Mark WiedmerRoss Bernstein was one of the lucky ones during his college days at Minnesota. His frugal parents had saved enough money to help send him to graduate school. Only Bernstein wanted the savings for something more immediate. He wanted those funds to help him publish a book he was writing on Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey.
Told of those wishes, his father called him a "disappointment" and a "failure." But he reluctantly gave his son the money with one caveat: "You can't come back to me when this is all gone."
It's important to note that Bernstein had a couple of things going for him beyond a budding talent for the written word. For one, he had a prior relationship with Herb Brooks, the brilliant coach who guided the 1980 United States hockey team to its "Miracle on Ice" gold medal.
Second, when he found his possible UM hockey career basically over before it began for too aggressively checking the team's star player, Bernstein reluctantly agreed to become the student inside the Gopher mascot.
Thus was born, with a little help and encouragement from Brooks, the first of the 47-year-old Bernstein's nearly 50 books to date: "Gopher Hockey by the Hockey Gopher."
It also brought this response from Bernstein's dad: "I'm proud of you. Follow your dreams."
This was one of several stories the prolific writer, television guest, husband, father and philanthropist told during the Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia Better Business Bureau Torch Awards luncheon Thursday at the Chattanoogan Hotel.
He also discussed the huge success he enjoyed with the book "I Love Brett Favre, I Hate Brett Favre," which was inspired by his lifelong affection for the Minnesota Vikings, and how he instantly loved the Hall of Fame quarterback when he became a Viking late in his career after despising him during all those years he starred for bitter rival Green Bay.
Alas, he added, his second attempt at such a book - "I Love Sarah Palin, I Hate Sarah Palin" - never left the warehouse after Palin decided not to run for president in 2012. "I've kind of stuck to sports writing since then," he mused.
But the overriding theme of Bernstein's talk was to discuss what separates champions from also-rans in the world of sports and business. Having interviewed more than 1,000 athletes and coaches through the years, the author of such best sellers as "The Code" series believes most sports champions have six overriding traits: passion, unselfishness, trust, respect, accountability and compassion.
Bernstein readily admitted that far too often in sports "there's a fine line between cheating and gamesmanship." But he also was quick to point out to a packed ballroom of 600 or more business leaders and students, "We like to do business with those we like and trust."
Nothing, of course, goes to the mission of the BBB more than those words, which echo local BBB president Jim Winsett's description of his organization as "an ethical marketplace where buyers and sellers can trust each other."
In today's overall business climate that far too often further blurs Bernstein's sports premise about there being such a fine line between cheating and gamesmanship, such values are desperately needed.
But so is Bernstein's light touch with such serious subjects.
For instance, there's the whole reason he became the Hockey Gopher rather than a walk-on member of the Gophers hockey team.
"I got asked to walk on by several members of the team because they liked me, they thought I was fun to have around," Bernstein recalled. "So I go out the first day of practice and I'm one-on-one against Todd Richards, our All-American defenseman. Now Richards is wearing a white jersey with a red cross on it, but I don't pay any attention to that. I'm one-on-one with Richards and I'm thinking, 'If I take out Richards, they'll have to notice me.'"
They noticed him all right. The red cross meant that Richards was injured, so there was supposed to be no contact with him. The coaches instantly labeled Bernstein "an idiot" and he was off the team.
But because the team mascot needed to be someone who, in Bernstein's words, "was a pretty decent skater and moron," he was able to stay close to the program. He even earned a certain degree of notoriety for his mascot pranks, which including throwing processed cheese slices at the Wisconsin band because, well, "They're cheeseheads."
Asked how someone under 50 could have written nearly 50 books while speaking to 100 clubs a year and periodically appearing on NBC during NHL games, Bernstein smiled and replied, "If I don't write, I don't eat."
Since he just finished a 16-nation trip with his wife and eighth-grade daughter - "My daughter might have to repeat eighth grade, we've been gone so long," he quipped - it's doubtful that Bernstein will worry about paying for his next meal any time soon.
But he isn't taking his success for granted, either.
"I was watching HGTV (Home and Garden Television) the other night and they were doing a show on houses of the future," Bernstein said. "Guess what's not in them? Bookshelves. That's not good when you write books."
No, it's not. But it might at least supply a worthy title for his future autobiography when there's no place to display his entertaining prose: I Love Ross Bernstein, I Hate Ross Bernstein.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com