Nick Flood Part 1 of 2 (Vince Flynn memories)

KG, Steve, Intern Jeff and John visit with St. Thomas Academy/St. Thomas College (OHHHHH GOOOOD for YOOOOU) legend (Actually, his dad was the legend), Nick Flood. They discuss Father's Day, the U.S. Open and start to reminisce about their friend (and actual legend) Vince Flynn as the 12th anniversary of his passing nears (June 19) Part 1 of 2. We had a lot to discuss. 

Transcript

0:16

Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where once again, we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota kindness that it desperately needs. We got kg on the line kg. Where are we calling you at? More often than not, I'm in this spot. I'm in my car, uh, in transit as we visit, uh, after a great weekend of, uh, of racing in Canterbury. But more importantly, I know we're gonna talk about it, uh, a great weekend for all of us dads to be couch potatoes and watch some sports. No kidding. And, uh, as I understand, you're heading off to a, uh, a movie, event that you, participate in every couple of months. Yeah. Tell us about that. It's, yeah, I'm glad you asked. Uh, during COVID, uh, when my, uh, depression over the fact that movie theaters were no longer open, we came up with an idea with some friends. Uh, there was five of us, and we, we erected this movie club. And the way it works is five people in the club. Three girls, two boys, and we rotate picking a movie and we rotate who provides the, the takeout. But we get together probably every other week and, um, started during COVID, we show up six o'clock. We have the takeout from like six until six 30. The lights go down. They have a big projection screen that comes out and we watch the movie at six 30 and we wrap up by nine o'clock. And tonight is movie number 1 26. Holy smokes. Which is pretty incredible. Yeah. So we've kept it going now for, for the five years since we started. And I always get a little extra excited when it's my pick. Oh. And they get mad at me because they've, they've, you know, given me some grief about my theory on movies, and they've called it the Gorg Line. I believe that the best movies you've ever seen in your lifetime were longer than two hours. And a lot of the folks that congregate in this movie club, like shorter movies, including my significant other, Chrissy. We've talked about who's been on the show, so tonight's movie's almost two and a half hours, so there's gonna be some, some angst involved tonight, but it's over the gorg line of two hours. And just as you think top of the head right now, John, think of some of your favorite movies and I would guess they're over two hours. Well, most of the good ones are, you know, thank, the reason that they are is because there's so much good material, you know, that they just couldn't cut it out. But, so what is the, so tonight's your choice. Yeah, tonight's my pick. I'm going the, you know, we're in the heart of baseball season, so I, I like to have a theme. So I'm gonna go with Robert Redford. Oh. In The Natural. And I honestly, Marty Miller, who hosts this, has this incredible. You know Marty, right? I do, yeah. He's got the high tech stuff. Oh yeah. So he, I love picking out movies where the, the, the soundtrack or the, the sound of the movie is as good as the movie. And this is one of those movies for sure. And they have a really cool setup, so it all kind of ties together. How old do you suppose Robert Redford was when he made that movie? It'd be interesting to find out because, well, the movie, the movie came out in 84, and I would guess he's, by that point, he had to be at least 40 in his, I was gonna say late forties, early fifties. Right. But that would make him 90 something. Now, you know what? We won't worry about it. He just was old to be a baseball player. But the, the movie absolutely works. And was it Glenn Close is in that one, and, Robert Deval. Oh yes. Oh, that's gonna be fun. Is there popcorn involved? Yes, we do popcorn every week. Real? Oh yes, we do. Real butter. Yes, real butter. Okay. Because, and then, uh, I'm assuming that there'll be some raisinettes consumed. So it's really cool. We all bring, every once in a while we, we, we bring a handful of boxes of candy, the movie Peter Candy you get at Target or Walgreens or whatever. And so we have this, this really cool crate that they keep and they keep it fresh, obviously, but there's like 40 to choose from. Oh my God. So you've got everything under the sun. Yeah, we do it right. Like, you know, we're 125 into this thing so far. And it really is, it's something I look forward to. It's simple. Um, and you know, the five of us, most of these ladies work together. Marty and I have been good friends for a long time, so it's. It's really fun. Um, fun. You know, you guys could do something similar because one of my greatest movie experiences of all time at, at a Friend's house was, uh, when you and Becky used to host those movie Nights Outdoors. Oh yes. And you'd show the movie on the side of your house that you guys have an awesome setup there. It's a decent setup. I just, the mosquitoes. Ooh. And you know, I'm not much of an outdoorsman. Yeah. That's, uh, do, do you recall what your first movie that you picked was? I recall what the very first movie was Chrisy. Okay. Um, had first pick, which there's a lot of pressure involved. Oh my. When you're nuo. And he came up with the Jagged Edge and, oh, I gotta give her high marks. That was one heck of a pick. And since I'm stuck in immense traffic and really not moving right now, I have a list. Oh no. I should forward, oh, yes I do. No, keep your eyes on the road. Well, we're barely moving. In fact, we've come to a. Yeah, this is, so Christy started with Jagged Edge, my first movie, ho Ho, one of my all time favorites. I went to 1980 five's Vision Quest. Oh. Such a great soundtrack. That's again what Marty set up. I had to have that kind of sound going. Yeah. And it makes me almost wanna do pushups almost. Uh, yeah. You and me both. I, Matthew Modine. Holy cow. What a great flick. Nice cameo by Madonna in there. Yes. What crazy for you. And the guy. And the guy that was his, uh, his buddy. The guy with the, uh, the, the Native American 16 Candles guy. 16 Candles guy. Looks totally different. Totally different, but Oh, great Pick, great pick. I would like to, uh, shift gears for a moment. we've got some people that'll be joining us shortly and, we're gonna be doing, a remembrance of our friend Vince Flynn. Uh, this week will be the, 12th anniversary of his passing, but, we got one of his good buddies from, high school and college, Nick Flood coming in. Let's talk about Father's Day. Let's talk about the US Open. Did you get to watch it? Oh, lucky for me there was a rain delay and we had a, obviously a big crowd outta Canterbury. So when I got home from the racetrack, there was still the whole back nine to go. And even though I had, uh, severe routing interest in Sam Burns, uh, with my power trip, morning show, uh, collaboration, uh, picking him, uh, with the last pick in the draft and sitting on, you know, a, a pretty nice score financially if he ends up winning, even though I did not enjoy watching him basically melt down. Oh, did he melt down? Um, oh man. You know what I, I'll I'll say two things. I, I didn't, I didn't like the, the rules of, I didn't like the rules. Uh, official not giving him a drop in casual water. I thought that was a really bad call. Well, he clearly, but to me he clearly didn't care for the call either. No. And, and he, he had two different officials come over. So again, that's just life, man. That's the US open. You gotta, you gotta just overcome adversity. But to me, the tournament was lost earlier, about an hour earlier he had birdie number 10 to get up by two shots. Yep. And he was looking great and he got to number 11 and caught a bad break. And that's what happens in the US Open. And he hit a great drive, but it's a side hill, um, and hit you three wooded. And with all that rain, it was super soft. Well, that sucker hit the hill and instead of bouncing forward like Adam Scott on his drive, his sucked back 40 yards, went into the rough and into a divot, and he ended up making double. And to me, that's where it all started. He got more frustrated with that ruling because of what happened to him on 11. And, and that's what the open. We'll do it. We'll test your medal and give JJ Spawn a ton of credit. This guy bogeyed five of his first six holes. Um, he had ejected himself from contention. And you know, it's funny how sports work with momentum. You, you've played it, you've coached it. Momentum's a real thing and he had lost his juice. And that again, that rain delay of an hour and 15, 20 minutes allowed the guys that were struggling like JJ Spawn to reset. And he mentioned in his post round presser that his coaches got down, sat with him and kind of recalibrated his focus about what an opportunity this was. And you look at guys like Sam Burns and Adam Scott who've been playing the meat grinder all day with that pressure. And it just seemed to go the other way with the guys at the top of the leaderboard. Normally, I would say, is this a long story? Um, while you were giving that great review of the entirety of the US Open. Whoa. our guest, Nick Flood. Hello, Nick. Hello. John appeared. You gotta put the mic to your face. There you go. Hello, John. So we have a tie in with Nick. Hello Gordon. Well, we have a tie in to the US Open. Hey Nick, because Nick's dad was the golf coach and my golf coach, uh, at St. Thomas. Wait a second. Back when we were both, uh, yes. He coach you. You played golf at St. Thomas? I did. What. Um, there you go. Also here, our friend Steve Brown just showed up. We tried to get a, the sports talk out of the way before you showed up. That's okay. That's okay. And then we have our, uh, 55-year-old intern sitting on a stool because all the comfortable chairs are being used. But, uh, back to the US Open gentlemen. Welcome. Uh, curious if, if you guys took in the US Open, Steve, the US Open is a golf tournament. Was that this weekend? That was this weekend. It's typically played. It's a little busy. Alright. What'd you have going on this weekend? I just, I got a lot going on. I'll tell you about. Oh, I know. You got a lot going on. It's all right. It's all good. What? You had to have watched it. I watched. I watched. It was great. Yeah. I did not, I was driving back from Boston Oh, wow. After dropping our daughter off there. So you had you a new Notre Dame hat? I did. That's very nice. We stopped by and saw Gettysburg and Notre Dame and, uh, whoa. Other stuff. We'll get to, we'll get to you later. Okay. We don't know. We, this is all about Nick and Vince tonight, but, but we, we, we have to review the kindness that we witnessed at the US Open. Yeah. Tell about it. It was fantastic. Really. Kg since you're so good at telling stories. What did you witness that, uh, that would've been appropriate for the Kindness Chronicles on, Sunday afternoon, late afternoon? Well, I'll let you get to Bobby McIntyre because that's, that's a great angle there. All these guys are, are trying to win the biggest golf term of their lives. And for Adam Scott, he's at the end of his career. The fact that he was in Contentional, it was a great story. He's 44. He has won a major championship back in 2013 in Augusta, but hasn't really contended in these majors and in quite a few years. And so he has the heartbreaking round with Sam Burns where they both collapsed. He shoots 79. It's a really tough day for Adam Scott. He waits around, uh, after he gets done to find JJ s Spawn and give him the biggest hug. And Adam, don't look at them as like being great friends on the tour, but he respects what an unbelievable life changing moment this is for JJ s Spawn, and that's the kind of sportsmanship and kindness that I love to shine a light on. And I know you've got a story too, John. Well, and I just back to the Adam Scott thing, it was so genuine, you know, he didn't know that there was a camera on him. Right. And you could just see the joy in his eyes for JJ Spawn when, you know, he came around the corner. But let's just, Adam Scott's got a pretty good life. You know. Oh God. Yeah. Pretty. It's good to be Adam Scott. It's good to be Adam Scott. Good looking guy. He's a good actor. Not many guys can wear a white shirt. Dad, that Adam Scott. Sorry. Oh my God. Sorry. I'm playing into the fact that I knew. I know. Let's turn your mic off for 15, but I have, I haven't heard his name that often, but No, but this, where's Adam Scott from, I think he's an Australia. Yeah, he's an Australian guy. Okay. Oh, might take, but, but he's, he, he wore this white Collarless shirt and it looked really good on him and Huh? We talked in a show not long ago. How guys? Many. Yeah. You don't like white shirts? Not many, many guys can wear white shirt. You know, I've never heard that before. That's a new theory. You have I, well, you don't wanna see belly buttons or something, I dunno. Correct. Take a look at some guys wearing like white golf shirts. Most of them shouldn't be wearing it, but that's a whole young, young guys should be wearing'em. It shouldn't be. That's a whole story. It's not unlike performing on stage. You probably think long and hard about what you're gonna wear. Oh yeah. Otherwise you sweat and it doesn't look good. Mm-hmm. I, I wore a, a light blue shirt today. Terrible idea, John. You know better. I know. We've been through this many times. I this show a man breast sweat. Terrible. It was a terrible Get the, get the line. The line. Oh yeah, yeah. I've had that. It was not a good scene. Cut the grass. I get that. Um, but I, I do want to talk about the, uh, the McIntyre fella from, Scotland. he was, in the clubhouse with the winning score at the time. Okay. they have a camera on him watching the 18th hole and deep down inside, he's hoping that spawn, you know, bogies the hole. Mm-hmm. Of course. Yeah. So he wins. Sure. Two puts at best, or two puts at best. So at least they get to a, uh, a playoff. Spawn sinks, a 64 and a half foot putt, the most incredible putt, and it's the first time he's ever won a major. But it's also the, the, he's, he, he's 34, 35 years old, and he had only won one tournament previously. And it was this year, earlier this year. And I mean, just what a life changing moment. Mm-hmm. And the guy bursts into tears and the camera is on McIntyre when he's. Putting, you know, to see his reaction. Yeah. And instead of kind of being a crybaby, sour grates b-word about it. he just starts clapping and you can just tell that he's genuinely pleased. Such a mag a moment of sports. The, the putt was so good. It wa it was, it's have you not it, it was incredible. It took about seven seconds to go in the hole. Yeah. Have you not seen it? I haven't seen, dude. I get my sports when I come here. Yeah. Okay. Well welcome to Sports page. Yeah. Yeah. But what's funny is, is and Adam Scott one. Vic. Adam Scott. No. Okay. JJ Spawn won, God, sorry, sorry. But on the 18th pole, Victor Hovland, who's one of my favorites. Also can wear a white shirt. Okay. Alright. I think it might be having feelings. That's a clarification for you. Yeah. Um, anyways, he wasn't wearing a white shirt, but he hits a, a shot and it's, what is it? About a foot behind. Yeah, I was gonna say that was the kindest moment of the whole tournament. That was the kindest moment. The whole tournament feet behind him to give him the line was fog. Just to see the line of this entire putt. Have you ever golfed before? Why? Come on. Just, why, why are you giving me all this? Why am on you? Let's hear about the kindness. I don't care about the damn sports. So H hits this putt. And, um, spawn, kind of scoots behind him to see where the thing goes. So he gets the perfect line as to where he ought to be putting his putt. It was just, it was fantastic, the whole thing. It was magical. Cool. I honestly, I kind of got goosebumps, a little teary-eyed. The guy behind him, what was his name? The guy that looked for the line? Uh, he didn't lin, it's a cheesy joke, but he didn't say nonan or anything. Did he try and, oh, no, I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself, you know? Um, let's go and speak when spoken to, I'm sorry, Mr. Hoffman, I just, uh, you know, we're gonna shift gears here. Yeah. we're gonna talk, about our friend, Vince Flynn. Yeah., This week will be the 12th anniversary of Vince's passing. And Vince was, without question, one of the most, like, he just knew he was meant for big things. Yeah. You know, he was just one of those guys. He always had this, he was just this magical guy. And I got to know Vince really well after college, hung around with him. He was at our wedding. I think he had a twinkle for some of Becky's friends. Oh, yeah. So, you know, he showed up at the wedding and he, you know, he, he, he was very popular. Vince never had trouble finding, uh, friendship. Right. So to speak. Right. Yep. Um, and maybe just for a listener that might be hearing this for the first time, bestselling author, 14 novels. Right. That's a very good point. Vince Flynn is a, the bestselling author went to St. Thomas Academy. Oh, good for you. Just broke the needle on the machine there. Uh, went St. Thomas Academy. Went to the College of St. Thomas, graduated in 89, so he took a little extra time while he was at St. Thomas. But we have one of his pals, Nick Flood in the studio, Nick turns out that he's a listener to this podcast. Yeah. Um, and when Big Listener, big listener. Big listener, fantastic so much that he brought us a special treat. Kg, there's something here for you. John will have to give it to you, but he, he listen enough that he knows that he brought those, oh, you're the greatest. He brought each of us a bag of the mini, uh, hundred grand, grand bars. Oh my God. Very famous. He is an avid listener. Know? I know. It's unbelievable. I think it was around Halloween timing. You guys were all whining because you only got 100 grand bar. And I, I bought a, I bought a bag for each of you. K Oh my God. Awesome. What a guess what a guess us to buy you a gift as a guest. Unbelievable. Thank you very much. Well, we have t-shirts over here. They're medium, so that'll be comfortable. Oh, that'll be great. My wife will love it. Yeah, it's very good. So go, let's go back a little how we met Nick and how this kind of, why he's right here right now, aside from, it's a, it's a Vince Flynn kind of day. Nick shows up at our, scholarship night and I've known Nick for 40 years. Oh, you bet. Was Nick was, uh, a great athlete in high school. Probably a good athlete. In fact, I ran into, uh. your basketball coach at St. Thomas? Steve Fritz. Steve Fritz. Okay. Steve Fritz. Okay. Yeah. Fritz was having breakfast with Father Malone on, uh, Saturday morning at Joseph's. Oh boy. And I asked Father Malone to be on the podcast tonight'cause he knew Vince as well. And Father Malone's having cataract surgery today, but we'll get to that in a second. Anyways, so Nick shows up and he introduces himself as Nick Flood, and I'm like, oh my God, Nick Flood, that guy's a legend. What is he doing at this thing? And I figured he must have had a kid that was getting one of the scholarships. I thought, that's super cool. He came because of the open invite that you sent out to everyone. We sent out the open invite. Yeah. And he showed up and he sat up there in the, uh, in the balcony. It was, I had a great spot in the balcony. Nice spot in. Yeah, we saw you. Yeah. But, uh, just what a pleasure to, uh, to see you there and kg and I spoke a little bit about, uh, about Nick and your brother Tom Kg. Take it from there. Tell us about, you've got some Nick Floods stories, the Flood brothers. Oh, no. Oh, I got great memories. I just bumped into Tom, I don't know, six, eight weeks ago in St. Paul. And, and you know, Tom and I both went into the same, uh. Education at St. Thomas. We were doing the get the teacher certificate, get the coaching certificate, and make your way from there. I minored in sports broadcasting. So back then I was, and I ended up being a, a hockey coach I coached at, at, at the high school and college level and, uh, did some phy ed teaching. But, you know, John, uh, gives me a hard time because, you know, like doctors, when you wanna be a teacher or coach, it isn't a traditional four year path. Sometimes it's five or six or seven years. Right. And, you know, I took my time. It took my time. So anyway, uh, had a bunch of classes with Tom and, and John Strasberg, who I know, you know. Oh yeah. Just good times, obviously great memories. And I, you know, I, I just look back at, at your dad and, and what a gentleman he was and I wasn't a great golfer. That's why John had the reaction he did. Yeah. I've seen you golf. I wasn't one of the top guys on the golf team. I, I wasn't, but I, but I loved the game and, and, and coach Flood, um, what gave me a chance to be a part of something and I, I loved every minute of it. Uh, but no, Tommy, Tommy and I ended up literally having almost every class together. And, uh, I have just great memories and, and because of Tom, I hear all the stories of, of all the floods and as, as we know, there are many of the floods floating around St. Paul's. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, there's a lot of us kg So you and Tom and Straus, you guys must have had a few laughs I would think back in those four or five years, huh? Yeah, there was a test that we had in our kinesiology class, and it was a. Uh, 100 points. And you know, Straus is a big basketball guy and we get the test back and none of us did quite well on this test, but Straus got six outta 100 and come six. And so that's what I got on my allergy exam because that was a card collector. I knew that Dr. J wore six and we, we started calling him Julius. And to this day, to this day, some, almost 40 years later, that Fluter still calls him Julius because of that six outta 100. That's awesome. What a great story. Real quick, you know, we often refer to you as a minor local celebrity kg and you, you seem to celebrate that sometimes. I do, yeah. And you, you, especially the minor part, well, and you were, you had a minor in sports broadcasting. Can you imagine, had you had a major in sports broadcasting, what would I could have been more rose. I blew it. Yeah, well, you know. You're doing. I'm kidding. Fine. You're doing just fine. We're hanging in there. So, um, Nick, tell us about, uh, so you went to high school with Vince? I did, I did. We called him Vinny. Did you call him Vinny? Oh yeah, absolutely. All of a sudden he becomes Vince. What was that all about? Yeah, that was kind of the official name. Yeah. Became very famous. Is that when you first met him or were you little or No, no. So, um, Vince, let's see. Vince is, um, number five of seven, I think. I think that's right. Or, uh, yeah. And, and I'm number 12 of 13 kids. Oh my God. Yeah. So, so Vince and I, our older brothers went to high school together at STA. So Vince and I actually met at age nine or 10. Okay. We were probably in third or fourth grade, and we'd been buddies since then. And, um, so when we finally got to STA together, you know, in ninth grade, we knew each other very well and all the lockers in the hall were lined up alphabetically flooding Flynn, and it was flooding Flynn. We were next to each other for, oh my god, for four years straight. Sounds like a comedy duo Flooding Flynn? Or was it, was it like the, was it like the Stand By Me Friends? Kind of, do you, did you ever see that movie with the little, you know Yeah. You were 12. Yeah. Great film. Yeah. Film pe. Did you have a little Jerry Pe Posse? Best, best, best You, best Candy in the World. Right? So I keep going. I want to hear just how you grew up with him and what he was like. Just so, so as John said, Vince, Vince was a, he was a character. He was, he had this, this big personality and what you saw as, as the author was no different than he was at nine or 10 years old. Okay. I mean, the guy was, he was, he was outgoing, he was comfortable in his own skin. He. He talked to everyone, um, like he knew them, um, within, within 10 minutes. And some people were kind of like, and he used to give people a lot of, a lot of grief too. So, you know, he wouldn't know people very long and all of a sudden he'd be laying into'em and making fun of'em. And, and, but then eventually you just kinda learn that, hey, this is, this is genuine. This guy isn't a clown, and he's not putting on a show. This is a genuine personality. Um, so anyway, yeah, we, we were thick as thieves all the way through, you know, third or fourth grade through college. And then, um, did you play football at St. Thomas too? I did. I played, I played my freshman year. Okay. And then, um, I also played basketball freshman year. Yeah. And then I decided to just stick with basketball. Your basketball guy? Yeah. So I, I'll never forget, there was the first time I ever heard the name Vince Flynn. Freshman year at St. Thomas, there was this clown, I can't remember what his name was, it was like Skippy something or other from Buffalo Grove, Illinois. And he was talking about Skip Moore, like a circus clown that he was Skippy Moore. Yeah. And he was doing an impersonation of Vince Flynn as quarterback clowning in the, in the huddle. And he'd tap his, he'd be tapping his, uh, and he'd, he'd talking about Benny Flynn. Vince Flynn. Vince Flynn. And I thought, who the hell is this Vince Flynn guy that you keep talking? And Skippy Moore? Is that who it was? Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's lunatic. It was just the lunatic guy. Blonde hair. Yeah. Where'd you see this clown? He lived in the same dorm he lived in, uh, Ireland Hall with me. Okay. And he would show up uninvited to different things. And he was, he was just desperate. Just a goofy guy. Desperate for attention. Where Vince, on the other hand, was a guy who wasn't desperate for attention, but people just paid attention to this guy. Yeah. Just draws people. He just drew people in. Yeah. Um, so anyway, so you played, you played football with him, football, basketball, all the way through high school and then football for a year. And then, I mean, even after college we continued, we, we had a, uh, a two for one membership at the Decathlon Club. Oh, very nice. Yeah. So we were supposed to be roommates, but they'd just send the bill to Vince's house and then so Vince would pay it and, you know, it was cheap, you know, we were just outta college. Sure. So it was 35 bucks a month or something. But then all of a sudden he'd hit me with an invoice after like 10 months and I have to write him a three or 400 check. Hey, can we keep up with this a little better? So anyway, um, yeah, all the way until I got married. Um. And then, uh, the decathlon closed down. Yeah. But yeah, that, um, when I got married I went on my honeymoon with the three ring binder form of Vinny's first book and read it before. And he, at that point, he had had some rejections going. Yep. And I said, well, do you want this back? I said, by the way, I loved it, but do you want it back? And he said, nah, hold onto it. It might be worth something someday. He said the same thing to me. My and mine said the same right there. Oh, were you okay with the swearing?'cause I guess, uh, John over here didn't like the swearing. Yeah, no. Um, so with the, with the swearing, I think he had cleaned some of it up by then. Okay. Um, maybe someone had already given him a little feedback clean to clean that up a little bit for, you know, a good Catholic boy. I like that. Well, my, my feedback to him was. You know, for starters, the, and I just have to, to mention that this comes on the heels of the, uh, the tragedy that took place in Minnesota. Yeah. The assassination of the, uh, uh, Melissa Hawkman, is that her name, uh, the state representative, and Nick being the thoughtful Catholic lad that he is, he's like, should we be talking about this? Because one of the things that, when you look back on Vince's books, he foresaw what is going on in the world today. He wrote the books that he wrote before nine 11, like they were prophetic, predicted they were nine 11. I mean, it was insane. That's, that's insane. Why Gwen Glen Beck had him on. I mean, he was a regular on, uh, uh, I just heard Rush Limbaugh who was on this, on Bill O'Reilly, Fox News had him on all the time because he, it was like he was prophetic about all these things and it's because he imagined. All of it before it took place because of his research was so good. But if you get the opportunity to read the term limits book, you gotta, you gotta get on it. I've, you know, I'm sure you've got one of the cloak and dagger versions of it that I do. I do, yeah. So it's worth a bucks. So that, that cloak and dagger story, um, it was, it was interesting, you know, with the group of friends that we had, how when you're at that age and outta college, certain guys get married and certain guys don't, and they, you know, well it ended up where, um, our buddy Dan Wicker who was in your class. Oh yeah. You know Dan? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Okay. So, um, Dan lived with me really for, for about three months.'cause he's like, yeah, I need a place to live. And I said. Great. Um, you're welcome. But just so you know, I think Jill and I are gonna get engaged. So you got probably three to six months here and, and w ses, I think the three of us will be really happy together. No, you're out. So what a great line. That is. Good. So Dan, uh, he gets, he gets the eviction notice from, from my house and buys a house and Vince moved in with him because Vince's best friend, Tom Tracy, yep. Um, was also kind of married around the same time and. So he lived with Dodger, Tom, Tracy and uh, and JB Lloyd. And then he kind of needed a place to go. So Wick stinks him in. So the Wordsworth Avenue on the cloak and Dagger Press is actually Danny Wicker's basement. No kidding. Yeah. Yeah. Oh wow. So, yeah, I ran into Dan not long ago. He is still got a great head of hair on him and stuff. He doesn't look any different other than a little more gray. There's, he's kind of a silver fox. He's got a little salt and pepper going on. Uh, Nick, I have a question. So go going a little bit back just to when he, you guys were both young. Did Vince always have a, a creative mind and a, and a really expansive, uh, you know, you know, imagination or did you recognize that he might be a pretty smart and, you know, a lot of this pro guy? A lot of this for me is hindsight.'cause Yeah. You know, when you're 10, 12, yeah. 15, 20. It's just your friend Vince. Right. You know? Yeah. And you're not paying attention to other people's things as much as you're just your own little world. Right, right, right. But as Jeff just alluded to, I mean, some of these books, it's almost like, go ahead John, just have a candy bar. It's our own one. So good. It's almost like he was just looking into the future, 2, 3, 5 years out and, and some of these things would happen, you know, after the Right. But so where does that imaginate, was he just studying? So he, he was always, always big on, on current events. Okay. And history. Okay. And, he was open about, about his dyslexia. He was really smart, but school never came easy. Yeah. For him or me, actually. It's common for a lot of people. Yeah. So we, we worked hard for our bees and our Cs. CS get degrees, there we go. There we go. Um, anyway, yes. He would say things, go looking back on it in high school where you're like, what, what are you talking about? What are you thinking about? You know? And now as you look kind of grown as a grown man, you look back and you go, yeah, you know, Vince was right. The, so he paid, the Indians got the shaft more than anybody in history, you know what I mean? He sort of paid attention. He would say things like that where it's like, you know, at 15 or 16 you're not thinking of those things. Steve, you might be interested in this. Um, so I worked with, uh, Vince's brother for 18 years at Salesforce and just saw him before I left for Boston. But I. His, um, Kevin said hi. Uh, his mom and dad were sort of right brain, left brain. His mom was a wildlife artist and actually I think won an award from Ducks Unlimited as a cool, um, wildlife. When you guys had JB Lloyd on, he talked a little bit about, about going out to the Flynn house in, in college. Mm-hmm. I think part of my elementary school years, I, I grew up at the Flynn House. they lived in Apple Valley. Yep. And right across the street was this really steep hill called Butte. And they would close that thing down in the winter. And we would go out there and go tobogganing and sledding down this hill. Love after like our older brothers basketball games on Friday nights, we'd go out there and the next thing you know, it'd be Sunday. And we're still at the Flynn house going, well, we better get home because we got it's fun school tomorrow. Oh. It was just a And where did you grow up? You were in St. Paul. I grew up right in the heart of St. Paul. Okay. Uhhuh. Yeah. Yeah. Right by, uh, just a few blocks from William Mitchell Law School., What Steve was saying, was he always like this and was he connecting the dots and thinking bigger picture and, and I also think the large Irish family telling stories and everybody kind of having to compete for attention and Well, and, and, and part of it is, you know, we're. His mother was, very artistic and she was a very talented woman the dad eventually went into business, control data, that type of stuff. Mm-hmm. But he was a teacher and coach. So you, you look at this and you've got this extremely, driven hardnosed, coach, school teacher. Then you've got this artistic mother she won awards with her, her wildlife stuff and all this, and ducks and nature and all this. And then she just decided, I'm, I'm gonna start carving more. And all of a sudden she was, I mean, she was just a really, really talented woman. Huh. Um, and she did that right in the living room of their house. I mean, it was, I remember being out there where. Kathy would be out there with, you know, working all the time and, you know, I kind look back on it now and go, were you, you, he'd like to give it the Oh, good for you. Like, like everyone that went to St. Thomas Thomas Academy was rolling in the door. I always Is that why does that Then family parents broke their back to send their kids to really good private schools. I mean, not to trade school. Of course, of course. But anyway, but, but you know, they had, you know, the dad had a, a decent vehicle, but the kids all drove beaters and, and there weren't that many of them and they shared them and, you know, so it sacrifice. Yeah. Yeah. They sacrificed a lot. And they were, um, like you said, this big Irish family. Well, the last thing that's gonna happen when you're the fifth of, of that many kids, um, you know, when Vince needed to be put in his place by his older brothers? Yeah. They, they didn't hesitate. To do it. And Vince, of course, kind of did the same thing with, with Kevin and Tim as, as, as needed, you know, um, so there was always, there was always, you know, great stuff there. It trickles downhill. Yes. Yeah, it really does. So your brother Tom then would've been number 13 out of 13. Tom? Tom is the youngest of our, of our clan. Yeah. Your oldest sibling, how much older than you? So there's, there's 20 years between my oldest brother Sean, right? Yeah, yeah. 13 kids in 20 years. Yeah. That sounds like poor Kathy, Kathy at all. The Susie family. You know, I listen to, to Joe Re all the time and I know rookie, but I had never met Joe. So Joe, the difference between Joe and Joe's youngest brother Paul, and, and Paul. Is something like 16 years or something like that. You know, these, the, those Catholic families, it's huge change. Yeah. They were good at making babies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, the all we had was a black and white tv and that didn't work all the time. So who knows? Yeah. You gotta do something with your time. But incidentally, my mother knew your mother when your mom was a volunteer at St. Joe's Hospital. Are you kidding me? No, my mom was the, I was just talking about my mom doing that. She, she was so excited to finally get out of the house. Yeah. You know, and she started, she started volunteering at the hospital. She, yeah, my mom was the volunteer coordinator and said that your mom was just the most lovely woman. She was an unbelievable woman. That's so fun. I mean, she was, um, yeah, probably, probably the greatest person I know. Oh, that's what, amazing. Absolutely, absolutely wonderful woman. And she always, she was one of those people that, um, when you talk to her. She made you feel like you were the most important person. I love that in the world. And kinda like Bill Clinton, your whole, your differently. Sorry about that. Anyway, um, some people are really good at that. I know what you're saying. Yeah. Some people, when you listen, when they, you talk to them, it's like they got you in a tractor beam. Whether they really mean it or not, they're so good at it. Something interesting. Well, and and you say about, um, the, the organization you're with, meeting people at at the level. On the level. On the level, right? Yeah. Right. My mother had this, this talent of doing that with anyone from the age of 90 to three years old, my God. And making them feel like. You're it, you got all my attention. Goosebumps. That's cool. Yeah. God, I love that. And that's really kind of your mom to say and that's like everyone that knew my mother says she. Oh, absolutely. She worked at St. Patrick's Guild for a little while. Oh really? At the time. Yeah. Yeah. I love that story. She couldn't run the register, so they would put her out on the floor to sell stuff. To sell stuff and then other people would ring'em out and That's great. And Tim Doen, the old one would go, best move I've ever made. Oh my God. Yeah. Just with the people. Fabulous. KGI We only have you for a couple more minutes'cause you're off to, uh, to watch The Natural. He's got a movie night tonight for those you Oh, that's a great movie. It's a, it's, and it's k G's choice. Tonight he's got this little movie, my Dan movie club that I have. Movie club. Nice. Cool. It's a good one. Who's, who's part of this club, Kevin? Well, it's, uh, Chrissy Bailey, my Significant other, and then Tammy and Marty Miller, um, who John knows quite well. All right. And where do they, where do they live? Uh, they live in the, uh, cozy little suburb. We like to call Edina. Oh, good for you. Just like a drop, a sound drop for that. So, so Gorgie, here's the big question. Are you stopping at a real movie theater to get your popcorn before you view this tonight? Or, or co he bringing some butter or something? He brings his own style. Me. Well, John's the butter man. John brings the melted butter. He more than I, John John's the butter guy. Uh, we, we pop the corn at the Miller's house. I have brought the popcorn though. I, I've gone to Candy Land, which is a St. Paul staple and a still water staple. John and I love Candy Land. John, whenever we go there together, John and I walk in and he says, listen, we want the butter popcorn, and we'd like an excessive amount of butter on that popcorn. It's so good. The way I describe it is, as I say, I'd like a shameful amount of butter on that, right? So yeah, this, this, uh, started during COVID guys and I told John. On, on the drive over, uh, this is movie 1 26. Wow. The fifth person is Mary Cheez and, uh, oh, Mary. Yeah, she, Mary and Tammy and Chrissy all worked together back in the day. That's the connection. Yeah. And so when the theater shut down during COVID, we all love movies and we couldn't figure out what to do, so we can't put this idea. We meet every couple of weeks. We bring takeout. We have a little visit from like six to six 30 and the movie starts at six 30 done by nine. So people can go out their lives and I get extra excited when it's my pick, which it's tonight. I'm very, very much looking forward to see, I would say the movie in forever. You picked the natural, you said, right? Yeah, this is, this is my pick. So every fifth movie You so wasn't, wasn't Robert Redford just a little bit old for that role when he played about that? We were just, I mean, he had it to have been 40 something we just got done talking about that. It, you know what, it ends up working, um, because he does struggle with, you know, physically in the movie, but he. I had to guess he had to be in his fifties. Like he looked outta place, but he pulled it off. Redford, pull it off, pulled him out there. I always think about that. And uh, and then Reg Dunlop on the blades, you know, oh my God. He was probably a little old at the time as well, but he was. That's the, uh, the movie is Slap Shot. Have you ever seen that one? Oh, a classic. I know the movie Inside Out. Yes. Very good. Oggi Torp. Oggi. Torp. Ogle. Torp. So, Kevin, before you, before you sign off, I'm just gonna share, you said you, you were on dad's golf team. Uh, he needed a player one time, and I played one match at Mini, at Minneapolis Country Club. Oh, good for you. And I hit, I hit every tree on the course and shot about, I shot about 110 and was on a Sunday afternoon gorgie. So you know how the coaches would go off first and play and then they'd just take off. So I get home to Sunday dinner and the old man says, well, what, what did you shoot? And I said, uh, oh. I was terrible, dad. I was absolutely terrible. He goes, well, how bad? I said, uh, I said, I shot 110. And he goes 110. He said, I could throw it around in 110. He goes, you didn't tell anyone that you're my son, did you? Oh, no. And for the listeners, like Coach Flood looked like, uh, Santa Claus. Like we, we, like you looked at him. He was just this lovable, um, just gregarious personality. And I had a similar experience, Nick. So my, the first meet I got to go play in was somewhere up in near St. Cloud. We, we hopped in the, the shuttle bus and we went up there and, and, and Coach Flood has got us all organized. I'm in the last group. Um, I'm in like the extras. Sure. You've got your dad being the golf coach at St. Thomas. I've got my dad being the longtime golf pro down at far. So people assume, uh, that apples actually can, what way? And so I go up there and then I shoot a bundle. I somewhere in the nineties, probably in the upper nineties. And you know, I got guys on my team shooting in the. And same thing. I get done playing. Um, and, and coach floods there on the 18th hole and he sees me, I'm, I'm clearly exhausted from chasing that golf ball over. Kingdom come and he puts his arm around me and he goes, don't worry, you know, in the future, just know that we're probably never gonna use your, here's a lifesaver in the meantime. That's great. He's probably got his goalie stick out ready to play. Yeah. Hey, Kevin, I, I think of your dad every time I drive past the site of the, uh, the golf dome there down south in Lakeville. didn't your dad have like a pro shop in that, in that golf dome or something? I think Yes. Yeah. You, you were working, you gave me a discount on a bag and a, and a rain jacket at 1.0 long time ago. The Tennis Chronicles speaking. I always take care of my own. My, my dad's in assisted living. He's 85. He's got some dementia. Um, but I will tell you, he still. Loves the game. So obviously all weekend long he was watching the US Open and you know, we play in a fantasy league together where I'll make the picks, but I'll share with my dad who the one and done pick is. So he knew we had John Rom, so he was cheering for John Rom. Uh, he, yeah. It's, you know, you, you watched your parents leave and my dad's probably not far away. He is, had some health issues, but it's funny, they, they still are who they are, right? That that's right. And he still gets angry, like when, when the golfer doesn't do what he's supposed to do, why'd you pick this guy? You know, like his whole happiness on the weekend is laying in that bed, got up the assisted living place and watching our golfer and so the least John Rom could have done is, you know, play a little better golf. But it's, uh, yeah, it's, um, the golf thing for me just wasn't meant to be. And you know, I had all the opportunity in the world. I played a bunch as a young guy. It just didn't take, I don't have the mental fortitude or patience for the game. Yep. I love watching it. I don't enjoy playing it. Yeah. But you can still read a green. You can read a green. I can still put We were, what was that? Were we at the Legends kg? Were you sunk the pot that was 85 feet. Wow. And let me tell you, you should have seen how far off the ground that guy came with his excitement. Oh, he jumped up and he almost, we could almost fit like the St. Cloud phone book underneath his feet. It was, it was impressive Memories of like, George Costan is on a high note here. Memories of Phil Mickelson jumping at the Masters. Huh? Kg Oh God, that was so bad. Alright, kg. I know you gotta get, get to your, uh, to your big event. But, uh, thanks for taking the time to, uh, visit with us. We're gonna get back on a little bit of Vince Flynn talk, but, uh, any final thoughts sir? Don't eat all my hundred grand bars. Those better be there when I get there the next couple of weeks. We'll hold them for you. You're, you're gonna have to make a road trip across town to get'em kg. I know. He gets. Oh, I'll Thanks for doing that, Nick. Yeah. Uh, and stay outta Tommy. I'll your brother take though I saw a little while ago. All please say hi. All right, I will. Take care. Have fun. Kg. Bye Kevin. Bye. And with that, thanks Nick. Off we go.