In this segment, host Phil Tower welcomes Bill Morris, author of The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions, and the Road to Redemption in the NFL.
Bill Morris is the author of the novels Motor City and Motor City Burning, along with the family memoir The Age of Astonishment, available from Pegasus Books.
Bill's great new book tells the epic and tumultuous story of the Lions, the Ford family, and the city of Detroit—and how all three have come together on the cusp of a new era.
"Born under a bad sign" is how Bill Ford’s ownership of the Lions began. After a decade of supremacy, Ford led the team on a half-century slog of mediocrity, the fruit of his mercurial nature and undying loyalty to the wrong people. The Lions Finally Roar is bursting with the colorful ruffians who have made the team one of America’s most beloved sports franchises despite its years of futility.
Bill is the featured author and guest at the National Writers Series in Traverse City Michigan on December 18.
Get Bill's Book: The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions, and the Road to Redemption in the NFL
Topics Discussed: the city of Detroit, National Football League politics, National Football league ownership, the impact of professional sports on cities, Women in sports leadership.
Bill Morris is the author of the novels Motor City and Motor City Burning, along with the family memoir The Age of Astonishment, available from Pegasus Books.
Bill's great new book tells the epic and tumultuous story of the Lions, the Ford family, and the city of Detroit—and how all three have come together on the cusp of a new era.
"Born under a bad sign" is how Bill Ford’s ownership of the Lions began. After a decade of supremacy, Ford led the team on a half-century slog of mediocrity, the fruit of his mercurial nature and undying loyalty to the wrong people. The Lions Finally Roar is bursting with the colorful ruffians who have made the team one of America’s most beloved sports franchises despite its years of futility.
Bill is the featured author and guest at the National Writers Series in Traverse City Michigan on December 18.
Get Bill's Book: The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions, and the Road to Redemption in the NFL
Topics Discussed: the city of Detroit, National Football League politics, National Football league ownership, the impact of professional sports on cities, Women in sports leadership.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to inform and enlighten on a
wide range of public policy issues, as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome back to West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio. As you
can tell, I have a little bit of an excitement
in my voice because all right, I'm going to out
myself on the radio and everybody else is right now
a Lions fan. I'm a huge Lions fan. I have
been for over fifty years. As you've probably heard a
lot of people say that, fifty difficult years of fandom.
(00:37):
And that's why I'm so excited to be able to
spend some time with author Bill Morris. He's written a
new book out in September on Pegas's Books, The Lions
Finally Roar, The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions and the
Road to Redemption in the NFL. It's out on hardcover
and I cannot think of a better Christmas gift for
the Lions fan in your family than Bill book. Bill Morris,
(01:01):
Welcome to West Michigan Weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Thanks for having me, Phil, It's great I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
So glad that you are here. You've written previous books
about Detroit, Motor City and MotorCity Burning. You are a
Detroiter originally, as I recall.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Right, that's right, I grew up My first seventeen years
of my life were spending Detroit. My dad worked at
Ford Motor Company. In fact, my father's was William Clay
Ford Senior's personal executive assistant for ten years, which is
really the origin of this book. I sat down with
my father late in his life and tape recorded his memories,
and he had a lot of memories not only about
(01:37):
working at Ford, but of the Bill Ford and the
Ford family and the Lions. Bill Ford offered my father
the general manager's job, even though my father knew nothing
about running a football team, and he ended up offering
the general manager's job to a lot of people who
didn't know anything about running a football team, Russ Thomas,
Chuck Schmid, and then finally Matt Mellett. So I was
(02:00):
cast quite early on in the early nineteen sixties when
my dad was working for mister Ford.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, there's a there's a line in my well prepared
press information that it really stuck out because I'm not
a believer in bad luck, but I guess, deep in
our cores, all of us kind of think, are some
people cursed and born under a bad sign? Is what
you say? The Bill Ford ownership era began under I mean,
(02:28):
do you think it was cursed? Bill Well?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I don't you know the born under a bad sign?
He bought the team and from a syndicate of one
hundred and forty four owners, paid six million bucks for it,
and the other owners agreed to sell. On November twenty second,
nineteen sixty three, and they were having lunch, my father
and Bill Ford entourage at the book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit,
and the waitners came up and said, gentlemen, have you
(02:52):
heard the news President Kennedy's been assassinated in Dallas. That
was the day Bill Ford bought the Lions. And so
that's where the born under a bad sign comes from.
You know, there was a curse of Bobby Lay and
all this talk. I don't buy it. I think organizations
rise and fall based on who's at the top, and
it trickles down from there. And I think over the
(03:14):
years fifty years, Bill Ford proved to be a terrible
owner and he got the wrong people stuck with him
too long, and that didn't turn around until his daughter
took over the team a few years back.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, and boy was it a difficult time. I was thinking, Bill,
anticipating speaking with you on the program about some of
the awful years. The Matt Patricia years really stand out,
and just as you said, just putting the wrong people
in the wrong place under Bill Ford. It really comes
down to a lot of that what was the magic?
(03:47):
And I'm assuming you unpack a bit of this with
the Lions finally roar, what was the magic? What is
the secret sauce that Hila Ford hamp brought to this
whole picture?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Well, tell you that's really the turning point of the book.
When I started writing the book, as you might have gathered,
I was going to write a story about this historic futility,
which you mentioned at the top, you know, fifty years
of watching them win a grand total of one playoff game,
and I was there's something institutional and cultural about failure
(04:19):
like that. It happens year after year after year. That's
not an accident, that's not bad luck, that's the organization
and the soul of the organization. And then when Sheila
Ford hamp came in. I don't know if you remember this,
when she brought in Brat Holmes and Dan Campbell and
they lost their first ten games boom, right out of
the shooting. And that's when I started writing the book
(04:41):
because I thought, well, you know, no matter what, you
got the third owner, three stadiums they've played in, they're
back in downtown Detroit, and they just can't get out
of their own way. And so that's when I started
writing the book. And my original working title was natural
Born Losers, and I was going to write a history
of futility, really And then in the middle of the
(05:01):
second season, she came out to the Allen parkfield, and
this is in the book. It's kind of to me
the turning point of the whole thing. The reporters jumped
up and got around her with her notebooks and tape recorders,
and she said, look, guys, we were three and ten
last year. We're one in five right now, in the
second year of the Dan Campbell era. And I know
everybody's frustrated. I'm frustrated, but I'm not going to push
(05:24):
the panic button. I want to stick with these guys.
I believe in them. I believe in the system. And
then I extrapolated from that the reason she believed in
them was because she believes in herself. She believed that
she did the right thing, and she's stuck with it.
And you know, unlike her father, who stuck with the
wrong people, she's stuck with the right people. And I
think that's the real source of the turnaround of the team.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
And there's a great thing about her, Bill Morris, Sheila
Ford hamp Unlike so many NFL owners who just love
can't stay away from the camera, love love the spotlight,
she is okay with being in the background, far behind
Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Oh yeah. And you see these owners who try to
become general managers, like in Dallas and Indianapolis, and it's
just it's pathetic. And she's got the good sense to
leave it to the professionals, you know, get out of
the way, get the right people, and let them do
their jobs. And I think that's that's obviously working out
pretty well for her, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
When this book was published and it came out in September,
did you know your timing was going to be just
simply perfect?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Well? No, And I got to there was. There was
some high anxiety in my stomach because the book was
published a week before the kickoff against the Rams. I
was at that game at Ford Field this year, and
I'm thinking to myself, what if they go oh and
ten like they did in their first year. Very possible,
same old lionce. You know, the fans in Detroited heard
this story a few thousand times, and so I was thinking, boy,
(06:51):
if they, if they, if they go in the tank,
my book is going to go in the tank too.
But they they, they didn't, and they've I couldn't for
a better script for my book. I mean, the timing
is nothing wrong with being lucky, right right.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Indeed, Bill Morris is with us, author of several great
books about Detroit. His latest is The Lions Finally Roar,
The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions and the Road to
Redemption in the NFL. Now here's something exciting. We're having
this conversation on the radio on Sunday, December fifteenth, just
three days away from Bill Morris being in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan, Wednesday,
(07:27):
December eighteenth, seven pm at the National Writers Series speaking.
And if you've never been to this series, it is
a wonderful series, nationally renowned and respected. This is going
to be exciting your week before Christmas, and who knows
what the Lions and the Bills are going to do today,
(07:47):
Bill Morris, It's still going to be a wonderful season
and a wonderful time next week to be in Traverse City.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Oh yeah, I'm really excited about this, Phil, It's a
big honor to me. And I'll be on the stage
with a guy you made, Keith Gave, who was a
free press hockey writer for years. So sure about the
residents on the Red Wings. Wonderful guy, very knowledgeable, and
we're just going to talk and like you and I
are doing right now, it's not going to be anything
real formal, and I think it's going to be fun
and I hope people will show up. I know it's
(08:14):
going to be a little cold, but you can also
intend virtually if you go to the National Writer Series.
There's a way to watch it from home. So I
hope people will turn out and get the book.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, check it out for sure, and you can get
more information at National Writers Series dot org. National Writers
Series dot Org. The book The Lions Finally Role Bill
Morris's book and we're talking about. It is available everywhere
books are sold. Shout out to your local bookstores, Horizon
Books in Traverse City and here in Grand Rapids, Shooler Books.
(08:44):
Shop local if you can. And are you going to
do any book signings for this in Grand Rapids?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
You, I mean, don't have anything planning Grand Rapids. I'm
actually going to be in Detroit tonight at Source Booksellers,
and I may stop in Great Rapids and just sign
books on my way back south. But I did not
arrange at any signings at Schulers. I was hoping to,
but it didn't work out. My schedule is a little crazy,
but yeah, I might pass through Grand Rapids, so if
(09:14):
I do, I'll sign those books at Schulers because that's
a great store.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It is a great store. Indeed, The Lions finally roar
the Ford Family, the Detroit Lions, and the Road to
Redemption in the NFL. Bill Morris with us on West
Michigan weekend. I've got a little bit of time left.
This book is also about how Detroit has evolved over
the last sixty plus years.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Red Bill, I'm glad you said that, Phil, because you
know I didn't want this to be a football book.
I wanted this to be a Detroit book, and it's
dedicated to the people of Detroit who survive everything America
can dish out. That's a quote from Philip Levine, the
great blue collar poet from Detroit who went on to
become US Poet Laureate. And it's really about the people
(09:54):
of Detroit, the history, the architecture, the race relations, the
white the freeways, the music, the motown, the Grandy Ballroom,
the Detroit Institute of Arts. I wanted to get everything
about Detroit into this book, focused of course on the Lions.
But I hope it's much more than just a football book.
I hope it's a real Detroit book.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I have no doubt that it is. I cannot wait
to read it, and I hope I get a chance
at some point to catch you and thank you for
writing it. It's been a real treat and a real
pleasure to have you on the program. And go Lions.
I guess that's the best way I can end it.
Good luck at your talk with Keith Gave in Traverse
(10:36):
City next week next week Wednesday, National Writers Series Dot
Org and Bill Morris, thank you so much for taking
a bit of your time to join us here on
Iheartradios West Michigan Weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Oh, thank you, Phil, I appreciate it. Then go Lions.
They ain't their hands full tonight with the bills, but
we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, I will admit on the radio right now, I'm
a little worried, but we'll just leave it. Bill Morris
with us. What a treat the Lions finally roar and
I am so excited for this book again. You can
get it wherever books are sold. That's our program. Thank
you so much for listening. Let's do this again next
(11:15):
week right here on this iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to inform and enlighten on a
wide range of public policy issues, as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome back to West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio. As you
can tell, I have a little bit of an excitement
in my voice because all right, I'm going to out
myself on the radio and everybody else is right now
a Lions fan. I'm a huge Lions fan. I have
been for over fifty years. As you've probably heard a
lot of people say that, fifty difficult years of fandom.
(00:37):
And that's why I'm so excited to be able to
spend some time with author Bill Morris. He's written a
new book out in September on Pegas's Books, The Lions
Finally Roar, The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions and the
Road to Redemption in the NFL. It's out on hardcover
and I cannot think of a better Christmas gift for
the Lions fan in your family than Bill book. Bill Morris,
(01:01):
Welcome to West Michigan Weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Thanks for having me, Phil, It's great I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
So glad that you are here. You've written previous books
about Detroit, Motor City and MotorCity Burning. You are a
Detroiter originally, as I recall.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Right, that's right, I grew up My first seventeen years
of my life were spending Detroit. My dad worked at
Ford Motor Company. In fact, my father's was William Clay
Ford Senior's personal executive assistant for ten years, which is
really the origin of this book. I sat down with
my father late in his life and tape recorded his memories,
and he had a lot of memories not only about
(01:37):
working at Ford, but of the Bill Ford and the
Ford family and the Lions. Bill Ford offered my father
the general manager's job, even though my father knew nothing
about running a football team, and he ended up offering
the general manager's job to a lot of people who
didn't know anything about running a football team, Russ Thomas,
Chuck Schmid, and then finally Matt Mellett. So I was
(02:00):
cast quite early on in the early nineteen sixties when
my dad was working for mister Ford.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, there's a there's a line in my well prepared
press information that it really stuck out because I'm not
a believer in bad luck, but I guess, deep in
our cores, all of us kind of think, are some
people cursed and born under a bad sign? Is what
you say? The Bill Ford ownership era began under I mean,
(02:28):
do you think it was cursed? Bill Well?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I don't you know the born under a bad sign?
He bought the team and from a syndicate of one
hundred and forty four owners, paid six million bucks for it,
and the other owners agreed to sell. On November twenty second,
nineteen sixty three, and they were having lunch, my father
and Bill Ford entourage at the book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit,
and the waitners came up and said, gentlemen, have you
(02:52):
heard the news President Kennedy's been assassinated in Dallas. That
was the day Bill Ford bought the Lions. And so
that's where the born under a bad sign comes from.
You know, there was a curse of Bobby Lay and
all this talk. I don't buy it. I think organizations
rise and fall based on who's at the top, and
it trickles down from there. And I think over the
(03:14):
years fifty years, Bill Ford proved to be a terrible
owner and he got the wrong people stuck with him
too long, and that didn't turn around until his daughter
took over the team a few years back.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, and boy was it a difficult time. I was thinking, Bill,
anticipating speaking with you on the program about some of
the awful years. The Matt Patricia years really stand out,
and just as you said, just putting the wrong people
in the wrong place under Bill Ford. It really comes
down to a lot of that what was the magic?
(03:47):
And I'm assuming you unpack a bit of this with
the Lions finally roar, what was the magic? What is
the secret sauce that Hila Ford hamp brought to this
whole picture?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Well, tell you that's really the turning point of the book.
When I started writing the book, as you might have gathered,
I was going to write a story about this historic futility,
which you mentioned at the top, you know, fifty years
of watching them win a grand total of one playoff game,
and I was there's something institutional and cultural about failure
(04:19):
like that. It happens year after year after year. That's
not an accident, that's not bad luck, that's the organization
and the soul of the organization. And then when Sheila
Ford hamp came in. I don't know if you remember this,
when she brought in Brat Holmes and Dan Campbell and
they lost their first ten games boom, right out of
the shooting. And that's when I started writing the book
(04:41):
because I thought, well, you know, no matter what, you
got the third owner, three stadiums they've played in, they're
back in downtown Detroit, and they just can't get out
of their own way. And so that's when I started
writing the book. And my original working title was natural
Born Losers, and I was going to write a history
of futility, really And then in the middle of the
(05:01):
second season, she came out to the Allen parkfield, and
this is in the book. It's kind of to me
the turning point of the whole thing. The reporters jumped
up and got around her with her notebooks and tape recorders,
and she said, look, guys, we were three and ten
last year. We're one in five right now, in the
second year of the Dan Campbell era. And I know
everybody's frustrated. I'm frustrated, but I'm not going to push
(05:24):
the panic button. I want to stick with these guys.
I believe in them. I believe in the system. And
then I extrapolated from that the reason she believed in
them was because she believes in herself. She believed that
she did the right thing, and she's stuck with it.
And you know, unlike her father, who stuck with the
wrong people, she's stuck with the right people. And I
think that's the real source of the turnaround of the team.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
And there's a great thing about her, Bill Morris, Sheila
Ford hamp Unlike so many NFL owners who just love
can't stay away from the camera, love love the spotlight,
she is okay with being in the background, far behind
Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Oh yeah. And you see these owners who try to
become general managers, like in Dallas and Indianapolis, and it's
just it's pathetic. And she's got the good sense to
leave it to the professionals, you know, get out of
the way, get the right people, and let them do
their jobs. And I think that's that's obviously working out
pretty well for her, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
When this book was published and it came out in September,
did you know your timing was going to be just
simply perfect?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Well? No, And I got to there was. There was
some high anxiety in my stomach because the book was
published a week before the kickoff against the Rams. I
was at that game at Ford Field this year, and
I'm thinking to myself, what if they go oh and
ten like they did in their first year. Very possible,
same old lionce. You know, the fans in Detroited heard
this story a few thousand times, and so I was thinking, boy,
(06:51):
if they, if they, if they go in the tank,
my book is going to go in the tank too.
But they they, they didn't, and they've I couldn't for
a better script for my book. I mean, the timing
is nothing wrong with being lucky, right right.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Indeed, Bill Morris is with us, author of several great
books about Detroit. His latest is The Lions Finally Roar,
The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions and the Road to
Redemption in the NFL. Now here's something exciting. We're having
this conversation on the radio on Sunday, December fifteenth, just
three days away from Bill Morris being in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan, Wednesday,
(07:27):
December eighteenth, seven pm at the National Writers Series speaking.
And if you've never been to this series, it is
a wonderful series, nationally renowned and respected. This is going
to be exciting your week before Christmas, and who knows
what the Lions and the Bills are going to do today,
(07:47):
Bill Morris, It's still going to be a wonderful season
and a wonderful time next week to be in Traverse City.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Oh yeah, I'm really excited about this, Phil, It's a
big honor to me. And I'll be on the stage
with a guy you made, Keith Gave, who was a
free press hockey writer for years. So sure about the
residents on the Red Wings. Wonderful guy, very knowledgeable, and
we're just going to talk and like you and I
are doing right now, it's not going to be anything
real formal, and I think it's going to be fun
and I hope people will show up. I know it's
(08:14):
going to be a little cold, but you can also
intend virtually if you go to the National Writer Series.
There's a way to watch it from home. So I
hope people will turn out and get the book.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, check it out for sure, and you can get
more information at National Writers Series dot org. National Writers
Series dot Org. The book The Lions Finally Role Bill
Morris's book and we're talking about. It is available everywhere
books are sold. Shout out to your local bookstores, Horizon
Books in Traverse City and here in Grand Rapids, Shooler Books.
(08:44):
Shop local if you can. And are you going to
do any book signings for this in Grand Rapids?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
You, I mean, don't have anything planning Grand Rapids. I'm
actually going to be in Detroit tonight at Source Booksellers,
and I may stop in Great Rapids and just sign
books on my way back south. But I did not
arrange at any signings at Schulers. I was hoping to,
but it didn't work out. My schedule is a little crazy,
but yeah, I might pass through Grand Rapids, so if
(09:14):
I do, I'll sign those books at Schulers because that's
a great store.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It is a great store. Indeed, The Lions finally roar
the Ford Family, the Detroit Lions, and the Road to
Redemption in the NFL. Bill Morris with us on West
Michigan weekend. I've got a little bit of time left.
This book is also about how Detroit has evolved over
the last sixty plus years.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Red Bill, I'm glad you said that, Phil, because you
know I didn't want this to be a football book.
I wanted this to be a Detroit book, and it's
dedicated to the people of Detroit who survive everything America
can dish out. That's a quote from Philip Levine, the
great blue collar poet from Detroit who went on to
become US Poet Laureate. And it's really about the people
(09:54):
of Detroit, the history, the architecture, the race relations, the
white the freeways, the music, the motown, the Grandy Ballroom,
the Detroit Institute of Arts. I wanted to get everything
about Detroit into this book, focused of course on the Lions.
But I hope it's much more than just a football book.
I hope it's a real Detroit book.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I have no doubt that it is. I cannot wait
to read it, and I hope I get a chance
at some point to catch you and thank you for
writing it. It's been a real treat and a real
pleasure to have you on the program. And go Lions.
I guess that's the best way I can end it.
Good luck at your talk with Keith Gave in Traverse
(10:36):
City next week next week Wednesday, National Writers Series Dot
Org and Bill Morris, thank you so much for taking
a bit of your time to join us here on
Iheartradios West Michigan Weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Oh, thank you, Phil, I appreciate it. Then go Lions.
They ain't their hands full tonight with the bills, but
we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, I will admit on the radio right now, I'm
a little worried, but we'll just leave it. Bill Morris
with us. What a treat the Lions finally roar and
I am so excited for this book again. You can
get it wherever books are sold. That's our program. Thank
you so much for listening. Let's do this again next
(11:15):
week right here on this iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
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