Honors & Legacy Royko won the National Press Club Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990 and the Damon Runyon Award in 1995. John Belushi’s character in the 1981 film Continental Divide is modelled after Royko. (Belushi was a reader of Royko’s column and occasionally met the journalist at his father’s restaurant on North Avenue.) The "Royko Arrival" was an IFR arrival procedure used at O'Hare International Airport until 2013, when it was replaced by VEECK ONE. Mike Royko was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 1983 in the area of Communications. In 2011, Royko was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. The Newberry Library hosted an exhibition entitled "Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism" (June 20 - September 28, 2024). Mitchell Bisschop created a one-man show in 2022 entitled “Royko: The Toughest Man in Chicago,” which will have its Chicago premier at the Chopin Theatre in September of 2024.
Honors & Legacy Royko won the National Press Club Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990 and the Damon Runyon Award in 1995. John Belushi’s character in the 1981 film Continental Divide is modelled after Royko. (Belushi was a reader of Royko’s column and occasionally met the journalist at his father’s restaurant on North Avenue.) The "Royko Arrival" was an IFR arrival procedure used at O'Hare International Airport until 2013 when it was replaced by VEECK ONE. Mike Royko was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 1983 in the area of Communications. In 2011, Royko was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. The Newberry Library hosted an exhibition entitled "Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism" (June 20 - September 28, 2024). Mitchell Bisschop created a one-man show in 2022 entitled “Royko: The Toughest Man in Chicago,” which will have its Chicago premier at the Chopin Theatre in September of 2024.