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42 | DECEMBER 16 • 2021

Jackie Kallen is the First Lady of
Boxing, the most successful female
manager in boxing history.
She’s also a sought-after and pro-
lific public speaker. So much so that
Bruce Merrin’s Celebrity Speakers
Bureau and Kallen reached an
agreement this month to have the
speakers bureau represent the
75-year-old West Bloomfield resi-
dent.
“They’re top of the line, first-class,
and they hand-pick their speakers,”
Kallen said about the Las Vegas-
based speakers bureau. “I’m thrilled

to work with them.”
Founded in 1973, the speakers
bureau provides corporate meeting
and event planners worldwide with
an elite lineup of speakers that
through the years has included
Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali
and every U.S. president starting
with Ronald Reagan.
Kallen said her hour-long speech-
es are always off the cuff. She never
uses notes.
“Many people are afraid of public
speaking. I love it,” she said. “I’m like
a racehorse at the gate at the start
of my speeches, whether I’m speak-
ing in front of 100 or 3,000 people.”
Kallen tailors her speeches to the
crowd.
She can tell stories about the
celebrities she interviewed during
a 25-year career as a journalist

with the Oakland Press, folks like
Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Michael
Jackson, Neil Diamond, the Rolling
Stones, the Beatles, KISS, Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Sylvester
Stallone, or meeting Bill Clinton and
Donald Trump.
Or she can give a motivational
speech that focuses on self-confi-
dence, fearlessness, taking the path
less traveled and making the most
of every day.
Four heart stents, glaucoma
and melanoma haven’t slowed her
down.
The last speech Kallen set up on
her own before joining the speakers
bureau was for an all-Jewish crowd
of about 450 (many from Michigan)
on Dec. 7 at the Polo Club resi-
dential community in Boca Raton,
Florida.

quick hits
BY STEVE STEIN

N

ick Chudler thought his football
career was over.
He was recovering well after
undergoing specialized spinal fusion back
surgery May 3 at a hospital in New Jersey,
one of only a few hospitals in the country
where the surgery is done, “but I didn’t
think I’
d be cleared to play football,
” he said.
Not after doctors in New Jersey went in
through his right side and installed tethers
and eight screws in his spine.
Then Chudler went to Beaumont Hospital
in Farmington Hills during Thanksgiving
week for a six-month post-surgery checkup.
“I was curious, so I asked if I could play
football again,
” he said.
The answer from the Beaumont medical
professionals surprised him. Yes, he could
play football again.
After some soul-searching and talks with
his family, the 21-year-old Michigan State
University senior from Novi entered the

NCAA
’s transfer portal to see if he could
find a landing spot as a graduate transfer
student with one year of eligibility.
Filing the paperwork added his name
to the list of MSU football players entering
the portal that was reported in newspapers
statewide in early December, even though
Chudler wasn’t on the Spartans’ roster in
2020 or 2021.
“That was a surprise to see my name in
those stories,
” he said.
Chudler came to MSU as a preferred
walk-on in 2018, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
The long-snapper was on the Spartans’
roster in 2018 and 2019, but he didn’t get
into any games.
He left the team after the 2019 season

because of his bad back and the departure
of the coaches who knew him, and he didn’t
play in 2020 or 2021.
Chudler has one semester of classes
remaining at MSU, with plans to graduate
in May with a degree in health communi-
cations.
If he transfers, he said, he’
d pursue a
master’s degree at his new school, and most
likely be strictly a long-snapper for his new
football team.
“If a good opportunity comes along, with
a chance to play football while getting some
scholarship money, I will 100% consider it,
”
he said. “I’m not picky.
”
Chudler said while he’s still sore from his
surgery, he’s been working out pain-free
for about a month and half and feeling his
strength returning.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder has practiced
long-snapping since his surgery and he
recently participated in a wrestling team
practice at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, his for-
mer high school.
He was a football and wrestling standout
at OLSM.
“If I can wrestle, I can play football,
” he
said.

Please send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.

com.

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Spinal fusion surgery
revives former MSU long-
snapper Nick Chudler’s
football career

He’s back!

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Nick Chudler hopes to play football again, but
it won’t be at Michigan State.

Jackie Kallen Is Never
Speechless

SUSAN HAMON

Jackie Kallen spoke Dec. 7
at the Polo Club residential
community in Boca Raton,
Florida.