Column: Author and former Walter Payton business partner to celebrate late sports icon’s birthday

Scott Ascher invites you to a birthday party this week for the late Walter Payton.

No coincidence, it will also be a chance to promote his unique book about the Chicago Bears legend at the same time.

The reception and book-signing for “Walter Payton: Roundhouse Philosopher” will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 25, at Gray’s Mill at 211 N. River St. in Montgomery. What’s not so certain is whether this event is celebrating what would have been Payton’s 71st or 72nd birthday.

The reason that number is even in question will be revealed in the “flashbacks” segment immediately following the book-signing. SPOILER ALERT: It has to do with the 1975 Bears youngest running back wanting to focus on his gridiron job rather than hang out in Chicago bars with his teammates.

The Schaumburg author has plenty of other great tales – and life lessons – from “Sweetness” that he shares in the book as well as in person. That includes the reason Ascher celebrates the Hall of Famer’s birthday every July 25, a promise he made a few years after the popular NFL icon died from liver disease in 1999, shocking grief-stricken fans, including Ascher, who thought his friend and business partner was scheduled for a life-saving transplant.

Second SPOILER ALERT: Ascher made that vow in 2003 following a last-minute visit with a psychic that sent more than a few goosebumps down his spine.

As Ascher recalled, it started with the “Dancing Bear” – another Walter Payton nickname – pen he pulled from a choice of dozens when asked to sign in for the unscheduled psychic reading. And it got more intense as the medium immediately connected Ascher, who had been focusing on his late father during his session, to the name Walter, then to the star athlete’s brother Eddie.

Perhaps eeriest of all, he told me, was the psychic coming up with the song “Meet Me in St. Louis,” a tune from the early 1900s which Walter used to sing to his business partner as it related to a project they were working on, a fact “no one, not even my wife, knew about,” insisted Ascher.

The psychic finally told him at the end of the session that Walter (or in this case, his spirit), “wants you to celebrate an event in July.” It was a request, Ascher recalled, that did not hit him until he was on his way to the car and realized Payton’s birthday was July 25.

Ascher claims to not believe in psychics. “But there was something going on there,” he added, noting that when he walked out of that reading, he did indeed vow to celebrate Payton’s birthday every year.

And so, Ascher began to fulfill that promise annually at the Roundhouse in Aurora, which made sense because the complex revolved around the sports superstar’s name and personality.

This first limestone roundhouse in America sat vacant for two decades in downtown Aurora until the two men joined forces in 1995 to turn it into a popular entertainment center, featuring a restaurant, brewpub, banquet facility, open air pavilion and museum displaying some of the Hall of Famer’s memorabilia, including his Super Bowl XX ring.

Even after the facility was sold in 2011 and became Two Brothers Roundhouse, Ascher continued to honor that promise with friends and family.

This year’s event at Gray’s Mill will again be a public party. (He and Two Brothers were not able to connect on a date). And, as mentioned earlier, it will give Ascher a chance to host a second book-signing for “Walter Payton: The Roundhouse Philosopher,” which was released last November.

Ascher says that since then the book, available on Amazon, has received great feedback, with one reviewer noting that, unlike most sports biographies or business self-help books, it emphasizes “failures, detours, small wins and overlooked lessons in life” that make it an “honest exploration of life, leadership and legacy.”

Ascher is hoping to get the book, which includes Payton’s reflections on racial history, into high schools and colleges.

“People have told me that even after reading the first lesson, they have to stop and think for a while before going on to the next chapter,” he said, adding that “it all goes back to the way Walter handled situations in a philosophical way.”

But Payton’s humor is clearly on display in this book, including in a Walter quote that explains the name for Friday’s question-and-answer session.

“Now, who told you that, Scott? You’ve got to understand … Scott grew up in the ’60s and you know … well, sometimes he gets these flashbacks.”

Ascher may not believe in psychics but he’s convinced Walter Payton’s spirit is alive and well in our communities.

“He is,” insisted the author, “certainly in my head.”

dcrosby@tribpub.com