Bill Roseberry Stories Podcast

Episode Summary When you think of sports journalism, you think of press boxes, locker room interviews, and front-row seats to history. You don't usually think of combat pay. But on a deceptively peaceful fall afternoon at Lockhaven Golf Course, a high school quad match turned into a lesson in the cruelty of physics. In this episode, we break down the day a teenager's completely baffling swing defi...

Before starting high school in the fall of 1990, the biggest worries on Reedy and I's minds were expanding our brand-new CD collections and surviving the heat of the summer. But when a parental rule gets broken during a weekend sleepover, a simple backyard fireworks session turns into a terrifying and hilarious near miss. In this episode, we take a trip down memory lane to Fosterburg, Illinois, fe...

ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL. ONE MAN TO SHUT THEM UP. It’s the dead of an Illinois winter, and the cinematic event of the decade has finally arrived: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King . Bill and his buddy Dale are trying to survive the freezing trek into the Edwardsville Showplace 12 for three and a half hours of a pure, epic cinematic masterpiece. But Reedy? He’s on a different path. He doesn’t...

The following events take place between 09:00 AM and 06:00 PM. Events occur in real-time. In this episode of Bill Roseberry Stories , we are breaking down a high-stakes, real-time scheduling operation from the summer of 2001. The objective: execute a seamless tactical insertion into the SIUE Vadalabene Center, walk across the stage to secure a B.S. in Mass Communications, and immediately extract t...

In this episode of Bill Roseberry Stories , we are heading back to the early 90s for a legendary tale of teenage pranks, high-stakes fountain drink refills, and a lesson in why you should never let your guard down around your best friends. Bill, Reedy, and their buddy Jace are living the ultimate high school dream, cruising Southern Illinois in a bright canyon-red 1982 Mustang GT and fueling up on...

In this episode of Bill Roseberry Stories , we’re taking it back to the golden era of the Off the Hook DJs . It’s a tale of crisp 90s fashion, professional sound engineering, and a bowl of mom’s homemade chili that threatened to derail a perfectly good wedding reception. Bill and Reedy have their routine down to a science: Bill handles the mic and the crowd diplomacy, while Reedy obsessively manag...

Travel back to a warm, quiet late 90s afternoon in Fosterburg where the mission was simple: land a hefty catfish. This episode of Bill Roseberry Stories follows Reedy to his personal heaven — a secluded private lake where "monsters" are rumored to lurk in the dark, glass-still depths. Armed with his essentials and a risky fishing philosophy, Reedy experiences a sudden, high-octane disaster that le...

Episode Overview: In this episode, we take a trip back to 1997 to explore the height of bachelor-pad luxury and the absurd dramas that only existed in a pre-smartphone world. What began as a peaceful afternoon in a bathroom sanctuary—complete with a Maxim magazine, a fifteen-inch black-and-white TV, and a dedicated phone line — quickly spiraled into a petty, hilarious, and high-tension conflict wi...

In this episode, we’re peeling back the layers of a 90s-era "bad idea" that started at our local social mecca—Tommy Check gas station. My best friend, Reedy, and I were looking for trouble, and we thought we found the perfect outlet: my dad’s brand-new 1995 Ford Escort. What began as a quest to see if a budget-friendly sedan could hit triple digits turned into a white-knuckle, 110 MPH experience t...

Rocky had Apollo and the streets of Philadelphia to help him train. Jason Reedy chose Fred Flintstone, Captain Crunch and his mom's spaghetti as his training partners. It was 2002. The Osbournes was the hottest show on television, Kobayashi had just set a world record at Coney Island, and Reedy had found his calling — a 30-inch, 10-pound pizza challenge at a St. Louis restaurant with $500 and a Wa...

Nobody warns you about your own house. That's the thing. You walk through your front door a thousand times without incident. You don't brace yourself. You don't prepare. You definitely don't expect your mom to come screaming from the kitchen like an air raid siren with two seconds notice. Two seconds, it turns out, is not enough time. This episode is the story of one perfectly ordinary summer even...

Nobody thought the goat would drink it. Reedy did. It was supposed to be a simple experiment after a late shift at the gas station — four guys, a barn, and a bottle of E&J Cask and Cream. Nanna had handled her beer just fine for years. But butterscotch liqueur? That felt like a bridge too far. Reedy bet otherwise. And as usual, he was right. Sort of. This episode is the story of what happens when...

Reedy had been laughing about it for two weeks straight. Crying, actually. Every time he thought about it, gone. He wasn't even there when it happened. But when I told him the story — the hallway, the claws, the screaming, the bedroom door — he lost it completely. And then he decided that hearing about it wasn't enough. He needed to see it for himself. This episode is about friendship. About loyal...

In the summer of 1990 Reedy's mom made something that was advertised as spaghetti, but that was definitely questionable. In a time before viral videos and Instagram posts, Reedy told me this hilariously quirky story to my amazement while he shoveled in my mom's spaghetti at an epic rate. Get full access to Bill Roseberry Stories at billroseberrystories.substack.com/subscribe

No Country For Old Men was a hit with the critics back in 2008, but not with my best friend and I. This is the story of how a night of simple movie watching transformed into its own tale of drama with an actual definitive ending. Get full access to Bill Roseberry Stories at billroseberrystories.substack.com/subscribe

It's August 1994. My best friend Reedy and I are spending the summer at Gillespie Lake — swimming optional, cheap beer mandatory. When the afternoon calls for tubing behind a speedboat, I'm all in. Reedy? Not so much. What follows is a masterclass in pride, panic, and the unforgiving laws of physics — as I discover water's similarities with concrete and Reedy attempts to conquer the water on his o...