The Eric Metaxas Show - Bob Muzikowski

Episode Date: May 13, 2021

Eric sits down with , founder of Chicago Hope Academy and subject of the film, "Hardball," where Keanu Reeves plays Bob, who's real-life efforts transformed a dangerous inner-city community.

This show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Hello there, folks. I have a very special guest, a really dear friend. His name is Bob Mazakowski. What is that, Polish? Yes. Bob, most people, we've been friends for, I got probably 25 years, something like that. We met through our friend BJ Weber.

You have a story that I can't, I never know how to do this justice. So let's, let me just lay it out, and then we'll go back. Your name's Bob Mozakowski. Most people call you Musikowski, because who wants to say Musikowski? You live in the inner city of Chicago. You started a Christian high school. What year did you start it? We bought closed Catholic school in 2004, opened the school in 2005.

Okay. High school. And I was there. I remember when you were doing, you were doing all the, you know, know, whatever, renovations, yeah. So this is a wild success, but the story is wilder than the success of Chicago Hope, because this is a, I mean, I say this, it's a serious Christian school. It's not like a Christian school, like St. So-and-so, no, no, no. This is a real Christian school in the inner city, overwhelming minority population, tremendously successful. But I want to go backwards

to how you got into all this stuff and to tell your story. So before we go backwards, let's at least, let me give you an opportunity to say, you know, tell us about Chicago Hope. So Chicago Academy is high school. Everybody says you should start with young kids, of course, but they're cute and adorable, but a 14, 15, 16, a kid will hit you back. And that's where a lot of people ruin their lives in high school. A kid will hit you back.

Yeah, I mean, a 14, 15, and 16-year-old is not a cute little six-year-old. old. So you can't remediate somebody at 14 probably to Harvard, but you can make them a good man and a good woman. And so that's what we're trying to do at Chicago Hope. The scripture's on a wall as you walk in the front door. So you know who we are. The scripture is on the wall as you walk throughout the entire building. So there's no, so many people are apologizing for their faith. I mean, we're not doing that. We're getting gunned down in the street in massive numbers. God is the least of our problem. So if you get offended because he has a lot of script. And it cost us millions of dollars. We didn't get charter school money, which we were

offered under Mayor Daly. But we didn't get the money because we have chapel and we're Christian school, which is ridiculous, right? So they didn't give you the money because you're too Christian. Well, you get to find. It's a distortion of the separation of church and state laws, right? I give speeches on that distortion. But so you, but I mean, look, I visited the school. Independent school, independent school, no government money. I visited the school, and we've been friends for a long time, But your story is so crazy, and it explains how you got to a place in life where you were willing to take your family, seven kids, move to the inner city to do this. What year did you guys move? Well, 88.

So that's not really what happened. People think we had this plan. We moved to Chicago as newlyweds, Tina, my wife and I, and she was a spot trader, a registered pound trader. I had a new job, and we moved there. And by mistake, took a rehabed brownstone, and it turned out to be two blocks from Cabrini Green, the worst housing project in America. Yeah, but guess what, Bob? You stayed. Yeah, you stayed. Yeah, excuse me, you stayed, and you're still there.

Well, they knocked Cabrini Green down, and we moved to the west side. They took the ball field away, and the little baseball really is what morphed the whole thing. Okay, so we've got it. First of all, there's a book. It's called Safe at Home. this book tells the story of what? Because it doesn't tell about the school. No, it tells the story of the little league baseball program.

So long story short. When are you going to mention Keanu Reeves? Okay, he's got wards. I know. So I started having a catch with some of the boys. I bought him baseball gloves. In those days. Hang on a second, because I'm serious.

Like you got to, I want people to understand. Okay. Your story that's in this book, safe at home, Bob Mazzikowski was turned into a Hollywood movie starring Keanu Reeves. Thank you. And Diane Lane. And Diane Lane.

Okay, but Keanu Reeves plays you? Correct. That's hilarious. He misplaced me. That is so hilarious. I would prefer Bruce Willis. He plays you. Yeah.

Okay. But I'm saying it's the story of you coming into the inner city working with kids that are from broken homes and the whole story. That's kind of your start, right? Yeah, so. I started having a catch with some of the boys. We had six or seven boys. I bought them baseball gloves. I said, put these posters up on the telephone polls, 20 little posts,

literally try out Saturday morning. And if we get seven or eight more boys, we can have a team. And 300 boys show up. And we become the biggest black little league in America. And that's the story of Safe at Home. Correct. Now, when you say the biggest black little league in America, that was in Chicago. Correct.

Okay. But you started this in New York. No. The second league was the East Harlem Little League in New York on 112th in Madison. Okay. I want to go there because I want people to know you. I want people to get the backstory of Bob Mazzikowski. I'm getting a crazy echo in my ear.

Anyway, here's the thing. I know you through BJ Weber. So if you don't mind, I know you told this story in the program before, but how you came to be, you know, a fanatic for Jesus in the middle of the inner city, working with minorities. I want to go back. So you grew up in Bayonne, Newark area.

The Bleeder from Bayonne. Chuck Wepner. My neighbor fought Muhammad Ali, knocked him down in the eighth round, went the distance, and Stallone saw the Weppner Ali fight and wrote Rocky in three days. And that's true.

Rocky's about the Bayonne bomber, Chuck Weapner. And there are ten guys in my neighbor that could beat up Chuck. So you grew up in a tough neighborhood. Yeah, yeah. And... But nobody had guns. Nobody had guns in Bayon.

You're getting a fight, fist fight, worst case a knife, maybe. But you had to fight. And when you have to fight, somebody could hit you back. You know, the thing going on now is so cowardly, it's ridiculous. What could be more cowardly than driving by and shooting at someone? I can't think of anything. Get out of the car and punch me in a face. So you, we're going to get to, I just want my audience, because I'm, there's so much to get into.

Your story is so crazy. I just want to take a piece at a time. So you end up now, you start this Christian school in the inner city in Chicago. But to go backwards, you are raised in a tough area beyond New Jersey. What is your story? Are you thinking, I'm going to grow up and go to college? What are you thinking? My father dropped out of high school to fight the Germans, World War II.

That's my uncle's. And so first one. Wait, wait, wait, you correct me up. Your father dropped out of high school to fight the Germans. Yes, there's a picture of my... You don't mean the kids from down the block. You're talking about the night. I have a picture of the Bayonne times. My uncle Lenny, my uncle Joe, and my father, December 8th, 1941, signing up to join the Army and the Navy.

So, and so came back working in fact. My father died of lung cancer. I played football and baseball and basketball in high school and went to Columbia University to play football. So you were a pretty good athlete? Yeah, I got recruited to play. My father was dying at the time, and Bayonne is an hour from Columbia. So I chose Columbia. I was on a a powerful four, five, and one team. What does that mean? We weren't very good in football. Oh, you mean the team was four and four, five? No, it's good for Columbia. The whole school looks like Woody Allen.

How are you going to win football game? Actually, that's very funny because that's true. But wait, so you come, all right, you're an athlete, you go to college. Did you, were other members of your family college bound, even though you came from a tough place? Yeah, everybody went to college. All my brothers and sisters graduated from college. Okay.

So you go to Columbia. why you were at Columbia some of the people that drifted in and out there's a guy named Barry Sotero Obama I went to college But he became

Barack Obama Correct yeah But his name was Barry Sotero Wasn't it? He was a guy from Hawaii He was there He was smoking weed a lot He didn't know that he would become President of the United States

You know he had a good answer for that And former President Obama was a Columbia University student So he transferred as a sophomore from Occidental. And I, at the drinking age, was 18 at the time. My father had passed away in my senior year. And through graduate school, I ran the Columbia University pub. You ran the pub?

Yeah. That's good for an addictive personality. Yeah, I'm 34-year sober alcoholic. So, yeah, that was a perfect job for me. So, but in that, I was telling you in the car, George Stephanopoulos was around then. Governor Patterson of New York and Governor McGreeve of New Jersey were all on that. And Barack Obama.

Yeah. Future President of the United States. So you, okay. And to his credit, when I asked him about drugs and all that, he said, when I was young and stupid, I was young and stupid. Yeah. Well, no, obviously he was young. He was a stoner. We were all young and stupid.

But so when we come back, folks, I promise you, you're not going to believe half of this story. It's an amazing story. The good news is it ends very well. Safe at Home is the book. Bob Mazakowski will be right back. When running a business, HR

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It's been an insane success. Chicago Hope Academy. Your book is safe at home made into a movie Keanu Reeves Reeves plays you. hilarious concept because I know you. It's so funny. When I walked in, she thought I was Keanu. She thought you were Keanu. I get that all the time.

So seriously, though, when you were in Columbia and onward, let's cut to the chase, you were a wild man. You came from a tough neighborhood. You start doing Coke like crazy. Tell us that part of your life. So never took a drug on my limb, never smoked a cigarette, right? I took some speed for football games. At Yale, we tied. Yale 3 to 3 at Yale's homecoming. I remember taking speed for the...

Everybody at Yale looks like Woody Allen also. I know. So we are without excuse. Right, right. And my senior year, I was admitted to a four-year program, business and law school, which is prestigious, but I didn't realize how fortunate I was at that time. And I was running the school pub, and a gentleman who has become a friend now, Art H, said, you look tired, try this. So it's 2 o'clock in the morning, which is insane now as a parent.

we were open, the Columbia University Pub was Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, opened from 9 to 3 a.m. And nobody was watching us. I'm talking about 6 or 700 people. But this is like 1979, 80? Early 80s. Right, okay. So I... You look tired, try this. Snort cocaine. I never smoked a cigarette my life. First time I took a hard drug.

Second, and I stayed up all night studying. Second night, I tried it. And the third night, he came by and I said, is it cheaper if we get a lot of that? And in my book, I said, I only did cocaine. that first time after that, it did me. And so it's just an horrible drug. I mean, what did you do this week? And I spent $1,000. What did you do?

I sat around and felt nervous. So anyway, I had to run with that, and I quit. I didn't do it. I was a streaker, you know, I wouldn't do it for a month. But when I did it, I'd be gone Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. You wouldn't see me. So after college, football, obviously wasn't good enough to play professionally or anything like that. So I picked up rugby, and there I meet B.J. Weber, the Shepherd of Times Square.

Okay, you're working on Wall Street? No, no, not yet. I was the Labor Relations Director for Mayor Koch after graduate school. I ended up taking a master's degree in public administration. They offered me like $40,000, and I took it because I had a summer internship with the city. So I worked for Mayor Koch for three years. Unbelievable. During that time, I was playing rugby, and BJ Weber, the minister was playing rugby.

Our friend, BJ, the Begemeister, I got to have him on to tell his story. but he connected me to a million people. You're one of them. BJ at that time, he was working with the pimps, prostitutes, drug addicts. At the Lamb's Church. At the Lamb's Church in Times Square. When it was bad. When it was very bad.

But he was a rugby player. You pick up rugby. You meet BJ. I'm playing my game. I played my game. The great thing about rugby is there's an A, B, and a C game. So everyone's going to get a chance to play. Right?

The second string guy is playing a next game. in the third time. Everybody plays until you're gone, right? So the people who played in the first game are traditionally getting pretty drunk and wasted on the sideline while they watch the other games. And BJ is playing the second game and is thrown out for fighting, which is hard to do in rugby because you could get a guy legitimately. You don't have to fight. So somebody says to me, that guy's a priest and he's thrown out of the game for fighting. So I'm kind of digging this at the moment. And I had a sippy cup with cocaine in it. And I offered him some. And he's a minister. So he poo-poohed me, gave me his card, and Lamb's Church, and the next morning with a

brutal hangover, I took it as a challenge. I go to the Lamb's Church, 130 West 44th Street. And I'm Catholic. And for the first time in my life, I'm seeing people call for a fair catch when they sing. Nobody ever gets that joke. I never saw it. Unless you see it visually. But people lifting their hands in worship, you say calling for a fair catch. And there are all kinds of people in there, from homeless people to middle class people. And after it, everyone ate chicken or whatever it was. But the fact of the matter is, I'd never seen anything like it. Like, this is church like it's supposed to be.

There's poor people, rich people, right? And I'm saying, don't you realize that guy smells? The guy next to you and the person that didn't care because they were all about Jesus, right? So I started to go to the church. I'm still doing my Jekyll and I think, right? And BJ invites me that the presidential prayer breakfast under President Reagan.

We take a train down. He's going to go fellowship with his friends. I said, give him my ticket. I'll meet you later. And I ended up in a drunken bar fight, which is the opening scene of the movie. The bouncers were beating up a kid in the bar. So after 10 drinks, I'm Spider-Man. So I hit the bouncer.

One of them broke a Heineken bottle, went from my face, put it through my hand. So I have a Heineken bottle embedded in my hand. I hit him with a beer mug. Police, assault would intend to name, battery, malicious destruction of property. I have a $100,000 bail, empty seat at the prayer breakfast. So prayer breakfast is a dangerous thing, just be careful when you go to that. Yeah, I'm not an alcohol.

I've been to a couple of them, but nothing like that ever happened to me. Nothing like that ever happened. So I'm not an alcoholic or anything. I just went drinking in a place where I don't know anybody and all that. So BJ Weber, Brad Curl and Pat Rowan bail me out with $10,000 cash and lead me to the Lord outside of the jail. So you were not led to Jesus until that incident. Sure.

So this is what, 87? 84. 84? Okay. And I come back and my friend Dave V. calls me, who was a drinking friend of mine. I said I just became a Christian. I'm going to trouble.

I'm going to go to trial for this bar fight. Put a couple of bounces in an ambulance. And he says, no, no, I quit drinking. Why don't you meet me tonight? And I end up at 79th Street Workshop. I end up prayed to receive Christ in the morning. Totally different person. I ended up in an AA meeting by mistake.

I didn't even know what it was. In an AA meeting that night, and you didn't know what it was. And you've been sober for how many years? Now. 34. Let's see, I lost count. Okay, something. Yeah.

All right, so this is 1984. Your life changes dramatically. Yeah. And now. That was sooner saved by Grace, man. Well, I know. But so now you and BJ get involved in. starting a little league in Harlem.

No. I moved to Chicago. Uh-huh. And Chicago League was first. Then two years, it went so, had nothing to do with baseball. It was about war to trade guys, lawyers, doctors, meeting kids from the projects. Had nothing to do it. Every game opens with prayer. It's an overtly Christian program. All the coaches aren't Christians, but they kind of allow that. But the idea is like Harlem was second.

And white guys with good jobs. And black guys. And business black guys decide we want to give back. We want to do something. something in the community. Sure. So you create this idea that, hey, why don't we do baseball with these kids? Sure, because that's a natural way you meet a kid. And my friend Paul O'Gonner adopted three of the kids.

Amazing. Some people just coached, and some people went so far as adopt kids, pay for their college. Amazing things happen when you meet somebody and you're their coach. And I remember after the first season, we had 18 teams at one point it grew to 64. And the kids, after the last game in August, the kids are like, what are we doing next week? And I'm saying to myself, the season's over, but I'm like, okay, we're having a cook cow. And you become friends. In the movie, G. Baby is killed.

Brian Dixon is the real story. Bill Vranos, who's an orthopedic surgeon, coach, baseball coach with me. We bought him up. We fixed up his bike for his birthday, and a week later, they killed him for his bicycle. In the movie, he's G. Baby, the boy who's killed, and then Keanu Reese has a catharsis after that. Well, so here's. But to sum up.

I've been shot at during baseball practice. You've been shot at during baseball practice. They're not shooting at us, but they're shooting at someone else across the field. We're in the way. Okay. And that happens growing up. In Greenwich, that happens all the time. Oh, yeah, sure.

Greenwich, Connecticut. People don't know your sarcasm. They know my sarcasm a little bit. But honestly, Bob, when you come to faith, you just live out your faith without really thinking about it. To you, this is just normal, right? I'm going to go. I'm going to give back. I'm going to spend time in the inner cities, working with little kids.

This is like this is normal Christianity. Yeah. And that has led you into all kinds of places. And I guess you also found out that most people who go to church don't do this kind of Christianity. Yeah. I'm not judging anyone because I'm a mess myself. But, you know, the Lord of the universe came down to earth, right? It doesn't go so good in the flesh, right, getting beaten to death and nailed to a cross, you know.

And the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. And so I'm thinking the least we could do to whom much is given, much is a expected. That's on the walls you walk in, so much is required, that all this is going on. And like, we're not, a success in America today, Christ, follow, or not, is moving as far away from any poor people as you possibly can. There's no Jesus in that. Absolutely no Jesus in that. And so we think, as I told you about two years ago, there was a shooting at our opening kickoff with Providence Catholic and a guy was shot dead at the front gate. Nothing to do with us. but it made a lot of national news.

We're supposed to go towards that, this violence and everything of what's going on in the city. We're not supposed to run away from that as Christ followers. We're supposed to go into it, right? Not for everybody, but there's three things you can be. You can be passionate about doing ministry, passionate about funding it, or disobedient. That's the only three things you can be.

I love it. I love it. So you do ministry and you do it in the inner city, but you've been doing it now for decades. This is three decades plus. And you got to point where you started a school. But I still, I'm amazed when you tell the story of, the book Safe at Home tells the story before you start Chicago Hope Academy, which I want to talk to you about. Working on book number two.

But this is the story of how you do the Little League, you're working with the kids and crazy stuff. We're going to be right back talking to Bob Muzzikowski. Prescription dispensing labs is a national licensed pharmacy specializing in personalized personalized persons. prescription and natural medicine. The pharmacists at PD Labs are credited with formulating unique nasal sprays for the dreaded brain fog and a leader in uncovering new compounds to improve your health. PD Labs is one of the first pharmacies to now offer a telemedicine group trained in prevention medicine and how to restore your health. They have developed signature professional supplements that really work rather than just promotional advertising. PD Labs pharmacy prides itself

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Hey there, folks. We're just talking about Freebird and Leonard Skinner. my friend Bob Mazakowski. Okay, the book is safe at home, the true and inspiring story of Chicago's field of dreams. So, Bob, before we get to what you've been doing in the last, you know, 15 years since I've known you founding Chicago Hope Academy, which is insane. And I want to tell that story. As we tell your story, we're now in the era where you're living in Chicago and you're working with poor kids in the inner city using baseball.

And then the school, of course, because then you have more time with the kids. But you eventually get to the school, but you started with baseball. Yeah, most of the students were from the Little League in the beginning. And now that the school is hot, we got John Garcia is graduating from Princeton. We got kids at Columbia, Brown, Yale. We're integrating Wheaton College. We have a lot of kids at Wheaton and play. And a lot of kids write in the military.

Does Wheaton College allow black students? Wheaton College, President Reichen is finally the guy who gets it, right? Yeah. Because Wheaton always said they wanted to do it, but they didn't give great financial aid. He's realizing if you want to the smart African-American kids are going to get money. So Wheaton College is under President Reich and they have special scholarships. Fantastic. I love it.

And I even athletically I'm saying I was good friends at Mike's Weider, who was their football coach for 30 years ago. And they're very competitive like a top 10 division three team every year. And I'm saying, if you want to win the championship, you better get some speed on the corner. You know, so that's a big position. You're big into athletics. Every time I talk to you, I laugh because you're like, you're speaking a secret language of somebody who is like totally into the world. Well, that's the kids. If you tell the kids in the interstate, we're going to have a Bible study and come,

they ain't come. If you throw out a ball, they're come. And that was like the same. It doesn't matter what color you are. You want to have fun. And then you could get the gospel in there. So, but you have to, they don't care. They don't know how much of care until they see how much. You know, they don't care how much you know until they see how much a care. So that's how, and sports are a carrot, right? And I had hope, you don't have to be an athlete to come to but we make people work out and get in shape. You oxygenate through exercise, and we have become very competitive athletically,

like maybe people view us as too much of a jock school maybe. We're student athletes. We keep Jesus first, school, second, sports third. I was on the math team at Danbury High School. Okay, that's true. That's actually true. But I was also on cross-country and track, so shut up. Character builder.

All right, so now look, let me ask. You tell a lot of stories. I've heard you tell these amazing stories over the years. A lot of them are in the book safe at home. Now, the movie, when they made the movie, I remember you telling me that there was a problem because they had the little black kids cursing, and you said we wouldn't allow that they don't do that. And they said, no, to make it realistic. Yeah, so it's funny.

It's almost like Hollywood is racist. And they think, oh, no, no, they got to be cursing. Unbelievably racist under the guise of being hip to the scene, right? So I don't know they're making a movie. I get 20 phone calls, San Francisco. go, hey, Bob, they're making your movie. Keanu Reeves plays Bob Muzzikovacian, former alcoholic turned a devout Christian in Hardball. I didn't know. Wait a minute, wait a minute.

So they're making a movie. Wait, the movie's Hardball. How can they make a movie from your book if they didn't ask you for the rights? They're not saying it's from my book. We've been on Channel 7, a lot of specials on us, and all that kind of stuff. So they're saying it's based on a true story, but not about me. When the movie opens with the bar fight where he cuts his hand in the glass and then is forced to coach, and they have an R-rated film with 9-year-old, this character, G-baby, the main boy character who gets killed, calling their coach, mother, and so we say, wait a minute, that's not how it works. So we have to sue, and I'm not, I hate what a litigious society we become.

So I didn't want to sue anybody, but based on a true story, they got a scene with Keanu Reeves shoving a black kid saying, F you, based on a true story. That doesn't help my 150 coaches on Friday night when someone's smoking cracks, seeing a white coach, on a stew, shelling a black kid, right? So we have to sue Paramount Pictures, and we beat their law firm, Jenner & Block. It was like my cousin Vinnie. Pro se, myself and a couple other guys, not lawyers, beat Jenner and Block in a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on a motion to dismiss. So now they have to deal with us. So we're deposing Tolan and Robbins, I think their name was, the producers who have an R-rated film, and they say, we say, why you're doing it?

They say we want to make it real. And I say, where do you live? And they say, Santa Monica. And I say, do you know any black kids? Have you ever coached a black kid in your life? And they're like, humba, humba, hum, right? So they don't really know. And this is what they've done, Hollywood.

This is how you are. This is how you talk. This is how you act. This is who you are. And so that's a little bit of a self-fulfilling problem. They know nothing. If a black kid was in their neighborhood, they'd call the cops. So it was so offensive.

So they end up changing. And it actually worked to their best. benefit. The movie grossed a lot. Okay, wait. So you sued them. We forced them to change it. They would take out the foul language. The foul language coming out of the mouths of these little black kids. And the scene where the coaches are treating the kid maliciously and coach it.

So, so, and we have a moral victory. No dough, but a moral victory. Okay. You didn't get money, but you prove your point. Yeah. On summary judgment, we lost in a judge said, no, you don't have to pay them any of their fees because this is really close. and Judge Kacorus was in General Block Skybox at a baseball game during this thing. Corcoris, is that Greek? Yeah, he was the judge.

The Chicago Greeks can be corrupt, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not judging Kukhoris, but it was just a little fishy. But anyway, we had a moral victory. They changed it to PG-13 and obviously made a lot more money because a lot of people don't go to ours. If you do see this movie, they took Christ out of it, obviously. The guy has a catharsis. But if you don't cry at this movie, you're not breathing. So, anyway, that's it.

We never solicit publicity on it. So that's just the way it was. That was my experience with Hollywood. It was a bad one. And they're not, I'm sure there's some good people out there, but we didn't experience that. You didn't meet any of them. I think Reeves, I'm a good guy. We've deposed Diane Lane.

She seemed like a nice woman. She's from here. So anyway, from what I read, Keanu Reese is a pretty good guy. But so the movie Hardball, they say based on a true story, they didn't pay you for the rights. Not yet correct. Because they're skunk. But basically it's your story and you managed to sue to get them to do it real, which means the black kids are not cursing out. They curse.

Kids swear to each other, but you're never going to swear to coach. You ain't going to play. That's right. We'll be right back. Folks, I'm talking to Bob Mazakowski. The book is Safe at Home by Bob Muzzikowski. Bob, I want to talk to you about Black Lives Matter. I want to talk to you about inner city shootings in Chicago.

I want to talk to you about the mayor of Chicago. I want to talk to you about all that crazy hot stuff, but not yet. Because you got crazy stuff to say that I want my audience to hear. I cannot get over. I spoke to you last night, and I said, we've got to talk about this on the program. But let's go back. The movie gets made. You get a moment of fame.

I hope people gave more money so that you could continue to do what you're doing. When did you decide I'm going to go from little? League ministry, so to speak, to creating a school, an overtly Christian school in the inner city. Right. So little league ministry, fellowship of Christian athletes, young life, all great stuff. But kids don't have to do that. They have to go to school.

So we homeschooled our own K-8 and a local Catholic school. My wife became a Christian at her high school, Brentwood Academy, in Nashville. And most Christian high school, I asked this question. question a lot. Should Christian high schools be only for rich kids? I'm asking you. I'm going to say no. Should they be racially segregated? Let me think, no. But in reality, they kind of look like that, right? Because of the economics of it. It's an independent school, right? They've got to be able to pay tuition. So when the local Catholic school shut, we bought, I just sold a business. And so I stroked a check to buy St. Colise's first school of the Archdiocese sold. to somebody. They'd rent a lot of them and all that, and this is in 2004, right? And it's three blocks from my home. 150 Catholic schools have closed in Chicago since 1980, and the gangs filled the

void of the parish. I grew up in a Catholic school in Bayonne, New Jersey, nine years of nuns, four years old boys Catholic high school. I had a great experience. Great experience. I didn't see the abuse or whatever that was. So in 90, I think it's like 97% of the priest, never did anything like that. So we bought it, and it was amazing that they sold it to an evangelical group. They knew we were not a Catholic school. And I'm a big heel of the Catholics and Protestants. I think it was Ben Franklin in the revolutions. And gentlemen, we must hang together, well, we will surely hang separately. So we need to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Catholic brothers and sisters. It wasn't Franklin, but it was one of those guys. Well, yeah, I'm with you, right? I'm not Catholic, but I'm a very pro-Catholic,

non-Catholic, especially when you're talking about, you know, living on the front line. Here you are in the inner city. There's shootings, there's crime, there's drugs. It's unbelievable. So you're going to work with anybody that's on your team. Yeah, so we opened a school with 100 freshmen and sophomores. And my daughter, Sammy, was the first white student in Bo the following year. The school was more integrated now, but we were almost in all-black school.

So you got seven kids. Yeah. And you claim not to be Catholic. Can you explain that? We don't know many cats. The big families now are the evangelical families. We have a family at Chicago Hope with 12, the Willis's. I love it.

Best behaved children. My kids are very well behaved, spectacular. You know, I have a theory about this. The more kids you have, you go as a parent from man on man to zone. Yeah. And then the kids police themselves. Yeah. And it's higher expectations, right?

Like, you can't be the last one in the van on Sunday morning. Like, we're going, right? So my wife's spectacular job. Me, I did Spanish. I'm fluent in Spanish and sports. I was the athletic director. So anyway, the high school, so hope sort of flows like a homeschool. We got kids that can barely read and we got into Prince, right?

So we have that whole gamut. And informally, there's kind of tracks, right? And you go. So we play sports, fun, quick story. We open, we're playing football and most Christian schools don't do that because you need too many guys and it costs one of them and we open and we have only two games so we somebody drops football the week before the season so everybody in the catholic league has an open date and we so i'm picking the phone hey i see you have an open date i'm bob from chicago

but they don't want to forfeit the weekend so they play us and we open up with st ignatious 120 year old 1600 student high school it's i think one of maybe the best academic high school in chicago they're not an athletic powerhouse but they got 1600 kids so we're playing them and they're Steve Cortez was the assistant coach he's Steve and he says Bob you know it's the opening of the brand new field and track there's going to be a lot of people there we won't run up the score don't worry so wait Steve said this yeah we're a brand new school there's he was being polite we're being a nice guy to embarrass you correct we're going to crush you but not that badly yeah we won't run it up right because there's

going to be a lot of people and this is a this is a champagne and caviar this is not a hot dog crowd This is a high-end school. I think it's like 18-down. We ain't the jet set. So we go there and I remember speed in football kills. So some big donors came at halftime to just see. And the score was like 26-6. And I said to my wife and our fans that were there,

our 50 fans, they had a foul, that, hey, that's not bad, 26-6. And Tina looks at him and says, we're winning. We ran them off the field. Okay, so you guys We ran St. Ignatius off the field at their opening day. You had speed. Romel Robbins sent it at 250, who was later on, stay up to death. Now, it sounds like a very racist thing to imply that black people on balance

tend to be faster than skinny white people. I would say really fit athletic black kids. Obviously. And there's a lot of fit. The point is you kicked their butt, 26 to 6 half time. Yeah. It was probably a final 32 to 20, something like that. but we won.

And we've been winning ever since. So when he said they weren't going to, like, beat you that bad, he really meant it. I wasn't the coach, but I did use that in the pregame talk. Oh, is that right? Yeah, he meant it because we're brand new school. I just find it funny. We're not going to beat you that bad. In fact, we'll let you win.

So you win, and the successes that you've had will never get it into the show because I want to talk to you about Black Lives, Manor, shootings, and all this stuff. But it has been such a success story, but because I know you, I know it's been an insane struggle to get people on board to understand what you're doing. Yeah, it's an independent school now. Obviously, we're still open. It's that year 17. We have a lot of alumni who graduated college and now are at the school working full time.

But it's an independent school for poor kids. So the math really doesn't work, right? So you've got to raise a lot of money. And the kids pay a lot. If I had a billion dollars, you'd make them. The kids pay all they can. So a lot of kids are paying $200 a month. If you're not, if you don't have any money, you do work study, your parents work in a cafeteria.

And often people get a few months behind and we'll say, what's up? And they'll say, well, I lost my job. And we say, okay, you're in the cafeteria Monday, Wednesday, and Friday then. And they're like, whoa. I'm like, no, I'm here at 6 a.m. So often. So you're working in the cafeteria if you don't have any money because you lost your job, right? So we can have those uncomfortable conversations, which in the end, people really appreciate.

Of course. In the wintertime. So we've been open since August. We didn't close for COVID. So in Drove, some are on Zoom, somewhere in every day. Seniors are in every day. So we balance it out.

And we've had kids get Cof, seven students got it, maybe more. They might have got it at seven, one hospitalized six, not. Teachers have got it. Yes, yes. Hold on. We'll have a go to a break. Sorry, we'll be right back talking to Bob Mazzikowski. The book is safe at home.

How about that Bob Muzzikowski kids? Wow. He's great. He's great. And he hasn't even told half of the stories. We're going to have him on in hour two to tell the rest of. of the story. And we're going to have this up on YouTube today.

Yeah. If you want to see what Bob looks like, it's not pretty, folks. He looks like Keanu Reeves. He looks exactly like Keanu Reeves. Exactly. Like 50 years in the future. That's true. No, Bob, actually, he's been a friend for so long, and he's got the most amazing family.

They're amazing people, and he's an amazing person. So I hope people stay tuned for the rest. We've got more with Bob Muzikowski. But I'll be, before we go to the end of the first hour, I just want to say, have we mentioned nutrometics today? Not yet. I got an email from somebody the other day saying, you know, I want to get relief factor and I want to use the code, Eric.

I don't see how to do it. And you know why that is? Because there's no code on a relief factor. Relief factor is a tremendous product that I take every single day, but there's no code. Neutrametics, they sell all the stuff you should take. The zinc, the magnesium, the vitamin D with the vitamin K and all the different times. melatonin and stevia and a lot of other more complicated things when you go there you save 20% if you use the code eric and i want to tell people yeah we are going to have the founder of nutrometics

on very soon so you'll hear more because they give 50% of all of their profits to missions to global charities it's a big deal folks we we have to support the companies that share our values because there are people we finally come to a point in the culture where you realize how tough things are and how people are using money to work against what most Americans believe in, whether it's Google or Facebook or any of these woke companies. I hope you're not drinking any Coca-Cola products. And I hope, God forbid, you don't ever wear Nike shoes again, please, because these companies have given, they are absolutely in bed, whether they know it or not with the communist Chinese. Forgive me for cutting to the chase. Well, Anne and I have done our part.

we switched to Dr. Pepper. Is that true? Yeah, no, seriously. Dr. Pepper's not made by the Coca-Cola? No, we check that out. As far as I know, now, somebody might write in and say, no, no, no, but we checked it out. It's a separate company. Okay.

The good doctor. Okay. But Dr. Pepper is not really a cola for cola. Look, I don't care what you do. I'm just giving you. My advice is don't buy products from companies that are, and Coke is one of the leading ones, that are not. Here's the reason.

And I say this, too. Everybody should write emails. People say, what can I do? I will tell you right now. Write an email to the corporate headquarters of any of these companies. All the companies that canceled Mike Lindell, all the companies that came out against, you know, Georgia wanting to have actual voting, you know, it's so preposterous. But if we, the people don't take a stand, and I'm being serious, people complain and they say, what can I do? Folks, you can do this, and you can get your neighbors to do it and your friends to do it.

You can post this stuff on social media. But it's important we send a message to these companies that if you're going to play that game, there's going to be a price. And so we need to make them pay that price. We need to make them say that, okay, we're going to do what we want, but we're going to lose money. Or maybe we'll think about it the next time we open our big mouths about, you know, these woke issues. Now, I guess I also want to say I spent a lot of time with our buddy Mike Lindell recently. I was in South Dakota. Right.

Yesterday. No, yesterday I was in Minnesota. I was in Minnesota and we aired that yesterday, right? Yes, that was yesterday. Okay. If you haven't seen it, I guess this is another chance for me to say, I'm on the road a lot. I meet people and I say, I love your program, whatever. I say you signed up for the newsletter. Yes. No. Folks, trust me, half of our stuff is posted on Rumble. We're going to have stuff posted on Frank's Beach. We're going to have YouTube is not allowing us to post more than half of what we do. So please, please, please. Please, please. Please. I know I keep saying it. Just go to Ericmataxis.com. Sign up for the newsletter.

We send you everything right to your inbox, all the videos, all the links. We do all the work for you. You don't have to go hunting to find out. When did Eric have Sid Caesar on? Is he still alive? No, he's not. But sign up for the newsletter, Ericmataxe. And we're going to be back.

April 1968, by the way, when you had Sid Caesar. That's way back. Man, I was just a kid. But I don't care. Microphish. Thanks for listening. Thank you.