Happy Hour with John Gaskins

What happens when three friends who share the love of their favorite college's sports teams decide to get together and start a podcast about those teams?
 
For the hosts of the USD fan show The Howling Podcast, their two years of shows have involved not just talking about the Coyotes, but also welcoming those who play and coach in Vermillion. And having fun with them.
 
Name an A-lister on any USD athletic squad and they have been a guest:
 
Athletic director Jon Schemmel, football coaches Travis Johansen and Matt Vitzthum, basketball coaches Eric Peterson and Carrie Eighmey, volleyball coach Leanne Williamson, new softball coach (and viral sensation) Shannon Pivovar, and plenty of standout athletes 
have all been guests.
 
Ask the hosts, and the show is about much more than just opining about USD and interviewing guests. It is about community and growing that community.
 
With the first football game looming on Aug. 29, and the first show of their third season looming six days before that — on a Sunday night, their normal live show time — hosts Mark Wendt, Chad Birger, and Jordan Decker joined the Happy Hour host to take a peek into their world. 
 
How did The Howling Podcast start? 
 
What are the show's objectives?
 
Why has it resonated with USD fans?
 
What are their favorite guests and moments from the two seasons and over 60 shows?
 
How do they feel about where the athletic programs are headed in a competitive and ever-changing Division I landscape? I world?
 
What is unique to being a USD fan? How do they feel about the fans of the other Div. I school in South Dakota?
 
And, yes, what are their opinions, as fans, on things like a possible football exploration of the FBS and how NIL and the transfer portal have meant constant roster shifting? 
 
Cheers!
 
(Oh, and thanks, Coors Light!)

A year ago, Augustana baseball luminary Jordan Barth was in the midst of an All-Star season for Sioux Falls Canaries when he joined Happy Hour for a chat.
 
The Birds eventually played for the American Association championship, with Barth playing a major role. The day after the season ended, he was already talking to manager Mike Meyer about returning for the 2026 season.
 
Then, a phone call a couple months later in November changed everything.
 
Things are a bit different now. Like, mind-blowingly, life-changingly different.
 
Barth has joined the $500 million traveling baseball circus known as "Banana Ball," a barnstorming exhibition professional league similar to the Harlem Globetrotters and WWE.
 
Like those other two operations, Banana Ball has scripted and choreographed entertainment moments that the athletes rehearse before their performances. 
 
But the baseball is real, and so is Barth's emergence as one of his league's best players... again.
 
The shortstop known for his dazzling "web gem" fielding plays and "Barth Bomb" home runs is also top five hitter in the six-team league.
 
But there is way more to this gig than playing ball.
 
Barth hit a home run in front of over 102,000 fans in Texas A&M's football stadium, sang a Kendrick Lamar tune after hitting a walk-off home run in El Paso, and serenaded a full Chris Brown song to his wife on their four-year anniversary in Nashville. 
 
So, what is it like becoming a baseball celebrity in a skyrocketing league that has swept America by barnstorm?
 
Barth takes us into that wacky world in a 28-minute Happy Hour reunion.
 
Before the Barth chat, the Happy Hour host recaps a wild weekend of local and regional sports in the sweltering summer heat:
 
* USD's all-time leading Div. I rusher Travis Theis is turning it up in Canada
 
* USD's all-time track and field icon Chris Nilson won his seventh USA outdoors national championship. Why was this one special?
 
* The entire SDSU football team took a trip to a Canaries game last week, with Dan Jackson throwing out two first pitches and an offensive lineman belting out "Sweet Caroline"
 
* The Canaries and Twins heated up at home. How?
 
* The world's No. 1 golfer gave the PGA Tour stop in the Twin Cities a much-needed shot in the arm, but a rookie phenom stole the show.
 
* Oh, and perhaps you heard... LeBron James is not going to be a Minnesota Timberwolf. The Happy Hour host and video producer Cordell Wright break down The King's decision to take his talents to Philadelphia and if the Wolves can still win a title without him

The King is taking is talents to Philadelphia even though our biased host and his video producer, both Timberwolves fans, feel he would have a better shot at a title in Minneapolis.
Are the Wolves still in the running to reach a first-ever NBA Finals without the No. 2 player of all time?

A year ago, Augustana baseball luminary Jordan Barth was in the midst of an All-Star season for Sioux Falls Canaries when he joined Happy Hour for a chat.
 
The Birds eventually played for the American Association championship, with Barth playing a major role. The day after the season ended, he was already talking to manager Mike Meyer about returning for the 2026 season.
 
Then, a phone call a couple months later in November changed everything.
 
Things are a bit different now. Like, mind-blowingly, life-changingly different.
 
Barth has joined the $500 million traveling baseball circus known as "Banana Ball," a barnstorming exhibition professional league similar to the Harlem Globetrotters and WWE.
 
Like those other two operations, Banana Ball has scripted and choreographed entertainment moments that the athletes rehearse before their performances. 
 
But the baseball is real, and so is Barth's emergence as one of his league's best players... again.
 
The shortstop known for his dazzling "web gem" fielding plays and "Barth Bomb" home runs is also top five hitter in the six-team league.
 
But there is way more to this gig than playing ball.
 
Barth hit a home run in front of over 102,000 fans in Texas A&M's football stadium, sang a Kendrick Lamar tune after hitting a walk-off home run in El Paso, and serenaded a full Chris Brown song to his wife on their four-year anniversary in Nashville. 
 
So, what is it like becoming a baseball celebrity in a skyrocketing league that has swept America by barnstorm?
 
Barth takes us into that wacky world in a 28-minute Happy Hour reunion.

Behold, the "John-o-logue' for Monday, July 27. What a red-hot weekend it was in so many ways — outside and in local sports!
* USD's all-time leading Div. I rusher Travis Theis is turning it up in Canada
 
* USD's all-time track and field icon Chris Nilson won his seventh USA outdoors national championship. Why was this one special?
 
* The entire SDSU football team took a trip to a Canaries game last week, with Dan Jackson throwing out two first pitches and an offensive lineman belting out "Sweet Caroline"
 
* The Canaries and Twins heated up at home. How?
 
* The world's No. 1 golfer gave the PGA Tour stop in the Twin Cities a much-needed shot in the arm, but a rookie phenom stole the show.
 
* Oh, and perhaps you heard... LeBron James is not going to be a Minnesota Timberwolf. The Happy Hour host and video producer Cordell Wright break down The King's decision to take his talents to Philadelphia and if the Wolves can still win a title without him