Chicago Sports Media Vet Coppock Recalls Top Moments at New Trier

Known as “The Godfather of Chicago Sports Radio,” Chet Coppock has just about done it all when it comes to the city’s major sports media scene.

He’s been a regular on radio and television during five decades, spent time with just about all of the best Chicago sports legends over the last half-century, hosted the Mike Ditka Radio radio show the night before the Bears won the Super Bowl in 1986 and watched an NBA team he was working for at the time, one that featured a young Lew Alcindor, win a championship on his 23rd birthday.

But ranked right up there among all the top moments in his career is Coppock’s time at New Trier High School, of which he is a proud 1966 graduate.

“I absolutely loved every day of it,” Coppock, a native of Northfield, said during a recent phone interview with Patch. “It was a very challenging, competitive environment. I loved the social aspect, all the sports and still miss those Friday night basketball games when we’d go against Evanston or Proviso East.”

When he was a student, Coppock said, a good portion of the student body would go to all the school’s basketball games, home and away.

“It was really something,” he said.

The prized Winnetka institution - one in which Coppock refers to as ‘The Maserati of High Schools’ - is also where “The Godfather” got his start in broadcasting, calling the school’s basketball and football games his senior year on WNTH.

“Thinking of New Trier really helped personalize things,” Coppock said about his thoughts the night he was inducted into the Chicago Sports Hall of Fame two years ago.

“I remember thinking that night that it all began with WNTH,” he said. “I knew from the time I was 9 years old that I wanted to be a sportscaster. But if I hadn’t been with WNTH, it may not have been easy to follow up on that.”

Now, 48 years later, Coppock has a bevy of roles of which he can take pride.

In addition to hosting numerous talk shows, he’s been a part of four major pro sports championships, having produced for the Bulls radio team during two of their titles in the 1990s and was on hand for the Blackhawks’ incredible late comeback win to clinch the Stanley Cup in Boston in 2013.

He’s done something with just about any sport you can think of. Wrestling is a favorite of his in part because of the enthusiasm expressed by fans. He says stars Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan have garnered louder cheers at arenas than Michael Jordan when he suited up in Chicago.

It was also a wrestling connection that makes for one of his favorite memories at New Trier. Based off the wrestling shows he would see with legendary broadcaster Jack Brickhouse (a family friend while Coppock was growing up) at the Chicago Amphitheatre, Coppock was part of a group his senior year that performed a mock wrestling show for the students.

“The crowd really got off on it,” he remembers. “It was a lot of fun.”

The greatest traditional sports memory, something he’ll always look to as a special moment, was the Trevians’ 1966 boys basketball sectional victory over Marshall, a team that had knocked them out in the supersectional round the year before.

“The morning of this game, I was talking to Tom Anderson - a small forward on the team,” Coppock remembers. “I wanted to tell Tom I didn’t think they could beat them (Marshall). I didn’t think anyone thought they could. Marshall was a tremendous inter-city team. But with one of the greatest defensive efforts in the second half, New Trier pulled it off.”

The Trevians were later beat in Champaign that year, but “that memory will never be eclipsed.”

“That means as much to me as having spent time with Muhammad Ali, Ernie Banks, Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), Magic (Johnson), Michael (Jordan) and Walter (Payton).”

Coppock tries to keep up with New Trier athletics to this day - shouting out hockey coach Bob Melton as a guy he particularly respects.

But he gets the feeling football and basketball don’t mean as much as they did when he attended.

“Kids aren’t bad for it, there are now so many opportunities for enjoyment and pleasure learning,” he said. “But back then, we were so honed in. Every kid went to every road game. I remember the games in Evanston - battle lines were fierce.”

With his vast knowledge of numerous sports and athletes that have spent time in Chicago, Coppock’s number one passion at the pro level is the team on the gridiron.

“My dream job is being the voice of the Bears,” he said - pointing out that come September Coppock will have been in attendance for 65 consecutive Chicago Bears home openers.

“I don’t think anyone else can claim that,” he said.

That means he’s seen the Cade McNowns, the Henry Burris’, the Moses Morenos in addition to the countless other quarterbacks who have disappointed fans over the years.

A Chicago tradition, Coppock wrote in the first book he published some six years ago: Fat Guys Shouldn’t Be Dancin’ at Halftime, is to “boo a Bears quarterback.”

“I’m looking forward to this season already,” Coppock says. “The Bears are so delicious. It’s fun when they win, but when they lose it is so explosive. The Cubs would need to lose 8 in a row to have the kind of explosiveness from one Bears’ loss.”

Coppock published his second book, an autobiography, last August and will see another one - a book about Bears legend Doug Buffone - come out this summer.

Never one to be shy about sharing a critical opinion regarding a game, athlete, team or institution - Coppock just can’t say enough good about New Trier.

“The place means a lot to me,” he said.

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