Mar 24, 2018 5 min read

Wrestling fans will recognize Bruce Baumgartner as a four-time Olympic medalist, and University of Pittsburgh alumni certainly remember Mark Nordenberg as the school’s chancellor of 18 years.

And those in attendance at a recent Good Guys Luncheon Club gathering at Atria’s Restaurant in Peters Township got to know both those gentlemen as guest speakers on the same afternoon.

“People were pretty impressed with that lineup,” club founder Jim O’Brien said. “So somebody in the audience said to me, ‘When are you going to get the pope?’

“I responded, ‘How about if we start with the bishop?'”

He promptly guaranteed that Bishop David Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburgh would speak at a future luncheon.

“I had not made any inquiry, so the bishop didn’t know that,” O’Brien admitted. “But he had written an endorsement for my book ‘Golden Arms,’ which was about the six Hall of Fame quarterbacks” – George Blanda, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Joe Namath and John Unitas – “from Western Pennsylvania. He liked that book because all six of those quarterbacks went to Catholic schools.”

And so Zubik has agreed to be on the bill for another stellar speaker pairing in July, along with Geraldine Jones, president of California University of Pennsylvania.

The next gathering, on Thursday, featured Pittsburgh Steelers great and Mt. Lebanon resident Rocky Bleier. And April’s special guests are former Pirates pitcher Bob Friend; professional golfer Bob Friend Jr., his son; and Dr. Stanley Marks, chairman of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

With such a wealth of Western Pennsylvania luminaries taking to the podium, it’s no wonder that the Good Guys’ mailing list has grown to about 110 people since O’Brien, a 38-year Upper St. Clair resident who now lives in North Strabane, began organizing the luncheons four years ago. The group takes its name from a comment made by a friend of his, retired Adelphia Cable executive and longtime veterans’ advocate Tony Accamando.

“He said, ‘In the time I have left, I want to spend time with good guys,” O’Brien recalled. “And he told me, ‘I see you at lunch and so forth with guys, and you’re always in good company.'”

‘Looking Up’

Jim O’Brien’s latest book, “Looking Up: From the ABA to the NBA, the WNBA to the NCAA,” draws from his long career as a basketball writer.

He was the founding editor of Street & Smith’s Basketball Yearbook in 1970 and continued to be associated with the magazine for more than 35 years. It became the No. 1 selling annual of its kind in the country and the official NBA preseason magazine.

O’Brien also edited The Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball and wrote a column on pro basketball for The Sporting News for nine years.

In “Looking Up,” he takes a look back at the great players he met and interviewed along the way. The book is 480 pages and has more than 200 photographs and illustrations.

For more information, visit www.jimobriensportsauthor.com.

As a prolific author – he’s working on his 30th book – who also has worked on a wide variety of publications, from founding editor of Street & Smith’s Basketball Yearbook to 18 years as a columnist for The Almanac, O’Brien has had the opportunity to develop relationships and contacts with countless high-profile people in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.

And so it’s become common for the Good Guys’ third-Thursday-each-month meeting to host the likes of Steelers minority owner Art Rooney Jr., former Pittsburgh Penguins Dave Hannan and Kim Clackson; and Pitt basketball announcers Bill Hillgrove and Dick Groat, who, of course, have other claims to fame. February’s speakers were former National Football League referee Dale Hamer and current Canon-McMillan High School head basketball coach Rick Bell.

“The best guest we’ve had was Mary Louise Conn, Billy Conn’s wife,” he said about the late boxing champion’s widow, who died in April. “She was so great.”

Some featured guests now regularly attend the luncheons, most notably 12-year Steelers linebacker Andy Russell. Another NFL alumnus, Ron Crosby, also makes frequent appearances.

Besides opportunities to forge friendships and hear quality speakers, the Good Guys have a philanthropic side. The group’s “pet project,” O’Brien said, is Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans, a nonprofit organization that Accamando established to raise money toward securing dogs to help provide stability to the lives of 22 veterans in the region.

In the meantime, O’Brien looks forward to keeping the Good Guys Luncheon Club going.

“I have benefited from it in a lot of ways, because I’m always trying to get better,” he said. “And these guys, they set a pretty high standard.”