Alumnus’ book touches on addiction, recovery, and the Detroit Lions

HFC alumnus Joel Walkowski’s first book, Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Football Team Created a Winning Man – which debuts Tuesday, July 14 – juxtaposes the Detroit Lions’ storied history of losing (until recently) as a framework to explore addiction, mental illness, and generational trauma.

“Their darkest points overlap with my darkest times as an addict,” explained Walkowski, who says he has been sober for more than 10 years.

He continued: “Organically, the Lions helped give the story structure. One of the reasons I wrote this book was to de-stigmatize mental illness and addiction. The lessons in this book exposed my vulnerability, flaws, and willingness to change. Men have trouble talking about mental health. Packaging a story about emotional wellbeing as a football story makes it accessible. It puts it in a language people can understand.”

Attending Lions’ games on Thanksgiving Days and watching them on Sundays was a family tradition for Walkowski and his late father, Robert “Banjo Bob” Walkowski. Banjo Bob made sure he and his son stayed until long after the game ended, because anyone who left early was not a true Lions fan.

“My dad was on the autism spectrum, quite eccentric, and also an alcoholic,” said Walkowski. “He had a special interest in the Lions that he shared with me. He’d feed me the mythology about the team. For decades, the Lions lost. Lions’ losses are like a Greek myth unfolding in a specific way, impacting how some people see the world. I think that’s what makes the Lions so fascinating. The Green Bay Packers always seemed to win, and that was not always interesting. The Lions may have lost, but they kept trying; they kept fighting. Leo Tolstoy said it best, ‘All happy families are alike. All unhappy families are unique in their own way.’ I think that is relevant to the Lions and for me.”

The most rigorous education he ever had

Born in Dearborn, Walkowski has lived in New York City since 2010. He is a graduate of Dearborn High School. During his time at DHS, he was a student of the late Russ Gibb, a long-time donor to HFC and owner of the Grande Ballroom in Detroit. Gibb (who is mentioned in Honolulu Blues) taught media production at DHS for nearly 40 years, creating a state-of-the-art video studio called WDHS in 1981 for students. It was the first high school video production facility in the nation.

“Mr. Gibb was a great teacher who taught me a lot,” recalled Walkowski. “He ran a tight ship. Having that discipline at a young age really benefitted me. I’ve got his photo on my desk. I’m still chasing his approval.”

It was Gibb who inspired Walkowski to enroll at HFC (then Henry Ford Community College), which gets a nod in Honolulu Blues on page 114. At HFC, Walkowski completed general education and liberal arts courses. Retired HFC English and creative writing instructor James Wanless and the late HFC theatre instructor Dale Van Dorp were very influential.

“Mr. Gibb told me that the first two years of college would be pretty much the same as at a university. HFC offered an affordable option, so I went there. It was the most rigorous education I ever had,” said Walkowski. “Professor Wanless was a great creative writing teacher. He had us writing sestinas (a complex 39-line poetic form that does not rely on traditional rhyme, but instead features a strict, repeating pattern of six specific end-words across six six-line stanzas, concluding with a three-line summary stanza) six weeks into the course. That’s pretty big stuff.”

After HFC, Walkowski transferred to the University of Southern California, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in cinema and television. He later earned his MBA from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Walkowski also has a certificate in marketing analytics from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

The Big Walkowski Charity Basketball Tournament celebrates 10 years

Walkowski is a media analytics strategist for General Motors. He is a stand-up comic and a regular in the New York City comedy club scene. He is a ghostwriter who has penned the biography of celebrity hairstylist Danielle Priano. His articles have appeared in several media outlets, including The New York Times.

In 2016, Walkowski founded The Big Walkowski Charity Basketball Tournament. This three-on-three basketball tournament for comedians has evolved into a large community event. The proceeds benefit the LiveOnNY Foundation, whose mission is to educate communities about the importance of organ donation and to provide compassionate support for donor families and transplant recipients. The Big Walkowski X is scheduled for Tuesday, September 1.

“I started playing Sunday afternoon pickup games to stay sober after watching the Lions,” he said. “I would imbibe when watching them. Nowadays, I drink a Coke. It’s become a teetotaling tradition. My favorite sobriety tool is making a calendar and scheduling my week. A big part of sobriety is strategically looking at your schedule. It’s important to have fun when you’re sober. I’m amazed at what the basketball games have grown into.”

Fishing his work out of the sewer (literally)

Walkowski was candid about his addiction to alcohol and drugs. He sought help through Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART) after experiencing serious health crises.

“I knew I wanted to stop but realized I couldn’t. Every day I thought about quitting,” he admitted. “Sharing that with others going through similar experiences made it actionable. When you’re alone and addicted, you feel uniquely flawed. At a meeting, when it’s your turn to share, other people have this same experience, and it unfurls in a similar fashion.”

The inspiration for Walkowski to write Honolulu Blues came from his SMART program.

“It’s a self-inventory-based program. The facilitators asked me about my goals. Writing something sober seemed to be the pinnacle,” he recalled. “Because I run basketball games for the entertainment industry, I became friendly with a literary agent. He chose to represent me and shopped my work around immediately.”

It took Walkowski three solid years, without a day off, to write Honolulu Blues. The biggest challenge was when he lost the manuscript — to a windy blast.

“I wrote the first draft by hand. I left my notebook on the roof of my car. The wind blew it all over Manhattan Avenue. I ran down the street, catching stray pages. I fished quite a bit of it out of the sewer. My neighbors saw me up to my shoulders in the sewer grates. I found almost all of it, thankfully,” he said.

He is looking forward to the Lions in the upcoming 2026-27 season.

“In good times and bad, the Lions have always been my favorite team. They make me happy,” he said. “The Lions don’t bring me joy because they win. They bring me joy because watching them play reminds me of who I am.”