AM 670 THE SCORE’ S DAVID HAUGH
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David Haugh
or 17 years, David Haugh was a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He has gone on to become the morning cohost at WSCR( The Score) with Mike Mulligan and to host a nightly television show on Chicago Sports Network. He’ s a multi-media star now, but before he went into the media, Haugh was an all-Mid-American Conference safety at Ball State University. That helped lay the base for the career that followed.
“ My first job was covering Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune,” he explains.“ So a lot of the players, or several of the players, had played against some of the same teams that I played against in college. And so, you know, there was a commonality. My defensive coordinator at Ball State also ended up going to Notre Dame. So there was a good transition early on. It did help bridge the gap.”
At first, he was strictly a writer, but the other media slowly became a part of his life.“ When I got to Chicago, I was covering the Bears as a beat guy, so I got a lot of TV and radio opportunities,” he says.“ Started as a guest at CSN Chicago. And David Kaplan and I got to working together, and we had a good rapport. We sparred on Chicago Tribune Live and then Sports Talk Live. They gave us a radio show three hours a day back in 2014 when Jimmy de Castro started The Game. And so gradually I started getting more experience.”
In July of 2018, Haugh became the morning co-host on The Score with Mike Mulligan. Meanwhile, David Kaplan is now the morning co-host at AM 1000( ESPN), which means that Kap and Haugh compete against each other every morning. Haugh laughed when I pointed that out.
Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios
By Rick Kaempfer
“ You know, we kid about it,” he admitted.“ It ' s fun. I love Kap, and we maintain a good friendship. He’ s just got such great energy and ideas. He’ s killing it with the YouTube channel. But I do think his station has a subtly different mission. Kap can talk as much about what he had for breakfast as he can about the Cubs ' bullpen on any given day. I respect that, it ' s just a different approach. Mully and I are trying to do the radio version of the front page, because we both have newspaper backgrounds. It ' s different for each station. It ' s different for each show, but we try to stay consistent with that.”
That common background has helped form the basis of Haugh’ s partnership with Mulligan.“ Mully and I have a good respect for each other. We were friends and competitors when he was at the Sun Times, and I was at the Tribune. We have similar sensibilities. So that helps us. We have a similar work ethic. You never really got a day off when you ' re on a beat. It’ s a grind. Morning radio is something I probably underestimated in terms of thegrind. Butyoulearnhowtogetthroughit together, the rhythm of each day, and that kind of helps us coexist, and in terms of getting through the tough parts of the year, those dry spells, maybe when there ' s not as much going on. But Mike and I get along well.”
You’ d think that doing a4½hour radio show every morning would be hard enough, but last year, Haugh added another show, in another medium, in another part of the day.“ So the Chicago Sports Network started last October 1, and they came to me last summer.
So it was a big ask, and I wanted to consider it. I committed to a year, and then I thought I would reevaluate. The people there are first class, and you couldn ' t ask for any more cooperation. Television is a little bit different than radio. Radio is like a four-and-a-halfhour conversation. Preparation is different. Television is maybe a little bit more presentation and short, quick, and adjustable opinions. And they really let me be. I don ' t take part in a lot of the conference calls during the day. I show up and prepare there, and so far, I have enjoyed it. It ' s a lot, but I have enjoyed it. You’ ve got to be really disciplined with your time and your energy when you’ re doing both a radio show every morning and a TV show every evening.”
Working as many hours a day as Haugh does doesn’ t leave much time for reflection, but I asked him to look back on his career. What does he consider the highlight?“ My highlight, my career peak was 2016 Game 7, the rain delay, the drama on the Cubs, the greatest sports story ever told. As a writer, you know when you ' re on, and you know when you ' re not. And I was ready for the moment. And it didn ' t get any bigger than that. I wrote the best column I ever wrote that night.
I can remember walking out of Progressive Field, it was pouring down rain, and I was waiting for a cab. I think I even said to Rick Morrissey at the time,‘ I don ' t think it ' s ever going to get any better than this.’ I peaked that night. And so that was the highlight. After that, you know, you still do your job as well as you can, but you just feel fortunate.”
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