Tag Archives: Doug Moe

October 9: Leckrone Shares His Moments of Happiness

Posted on October 11, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Ellsworth Brown

Moments of Happiness:  A Wisconsin Band Story, co-authored by Doug Moe and Mike Leckrone, provided more than a meeting’s worth of happiness for Rotarians as Moe interviewed Leckrone about his fifty years as UW-Madison Marching Band leader.

From a musical family, Leckrone’s inspiration was fueled by a stage-side seat at a non-stop two-and-a-half-hour performance by Louie Armstrong and his band in a small Indiana town.  Armstrong’s commitment to even a small audience was not forgotten by Leckrone.

Moe’s questions triggered endless stories about Leckrone’s life, band, students, and stage creations from 1969 on.  In fact, he began earlier with a story about meeting his future wife in seventh grade and extended it to sixty-two years of marriage.

Many UW Band traditions began accidentally:  “When you say Wisconsin, you said it all” was a commercial injected with “Wisconsin”.  The basketball “pep band” became the UW Varsity Band.  Leckrone’s famous concert entrances offset his boredom with standard entrances.  A career highlight: The 1994 Rosebowl parade where the band played “On Wisconsin” 137 times while passing by Wisconsin fans.  Pride: The band played for all UW sports except fencing (ended too soon).

In closing . . . career and life well-lived, and presentation very funny besides!

If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/PJidZnF6uzc.

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Posted in Madison WI, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Weekly Guest Speaker, UW-Madison, UW-Madison Football, Weekly Rotary Guest Speaker

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June 22: The Rise of Women’s Intercollegiate Athletics at UW and Beyond

Posted on June 27, 2022 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Janet Piraino

Author Doug Moe pictured here with Club President Teresa Holmes

On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, Doug Moe, local author extraordinaire, regaled Rotarians with stories from his new book on Kit Saunders-Nordeen and her advocacy of equality in women’s sports.  Title IX, which forbid discrimination on the basis of sex for any activity receiving federal funds, started a sea change in women’s sports, but was initially met with resistance and legal challenges.  Two years after enactment of Title IX, when Kit was named UW-Madison’s first director of women’s athletics, the sports editor of the Wisconsin State Journal advised her “don’t be a bitch,” and said he would never put news of women’s sports on his sports page.  As late as the 1950’s, women were prohibited from running distance races for fear their uteruses might fall out.  Even today, local ski jump Olympian Anna Hoffman said despite concerns over women jumping from highest ski jumps, she had gone off the highest jump many times and bragged that she was “still intact.”  Doug advised that while we should celebrate this momentous anniversary, there was still much to be done to ensure that our daughters have the same athletic opportunities as our sons.

If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SZlsFJCoac&t=734s

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Doug Moe Speaks to Madison Area Service Clubs on October 21

Posted on October 22, 2015 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Linda Maremont

Award-winning journalist and author Doug Moe was the keynote speaker featured at the 52nd Annual Madison Area Service Club’s Luncheon held at the Sheraton Hotel.  A lifelong Madisonian and graduate of UW-Madison, Moe has worked as a journalist and author for almost 40 years. As a daily newspaper columnist for The Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal, he wrote some 4,000 columns. Prior to his newspaper career, he was a writer and editor of Madison Magazine.

Doug shared some of his more memorable experiences over the course of his journalistic career.  Contacted by a sports agent to write NFL defensive end Lyle Alzado’s biography, Moe’s book was aborted over a controversial chapter regarding Alzado’s anabolic steroid use.  He was invited to join a transplant team flying to central Illinois to harvest a liver, then returned to witness the transplant operation to the new recipient the following day.  Doug had the opportunity to interview the progeny of several notable figures including Lana Peters, the daughter of Joseph Stalin, and Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of Charles Lindbergh.

His wide-ranging experiences also included less well-known subjects such as Richard Trentlage, professional jingle writer responsible for the famed Oscar Mayer wiener jingle, and Don Featherstone, the artist most widely known for his creation of the pink plastic flamingo (Madison’s city bird).

Throughout his career, Doug has also “written books on the side,” two of which are currently being considered for movie or documentary production — “The World of Mike Royko” (a Chicago Tribune Choice Selection of the Year); and “Lords of the Ring: The Triumph and Tragedy of College Boxing’s Greatest Team,” runner-up for the Derleth Award for best non-fiction book of the year by a Wisconsin author. He is currently collaborating with former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson on Thompson’s autobiography.

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Posted in Doug Moe, MASCC Fall Luncheon, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Club of Madison Guest Speaker

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New Book Tells Goodman Brothers Impact on Community

Posted on December 11, 2014 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Linda Maremont; photo by Stacy Nemeth

Doug MoeDoug Moe, long-time Madison journalist, shared several anecdotes and points of interest gathered during his research for his new book, Good Men:  The Lives and Philanthropy of Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman.  When the Goodman Foundation Board approached Moe about writing the book, he acknowledged that he accepted with some trepidation.  The Goodman brothers were famously private throughout their lives and Moe had never personally met them.

Moe was able to interview 35 people who had known the Goodmans and shared some amusing stories about the rarely seen personal side of the brothers’ lives.  Irwin and Bob’s father came to America with $12.00.  After changing his surname from Gutmann to the anglicized Goodman, he joined his brothers to open Goodman Jewelers.  The State Street store opened in 1934 and Bob and Irwin ran the store together until they sold the store to the manager in 1998.  The brothers shared a passion for healthy living, sports, their business, their mother, each other, and their extraordinary devotion to philanthropy.

Their charitable works in the community were significant both in size and scope.  The local community can thank the Goodmans for sizeable donations which funded the city’s first public community pool, the UW women’s softball diamond, a Jewish community center campus in Verona, and the Goodman Community Center on the east side of Madison.

Moe’s presentation was followed by a number of comments by those who had personally experienced the kindness and generosity of the Goodman brothers.  Irwin and Bob clearly left an indelible mark on the community and Moe’s book provides engaging insight into the background of the men who impacted the lives of so many.

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Posted in 2. Meetings, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Weekly Guest Speaker, Weekly Rotary Guest Speaker

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