 Hi, welcome to another edition of Yes, We're Here. And this is a special Fordham University edition. My guest is my fellow Fordham alum, Jack Curry. And as you can see, we're both wearing Fordham shirts. And we're doing that for the express purpose of annoying John Flaherty. Because Jack, every time he mentions Fordham during a game, you could just see he has a look of disgust on his face. So I'm glad that we could do this to really annoy him today. Does that have to be my principal reason for wearing the shirt, too? Can I just say I'm very proud to be a Fordham alum. And I'm glad you've got the sweatshirt on. Do I have to drag Flaherty and his GW pedigree through the gutter? Do I have to do that? No, you don't. Because you know, a long friendship. I'm the petty one. You're the good guy. So yeah, I expect you to have that feeling. And I'll be the petty one knowing that this will rile up Flaherty. That's kind of what I live for. I love that you put it that way. Because Flaherty is probably nodding right now if he's watching this. But we almost were the Bobsy twins. Because this is a, whatever this is, a dry fit workout shirt type thing. I have the Fordham sweatshirt right beyond where we are tapering right now. We would have almost looked identical, Michael. I'm glad we mixed it up a little bit. Well, let's talk Fordham beginnings. I thought this would be fun to bat back and forth. And I started at Fordham when I was 17 years old. Because I had skipped a grade. I had skipped eighth grade. I went from seventh to ninth. And so I was a year younger than I should have been when I got into Fordham. And I know you're going to laugh at this, but I was a total introvert, very shy, when I got to school. And for the first two months of school, starting in September, I would go to my class and you know Fordham. Sometimes you'd have two, three hours between classes. You couldn't, especially as a freshman, get class after class so you could shorten your day. And I would sleep in the car. And my sister was a senior at Fordham during that time. And one day she just read me the riot act at home. She said, what's wrong with you? She goes, you're sleeping in your car. Your legs are hanging out of the window. You're like an idiot. She goes, you came here to go into communications. What are you doing? She literally dragged me to the RAM offices, which was the school newspaper, one of the school newspapers, and she made me join. And then she dragged me upstairs to the third floor of Keying Hall and made me join WFUV. And if it wasn't for my sister Debbie, I don't know if I would have had the gumption or just to get up and go to do it, but that was like the real push that I needed. I don't know if you had difficulty starting like I did. Well, first of all, props to Debbie, the older sister, making sure that her younger brother uses the skills and the talents that he had. I never was a homeless person sleeping in my car in the parking lot. I did not do that at all. But it is a trying time and an intimidating time when you walk onto a campus for the first time. And I actually think going back to what you said, if you skip the second grade or the third grade or the fourth grade, going from the seventh grade to the ninth grade, that's a big leap. So as you talked about being young, I was 17 when I started college too. And it is a big adjustment period, but I was very focused at that age. And I knew what I wanted to do, much like you, which is why this surprised me a little bit. From the time I was about 13, I wanted to be a sports journalist. And that's why I was so in love with Fordham's campus and what it offered. So I didn't need anyone to drag me to the RAM or WFUV. I tried to be the first online at those places. And it was great because at both places, the RAM, and then I ended up going to the paper, which was kind of the alternative newspaper at Fordham. All the upperclassmen were so welcoming, especially at FUV. And that's the difference between FUV now, FUV for those that don't know, that's the Fordham student radio station. Now it's kind of run by adults. I mean, it's good that they have the best of intentions for the kids. But when I was there, we made up the schedules, we approved to one on the air. You know, I was sports director in my senior year and I was assistant sports director my junior year. I got the lines put in for all the games on the road. I booked the hotels and the travel and stuff like that. I mean, it was like throw you into the deep end of the pool. I'm telling you, Jack, that helped me immensely. Although the kids that come out of Fordham now, you see like a guy like Ryan Rucco, that's obviously worked for him. But when I was there, it was all, it was me, it was Mike Breen, it was Charlie Slows. Those guys, we just dove in head first and we made it work our own. I had the same experience as you. My class was guys like Bob Papa, Paul Datino, ahead of me, guys like John Geonone and Jim Johnson. I remember one year Fordham was playing in Hawaii and we needed to get our own advertising to be able to have a budget to go to Hawaii. And Joe V. Elone, who we all know and does a lot of work around the Yankees, he was an advertising guru, just going around the Bronx and helping us get all this money. Bob and I did the games, Joe was our statistician and I've told people that I felt like WFUV allowed you to believe that you're a professional broadcaster before you were actually being paid to do it. We had a decorum and a professionalism as 1920 and 21 year olds, but I think still exists today because I see the students from WFUV come out to the stadium, but you were dragged into that business whether you were ready or not. And being an FUV eventually led me to getting my first job because we would get passes every now and then to Nick games or Yankee games. So I was at a Nick game and I was a growing up, I was, and I still am, I was a big New York post reader of the sports section and I loved Peter Vessey, loved him. I just, I thought his stuff was amazing. I'm still friends with him to this day. And I walked up to him at Madison Square Garden. I said, we have a show Sunday nights from 11 until two, one on one, it's a sports radio show. I'd love for you to come on. And he looked at me. He goes, okay, I'll come on into one circumstance or two, I said, what's that? He said, you've got to, you got to pick me up. He lived in Sniperson town, drive me to Portham. I didn't, I didn't want to tell him he could have done it on the phone. He said, and when I get there, I want a nice fresh cherry pie. I said, yeah, we can do that. So I did it and he was, he was a guest, you know, maybe three or four times in my senior year. And then when I sent the resume out to the post, you know, they wrote me back and they said, oh, they called me back and said, we have your resume, we're considering you. But it just stalled there for months and months at a time. And I just called the Peter Vessia said, can you just see where it is? And he called the sports editor. He said, listen, either you like the kid or not. He said, if you like him, then hire him. He said, if you don't like him, tell him to go take a walk. He said, but don't leave him hanging. Wow. So the next day, I got a phone call and I got called into the office at the post and Jerry Lisker, who was the executive sports editor, gave me one question and said, who's the American League MVP in 1967? And I said, Carl Yastrimsky. He said, damn it, we got the job. But first you have to talk to Greg Gallo. And then I talked to Greg Gallo as a sports editor and it was a four hour interview. Just, he just was relentless. It was mostly him talking and I ended up getting hired as a clerk. So FUV led me to Vessie. Vessie made that phone call. Boom, New York Post to the Daily News to the Anki Radio TS. And here we are standing on, yes we're here. And you told me once, wasn't your first byline in the post, did it come out as Mike Key, as opposed to Michael K? No, it came out Mike K-A-Y-E. And I never used the word Mike in my byline and my name is K-A-Y. I just remember I walked two blocks to the candy store. And I didn't realize then that there were like different additions. And a couple of additions I bought, I didn't have it. I had written on my own time while I was a clerk. And then I finally got one and it wasn't a byline, it was at the end of a story. You know, they may have like Mike K-A-Y-E. I was crushed, just crushed. How did you get to start at the time? I worked for three summers for a small newspaper in New Jersey, the Jersey Journal. They were the same owner was the Star Ledger which is also in New Jersey, worked there for a year. I was covering high school and college sports there, Michael, that's not what I wanted my future to be. I wanted to be professional sports. So I just bombarded the times with resumes and just kind of wouldn't let them say no. And when I started at the times it was at a very low level. I didn't get hired as a recorder. I got hired as a clerk much like you were just talking about. But I thought if I got my foot in the door I could make that work. And I made it work for 22 years and now I'm trying to make this yes thing work and we're on season 11 at yes. So it's been a good ride. Now for all of you people that are nice enough to be watching this, I just want you to know for four or five years before he left the times I was bombarding Jackie, got to get on TV. You'd be good at TV. But I understood you don't leave a job at the times because the times are so prestigious. And I think as long as newspapers exist and I hope that they exist the times is going to exist. So you'd be in good shape. But you fought it for a couple of years and you finally gave in. I told that story recently tying this all together. I actually spoke to a journalism class at Fordham in late February and someone asked me about how did you make the transition from newspapers to TV? And I said, well, fellow Fordham alum, Michael Kaye you always say to me, you would be good at this. You know your stuff, you present it well. And then I actually used your agent who Steve Lefkowitz, may Steve rest in peace. He's passed on, but he was my agent to help me get the first job at yes. So right, you're my Peter Vessey in this story. This is what I'm basically saying. But you didn't ask for a cherry pie. No, I did not. And we never really crossed at Fordham. I mean, I saw you, but I graduated in 82, you started in 83, I believe. You graduated in May of 82. I was on campus September of 82. Now I wonder if you do remember this. I became a writer of the post and I wrote a story about Tom Penders possibly leaving Fordham who was the Fordham basketball coach. And I guess I was one of those super seniors that I didn't want to leave because I was friends with John Giannone. And I walked up and I saw the ram and you kind of shot down my story. You just killed it. Penders was going to potentially go to Miami. You had an exclusive, you had a scoop in the post. And I'm not really sure I remember that story at all, Michael, but perhaps I had it ready. And the lead that we went with, myself and Michael Zuccarello were, and this is harsh. We went after you hard. Inaccuracies in a New York Post article on Wednesday have caused controversy surrounding Tom Penders' coach. And I mean, Fordham knocked it down. Penders' contract was up. I've learned now as a journalist the way things work. I've never asked you, but I'm sure that there's a good chance Tom Penders was your source and he did meet with Miami. We had that in the story. So we kind of went really hard after you, even though I know that your story when it was written I'm sure had a ton of truth to it. And you were cool about it. That's what was great. I was so afraid to see you. And I remember I saw you at a basketball game at Rose Hill Gym. I said, oh, there's K's gonna be a six. And you were a pro about it. You said, you guys believed in your story. I believed in my story. This is what journalism is all about. And you taught me a lesson there too about, first of all, professionalism and then our need to sometimes have a thick skin, which isn't always easy. Isn't it amazing how Jack at the age of 23 I was probably more mature than I am at 59? I was gonna say if I was a Twitter person who threw some darts at you, you might have come back against me harder. I've gotten better at that. I don't answer anybody's back anymore. I've learned. We all need to get better at that. I've even, Mike Focaro, the post gave me a little bit of a lecture one day about that. And I've gotten better. But yes, I might, I'm gonna send you a copy of this that yes, I decided to dig. And we went front page on the RAM going after Mike's scoop. Absolutely brutal. Well, those are unbelievable times. And we're, I mean, we're so proud of our connection with Fordham. I don't know if you feel this way. I wish that their basketball team would win more than three or four games a year. Nice cap, Jack's on. But most everything that I have professionally started with the journey through Fordham. And I'll always believe that. And it's a great school. And all I know is that when I went, Jack, I think the tuition was 2,500 bucks. And now it's like 65,000. Yeah, I'm not sure where I would be going these days. My mom was a waitress and my dad was a truck driver and a mechanic. So it was a lot of piecing together, a lot of pennies to be able to go to Fordham back then. It'd be a little different story, but I concur with everything you said. Very proud of my time at Fordham. Very proud to be a Fordham alum. And all the folks like yourself, Bob Papa, John Giannone, Mike Green, right up and down the line, people who had a big impact on me while I was there. All right, in future editions of Yes, We're Here, you can actually ask us some questions. Go to tweet us at Yes Network with the hashtag YesMailBag. And one of your questions could be used on one of the editions of Yes, We're Here, Jack. It was nice going down Fordham's memory lane with you. You and panel, please stay safe and hope everything is good in your life. Thanks a lot, Michael. Same to you, Jody and the kids. And by the way, this is a very floppy hat. I think Frankie Frisch wore this hat at some point. How about this, little hoodie hat? That's what you did at Fresh from Near at Fordham, I think. That's right, but with a sparkle. See you, everybody. Later.