March 28, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode, Tudor speaks with Terence Haggerty, owner of Jody's Club Forest in Staten Island, about the origins of the March Madness tournament bracket and the legacy of his father, who started it all. They discuss the community's role in the growth of the tournament, the challenges faced by the family business, and the importance of maintaining a sense of community in today's world. Terence shares heartfelt stories about his father's impact on the community and the resilience of their family business through various challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
#MarchMadness #community #legacy #sports #history #familybusiness #JodysClubForest #TerenceHaggerty #basketball #restaurant #industry
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, everybody knows it's March, and so that means we
are in the midst of March Madness. So for all
of you out there that don't know, I'm not a
huge sports fan, but basketball is kind of my thing
because when I was growing up, I was growing up
in the Chicago suburbs and the Bulls were winning every year.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We had Michael Jordan, we had Dennis Brodman, we had
Scottie Pippen. We was like the dream team, right And
then I went from there to the University of Kentucky
and Rick Patino was the coach and we were winning
at Kentucky and it was just awesome and I was
so excited about it. Now my kids, who are probably
the shortest kids in town, are playing basketball and even
(00:41):
though they are the tiny ones, we just love the game.
And I heard this story about an Irish bar in
Staten Island being the originators of the March Madness tournament bracket,
and I was like, I got to talk to this guy.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So I have Terrence Haggerty with me.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
He is the owner of Odie's Club Forrest in Staten Island, Terrence,
thanks for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You got it too, Thank you for having me. Yeah,
so it's been quite the last couple of weeks. Yeah,
say the least. Yeah, the APE did a story, and
I'm starting to learn a little bit about journalism too,
because I realized that when the AP does a story,
it really goes out throughout the whole entire country. So
(01:25):
I've had calls from, you know, multiple people. So it's
been a pretty cool experience to be able to tell
my father's story. You know, my dad's not here anymore,
so you know, it's you know, I'm kind of, I guess,
the spokesperson for this right now. So you know, I'm
the youngest of five and I'm the only one who
really wanted to do what he did for his whole
(01:45):
life basically, So I've taken the bull by the horns
and away and you know, tried to get his story
out there as best as I can.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, that's actually part of the beauty of this. I
lost my dad a few years ago, and my dad
was this. He was a steel expert in his thing
was rail castings, and I love to be able to
talk about his legacy. Your dad is so much bigger
than life, I mean, especially in your community. And I
think that is really the beauty of your story and
probably why you're getting so much attention, because we're looking
(02:14):
for something that is a good story, a feel good
story about a family who works together.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
But your whole community came.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Together, and I think that, honestly, I feel like that
is the future that everybody is looking for, and the
future that everybody's looking for comes out of these stories
from the past. And so I want to go into
how this happened because I can't even imagine what it
was like for.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You guys as kids when this.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Started up in He opened the bar in seventy six,
and then the Brackets started in seventy seven, right, Yes, so.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
We started, you know, we opened in June of seventy six.
Actually in about a year and a half will be
he had fifty years. So we are very excited about that,
you know, because we're still running a day to day
restaurant bar. It's really a it's we've been here a
long time, so it's a it's a real where. I
guess we're kind of pillars of the community, I would say,
but you know, back in the late seventies, seventy six
(03:05):
seventy seven. My father was only twenty seven years old,
and I couldn't imagine running this place when I was
twenty seven. I was not mature enough. He probably wasn't
mature enough. But you know, with the helping of my
mother's father, they got started in June of seventy six,
like I just said, and in March of that following year,
him and his you know, just guys sitting around, you know,
(03:28):
just talking. You know, there was no internet obviously, so
you know, you did a lot of talking back then,
and you know there was probably some drinking involved as well.
So so they decided they were going to run a pool,
you know, where basically all you had to do was
pick the final four. You know, you didn't have to
pick every game, like the brackets and stuff like that,
but you just had to pick the final four, the
(03:49):
winner of the tournament, and the total points of the
final game. Not easy, right, you know, you would think
it was easy. So that first year we had eighty
eight picks in you know, I always say I fast
forward the two thousand and six because there's so many
stories in between those thirty years. But just the full
scope of it was eighty eight entries in seventy seven,
(04:12):
and then hour very last year we had over one
hundred and sixty thousand entries from TIX.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean that isn't but to me, this is the
most incredible part about this is what people don't think.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
There was no internet.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
This was before I mean, this is just like at
the beginning, in the midst of this, you see computers.
I mean, when they're doing this, it's you know, not
even the Apple to E. I that was the first
computer I remember, you know, yeah, it's all by hand.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
It was all by hand in the beginning, crazy and
then we got into computers. I would say like early
nineties was when it really got big. You know. I hate,
I know you went to Kentucky and I hate to
bring this up. You know, ninety two was a very
big year. That was the year the Latner shot. So
I'm very sorry I had to bring that out. But
I do remember that it was a Friday. I was
(05:00):
going ten, and I was here and the place was
going crazy, and it felt like to me as a
ten year old, like how wild it was. And then
after that it like it exploded. You know. I put
something on Instagram the other day I don't really talk
about it on like social media and stuff like that,
Like if you came to my place, like I don't
(05:21):
have anything hanging up saying like we're the home of
the you know, the pool and stuff. I made some
T shirts once that was about it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You were saying, you know, that wasn't really your dad's
thing to go out there and brag about it, and
it wasn't really your mom's thing, and you're kind of
honoring that legacy by just running the business and not
bragging on what was there. But I do think that
it is something for the public, for the American public.
Like I said, we all look for a feel good story,
(05:50):
and it's something so unique because I think once you
break it down, you know, the first eighty eight people
begin this, but then as you go on and you
talk about how many people had to have the brackets
and how many people had to be calculating this became
a community wide effort to make sure that the brackets
(06:10):
were calculated correctly and the money went out to the
winter correctly.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yes, it was very much a community based event. We
had I would say in the two thousands, we probably
had I would say sixty There were about seventy five
eighty people working this one thing. Like, we had computers
throughout houses. My mother's living room was filled with computers.
We had neighbors that would take in computers. Women like
(06:38):
my mother's friends. A lot of you know, a lot
of them are still here and they'll tell me like,
oh my god, I remember being at your house for
hours on end. And my mother would sit in the
sit in the kitchen. She my mother smoked cigarettes, So
my mother would smoke cigarettes in the kitchen, and she
was the money person. And we had a computer guy. Now,
another thing is that, you know, I'm happy I could
(07:00):
talk about this now because on the podcast you could
really I could branch out a little bit. But we
had multiple bars throughout New York taking picks, so like
if you went to Manhattan, you could find a place
downtown so you didn't have to drive.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
So it got so big.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah, that was that was a big deal. We had multiple,
multiple bars in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, so we
covered three boroughs and you know Brooklyn and Manhattan. Back
in the day, I mean, it was, it was. It
was wild as a kid too. It was just it
was it almost doesn't feel real talking about it now,
but it was it was a reality what was going on.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So does that ever, I know, you say it's done,
you know it ended, You're never going back now that
this has gotten so much attention, is there a little
part of you that goes man, I'd like to see
those days again.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Oh yeah, totally one. No hesitation, No hesitation. And I
used to have hesitation about it because you know, it's
it's a big deal and it's a legacy that we have,
and you know, I know what it would take to
do it, But you know, I worry about certain things,
like you know, I have a wife, I have three
young kids that I really care about. Obviously that my family.
(08:15):
You know, back in the day it was different. Now
it's you know, who knows. But I think it would
be pretty cool if I did it. I know it
would be a lot of money right away. But you know,
I'm enjoying this little ride we're on right now. You know,
it went eighteen years since we did it, and I
think it's as popular now as it's ever been.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Well absolutely, I mean my daughter came home, my eleven
year old came home from school the other day and
she's like, so, I got to work on my bracket
with Megan tonight and I'm like, what are you talking about?
And I think that's so funny that you have these
little kids that I mean, for them, it's just fun.
And you know that's that some of the people are
just doing it for fun. But for you guys, it
became a real money machine. But I think the best
(08:57):
part about it is it was always just ten bucks
per person, right.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
And that that and that's the most unique thing. It
never changed from ten dollars and seventy seven to ten
dollars in six You know, people would come up to
my dad, you got to make it twenty dollars. He
was like, no, no, it's ten. It's the fair. Like
anybody could be walking down the street and say, hey,
I'll walk into JODI's, I'll put a pick in and
you never know, I can be a millionaire.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Like that was reality, you know, So that is that
was reality.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
But that sounds crazy because the first one eighty eight people,
the winner took home eight hundred and eighty dollars. But
then suddenly, like you you fast forward years later and
it was over a million bucks.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, it was over a million. It went I remember
that numbers vividly. I remember in O two it was
like five hundred and thirty thousand, and then in three
it went up like two hundred thousand, and then oh
five it was one point two, and then in six
it was one point six. So we were on pace too,
(10:01):
Like if we made it to seven, we were going
to be over two million dollars. There was no doubt
about it.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Is there a point when that makes you nervous?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Like did you.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Ever feel like your parents were like, oh, my gosh,
we're responsible for so much money now.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
One hundred percent. My mother was, you know, my mom
was obviously the brains behind it, you know, like any
good man needs a good woman behind him, like I
with my wife smetually. Yeah, my mom was nervous. It
was a nerve wracking time. It was, you know, because
my father was. He was under a lot of scrutiny
back then too, because a lot of people what they
(10:34):
would say is like that's when like the chat room
started and the internet started growing a little bit. You know,
you could say something and you don't have to beat
your face to it or you need to it. And
there were a lot of hurtful and terrible things being
said about my dad. Now, my dad didn't know the internet.
If it spacked him in the face, he wouldn't have
known what the internet was.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Sometimes it does smack you face.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah, yeah, you know, my dad, he didn't really know
a lot of things are being said, but we ended
up telling him and that was a bad thing for
me because I was so upset to see such hurtful
things said about my dad, like you know, like he's
taking money's Jody's pocketing all the money like that, all
that stuff, and that was that couldn't have been further
(11:15):
from the truth. It really couldn't have been. You know,
he was an honest person. You know, he really cared
about the community. He helped run golf programs in Staten Island.
He was very into golf. You know, he really did
care about the pool and to see it and the
way it did was heartbreaking for him. And you tell
us a little.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Bit about that, because I don't think people know exactly
how it ended and after something. I think the important
thing to remember is this is something that, like I said,
brought the whole community together, because you're talking about they
had people across the whole community with the computers, with
the tickets, There were people managing where the money was
(11:56):
being kept, to keep the money safe.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I mean, this was a community effort.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
At the end, it sounds like someone one of the
winners was they they reported their winnings to the I R. S.
And then suddenly he's under this scrutiny and I and
I think if you look at it from the outside perspective,
it's like, oh, yeah, you're managing a lot of cash.
Now we have a lot more cash businesses, especially with marijuana.
And I think people understand like, Okay, there are cash
(12:20):
businesses and doesn't mean that people are bad.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But this was devastating to you guys.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, it was. It was brutal. It was December of six.
I remember the dates so clearly, Like you know, two
agents ended up coming in here from the Irs, you know,
scanned the daylights out of my dad totally. You know,
my father was like a frail man, you know, and
he really changed him considerably. Yeah, we had to hire
(12:47):
a tax lawyer, which ended up questioning us like over
two hundred thousand dollars for a lawyer. Multiple hearings we
had to go to in Brooklyn federal Federal court, and
you know, my dad had to like want like the
first like arraiment, like he had to like take his
belt off, he had to sit in the jail cell
like it was. It was. It was brutal for him
(13:08):
to go through that. And you know, they thought that
they were going to try and you know, maybe they
thought they were going to find something on him, and
they just didn't. They they they he underreported his income
taxes for three years, which totaled like twenty four thousand dollars,
so you know, in the grand scheme of things, it
was like eight thousand dollars a year that you know,
(13:29):
he you know, he owned a bar restaurant. So it was,
you know, it was it was hard. It was. It
was really hard. But in the end, you know, he
ended up just getting off, you know, there was no
house arrest, nothing like that. Just had to pay some fines.
You know. It really took a lot out of them,
it really did. It was. It was really rough. It
(13:49):
was rough on myself, my brothers, my sisters. Yeah, I'll
still never forget the day when you know, when he
found out like his fate in a way, like he
could have went to jail and my father would not
have lasted in jail. I don't think he would have
survived even the day. But he ended up getting off,
you know, because like we said, like he was very
much part of the community. He was very friendly with
(14:11):
you know, you know, elected officials, you know, judges, everything.
So people knew him through the chain. So so he
ended up getting off, which was a blessing. I'll still
never forget that. That was a Friday, and you know,
people came in that night and it was like a
celebration in a way. It was kind of a six celebration,
(14:32):
but you know, it was it was you know, he
was celebrating that he was he was coming home with us,
which was really cool and and that.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And he was just a pillar of the community. I mean,
people looked up to him.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
He really was. He was he was something else. He
would he would do anything for anybody. He really was
a good man, you know, he was. He had some
great lines. He was he was really funny. He was
a character. I took over from him when he passed away,
and I I'm not I'm not. I don't try and
(15:04):
be half the person that he was in the community
because he was just such a He had the name too,
like his name is Jody, Like you don't hear him
many males named Jody, but his name is Joseph. But
you know, to everybody, who's just Jody, and it was
it was a tough time, but we did get through it.
You know, we've overcome a lot in this business. You know,
I've had to overcome a lot too, you know, with
(15:26):
COVID and all that stuff. But you know, I guess
we just overcome things.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Hey, everyone, we've got more coming up on March Madness.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
But while we're talking money and bets and all of this,
I thought, well, it's a good time to talk about
my partners at American Alternative because I know people are
seeing the stock market go up and down and that
can be scary, but that's why you need to think
about the stability of gold. I'm excited to announce my
newest sponsor, American Alternative Assets. They take a different approach
(15:53):
to precious metals. American Alternative Assets gets to know you,
They get to know your family, and they get to
know your needs to make sure precious metals are actually
the right choice for you.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
You should just call and find out if it's a
good fit.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Because I know they only work with people they know
they can help, and then once you actually are a client,
they provide quarterly check ins to ensure your strategy is
still on the right track. And here's the best part.
American Alternative Assets is offering our listeners a free wealth
protection guide and up to ten thousand dollars in free
silver with a qualified purchase. So call today, you call
(16:29):
number eight A seven seven five to two gold or
visit Tutorsgold dot com right now to claim your free
wealth Protection Guide. Don't wait until it's too late, protect
your wealth and secure your future today. That's eight seven
seven five two two gold, or visit Tutorsgold dot com.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Now, stay tuned. We'll be right back with more about
March madness.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And I think that that's what people look at the
restaurant business and they say, manage. It's a really tough business,
and especially after twenty twenty and what we went through
with COVID and looking at I mean even here, I
look around and a lot of restaurants didn't make it.
But you, your restaurant has such a rich history. And again,
this is something that I've been talking to people in
(17:16):
Michigan about. I'm like, if we can bring back restaurants.
If we can bring back community. I mean, that's where
the history happens. And I talk about you know, that's
where we go after graduations and for birthdays and when
we celebrate a promotion.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Or when you have a big meeting.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know, you remember the places that you were because
that's what your community is.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And when I hear your.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Dad's story, that's exactly what I want to see all
across this country.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Is your dad's story.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Is people coming together realizing that that's the place to meet.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
I mean, it's like the Cheers story all over again.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
You know, there's a whole series, one of the best,
most well loved series on television was about a place
like your Dad's.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, it's a lot of people say that it's very
much a Cheers type place. Like I said, we're almost
fifty fifty years old, and to be able to say
that is just it gives me the chills.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
You know.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I tell everybody when my dad passed and then my
mom passed three years later. You know, people tell me, oh,
you're doing a good job, and I just say, you know,
to me, I'm just keeping an eye on their place.
And that's how I look at it. You know, it's
it's a hard it's a hard working job. COVID definitely
changed everything in New York. Especially what was that like
for the club? Oh my god, it was it was.
(18:31):
It was rough. It really was, you know, to walk
into an empty building basically for a year straight and
then they opened us back up and then they closed
us back down the second clothes and I thought was
the worst because it was right before Christmas, and we
knew what to expect at that point, like, you know,
deliveries were only going to get us so far, you know,
(18:51):
So you know, we got through it. You know, I
had to lower my staff, and you know, my sister
still works for us. She helped us. My wife was
a big help. My wife was still home with our
kids at the time, so you know, we tried to
think of you had to be creative too, you know,
you had to come up with like food specials just
for people to bull up. And then some of the
(19:12):
things that they made us do, which just I mean,
if looking back at it, it was one of the
most ridiculous things I've ever experienced in my life. Like
one example, we weren't allowed to sit people at the bar,
but I was allowed to build a high top table
and put it against the bar and people could sid
at the table. I swear it was. It was so
(19:33):
I lost customers because of it. I really did. Like
I remember one guy, like, we had an outdoor seating
and they told us we weren't allowed to time people
stand up. They can only sit. The only time they
can stand up was to go to the bathroom. But
if you stood next to a table and you talk
to the person, you had to be told to sit down.
It was. It was wild, and I lost customers because
(19:54):
of it. They're like, are you kidding me? Turns. I'm like,
I don't know. I just want to stay opened.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
It was. It was a tough time. It was a
brutal time, actually.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I mean, and you were talking about when your dad
went through what he did with the irs and the
cost of that, and I think about how, I mean,
you guys really truly are overcomers. Because when I thought
about that, I thought, well, I mean COVID had to
have been pretty similar.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
It had to have been a really significant loss.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Yeah, it was. It was terrible. And I joke around
with people too, and I always joke around with you
know now looking back and I always said, when I
go and I run into my father again, the first
thing I'm going to say to him is I had
to like how I handled that pandemic.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
That's what I'm sure. I'm sure you're like, what would
he be doing right now?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Oh my god, I couldn't even imagine. My mother was
a tough My mother was a tough She was from
Irish immigrants. Appearents were from Ireland. My mother was a
tough woman. My mother would have said, just stay opened,
I love it. Yeah, but my mom, you know, she
kind of gets lost in a lot of this too.
So he was the real like when it got big
(21:02):
the pool per se, like my mom was the one
who really ran the pool, Like she was the money person.
She was like, you know, when Mary spoke, people listened.
That's That's why I always say it. And we were
so proud of what we were able to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
It sounds like your dad was kind of like the
fun the guy that everybody wanted to come and see.
He was the welcoming He was kind of the personality
behind everything, and your mom was business.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah, my mom was business. He was the personality definitely.
So if people were to say to him, Hey, Jody,
I never see you here anymore. My father. My father
would always say, yeah, tell my wife that, because my
wife would say, I never see you anymore. So ecuse me,
and dragged in multiple places. You know, we miss him.
I love. This is why I loved talking about them
(21:48):
because to me, it kind of brings them back for
a little bit, and you know, to think about such
great memories we all had together. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, I feel the same about my dad. I mean,
it is really hard when you lose someone, but then
you get to talk about them and and this is
such a cool story, I think right now, So what
are you looking at right now in the bracket?
Speaker 1 (22:08):
What's your who do you have winning at all?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Well? I went to Saint John's so they lost unfortunately,
So that kind of took the spirit out of it
for me. But you know, I grew up a Duke
fan as a kid. I mean, well, I mean, no, no, no, no,
I'm not really any more. I've grown up a little
bit so realizing I think I realized I was never
going to Duke, so uh, you know, I like to
(22:33):
see you know, I like Duke and like they're very good.
I could see them winning the whole thing. You know,
they're playing Arizona to night, just over in Jersey. So
if buddy of mine asked me if I want to go,
I don't think I could pull it off because my
kids are very young and we're very into baseball right now.
And yeah, opening Opening Day, Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
(22:57):
Big Mets fan.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Too, so well, I of course my first love is Kentucky.
I'll be watching Michigan as well. I'm going to see
what happens, but it's always fun. So in Kentucky, I'll
just say, Kentucky has no national teams. So when Kentucky
would win a championship, the entire state rallied around Kentucky
and it was just such an amazing experience. I mean,
(23:21):
having come from Chicago, where you know, everybody obviously was
excited about the Bulls, you had Louisville and you had Kentucky,
so there's this big rivalry right in the state. And
when we would win, the university would just go crazy,
like everybody would go outside and it was just this
huge celebration. So I watched that and I think, I mean,
that is really very cool. It is to me, this
(23:44):
is so needed right now because the political environment is
it's just so stressful that when we can focus on
feel good stories and sports and that kind of stuff,
it just.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Seems like it's a great escape.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
And I love what you said earlier about their know,
there was no internet, so we were just talking to
each other, and this, I think kind of brings that back.
And so there is a selfish part of me that
would love to see you do this again because I
feel like that would bring that back. You know, even
though it would be online, you would still have a
lot of people that would come in and that would
(24:18):
bring back that sense of community.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Well, yeah, no, it would. And you know I have
the name, you know, I have the JODI's name. Like
other places have run pools and they just they don't succeed.
And maybe it's not as honest as it should be.
But you know, I'm an honest person. You know, I
would whatever comes in would go out. I really put
a big, big splash on it. And you know what
(24:41):
you said before about the Internet and stuff like, that's
how much the ball business has changed. Like I remember
as a kid coming in here. You know, we have
the grammar school and walk in at twelve, and then
we'd have a at twelve years old, and we'd walk
in and be a full bar and everybody just spoken
to each other. But now like you look up and
I have a full bar and it's like, you know,
I have thirteen asked at my boss, and like who's
(25:02):
on their phone? You know, nobody's talking to each other.
It's just changed so much like I missed the old days.
I think the old days were great. I mean I
was such a little kid back then. But you know,
it's life, life changing, and you know we have to
adjust to the times too, So it.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Is is life.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
And that's what I mean, that's kind of been there's
this tug for I think our generation, especially because we
do remember growing up and remember people always talking and
obviously not even having phones in school or any of that,
and then there's this there's this drive for us to
kind of pull that back. But our kids live in
a generation where that is totally different, and their way
(25:41):
of communicating is through that phone and through those apps,
and there's no I mean I can remember being on
my parents line in the house all night. You know,
my mom would get on the other line and get
off the phone. You got to go to school tomorrow,
you know. But now it's like there's this drive to
pull technology away from our kids, but that is also
social for them. So it's it's a challenge right now
(26:03):
to balance that totally.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Like my daughter is ten years old, Like she still
doesn't have a she doesn't have a phone yet, Like
my wife and I wait until the end of fifth
grade for her to get a phone, you know, because
once they get on the phone, you kind of lose them,
you know what I mean. I don't want to lose
my you know. I like having them around. I like
hearing them yelling, yell and fight with each other, So.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
That won't go away.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I can tell you, even once you get a phone,
they'll still fight with each other.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Oh my god, the school drop wolfsh Hope I get
one good day at a five, I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
How many kids do you have?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I have three? All right?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
All right?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah, two boys and a girl.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I have four girls.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And this morning, one of the first things I said
was do we have.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
To constantly pick at each other? Can we just not
pick at each other?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah? Before we go downstairs, I'll say, can we just
have one morning go smooth and doesn't happen?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
That's real life, that's the beautia of it, and I
so appreciate your story. Okay, so tell everybody how they
get to your bar, where it is, what they.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Can do, and how they can just continue the tradition.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Sure. Yeah, we're Jody's Club Forest. We're three seventy two
Forest Avenue in Staten Island. We're just a short, you know,
boat ride over from Manhattan. We're on the north shore
of Staten Island. Very much like we've spoken about, everybody
knows everybody. Everybody knows your business before even you know
your business. Yeah, you come into all place and you
kind of feel like family once you walk in. Yeah,
(27:35):
we're around, like I said, fifth almost fifty years and
I'm going to keep it going as long as possible.
You know, we have great food, we have a party room.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
We expanded and another thing we didn't talk about before
was like when we ran the pool, we were only
where this building I am in now, and we expanded
to the other side. So we added another like eighteen
hundred square feet. But it's like where we used to
take the picks over there, and that was a dry
cleaner too. That adds to the story too. There's just
so much to it. But now we're a restaurant. We
(28:05):
do a lot of parties, you know, very very family friendly,
very family friendly. Like our little league is right down
the block. We get a lot of families in after games.
And uh, you know, we're very proud of Jodie's and
you know we're going to keep it going as long
as we can.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Well, if I could encourage you a little bit, I
would say that if you put up a few pictures
or a plaque about the March Madness stuff. I just
think that that would be such a delight for all
of us from other states to come and stop by
and just see where it all started.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
So I would encourage you to do that.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I will, and when I do, you'll be the first
to know.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Thank you, thank you, Thank you so much for coming
on today. It was so much fun to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yes, this is very nice. Yeah, and good luck to
you with everything. And you know I'll be watching your
show and I appreciate you having me on as well.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Absolutely, all right, Terrence Haggerty, make sure you check out
the club. It's it's a place where, like you see
he said, it's for families, it's for everyone.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
But it's got a rich history and it's a big
part of the community. So thank you so much for
coming on.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
You got it to you have a good one.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Thanks and thank you all for listening today to the
Tutor Dixon Podcast for this episode and others. Go to
Tutor diisonpodcast dot com, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
And join us next time. Have a blessed day.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, everybody knows it's March, and so that means we
are in the midst of March Madness. So for all
of you out there that don't know, I'm not a
huge sports fan, but basketball is kind of my thing
because when I was growing up, I was growing up
in the Chicago suburbs and the Bulls were winning every year.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We had Michael Jordan, we had Dennis Brodman, we had
Scottie Pippen. We was like the dream team, right And
then I went from there to the University of Kentucky
and Rick Patino was the coach and we were winning
at Kentucky and it was just awesome and I was
so excited about it. Now my kids, who are probably
the shortest kids in town, are playing basketball and even
(00:41):
though they are the tiny ones, we just love the game.
And I heard this story about an Irish bar in
Staten Island being the originators of the March Madness tournament bracket,
and I was like, I got to talk to this guy.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So I have Terrence Haggerty with me.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
He is the owner of Odie's Club Forrest in Staten Island, Terrence,
thanks for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You got it too, Thank you for having me. Yeah,
so it's been quite the last couple of weeks. Yeah,
say the least. Yeah, the APE did a story, and
I'm starting to learn a little bit about journalism too,
because I realized that when the AP does a story,
it really goes out throughout the whole entire country. So
(01:25):
I've had calls from, you know, multiple people. So it's
been a pretty cool experience to be able to tell
my father's story. You know, my dad's not here anymore,
so you know, it's you know, I'm kind of, I guess,
the spokesperson for this right now. So you know, I'm
the youngest of five and I'm the only one who
really wanted to do what he did for his whole
(01:45):
life basically, So I've taken the bull by the horns
and away and you know, tried to get his story
out there as best as I can.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, that's actually part of the beauty of this. I
lost my dad a few years ago, and my dad
was this. He was a steel expert in his thing
was rail castings, and I love to be able to
talk about his legacy. Your dad is so much bigger
than life, I mean, especially in your community. And I
think that is really the beauty of your story and
probably why you're getting so much attention, because we're looking
(02:14):
for something that is a good story, a feel good
story about a family who works together.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
But your whole community came.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Together, and I think that, honestly, I feel like that
is the future that everybody is looking for, and the
future that everybody's looking for comes out of these stories
from the past. And so I want to go into
how this happened because I can't even imagine what it
was like for.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You guys as kids when this.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Started up in He opened the bar in seventy six,
and then the Brackets started in seventy seven, right, Yes, so.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
We started, you know, we opened in June of seventy six.
Actually in about a year and a half will be
he had fifty years. So we are very excited about that,
you know, because we're still running a day to day
restaurant bar. It's really a it's we've been here a
long time, so it's a it's a real where. I
guess we're kind of pillars of the community, I would say,
but you know, back in the late seventies, seventy six
(03:05):
seventy seven. My father was only twenty seven years old,
and I couldn't imagine running this place when I was
twenty seven. I was not mature enough. He probably wasn't
mature enough. But you know, with the helping of my
mother's father, they got started in June of seventy six,
like I just said, and in March of that following year,
him and his you know, just guys sitting around, you know,
(03:28):
just talking. You know, there was no internet obviously, so
you know, you did a lot of talking back then,
and you know there was probably some drinking involved as well.
So so they decided they were going to run a pool,
you know, where basically all you had to do was
pick the final four. You know, you didn't have to
pick every game, like the brackets and stuff like that,
but you just had to pick the final four, the
(03:49):
winner of the tournament, and the total points of the
final game. Not easy, right, you know, you would think
it was easy. So that first year we had eighty
eight picks in you know, I always say I fast
forward the two thousand and six because there's so many
stories in between those thirty years. But just the full
scope of it was eighty eight entries in seventy seven,
(04:12):
and then hour very last year we had over one
hundred and sixty thousand entries from TIX.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean that isn't but to me, this is the
most incredible part about this is what people don't think.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
There was no internet.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
This was before I mean, this is just like at
the beginning, in the midst of this, you see computers.
I mean, when they're doing this, it's you know, not
even the Apple to E. I that was the first
computer I remember, you know, yeah, it's all by hand.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
It was all by hand in the beginning, crazy and
then we got into computers. I would say like early
nineties was when it really got big. You know. I hate,
I know you went to Kentucky and I hate to
bring this up. You know, ninety two was a very
big year. That was the year the Latner shot. So
I'm very sorry I had to bring that out. But
I do remember that it was a Friday. I was
(05:00):
going ten, and I was here and the place was
going crazy, and it felt like to me as a
ten year old, like how wild it was. And then
after that it like it exploded. You know. I put
something on Instagram the other day I don't really talk
about it on like social media and stuff like that,
Like if you came to my place, like I don't
(05:21):
have anything hanging up saying like we're the home of
the you know, the pool and stuff. I made some
T shirts once that was about it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
You were saying, you know, that wasn't really your dad's
thing to go out there and brag about it, and
it wasn't really your mom's thing, and you're kind of
honoring that legacy by just running the business and not
bragging on what was there. But I do think that
it is something for the public, for the American public.
Like I said, we all look for a feel good story,
(05:50):
and it's something so unique because I think once you
break it down, you know, the first eighty eight people
begin this, but then as you go on and you
talk about how many people had to have the brackets
and how many people had to be calculating this became
a community wide effort to make sure that the brackets
(06:10):
were calculated correctly and the money went out to the
winter correctly.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yes, it was very much a community based event. We
had I would say in the two thousands, we probably
had I would say sixty There were about seventy five
eighty people working this one thing. Like, we had computers
throughout houses. My mother's living room was filled with computers.
We had neighbors that would take in computers. Women like
(06:38):
my mother's friends. A lot of you know, a lot
of them are still here and they'll tell me like,
oh my god, I remember being at your house for
hours on end. And my mother would sit in the
sit in the kitchen. She my mother smoked cigarettes, So
my mother would smoke cigarettes in the kitchen, and she
was the money person. And we had a computer guy. Now,
another thing is that, you know, I'm happy I could
(07:00):
talk about this now because on the podcast you could
really I could branch out a little bit. But we
had multiple bars throughout New York taking picks, so like
if you went to Manhattan, you could find a place
downtown so you didn't have to drive.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
So it got so big.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah, that was that was a big deal. We had multiple,
multiple bars in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, so we
covered three boroughs and you know Brooklyn and Manhattan. Back
in the day, I mean, it was, it was. It
was wild as a kid too. It was just it
was it almost doesn't feel real talking about it now,
but it was it was a reality what was going on.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So does that ever, I know, you say it's done,
you know it ended, You're never going back now that
this has gotten so much attention, is there a little
part of you that goes man, I'd like to see
those days again.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Oh yeah, totally one. No hesitation, No hesitation. And I
used to have hesitation about it because you know, it's
it's a big deal and it's a legacy that we have,
and you know, I know what it would take to
do it, But you know, I worry about certain things,
like you know, I have a wife, I have three
young kids that I really care about. Obviously that my family.
(08:15):
You know, back in the day it was different. Now
it's you know, who knows. But I think it would
be pretty cool if I did it. I know it
would be a lot of money right away. But you know,
I'm enjoying this little ride we're on right now. You know,
it went eighteen years since we did it, and I
think it's as popular now as it's ever been.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Well absolutely, I mean my daughter came home, my eleven
year old came home from school the other day and
she's like, so, I got to work on my bracket
with Megan tonight and I'm like, what are you talking about?
And I think that's so funny that you have these
little kids that I mean, for them, it's just fun.
And you know that's that some of the people are
just doing it for fun. But for you guys, it
became a real money machine. But I think the best
(08:57):
part about it is it was always just ten bucks
per person, right.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
And that that and that's the most unique thing. It
never changed from ten dollars and seventy seven to ten
dollars in six You know, people would come up to
my dad, you got to make it twenty dollars. He
was like, no, no, it's ten. It's the fair. Like
anybody could be walking down the street and say, hey,
I'll walk into JODI's, I'll put a pick in and
you never know, I can be a millionaire.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Like that was reality, you know, So that is that
was reality.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
But that sounds crazy because the first one eighty eight people,
the winner took home eight hundred and eighty dollars. But
then suddenly, like you you fast forward years later and
it was over a million bucks.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, it was over a million. It went I remember
that numbers vividly. I remember in O two it was
like five hundred and thirty thousand, and then in three
it went up like two hundred thousand, and then oh
five it was one point two, and then in six
it was one point six. So we were on pace too,
(10:01):
Like if we made it to seven, we were going
to be over two million dollars. There was no doubt
about it.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Is there a point when that makes you nervous?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Like did you.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Ever feel like your parents were like, oh, my gosh,
we're responsible for so much money now.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
One hundred percent. My mother was, you know, my mom
was obviously the brains behind it, you know, like any
good man needs a good woman behind him, like I
with my wife smetually. Yeah, my mom was nervous. It
was a nerve wracking time. It was, you know, because
my father was. He was under a lot of scrutiny
back then too, because a lot of people what they
(10:34):
would say is like that's when like the chat room
started and the internet started growing a little bit. You know,
you could say something and you don't have to beat
your face to it or you need to it. And
there were a lot of hurtful and terrible things being
said about my dad. Now, my dad didn't know the internet.
If it spacked him in the face, he wouldn't have
known what the internet was.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Sometimes it does smack you face.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah, yeah, you know, my dad, he didn't really know
a lot of things are being said, but we ended
up telling him and that was a bad thing for
me because I was so upset to see such hurtful
things said about my dad, like you know, like he's
taking money's Jody's pocketing all the money like that, all
that stuff, and that was that couldn't have been further
(11:15):
from the truth. It really couldn't have been. You know,
he was an honest person. You know, he really cared
about the community. He helped run golf programs in Staten Island.
He was very into golf. You know, he really did
care about the pool and to see it and the
way it did was heartbreaking for him. And you tell
us a little.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Bit about that, because I don't think people know exactly
how it ended and after something. I think the important
thing to remember is this is something that, like I said,
brought the whole community together, because you're talking about they
had people across the whole community with the computers, with
the tickets, There were people managing where the money was
(11:56):
being kept, to keep the money safe.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I mean, this was a community effort.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
At the end, it sounds like someone one of the
winners was they they reported their winnings to the I R. S.
And then suddenly he's under this scrutiny and I and
I think if you look at it from the outside perspective,
it's like, oh, yeah, you're managing a lot of cash.
Now we have a lot more cash businesses, especially with marijuana.
And I think people understand like, Okay, there are cash
(12:20):
businesses and doesn't mean that people are bad.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But this was devastating to you guys.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, it was. It was brutal. It was December of six.
I remember the dates so clearly, Like you know, two
agents ended up coming in here from the Irs, you know,
scanned the daylights out of my dad totally. You know,
my father was like a frail man, you know, and
he really changed him considerably. Yeah, we had to hire
(12:47):
a tax lawyer, which ended up questioning us like over
two hundred thousand dollars for a lawyer. Multiple hearings we
had to go to in Brooklyn federal Federal court, and
you know, my dad had to like want like the
first like arraiment, like he had to like take his
belt off, he had to sit in the jail cell
like it was. It was. It was brutal for him
(13:08):
to go through that. And you know, they thought that
they were going to try and you know, maybe they
thought they were going to find something on him, and
they just didn't. They they they he underreported his income
taxes for three years, which totaled like twenty four thousand dollars,
so you know, in the grand scheme of things, it
was like eight thousand dollars a year that you know,
(13:29):
he you know, he owned a bar restaurant. So it was,
you know, it was it was hard. It was. It
was really hard. But in the end, you know, he
ended up just getting off, you know, there was no
house arrest, nothing like that. Just had to pay some fines.
You know. It really took a lot out of them,
it really did. It was. It was really rough. It
(13:49):
was rough on myself, my brothers, my sisters. Yeah, I'll
still never forget the day when you know, when he
found out like his fate in a way, like he
could have went to jail and my father would not
have lasted in jail. I don't think he would have
survived even the day. But he ended up getting off,
you know, because like we said, like he was very
much part of the community. He was very friendly with
(14:11):
you know, you know, elected officials, you know, judges, everything.
So people knew him through the chain. So so he
ended up getting off, which was a blessing. I'll still
never forget that. That was a Friday, and you know,
people came in that night and it was like a
celebration in a way. It was kind of a six celebration,
(14:32):
but you know, it was it was you know, he
was celebrating that he was he was coming home with us,
which was really cool and and that.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And he was just a pillar of the community. I mean,
people looked up to him.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
He really was. He was he was something else. He
would he would do anything for anybody. He really was
a good man, you know, he was. He had some
great lines. He was he was really funny. He was
a character. I took over from him when he passed away,
and I I'm not I'm not. I don't try and
(15:04):
be half the person that he was in the community
because he was just such a He had the name too,
like his name is Jody, Like you don't hear him
many males named Jody, but his name is Joseph. But
you know, to everybody, who's just Jody, and it was
it was a tough time, but we did get through it.
You know, we've overcome a lot in this business. You know,
I've had to overcome a lot too, you know, with
(15:26):
COVID and all that stuff. But you know, I guess
we just overcome things.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Hey, everyone, we've got more coming up on March Madness.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
But while we're talking money and bets and all of this,
I thought, well, it's a good time to talk about
my partners at American Alternative because I know people are
seeing the stock market go up and down and that
can be scary, but that's why you need to think
about the stability of gold. I'm excited to announce my
newest sponsor, American Alternative Assets. They take a different approach
(15:53):
to precious metals. American Alternative Assets gets to know you,
They get to know your family, and they get to
know your needs to make sure precious metals are actually
the right choice for you.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
You should just call and find out if it's a
good fit.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Because I know they only work with people they know
they can help, and then once you actually are a client,
they provide quarterly check ins to ensure your strategy is
still on the right track. And here's the best part.
American Alternative Assets is offering our listeners a free wealth
protection guide and up to ten thousand dollars in free
silver with a qualified purchase. So call today, you call
(16:29):
number eight A seven seven five to two gold or
visit Tutorsgold dot com right now to claim your free
wealth Protection Guide. Don't wait until it's too late, protect
your wealth and secure your future today. That's eight seven
seven five two two gold, or visit Tutorsgold dot com.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Now, stay tuned. We'll be right back with more about
March madness.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And I think that that's what people look at the
restaurant business and they say, manage. It's a really tough business,
and especially after twenty twenty and what we went through
with COVID and looking at I mean even here, I
look around and a lot of restaurants didn't make it.
But you, your restaurant has such a rich history. And again,
this is something that I've been talking to people in
(17:16):
Michigan about. I'm like, if we can bring back restaurants.
If we can bring back community. I mean, that's where
the history happens. And I talk about you know, that's
where we go after graduations and for birthdays and when
we celebrate a promotion.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Or when you have a big meeting.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know, you remember the places that you were because
that's what your community is.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And when I hear your.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Dad's story, that's exactly what I want to see all
across this country.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Is your dad's story.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Is people coming together realizing that that's the place to meet.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
I mean, it's like the Cheers story all over again.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
You know, there's a whole series, one of the best,
most well loved series on television was about a place
like your Dad's.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, it's a lot of people say that it's very
much a Cheers type place. Like I said, we're almost
fifty fifty years old, and to be able to say
that is just it gives me the chills.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
You know.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I tell everybody when my dad passed and then my
mom passed three years later. You know, people tell me, oh,
you're doing a good job, and I just say, you know,
to me, I'm just keeping an eye on their place.
And that's how I look at it. You know, it's
it's a hard it's a hard working job. COVID definitely
changed everything in New York. Especially what was that like
for the club? Oh my god, it was it was.
(18:31):
It was rough. It really was, you know, to walk
into an empty building basically for a year straight and
then they opened us back up and then they closed
us back down the second clothes and I thought was
the worst because it was right before Christmas, and we
knew what to expect at that point, like, you know,
deliveries were only going to get us so far, you know,
(18:51):
So you know, we got through it. You know, I
had to lower my staff, and you know, my sister
still works for us. She helped us. My wife was
a big help. My wife was still home with our
kids at the time, so you know, we tried to
think of you had to be creative too, you know,
you had to come up with like food specials just
for people to bull up. And then some of the
(19:12):
things that they made us do, which just I mean,
if looking back at it, it was one of the
most ridiculous things I've ever experienced in my life. Like
one example, we weren't allowed to sit people at the bar,
but I was allowed to build a high top table
and put it against the bar and people could sid
at the table. I swear it was. It was so
(19:33):
I lost customers because of it. I really did. Like
I remember one guy, like, we had an outdoor seating
and they told us we weren't allowed to time people
stand up. They can only sit. The only time they
can stand up was to go to the bathroom. But
if you stood next to a table and you talk
to the person, you had to be told to sit down.
It was. It was wild, and I lost customers because
(19:54):
of it. They're like, are you kidding me? Turns. I'm like,
I don't know. I just want to stay opened.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
It was. It was a tough time. It was a
brutal time, actually.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I mean, and you were talking about when your dad
went through what he did with the irs and the
cost of that, and I think about how, I mean,
you guys really truly are overcomers. Because when I thought
about that, I thought, well, I mean COVID had to
have been pretty similar.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
It had to have been a really significant loss.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Yeah, it was. It was terrible. And I joke around
with people too, and I always joke around with you
know now looking back and I always said, when I
go and I run into my father again, the first
thing I'm going to say to him is I had
to like how I handled that pandemic.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
That's what I'm sure. I'm sure you're like, what would
he be doing right now?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Oh my god, I couldn't even imagine. My mother was
a tough My mother was a tough She was from
Irish immigrants. Appearents were from Ireland. My mother was a
tough woman. My mother would have said, just stay opened,
I love it. Yeah, but my mom, you know, she
kind of gets lost in a lot of this too.
So he was the real like when it got big
(21:02):
the pool per se, like my mom was the one
who really ran the pool, Like she was the money person.
She was like, you know, when Mary spoke, people listened.
That's That's why I always say it. And we were
so proud of what we were able to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
It sounds like your dad was kind of like the
fun the guy that everybody wanted to come and see.
He was the welcoming He was kind of the personality
behind everything, and your mom was business.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah, my mom was business. He was the personality definitely.
So if people were to say to him, Hey, Jody,
I never see you here anymore. My father. My father
would always say, yeah, tell my wife that, because my
wife would say, I never see you anymore. So ecuse me,
and dragged in multiple places. You know, we miss him.
I love. This is why I loved talking about them
(21:48):
because to me, it kind of brings them back for
a little bit, and you know, to think about such
great memories we all had together. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, I feel the same about my dad. I mean,
it is really hard when you lose someone, but then
you get to talk about them and and this is
such a cool story, I think right now, So what
are you looking at right now in the bracket?
Speaker 1 (22:08):
What's your who do you have winning at all?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Well? I went to Saint John's so they lost unfortunately,
So that kind of took the spirit out of it
for me. But you know, I grew up a Duke
fan as a kid. I mean, well, I mean, no, no, no, no,
I'm not really any more. I've grown up a little
bit so realizing I think I realized I was never
going to Duke, so uh, you know, I like to
(22:33):
see you know, I like Duke and like they're very good.
I could see them winning the whole thing. You know,
they're playing Arizona to night, just over in Jersey. So
if buddy of mine asked me if I want to go,
I don't think I could pull it off because my
kids are very young and we're very into baseball right now.
And yeah, opening Opening Day, Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
(22:57):
Big Mets fan.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Too, so well, I of course my first love is Kentucky.
I'll be watching Michigan as well. I'm going to see
what happens, but it's always fun. So in Kentucky, I'll
just say, Kentucky has no national teams. So when Kentucky
would win a championship, the entire state rallied around Kentucky
and it was just such an amazing experience. I mean,
(23:21):
having come from Chicago, where you know, everybody obviously was
excited about the Bulls, you had Louisville and you had Kentucky,
so there's this big rivalry right in the state. And
when we would win, the university would just go crazy,
like everybody would go outside and it was just this
huge celebration. So I watched that and I think, I mean,
that is really very cool. It is to me, this
(23:44):
is so needed right now because the political environment is
it's just so stressful that when we can focus on
feel good stories and sports and that kind of stuff,
it just.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Seems like it's a great escape.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
And I love what you said earlier about their know,
there was no internet, so we were just talking to
each other, and this, I think kind of brings that back.
And so there is a selfish part of me that
would love to see you do this again because I
feel like that would bring that back. You know, even
though it would be online, you would still have a
lot of people that would come in and that would
(24:18):
bring back that sense of community.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Well, yeah, no, it would. And you know I have
the name, you know, I have the JODI's name. Like
other places have run pools and they just they don't succeed.
And maybe it's not as honest as it should be.
But you know, I'm an honest person. You know, I
would whatever comes in would go out. I really put
a big, big splash on it. And you know what
(24:41):
you said before about the Internet and stuff like, that's
how much the ball business has changed. Like I remember
as a kid coming in here. You know, we have
the grammar school and walk in at twelve, and then
we'd have a at twelve years old, and we'd walk
in and be a full bar and everybody just spoken
to each other. But now like you look up and
I have a full bar and it's like, you know,
I have thirteen asked at my boss, and like who's
(25:02):
on their phone? You know, nobody's talking to each other.
It's just changed so much like I missed the old days.
I think the old days were great. I mean I
was such a little kid back then. But you know,
it's life, life changing, and you know we have to
adjust to the times too, So it.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Is is life.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
And that's what I mean, that's kind of been there's
this tug for I think our generation, especially because we
do remember growing up and remember people always talking and
obviously not even having phones in school or any of that,
and then there's this there's this drive for us to
kind of pull that back. But our kids live in
a generation where that is totally different, and their way
(25:41):
of communicating is through that phone and through those apps,
and there's no I mean I can remember being on
my parents line in the house all night. You know,
my mom would get on the other line and get
off the phone. You got to go to school tomorrow,
you know. But now it's like there's this drive to
pull technology away from our kids, but that is also
social for them. So it's it's a challenge right now
(26:03):
to balance that totally.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Like my daughter is ten years old, Like she still
doesn't have a she doesn't have a phone yet, Like
my wife and I wait until the end of fifth
grade for her to get a phone, you know, because
once they get on the phone, you kind of lose them,
you know what I mean. I don't want to lose
my you know. I like having them around. I like
hearing them yelling, yell and fight with each other, So.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
That won't go away.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I can tell you, even once you get a phone,
they'll still fight with each other.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Oh my god, the school drop wolfsh Hope I get
one good day at a five, I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
How many kids do you have?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I have three? All right?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
All right?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah, two boys and a girl.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I have four girls.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And this morning, one of the first things I said
was do we have.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
To constantly pick at each other? Can we just not
pick at each other?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah? Before we go downstairs, I'll say, can we just
have one morning go smooth and doesn't happen?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
That's real life, that's the beautia of it, and I
so appreciate your story. Okay, so tell everybody how they
get to your bar, where it is, what they.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Can do, and how they can just continue the tradition.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Sure. Yeah, we're Jody's Club Forest. We're three seventy two
Forest Avenue in Staten Island. We're just a short, you know,
boat ride over from Manhattan. We're on the north shore
of Staten Island. Very much like we've spoken about, everybody
knows everybody. Everybody knows your business before even you know
your business. Yeah, you come into all place and you
kind of feel like family once you walk in. Yeah,
(27:35):
we're around, like I said, fifth almost fifty years and
I'm going to keep it going as long as possible.
You know, we have great food, we have a party room.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
We expanded and another thing we didn't talk about before
was like when we ran the pool, we were only
where this building I am in now, and we expanded
to the other side. So we added another like eighteen
hundred square feet. But it's like where we used to
take the picks over there, and that was a dry
cleaner too. That adds to the story too. There's just
so much to it. But now we're a restaurant. We
(28:05):
do a lot of parties, you know, very very family friendly,
very family friendly. Like our little league is right down
the block. We get a lot of families in after games.
And uh, you know, we're very proud of Jodie's and
you know we're going to keep it going as long
as we can.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Well, if I could encourage you a little bit, I
would say that if you put up a few pictures
or a plaque about the March Madness stuff. I just
think that that would be such a delight for all
of us from other states to come and stop by
and just see where it all started.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
So I would encourage you to do that.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I will, and when I do, you'll be the first
to know.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Thank you, thank you, Thank you so much for coming
on today. It was so much fun to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yes, this is very nice. Yeah, and good luck to
you with everything. And you know I'll be watching your
show and I appreciate you having me on as well.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Absolutely, all right, Terrence Haggerty, make sure you check out
the club. It's it's a place where, like you see
he said, it's for families, it's for everyone.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
But it's got a rich history and it's a big
part of the community. So thank you so much for
coming on.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
You got it to you have a good one.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Thanks and thank you all for listening today to the
Tutor Dixon Podcast for this episode and others. Go to
Tutor diisonpodcast dot com, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
And join us next time. Have a blessed day.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
Show Links
WebsiteNewsletterPopular Podcasts
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.