National bestselling author John U. Bacon to speak at Freligh Community Lecture Series
Posted Friday, March 27, 2026
Author: Mickey Alvarado
Eight-time national bestselling author John U. Bacon will be the featured speaker at Adrian College’s Freligh Community Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in Downs Hall. His lecture, “Edmund Fitzgerald, the Untold Story,” is free and open to the public.
“We are honored to have this outstanding thought-leader and writer on our campus,” Adrian College President Jeffrey Docking said. “John U. Bacon is a special Michigander and we encourage the public to join us for this free, exciting evening.”
Bacon has worked more than three decades as a writer, public speaker, college instructor, radio and TV commentator, and high school hockey coach, winning awards in all five categories. He has authored 14 books on sports, business, health, and history, eight of which are national bestsellers, including his most recent, published last October, “The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The book has been featured in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, “CBS Saturday Morning,” NPR’s “Morning Edition” and PBS, among others, and received a starred review in Kirkus.
“This lecture aligns with our commitment to bringing thought-provoking voices to campus,” said Andrea Milner, Adrian College Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs. “John U. Bacon offers valuable insight into history, leadership and the human experience. We are proud to host him as part of our Freligh Lecture Series.”
Other national bestsellers by Bacon are “Bo’s Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership,” “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football,” “Fourth & Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football,” “Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football,” “John Saunders’ Playing Hurt: My Journey from Despair to Hope” (which Bacon co-authored), “The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism,” and “Overtime: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football.”
Bacon delivers speeches on the themes taken from his books and coaching and teaching experiences, including leadership, creativity, storytelling and motivating the next generation, to corporations, universities, health care organizations and other groups around the country and the world.
He was a speaker for Adrian College President Jeffrey Docking’s Leadership Class last October, where he autographed free copies of his book “Let Them Lead: Unexpected Lessons in Leadership from America’s Worst High School Hockey Team.” The book features Bacon’s first-person account of his experience turning around the Ann Arbor Huron River Rats hockey program from America’s worst high school hockey team. “Let Them Lead” was featured in The New York Times and on “Good Morning America.” It is now in its fifth printing.
Bacon earned an honors degree in history from the University of Michigan in 1986 and a master’s degree in education in 1994.
He started his journalism career covering high school sports for The Ann Arbor News and then wrote a lifestyle column before becoming the Sunday sports feature writer for The Detroit News in 1995. He left The Detroit News in 1999 to freelance for two dozen national publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, ESPN Magazine and Time magazine.
Bacon has taught at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and the University of Michigan, where students selected him for the 2009 Golden Apple Award, given annually to the students’ favorite teacher.
He appears often on TV, including HBO, ESPN, Fox Business, MSNBC, PBS and the Big Ten Network, where he has been a frequent contributor.
Bacon lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and son.
For more information about the lecture series, visit adrian.edu.
