Taking it to the Street: The surviving sons of John “Bad Dog” McCormack –Tucker “Big Dog” McCormack (left), a FedEx employee, and Buck “Little Dog” McCormack, a Houston High School student — stand proudly in front of the Ronald McDonald House under the sign declaring that the entryway from Alabama Street into the facility now bears their late father’s name.
The entryway underwent a formal name change during ceremonies Monday morning.
McCormack, the popular DJ/jokester whose nickname “Bad Dog” was familiar to most FM-radio listeners in Memphis from his lengthy tenure as a member of the Rock 103 Wake-up Crew, had, with other members of the crew, long been a star fund-raiser for the Ronald McDonald House through the station’s annual radiothon and other activities.
Ronald McDonald House serves as a home away from home for family members of children, stricken by cancer and other catastropic illness, who are undergoing treatment at the nearby St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. During his last years, Bad Dog himself was stricken by an ultimately fatal form of cancer but kept on broadcasting right up to the time of his death earlier this year.
He was an institution, and his sons agree. “But he should have been in an institution,” joked Buck, in a quip which reflected his father’s madcap style.
