John U. Bacon is an American sports journalist and author.
Education
After graduating from Huron High School, Bacon earned a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in education from the University of Michigan.
Career
Bacon’s first journalism job was as a lifestyle and sports reporter for The Ann Arbor News. In 1995, Bacon became a sports feature writer for The Detroit News.
In 1998, Bacon traveled to Nagano, Japan, to cover the 1998 Winter Olympics for The Detroit News. After the Olympics, Bacon left The Detroit News to become a freelance writer. He has written articles for The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal, and ESPN The Magazine.
In 2000, Bacon started his radio career with a sports show on WAAM in Ann Arbor. In 2002, he started a radio show, Off the Field, on WTKA. In 2007, Bacon began providing weekly sports commentary on Michigan public television stations.
In 2005, Bacon was awarded a Knight-Wallace Fellowship for journalism from the University of Michigan.
Books in order of publication:
Blue Ice: The Story of Michigan Hockey. University of Michigan Press, 2001.
America’s Corner Store: Walgreens’ Prescription For Success. John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Hoboken, N.J.
Cirque du Soleil, The Spark: Igniting the Creative Fire that Lives Within Us All. Doubleday, 2006.
Bo’s Lasting Lessons, The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership, with former Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler. Hachette, 2007.
Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011.
Fourth and Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football. Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football. St. Martin’s Press, 2015.
Playing Hurt: My Journey from Despair to Hope. Da Capo Press, 2017.
The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism. HarperCollins, 2017.
The Best of Bacon: Select Cuts. University of Michigan Press, 2018.
Overtime: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football. HarperCollins, 2019.
Let Them Lead: Unexpected Lessons in Leadership from America’s Worst High School Hockey Team. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021.
The Greatest Comeback: How Team Canada Fought Back, Took the Summit Series, and Reinvented Hockey. HarperCollins Canada, 2022.
The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Liveright 2025.
Oak Lawn Library Friends 