His mother, Helen (née Zak), was Polish, and his father, Michael Royko, was Ukrainian (born in Dolyna).

Royko commented "No self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in a Murdoch paper," and that "his goal is not quality journalism.

In 1976, a Royko column criticized the Chicago Police Department for providing an around-the-clock security detail for Frank Sinatra.

[16] Like some other columnists, Royko created fictitious personae with whom he could "converse," the most famous being Slats Grobnik, a comically stereotyped working class Polish-Chicagoan.

Generally, the Slats Grobnik columns described two men discussing a current event in a Polish neighborhood bar.

Billy Goat's reciprocated by sponsoring the Daily News's 16-inch softball team and featuring Royko's columns on their walls.

[citation needed] By the 1990s he turned to national themes, often taking a conservative perspective on issues, including gay rights.

"[19] In 1986, Royko married Judy Arndt, who had worked as the head of the Sun-Times public service office and was a tennis instructor.

After his death, he was inducted into the Chicago 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame, an honor Royko's family insists he would have considered as meaningful as his Pulitzer.

Just prior to the 1990 World Series, he wrote about the findings of another fan, Ron Berler, who had discovered a spurious correlation called the "Ex-Cubs Factor."

Berler and Royko predicted that the heavily favored Oakland Athletics, who had a "critical mass" of ex-Cubs players on their Series roster, would lose the championship to the Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds achieved an upset outcome in a four-game sweep of the A's, with Royko's sponsorship propelling the Ex-Cubs Factor theory into the spotlight.

[19] He was later transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and had surgery for an aneurysm; he died there from heart failure on April 29, at the age of 64.