UIUC Old Timers Thread

#26      

aiwpfan

Springfield, Il
My first game was 1961, Illinois hosting Washington. It was Pete Elliot's second year as HC, and the team went 0-9. But, I was hooked. A couple years later I as at the Illinois/Northwestern game, that Illinois won 10-9. That was the year they went to the Rose Bowl.

The next year (1964) they were hosting UCLA and the Illinois QB got clocked late in the game (Fred Custardo?) and his mother ran on to the field.
 
#27      
As I remember it, Custardo's mother was wearing a skirt and heels and trying to run in grass. I heard the verbal abuse he took after that from his teammates was merciless.

From that year or the next I remember, I believe, Gary Eichmann laying out to block a punt. The problem was that was when helmets only had the small bar that went across the mouth. The punt got above that bar so basically he blocked it with his forehead. He was out for about 10 minutes.
 
#28      
Old farts should Mike White and before. We could discuss Mike White first play from scrimmage or later that year when Dave Wilson threw on, I believe 24, consecutive plays.

Hmmmm....

Thanks for setting the distance to the goal posts. I can make that distance.

Class of 1979.

Gary Oscar Moeller era. That was the downside.

The upside, for one game, Illinois beat Michigan State (#1), in basketball. I was there, in the nose bleed section, to watch Eddie Johnson pull the trigger.
 
#29      
Reading this while waiting for sleep center staff to decide whether to keep or throw me back. Never dreamt in the Wigwam days (DI hangout) that I’d live to snore louder than my grandpa, but here I am. So here’s a 25-point bonus question: we all remember the slush fund, or at least those of us over 70. But who remembers Powell’s Raiders?
 
#31      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Reading this while waiting for sleep center staff to decide whether to keep or throw me back. Never dreamt in the Wigwam days (DI hangout) that I’d live to snore louder than my grandpa, but here I am.


lol

I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea 10 years ago. Been using a CPAP machine (ResMed Elite) ever since. Thing is great. Maybe we should start a physical ailments thread. :ROFLMAO:
 
#32      
Reading this while waiting for sleep center staff to decide whether to keep or throw me back. Never dreamt in the Wigwam days (DI hangout) that I’d live to snore louder than my grandpa, but here I am. So here’s a 25-point bonus question: we all remember the slush fund, or at least those of us over 70. But who remembers Powell’s Raiders?
Paul Powell was the Secretary of State for the State of Illinois. His department issued all drivers licenses for the State Of Illinois. In 1966 a group of his investigators assisted by State Police and local law enforcement raided Kams for fake drivers licenses and underaged drinking. The legal age at that time was 21. The Wigwam had a great Italian beef sandwich.
 
#33      
What was Powells raiders, a blank
Secretary of State cops descended on Kam’s, and hauled a bus load of kids off for fake IDs. I happened to be night editor at the DI that day, and got to utter the magic phrase, “Stop the presses.” Porky Pocarro (so named because he fit the description) informed me that Paul Powell “gets all the credit”, and the Sun Times gets the story first, as if that was going to scare us off.
 
#34      
I, with my now wife of 51 years, sat across the street on her house's front porch and watched it happen. If Porky Pocarro is not a name out of central casting, I don't know what is.

Weekend underage drinking was pretty rampant in that era but it was almost impossible to get a DUI, none of us had cars.

I remember drinking regularly at Midway. What a hellhole. I remember a friend of mine saying "If the world had a tail, it would be just north of Midway".
 
#35      
I seem to recall Moeller introducing his first recruiting class at halftime of a basketball game. Or, maybe that is just a nightmare I've had.

T'Bird anyone?
 
#36      
Born in Kankakee in '52. Moved to central Illinois in '63. Hard to be pulled away from all my buddies. Became an Illini fan to fill the void. Remember listening to the '64 Rose Bowl on the radio. You can't imagine today how little Illini gear was available back then. Mom bought me a regular gray sweatshirt. I cut out an outline of a football player kicking a football and traced it on the sweatshirt with a Magic Maker. Wrote Illini above the figure and had my Illini sweatshirt. Folks eventually bought an official one for me from Bailey and Hines (sporting goods store on campus on Green Street). Really happy in '67 when they beat both Ohio State and Michigan. Illinois was the only school I applied to. Graduated in '74 with a degree in Finance. I've enjoyed the relative few highs and suffered through the many lows over the years. Still, my dedication to the Illini is unwavering.

WE LOVE NO OTHER SO LET OUR MOTTO BE
VICTORY, ILLINOIS, VARSITY
 
#37      
You forgot the bar I worked in, Second Chance, owned by the Chances R guys. Head East played there on Sunday nights...to tie it in, all of our bouncers were Illini football players. ;)

Second Chance was built on the site of the Brown Jug (after it burned down). The Jug was something to see. Dark as night inside with fake stain glass lighting here and there around the walls. Big dance floor surrounded by tables and chairs. Served cheap draft beer and Boones Farm apple wine. Bouncers must have not been told to limit entry because it was practically shoulder to shoulder on a Friday night. When the band got goin', that place would rock. Same way with Red Lion. Dooleys did not have bands but might have been the most popular bar on campus. It WAS shoulder to shoulder on Friday and Saturday nights. Dooleys had a basement bar area accessed by a narrow stairway. Can only imagine what would have happened if there had been a fire in that place on a weekend evening. Man, the memories.
 
#38      
Born in Kankakee in '52. Moved to central Illinois in '63. Hard to be pulled away from all my buddies. Became an Illini fan to fill the void. Remember listening to the '64 Rose Bowl on the radio. You can't imagine today how little Illini gear was available back then. Mom bought me a regular gray sweatshirt. I cut out an outline of a football player kicking a football and traced it on the sweatshirt with a Magic Maker. Wrote Illini above the figure and had my Illini sweatshirt. Folks eventually bought an official one for me from Bailey and Hines (sporting goods store on campus on Green Street). Really happy in '67 when they beat both Ohio State and Michigan. Illinois was the only school I applied to. Graduated in '74 with a degree in Finance. I've enjoyed the relative few highs and suffered through the many lows over the years. Still, my dedication to the Illini is unwavering.

WE LOVE NO OTHER SO LET OUR MOTTO BE
VICTORY, ILLINOIS, VARSITY
CHIEF!
 
#39      

chiefini

Rockford, Illinois
Second Chance was built on the site of the Brown Jug (after it burned down). The Jug was something to see. Dark as night inside with fake stain glass lighting here and there around the walls. Big dance floor surrounded by tables and chairs. Served cheap draft beer and Boones Farm apple wine. Bouncers must have not been told to limit entry because it was practically shoulder to shoulder on a Friday night. When the band got goin', that place would rock. Same way with Red Lion. Dooleys did not have bands but might have been the most popular bar on campus. It WAS shoulder to shoulder on Friday and Saturday nights. Dooleys had a basement bar area accessed by a narrow stairway. Can only imagine what would have happened if there had been a fire in that place on a weekend evening. Man, the memories.

Agreed. Went to the Brown Jug once. The brand new wood and stone Second Chance (red shag carpeting and beautiful oak & mirrors back bar that won the Pabst Blue Ribbon in the 1890’s World’s Fair in Chicago) was built to give the one year old Dooleys (green shag carpeting) some competition. Sadly, it also burned down about 6? years later. Ironically, Firehaus, newly gone, was built in its spot. Dooleys had been renovated from the original KAMS. Stan’s Gridiron became the new KAMS (its current location which included buying out/remodeling to include the little shoe store in between). True story: my senior year in high school, I was able to buy a pitcher of beer in the basement of KAMS. Sitting in a wooden booth with spray paint graffiti on cement walls surrounding me, with three other real youngsters, I heard a huge crash. Turns out Vito Santini from Rockford (Illini football player) had thrown his pitcher of beer against the wall. It was 3 o’clock on a spring afternoon in 1970. That was my welcome initiation into the University of Illinois.
:illinois:
 
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#40      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
What the heck does it say about me that I'm lamenting that I didn't get a chance to savor joints like Brown Jug, Second Chance, Chances R nearly 40 years after the fact? [purely rhetorical :ROFLMAO:]
 
#41      

chiefini

Rockford, Illinois
What the heck does it say about me that I'm lamenting that I didn't get a chance to savor joints like Brown Jug, Second Chance, Chances R nearly 40 years after the fact? [purely rhetorical :ROFLMAO:]

It just says you’re lamenting about missing out on some pretty memorable places and experiences. Ahhh the stories those walls could tell...not just all the really, really good bands, with some later to be famous, but also events like the all fraternity and sorority ‘Chug Contest’ and all sorority ‘Foxy Lady’ contest at Chances R, for example...
 
#42      
Agreed. Went to the Brown Jug once. The brand new wood and stone Second Chance (red shag carpeting and beautiful oak & mirrors back bar that won the Pabst Blue Ribbon in the 1890’s World’s Fair in Chicago) was built to give the one year old Dooleys (green shag carpeting) some competition. Sadly, it also burned down about 6? years later. Ironically, Firehaus, newly gone, was built in its spot. Dooleys had been renovated from the original KAMS. Stan’s Gridiron became the new KAMS (its current location which included buying out/remodeling to include the little shoe store in between). True story: my senior year in high school, I was able to buy a pitcher of beer in the basement of KAMS. Sitting in a wooden booth with spray paint graffiti on cement walls surrounding me, with three other real youngsters, I heard a huge crash. Turns out Vito Santini from Rockford (Illini football player) had thrown his pitcher of beer against the wall. It was 3 o’clock on a spring afternoon in 1970. That was my welcome initiation into the University of Illinois.
:illinois:
Second Chance burnt in the winter of 78/79. There was a stereo store on the upper floor or next door and the day after the fire when we walked by to see the remains people were combing through the rubble to see if they could salvage any stereo equipment. Don't know what they thought would survive.
 
#44      
Does anyone remember a bar named the Office? Somewhere in Urbana I think. I was there once and it was and is REALLY hazy.
 
#45      
Vito was a little after my time but I've heard some memorable stories.

By the way, anybody taller than Herve Villechaize could have bought a beer in the basement of Kams at that time.
 
#46      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Does anyone remember a bar named the Office? Somewhere in Urbana I think. I was there once and it was and is REALLY hazy.

Yes, vaguely. It was in downtown Urbana, IIRC. Was definitely a going concern during my stint (77-81). I never went there, but my GF worked at Busey Bank in downtown Urbana and she went there some. Then again...
 
#47      
Yes, vaguely. It was in downtown Urbana, IIRC. Was definitely a going concern during my stint (77-81). I never went there, but my GF worked at Busey Bank in downtown Urbana and she went there some. Then again...
That's what little I recall also. My years were 76 -80 so we definitely overlap.
 
#48      
Paul Powell was the Secretary of State for the State of Illinois. His department issued all drivers licenses for the State Of Illinois. In 1966 a group of his investigators assisted by State Police and local law enforcement raided Kams for fake drivers licenses and underaged drinking. The legal age at that time was 21. The Wigwam had a great Italian beef sandwich.
I met Paul Powell a few years before that. Isn't he that one that eventually died in a Springfield hotel, and when they checked his room, they found shoeboxes stuffed full of cash?