddy's dad to fall asleep, and
she hit him over the head with a candy dish.
Then she took Buddy, gathered up some belongings, and went
back to her childhood home on Queen City Avenue in
South Fairmount, and that's where Buddy grew up. He was
raised by his aunts and uncles and his grandma and
grandpa and his mom. And today he lives like three
(02:34):
miles from there in East Price Hill. So I didn't
know any of that, obviously. And actually, when his mom
divorced him, his dad was in the Mansfield Reformatory. That's
when he got the notice that the divorce was final,
which I thought was interesting. But Buddy, because of his
background with his dad in boxing, Buddy wanted to be
(02:54):
in boxing, but he was too little. He had a
doctor tell him, don't do this. You're going to end
up severely hurt. He did it anyway for a while.
He boxed in high school. He boxed a little bit
in the Navy. But what he really wanted to do
eventually was open a pizzeria. And the circumstances under which
he did that are pretty interesting, too. He was in
(03:16):
the Navy, in the Navy Reserves during the Korean War.
He saw that they had pizza parlors in Philadelphia. And
he thought, wow, we don't have anything like this in Cincinnati.
We should do that. Well, he grew up with a
family that Italian cooking was a big thing. His grandma,
his aunt, his mom, he grew up learning how to cook.
And they were at the San Antonio Festival one day
(03:39):
during the summer, and they had an Italian food booth.
And Buddy said, let's try pizza. and his aunt and
his grandma said, nobody's going to eat that, but he
talked them into it, and it was very popular, and
from that point on, that's where he got the idea
to open a pizzeria.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
When you mentioned Bill Cook is with us, the name
of the book, and he sent me an advanced copy, Buddy,
The Life and Times of Cincinnati Icon, Buddy La Rosa.
It's a terrific read. It's It's a story of Buddy.
It's a story of a Cincinnati icon. And as I mentioned,
it's so sports adjacent. When you mentioned the LaRosa's High
School Hall of Fame, I am I'm taking back to
(04:17):
when I was a kid. You would always see those
caricatures in the newspaper for like the LaRosa's Athlete of
the Week. Or you would go to LaRosa's and you
would see some of those in the stores themselves. I
know you still do to this day. How did that
come about?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Well, in 1974, there was a fire. The original arose
on Boudinot Avenue. And it put them out of business
for a time. And it threatened the very existence of
the restaurant chain and of Buddy's livelihood. And he didn't
know what to do. His insurance company was stiffing him.
And the Western Hills High School football coach, who was
(04:54):
a friend of Buddy's, he said, show me what the
damage is. Because the insurance company told him it was
going to be like nine months before he could reopen it.
And Buddy couldn't do that. He would have lost his business.
So he showed the damage to the football coach, and
he basically said, screw that insurance company. We'll get you
on your feet. So he had his players go over
there and help clean up the place and get it
ready for the repairs that needed to be made. The
(05:17):
repairs from West High and Elder and some from Oak Hills,
they went over and they helped Buddy out, and they
basically saved his business. So he wanted to do something
to repay them, and he came up with the idea
of starting the High School Sports Hall of Fame. That thing,
over 50 years, has honored 321 athletes. And there are...
Athletes in professional halls of fame like Ken Grophy Jr.,
(05:39):
Jim Bunning, Roger Staubach, Luke Kuechly, Tony Trabert, goes on
and on. Three members of the Hall of Fame have
won Olympic medals. It's really a unique thing, I think,
around the country and certainly spotlights how great high school
sports are in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
How do you get to be on the committee that
selects the honorees?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You know the guy who runs it? He went to
high school with him, and he respected my vast knowledge
of high school sports, and so he asked me to
be on it.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
All right. Yeah, that makes sense. Where do folks find
the book?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
For right now, it's only on Amazon. It will be
at Joseph F. Bookstore in a week or two. just
as soon as I get my order from Amazon. But
right now it's only at Amazon.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Compared to other people that you have written about, is
Buddy LaRosa the most unique?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Well, I've written about hugs, so that's going to be...
I would have to say he is. I mean, he
celebrated his 96th birthday a month or so ago, and
just his life story. Plus, at 96, he's still pretty lucid,
and he has a great memory. He told me details
from his childhood, and I don't know how he remembers it.
(06:56):
But one of his favorite stories is he likes to say,
he's told me this five or six times, and I
laugh every time. So people ask me where I live,
and I ask them, well, do you ever hear of
Indian Hill? And they go, oh, yeah, you live in
Indian Hill? And then he goes, no, no, no, I
live in East Price Hill. And then he pauses and goes,
(07:16):
not West Price Hill. They're too snooty over there. I
live in East Price Hill. Over and over again.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Buddy, the life and times of Cincinnati icon Buddy La
Rosa written by Bill Cook.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
If you've ever read one of Bill's books, you know
how good they are.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
This is a slightly different type of book than what
we're used to talking with Bill about. But again, I
read it in two days. A terrific read, a great
subject for my money long overdue. And I can't thank
you enough for joining us.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Thank you for having me, Mo.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
You're the man. That's the great Bill Cook.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
For years, covered sports for the Cincinnati Inquirer and the
Cincinnati Post. Long time on the UC beat. Buddy, the
life and times of Cincinnati icon, Buddy La Rosa. Again,
get the book at amazon.com. I was at Du Bois
bookstore two weeks ago, adjacent to the UC campus. And
there's like a whole rack of Bill Cook books. There's
(08:14):
the book on Bob Huggins. There's the book on the, uh,
the Mick Cronin's first ever UC team with guys like
Marvin Gentry and guys like that. There's the book he
wrote on the history of the skyline, Chile cross down shootout.
Bill is as, as good of a writer as you
will ever meet. And, um, it's a different type of
book than I'm used to reading from him, but an
enjoyable read. Nonetheless, 14 from a six o'clock.
Mo Egger News
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