zNewsletter Sunday

Wheeling Native Mike Florio Discusses New Novel at Ohio County Library

Nick Henthorn

WHEELING -- There was a homecoming Thursday in the confines of the Ohio County Public Library, as the editor in chief of Pro Football Talk, author of the crime novel "Father of Mine," and Wheeling native Mike Florio spoke at the most recent installment of the library's "Lunch with Books" program to promote his new novel.

Florio spoke for over an hour to a room of around 200 people, speaking about his upbringing, sports, and "Father of Mine," released April 25, 2023. The Ohio County Public Library welcomed Florio after Sean Duffy, the library's Program Director, reached out to him online.

"I was looking on the internet one day and I saw something about this book by Mike Florio" Duffy said. "I thought, 'I know Mike Florio, he went to Central, he does football, that can't be him.' Then I see the book's about Wheeling, so it had to be him.

"I thought since he's writing fiction now he should come to the library and talk to his hometown about his work. Shot him an email and he answered right away saying he'd love to do it."

Much of Florio's talk to the library-goers concerned how a national football commentator came to write a crime novel, and where his inspiration for the Wheeling-centered story came from.

Florio said there were lots of steps that led to him getting to his current position, starting with Dec. 23, 1972.

That's the date of the "Immaculate Reception," Franco Harris' famous catch in an NFL playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders.

Florio's parents were hosting others to watch the game in their Wheeling home, and the play elicited a raucous celebration from their houseguests.

Florio, 58, was a young boy at the time, but the game sparked a lasting interest in the sport for him.

"I thought, this NFL, if it can make people react that way, respond that way, this is something I should pay attention to," Florio said. "That was the moment that the lightbulb went off for me that I really like this sport, and I developed a life-long passion for it."

Florio grew up to practice labor law in Clarksburg, and exercised his love of football through writing on a website he created, ProFootballTalk, which grew to become an affiliate of NBC Sports.

In recent years, Florio said he wanted to write something that's relevant and something many people could read, qualities that he didn't get in his time practicing as a labor attorney or as a sports writer.

"Everything I write today, by tomorrow, it doesn't have it," Florio said. "Tomorrow I've got to write all over again, and by the next day what I wrote tomorrow doesn't matter. It's relevant for one day."

Florio went on to write a book about NFL history called "Playmakers," but during the pandemic, with the sports world shut down, a different subject came to his mind for his follow-up project.

Both the inspiration for his love of football, and inspiration for his new book, came from his childhood, and the life of his father, who ran a bar in the city.

"I realized that this bar my dad had was not just a place people went to buy beer, sit around and eat Slim Jims and read the newspaper," Florio said. "At some point I came to realize they went in to place bets on football and other sports. I remember even at that age thinking ... 'That's probably not legal.'

"I remember for a few years trying to process this idea that it's all happening out in the open, nobody seems to care, Dad's a bookie. The reality for me is that's all I knew growing up, that was Dad's job, that's what he did."

Florio said he was never involved in the illegal goings-on, and learned about the different dealings within the organized crime scene as an adult.

"I came to learn later in life, piecing things together, figuring things out - the internet becomes a very valuable tool when you go back and research some of the things that happened - there was another side of this business that wasn't as innocent, relatively speaking. There was the other side of the business, the more traditional mob side of the business that I didn't know about when I was a kid.

"That's part of what was the seed for writing "Father of Mine." Not because my Dad was ever on that side of it, but he was close enough to it, and I was around it enough and I came to piece enough of it together later that I could use the mob here in Wheeling [for the book]."

Florio stressed that all of the characters in his novel were fictional, but the activities that went on between the pages were true to life in Wheeling during that time.

The newly-minted fiction author said a sequel is in the works, and he hopes it will be out in the next year or two.

After Florio's talk, the library turned into a question-and-answer session, which became an opportunity for the 200 people in attendance to share their own stories about the mob in Wheeling, and ask Florio about everything from Wheeling mobster Paul Hankish to Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett.

Florio stayed after the Q&A session to sign copies of "Father of Mine" for almost 50 attendees.

"I thought it was great to come home," Florio said after the event. "I was blown away by all the people here. I would've put the over/under, to use the gambling parlance, at maybe 35½. So to see 200 turn out, I was amazed to see that many people.

"I'm glad folks have an interest in the book and I hope they read it, I hope they enjoy it. It's great to come home and I look forward to doing it again. I guess I've got to write more books."

For the library's part, Duffy said he was sure that Florio would attract a crowd - and he was not disappointed.

"There were three things that made me know people would be interested: local guy, sports - football in particular - and the mob," Duffy said. "You can't beat that. As you saw there were about 200 people here, that's one of the biggest [Lunch with Books] we've ever done.

"I was a little bit worried because I thought he wouldn't have the time to do it, but because it was his hometown I thought maybe he'd make the time to visit and see people. It worked out."