Ten years ago today a legend in the college football media world left us as Beano Cook passed away. The 1954 University of Pittsburgh graduate went on to become one the most recognizable faces associated with college football media but before his ESPN career that most of us knew him from, he served as a sports publicist at Pitt.
Eventually Cook worked his way into the media world and upon doing so, waste no time becoming one of the biggest names in the business.
John D. Lucaks, a Notre Dame graduate and passionate college football fan in his own right worked with Cook for years after developing a unique friendship on a whim. Lucaks released Cook’s biography, “Haven’t They Suffered Enough?” in 2021 and as you’d probably guess, has plenty of stories of Beano that involve Notre Dame.
I was seven years old when Beano declared that Ron Powlus would win multiple Heisman Trophies and just assumed Cook was a Notre Dame backer at heart. After reading this book I’ll let you know that he certainly wasn’t (doesn’t make him any less of a college football enthusiast) but sure did have some tales involving Notre Dame.
I’ll also say that in no point in my life have a I read a biography and in my head heard the featured person’s voice as clearly I did Beano’s with this book.
Find out below just a few of the stories that Lucaks shares in the book that involve Beano irritating a few Notre Dame priests during his publicist days at Pitt, the story behind his Powlus prediction, and what game Notre Dame won that earned Beano a huge pay day!
All are excerpts from the book that can be purchased for any longtime college football fan on Amazon.