CSNbbs

I was listening to WTKA a few days ago and John U Bacon was talking to the host about the upcoming release of Playing Hurt: My Journey From Despair to Hope. John Saunders story of living with depression. Sadly he passed away nearly a year ago.

https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Hurt-Jour...361&sr=1-1

Amazon.com Review
For three decades beginning in 1986, John Saunders was a mainstay at ESPN, a jack-of-all-trades providing of thoughtful play-by-play, analysis, and commentary across a wide range of sports including basketball, football, and hockey, as well as anchoring the network’s flagship program, SportsCenter. For many, Saunders would appear to be leading an ideal existence – a happy family combined with a career that also happened to align with his passions – but off-camera, he was harboring a secret: debilitating depression that threatened everything he held dear, including his life. In this autobiography (written with John U. Bacon), Saunders lays bare his struggles, and the story is as harrowing as it is inspirational, a journey through our darkest pathways where the only way out is through. Made all the more profound by his unexpected death in 2016, Playing Hurt is a testament to human will, generosity, and the triumph of optimism.

Interview with John U Bacon. I didn't realize Saunder's injury in 2011 was so severe.

http://embeds.audioboom.com/publishing/p...els%3D1#12 - John U Bacon 081117

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/s...46601b7b32

Quote:He was good enough to be welcomed to Indiana University in 1974 to play hockey. But upon arrival, he was introduced to old-fashioned American racism. A hockey player, lolling about the dorm with other families during move-in week, used the n-word to refer to him. A group of white parents stood by in mocking silence. “Back home,” Saunders writes, referring to Canada, “racists like that were dinosaurs — you heard about them, but you didn’t think they still existed. I’d been called ‘n-----’ on occasion, usually by a hockey opponent looking for anything he could think of to rattle me. But I had never tasted real racism until I set foot in that Indiana dorm room.”

He bolted Indiana and enrolled at Western Michigan in the fall of 1974. At his new school, there was less overt racism, but he was bewildered by the black students who wondered why so many of his friends were white. His friends, for the most part, were hockey players.

Still, his dream of playing hockey at Western Michigan died for two reasons: He suffered an injury, then flunked out of the university. He returned to Toronto and got into Ryerson Polytechnical Institute — now known as Ryerson University — where he got his chance to play hockey.

http://mgoblog.com/content/review-‘playi...bacon#more

Let’s make one other point very clear – this is not a Michigan book, even though you are reading this review on a Michigan site. There are Michigan references, stories and anecdotes in “Playing Hurt.” But this is not a Michigan book. And, no, this is not a sports book, although sports is a big part of Saunders’ life story.
So what kind of book is it? It’s a life-lessons book. It’s a story of overcoming a myriad of obstacles and the ability to endure just about everything the world and society can throw at you. It is also the best book in the John U Bacon literary collection.

KUDOS to the late John Saunders for bringing this out. To those of you who also battle clinical depression on a daily basis you know all that it entails. Our name is Legion, for we are many-do not despair!