Happy Hour with John Gaskins

Parachute from an airplane onto the beaches of Normandy and into trenches of World War II, where bullets and grenades are flying and men are dying all around you as you ambush German soliders while trying to figure out both how to surive and help save the world from Nazi persecution. 
 
Enter the ring to exchange haymakers during Golden Gloves state championships and national tournaments. 
 
Witness the plights, desperate measures, and perseverance of families trampled by the Great Depression, including bootlegging, illegal gambling, and gangster behavior.
 
Saddle up to the downtown Minneapolis bar to hear a brazen if not ridiculous sales pitch to bring the first Minnesota Vikings football game in team history to Sioux Falls.
 
Take a seat in the locker room and on team buses to hear the speeches — or at a Quarterback Club luncheon to laugh uncontrollably at the one-liners — of arguably the greatest football coach at any level in the history of South Dakota.
 
Discover how, time and again, one man ruffles feathers, moves mountains, tickles the funny bone, and inspires ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
 
You can't go back in time, but you can immerse yourself in the incredible life of Bob Burns by reading the biography "The Great Burns," penned by Stu Whitney.
 
The former daily news and sports writer/editor and investigative news and political journalist has spent his entire 36-year post-college career in Sioux Falls. Roughly the first 25 of those were spent covering local sports and describing them in a unique, free-flowing, sometimes caustic, and often whimsiocal fashion.
 
After arriving in Sioux Falls in 1990, the Michigan native quickly discovered the indelible mark Burns made on the city and the region — both on the gridiron and in the community as a coach who won 68 percent of his games and a litany of conference and state championships at three different high schools. 
 
Burns turned Sioux Falls Washington into a dominating regional titan and transformed both Augustana College and O'Gorman from doormats to powerhouses. He was the marketing mastermind behind the Dakota Bowl and creation of the South Dakota high school football playoffs.
 
His life's adventures and accomplishments alone are a solid launching pad for a book. But the stories of Burns' bravado, bluster, biting humor, and bigger-than-life personality make for a rollicking page turner, especially after you get past the part where his life could have easily ended in World War II combat. 
 
By conducting over 90 interviews with people who knew Burns best, viewing videotapes of interviews with Burns, pouring through heaps of Burns family letters and library newspaper archives, and taking a trip overseas to the battlefields in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, Whitney immersed himself into Burns' life and legacy.
 
While the 300-plus pages of storytelling are worth the time and money, an hour-long conversation about the book at Gibs Sports Bar with the Happy Hour host also makes for an enjoyable investment of the ear.
 
Whitney dives into some of his favorite stories of a man whom one of Burns' former players and closest friends describes as "a guy who comes around once in a lifetime, or maybe more rarely than that."
 
Enjoy the chat. Then, buy the book. Or do it the other way around.
 
Either way, you'll likely laugh, possibly cry, and be glad you did.

From June 6, 2025: Happy Hour's first interview with veteran sports writer, columnist, and now book author Stu Whitney:
Stu Whitney's high school football team celebrated a big win by gleefully ripping to shreds a newspaper column he wrote claiming they weren't worthy of the playoffs.
He ended up being right.
The head football coach at Michigan State invited Stu into his office to berate him at the top of his lungs and call him every nasty name you could imagine after he unveiled some unsavory information about the program.
But George Perles didn't deny his reporting.
The Sioux Falls Stampede coach literally got in his face, point blank, after a game to intimidate him after a column about how that coach should be fired.
And he eventually was.
Stu Whitney's words — in his own words, at times caustic and controversial — had a uniquely strong and memorable impact on those he wrote about as a sportswriter, at-large columnist, investigative journalist, and author of a fictional memoir called "The Covid Chronicles" that tackled the way leaders in Sioux Falls and South Dakota handled the pandemic.
Now, "SuFu Stu" is embarking on a second novel, this time a non-fiction about World War II aviator and former Washington High, Augustana, USD, and O'Gorman coach Bob Burns. He also has another script in the about South Dakota and its people, one that won't be in book form, a script he had yet to announce...
...until now, in a 90-minute sit-down with Happy Host John Gaskins from Gateway Lounge. Stu looks back on his 35-years in Sioux Falls — a stretch piled full of colorful characters, stories, columns, confrontations, and, ultimately, massive critical acclaim from readers — whether they liked him or not.

Down the stretch they come!
 
J.J. McCarthy vs. Kyler Murray to become Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback.
 
Christine Erickson vs. Jamie Smith to become the next mayor of Sioux Falls.
 
Both races have heated up over the last few weeks as the finish line draws closer.
 
Who will win? What have the combatants done to position themselves for a win? 
 
If only there was a local talk show that could bring on experienced, well-connected and well-studied analysts to provide deft commentary on these races.
 
Thankfully, there's Happy Hour.
 
Ben Leber
The former Minnesota Vikings linebacker (2006-10) and South Dakota Sports Hall of Famer has had almost unparalleled access for over a decade as a sideline analyst and postgame locker room interviewer for the Vikings Audio Network.
 
The Vermillion High School alumnus has seen the performances of Arizona Cardinals import Murray and Vikings top 10 draft pick McCarthy up close at recent Vikings mini-camps. Leber also knows Coach Kevin O'Connell's complex and at times wildly effective offensive system well. He has a breakdown on how those two QBs have run the offense so far and what their advantages are within it.
 
Yes, Leber has a prediction on who will win the job and when "splitting reps" will — or at least should — turn into "No. 1 gets most of the reps."
 
Leber also weighs in on a Vikings defense that was top 5 in the NFL in many metrics last season but has lost some playmakers. He also assesses the hiring of first-time general manager Nolan Teasley, who has brought over two of the top three lieutenants from the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks' front office.
 
 
Patrick Lalley
Sioux Falls Live's editor and primary political reporter has spent over 30 years covering city and state government and elections in his hometown of Sioux Falls.  
 
He was part of a panel that peppered mayoral runoff candidates Christine Erickson and Jamie Smith in one of the recent head-to-head debates.
 
What are his observations from those debates? How much more have we learned about them since our last discussion right after the June 2 mayoral election, when Lalley said he could not decipher major difference in their platforms and views on the city's most pressing issues?
 
What main differences can we decipher in how the two would lead the city?
 
How much does the endorsements of Smith from two of the other candiates — Greg Jamison and Joe Batchellor — matter?
 
And how much does gubernatorial runoff finalist Toby Doeden's scorched earth condemnation of Jamison, Batchellor, and Smith—plus, his endorsement of Erickson—matter?

Sioux Falls Live's editor and primary political reporter has spent over 30 years covering city and state government and elections in his hometown of Sioux Falls.  
 
He was part of a panel that peppered mayoral runoff candidates Christine Erickson and Jamie Smith in one of the recent head-to-head debates.
 
What are his observations from those debates? How much more have we learned about them since our last discussion right after the June 2 mayoral election, when Lalley said he could not decipher major difference in their platforms and views on the city's most pressing issues?
 
What main differences can we decipher in how the two would lead the city?
 
How much does the endorsements of Smith from two of the other candiates — Greg Jamison and Joe Batchellor — matter?
 
And how much does gubernatorial runoff finalist Toby Doeden's scorched earth condemnation of Jamison, Batchellor, and Smith—plus, his endorsement of Erickson—matter?

The former Minnesota Vikings linebacker (2006-10) and South Dakota Sports Hall of Famer has had almost unparalleled access for over a decade as a sideline analyst and postgame locker room interviewer for the Vikings Audio Network.
The Vermillion High School alumnus has seen the performances of Arizona Cardinals import Murray and Vikings top 10 draft pick McCarthy up close at recent Vikings mini-camps. Leber also knows Coach Kevin O'Connell's complex and at times wildly effective offensive system well. He has a breakdown on how those two QB's have run the offense so far and what their advantages are within it.
Yes, Leber has a prediction on who will win the job and when "splitting reps" will — or at least should — turn into "No. 1 gets most of the reps."
Leber also weighs in on a Vikings defense that was top 5 in the NFL in many metrics last season but has lost some playmakers. He also assesses the hiring of first-time general manager Nolan Teasley, who has brought over two of the top three lieutenants from the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks' front office.