The sports world lost an icon this week, and many are still trying to wrap their heads around it.
John Madden, a coaching legend with the Oakland Raiders, a pioneering broadcaster and a universally beloved, larger-than-life figure, died at 85 on Tuesday.
Longtime San Francisco Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow has particular ties to the late Madden. Madden — a Cal Poly graduate like Krukow — was one of the first celebrities to recognize Krukow by name, a feeling he’ll always cherish.
“I think that he was our coach,” Krukow said on KNBR Thursday. “He was everybody’s coach.”
When Krukow met Madden at his golf tournament at Cal Poly, they talked baseball. Madden played catcher at Cal Poly, and Krukow remembers him likening the catcher position to offensive line in baseball — the unsung heroes.
Madden led the Raiders to the 1976 Super Bowl. In his 10 seasons at the helm, the Raiders made it to the playoffs eight times, including five AFC Championship games.
But Madden is remembered as much for coaching as he is for broadcasting. He’s recognized as one of the first broadcasters to dissect games and teach the audience more about football. He brought a coach’s clipboard to the broadcasting booth, something almost every announcer in all sports tries to emulate now.
“He inspired all of us,” Krukow said. “Affected all of us. There’s things in my broadcasting style that is directly related to John Madden. And I think everybody who gets behind a microphone can say the same thing. Everybody aspires to be that guy in a lot of ways. Behind the mic, his walk of life. We toasted him last night.”
Madden was as entertaining as he was insightful. His rambunctious personality was evident in every broadcast and commercial appearance he did. Krukow said that his leadership skills were so clear, he’d have been a leader in whatever era he may have lived in.
“He would’ve been a coach. He would’ve been a general. He would’ve been a guy people gravitated to,” Krukow said.
“He was the guy in our country that everybody wanted to sit down and have a beer and eat a turkey leg with,” Krukow said. “He was just that guy. I think it was easy for him in a lot of ways because of his people skills. He didn’t have an ego. He’d walk in and he was the centerpiece of the room, but whoever he was talking to, he made them feel like they were the centerpiece of the room.”
For the full conversation with Krukow, Kerry Crowley and Marcus Thompson, which included Krukow’s thoughts on the 2021 Giants season and the ongoing MLB lockout, check out the Murph & Mac Podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Catch Murph & Mac weekdays from 6 – 10 a.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.
