Mike & Mike was a mainstay for nearly 18 years, serving as the backdrop to Mike Golic Jr.’s childhood and his family’s life.
He’ll be the first to tell you that the show changed their lives forever.
During his recent appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast with host Brandon Contes, Golic Jr. described his father, Mike Golic Sr.’s run with Mike Greenberg, as “incredible” and something they felt “blessed” to experience.
“I get the thing in public, still now, where people come up to me,” Golic Jr. says. “I’ve been fortunate enough to do this for a while now; I feel good about my career path. But I understand when people see me, by and large, they think of Dad. So, when most people see me out in public — especially men of a certain age — they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I loved your dad. Tell him I loved him on Mike & Mike for so long.’ There’s no real easy answer for me to that because Dad’s not there, and someone’s giving me a compliment about someone else.
“But it’s just a reminder — and the thing I always say to them is, ‘No, it’s the same for me, too,’ for these people had that as the memory when they had a moment with their parents or their children, or when they were going through the birth of a child, and Mike & Mike was this thing in the background for all these formative moments for so many people. I always tell them that it was the same for me; this was the show I grew up with around, and in a lot of ways, a part of, as a show that always made a point that they were going to talk about their families. That was a decision that Dad and Greeny made pretty early on in that show.”
Golic Jr. always understood that Mike & Mike was more than just a show; it was a family affair.
The blend of personal stories and sports commentary created a sense of community among viewers. Growing up in a fishbowl, every amusing or poignant family moment became fair game for the show.
It uniquely shaped his perspective on relationships and the public scrutiny that comes with having a famous father.
“I think it did make me aware, too, that I always take about in a way with young athletes coming up because playing at a place like Notre Dame, guys that play big-time college sports or at any level, you’re always told in most cases, ‘Hey, there’s a lot of young eyes watching you; you have a responsibility to be a role model to these young people,'” Golic Jr explained. “But it’s also especially in this day and age with social media as prolific as it, you’ve always got eyes, a camera’s always close by you; you got to make sure you conduct yourself accordingly.
“I got a sense for that at a pretty young age, just because I knew my last name means something beyond myself and it does for everyone, but in this case, it was something so public-facing that I was pretty cognizant of how I conducted myself was always going to reflect back to dad because of the nature of his job.”
One of the perks of having a famous father was sharing him with the world. Golic Jr. never saw his dad as a character; what viewers saw on air was genuinely him.
Off-screen, Golic Sr. was a devoted family man, blissfully unaware of his public persona. Golic Jr. joked that his father was “the least self-aware semi-famous person” he knew. Golic Sr. often expressed surprise when actors or athletes recognized the show’s impact, simply being himself—Mike Golic Jr.’s dad.
“There was never a character with him,” says Golic Jr. “What you saw on air and what you continue to see on air through two-plus decades, almost three decades, has been exactly what we get at home, and that’s been the cool part of all of this.”
The final episode of Mike & Mike in Nov. 2017 was like the last stop on a long journey.
It was a bittersweet moment for the Golic family, marking the end of an era that had not only been a part of their lives but had fundamentally changed them. Mike & Mike had been the vehicle that drove them to incredible opportunities and allowed them to share their father with such a wide audience.
But the true legacy of the show lies in its ability to foster connections.
“Seeing what that show meant to so many people, between that and years later, when dad signed off on ESPN Radio for the last time…seeing the response and the feedback from other peers inside the building, from the audience had grown up around the show, it was really moving to see how much it had meant to so many people,” he adds. “And to hear the stories of a person who was going through a tough time and had lost a loved one, found solace in this show. Or, a family that had welcomed a baby into it has this on in the background, and the husband got made fun of for tweeting it into them without including his wife’s name.
“Again, I think seeing that connective tissue was a good reminder of why we all do this; in addition to getting a chance to story tell some of the most impressive athletes known to man, it’s also that connection to people who love the game the same way we do. And there aren’t many shows that have done it as well as Mike & Mike did for as long as Mike & Mike did, especially at the national level.”
The Mike Golic Jr. episode of the AA podcast will be released on Friday, September 20. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.