GRAND RAPIDS, MI. — It was really steamy in the locker room when Bob Becker waddled through the shower and sat down next to Joe Namath.
By the way, Bob was naked.
But that was the only way he could get the story.
Namath, a Hall of Fame quarterback, was devastated after a big loss, so he sat weeping in the shower for hours after the game. Bob, a former Grand Rapids Press sports editor, waited until everyone else left, stripped and went in.
Becker could have been fired, maybe even jailed.
“What the (heck) are you doing here?” Namath barked at Bob when he saw him pop a squat on the floor.
Bob explained, and they both laughed it off. Then they chatted for a while, and Bob got the story.
“(Namath) was kind of a weird guy and I figured he’d get a chuckle out of it,” Bob said. “He knew I stepped across the line and took a gamble, so he thought that was kind of cool.”
Not many reporters would have the guts to do that today. But then again, not many reporters have the courage Bob had during his award-winning career.
“You’ll find with a lot of people you interview the hardest part is getting them to talk, actually to agree to sit down and talk,” Bob said. “Once they sit down and talk, especially if it’s something they’re interested in, they’ll talk and go on and on and on.”
That wasn’t Bob’s only interesting encounter during his 30-year career, but it was his favorite.
He now teaches journalism at Cornerstone University, where his classes circle around his wealth of experiences. He might be retired from newspapers, but his stories are just as active as ever, making a big-time impact in students’ lives.
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