Jack Brickhouse Bust

John “Jack” Beasley Brickhouse was born on January 24, 1916 in Peoria, Illinois. He was the only child of John William “Will” Brickhouse, a carnival barker and movie booking agent, and Daisy James Brickhouse, a Welsh immigrant who worked as a cashier and hostess. When Brickhouse was just three years old, his father died suddenly. His mother remarried soon after. Growing up with his mother and stepfather, money was always tight and he often went hungry. A popular, outgoing, and athletic kid in high school, Brickhouse was elected senior class vice-president, played on the basketball team, starred in the senior class play, and served as a reporter and editor for the school’s newspaper. After graduating high school, he enrolled at Peoria’s Bradley Polytechnic Institute (now Bradley University) in the fall of 1933, but left only months later due to financial reasons.  

Brickhouse then worked at a distillery briefly before landing a job at a Peoria radio station announcing the news, weather, and local sports. In the late 1930s, when the station began broadcasting Bradley Braves basketball games, Brickhouse called their road contests. In early 1940, he moved to Chicago and took a job at WGN helping Bob Elson announce Cubs and White Sox baseball games. That fall, Brickhouse began broadcasting Notre Dame football games. Following the conclusion of the 1943 baseball season, he joined the U.S. Marines, but was honorably discharged after only two months due to preexisting health conditions. After a brief stint broadcasting New York Giants baseball games, Brickhouse returned to Chicago and rejoined WGN in 1948. For roughly the next two decades, he announced all Cubs and White Sox home games. In 1953, Brickhouse became the radio voice of the Chicago Bears, a stint which lasted through 1976. When the White Sox switched stations in 1967, he began calling all Cubs contests, both home and away. Over time, he became known for his unwavering positivity and his signature “Back, back, back…Hey! Hey!” homerun call.  

Following his retirement after the 1981 baseball season, Brickhouse received multiple awards and honors for his years of service to baseball. In 1982, the Cubs named their broadcast booth in his honor. The next year, he received the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. In 1998, at the age of eighty-two, Brickhouse died from cardiac arrest following surgery for a brain tumor.

Following Brickhouse’s death, three admirers of his formed a group called Citizens United for Brickhouse Statue (CUBS) and began soliciting donations. Their fundraising campaign was a smashing success, hauling in roughly $400,000. Unveiled along Michigan Avenue near Tribune Tower in downtown Chicago in September 2000, the eight-foot-tall bronze bust depicts the longtime Chicago sports announcer sitting in a broadcast booth with one hand on a microphone and the other holding a program or spotter chart. Among those in attendance at the dedication ceremony were Chicago Cubs great Ernie Banks, the owner of the Chicago White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf, and Illinois Governor George Ryan. With the bust costing only $150,000, CUBS decided to use the rest of the money to fund a fellowship for brain cancer research at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Brickhouse’s honor. Within a decade, the bust had fallen into disrepair and was removed for restoration and repairs in November 2009. The following month, it was reinstalled in its original location. 

Greenfield, Jimmy. "Hey, Hey: Brickhouse finally gets own statue." Chicago Tribune. 15 September 2000. Web. 25 March 2021 <https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2000-09-15-0009150231-story.html>.

Jamail, Milton. "Jack Brickhouse." Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. 25 March 2021 <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-Brickhouse>.

Manker, Rob. "Jack Brickhouse broadcasts again on Michigan." Chicago Tribune. 18 December 2009. Web. 25 March 2021 <https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2009-12-18-0912170721-story.html>.

Wiles, Tim. "Jack Brickhouse." Society for American Baseball Research. Web. 25 March 2021 <https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jack-brickhouse/>.