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Opportunity knocks in the most unexpected places.
For Joe Funk, it tapped last November at Morris, Illinois during one of the most painful moments in his three-decade love affair with Joliet Catholic football. Funk watched in sorrow as the home team won 28-21 in the Class 6A quarterfinals to end Joliet Catholic’s dream of a third straight state championship.
“It was torture,” he said this week.
Instead of getting mad, though, he found the quintessentially American way to get even: He made money off it. Less than a month later, after Morris had won the 6A title, he had a glossy, soft-cover commemorative book, “Redskin Power,” ready for sale.
Quickie, photo-heavy books that cash in on championship seasons are becoming as common as Terrell Owens sound bites—try keeping count if the Bears win the 2007 Super Bowl. You wouldn’t think a high school volume would generate enough sales to make financial sense, but Funk claims otherwise.
The trick is using desktop-publishing technology to keep costs down and get books out before fans’ championship glow has faded.
Funk, 38, grew up in Joliet and started attending Joliet Catholic games in the 1970s, when Gordie Gillespie’s teams won four straight state titles. He played youth football and was headed for Joliet Catholic but gave up the sport to pursue an interest in computers and the video games you could play on them.
Funk bought an Apple II+, one of the early personal computers, and that meant spending his spare time paying it off by working in his father, Bob’s, drugstore in—of all places— Morris.
“I really wanted that computer,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t ever going pro in football.” He went pro in video games instead. Throughout the 1990s he rode the video-game explosion, eventually becoming editorial director for a major game group, where he developed several publications and a Web site.
In 2000 Funk went off on his own, founding Mojo Media, Inc., a Woodridge company that specializes in editorial and “advertorial” content for enthusiast groups, primarily in the video games and sports areas.
Mojo works with several major corporations, and its sports books have commemorated the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2006 Super Bowl run and Illinois’ 2005 Final Four season.
In early 2005 Funk decided to expand beyond packaging books for other publishers by producing his own books about high school teams.
“I thought with our technological efficiencies we might be able to pull together a viable model,” he said, “and what better place to start than with your own alma mater.” He set up a separate company, Glory Days Books, with a Web site (www.GloryDaysBooks.com) for online ordering and started work on a Joliet Catholic book.
The resulting “Hilltopper Pride” came out last fall. The 144-page hardcover coffee table-style book strays somewhat from Funk’s business plan because it took several months to produce and covers the school’s entire football history, particularly its 12 state titles, with brief chapters about everything from the legendary Gillespie to “Rudy” Ruettiger.
The book ends with an interview with Joliet Catholic coach and athletic director Dan Sharp, who taught Funk algebra. “It was kind of neat the way he put all that together,” Sharp said of his former student.
The Morris book, on the other hand, sticks to the 2005 season. “I got the spark for it when I went to that game” Funk said of Morris’ victory over Joliet Catholic. “I saw how much the town was behind its team.”
Neither volume is aimed at the average fan, but rather at die-hard partisans, which is why Funk refers to this as micro-niche publishing. “None of these books are New York Times best-sellers or intended to be,” he said. “More than ever, people are interested specifically in what they are interested in.
“We have gone from five TV channels to 50 to 500. The internet has been a huge catalyst in this fragmentation.” Funk said using technology to control costs and the internet as his main distribution system has enabled Glory Days Books to turn a profit on both projects. He declined to disclose figures.
Part of the profits from “Hilltopper Pride” has gone to Joliet Catholic. Funk said he hopes to use a similar arrangement to convince high schools across the country to cooperate on quickie books, primarily in football and basketball. All he needs is a championship trophy and a large, loyal fan base.
“What’s interesting to me are the ways to tie things back together and make them relevant,” he said. “Like if we did a book on Mount Carmel, we could do a chapter on Donovan McNabb.
“How cool is that?”
Copyrighted 10/26/06, Chicago Tribune Company. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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