Large class on the quad (don't remember which one). First day a big guy was sitting top row near me and some friends. Turned out it was Big George Montgomery. He was wearing one of those caps with the thin gray and white stripe you used to see guys working at the railroads. We surmised that they must have told him he was going into "engineering". Lol. Saw him and played ball against him a few times at IMPE too....he was a good dude!
UIUC Tales
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
You must have really looked up to him.
I nominate "bad Kipper" and "good Kipper" to the Loyalty Glossary.
Funny post too.
I once played cribbage with the final coach to be named by Illini — J Leman. Just goofing. I’ve never played cribbage with him.
I was in engineering so not a whole lot of athletes in my classes. I did take a SPCOM 111 with one of the football players that was kicked off the team for stealing laptops on Unofficial in 2007. It was weird because the other player that got arrested with him came to that class randomly the week before unofficial and then they both got arrested.
My wife however was a speech com major and had classes with a bunch of athletes. I know she had projects with Sean Pruitt and Rashard Mendenhall - she really liked him. Also I met Roger Powell a few times since he would eat lunch at Newman, where I lived.
My wife however was a speech com major and had classes with a bunch of athletes. I know she had projects with Sean Pruitt and Rashard Mendenhall - she really liked him. Also I met Roger Powell a few times since he would eat lunch at Newman, where I lived.
AirNeezy
Orange Krush '13 -'14
Ayy, always good to see a fellow RVA Illini on here. Not too many of us
For my part, I used to party with Mav, Colbert, and Darius Paul from time to time back in the undergrad days. Let's just say I'm not too surprised with how things turned out for the John Groce era knowing what we know now
. Colbert actually moved back to the CU area after transferring to Hampton and I run into him occasionally every time I'm back visiting home at some of the downtown bars.One of my buddies was decent acquaintances with Malcom and had him over for some frat parties, great guy too. Of course the one summer I Ieft town for an internship, all my roommates became buddies with Kendrick, he even would ask some of them to "help" with his homework if you catch my drift (they declined of course). Crazy to see him in the NBA now, and ROY runner up at that.
We still give my buddy a hard time for when Rayvonte literally dropped a 360 dunk on him during a fastbreak at the ARC. That dude was a physical specimen man.
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ProfessorQC
Ace Wolf
- UofI
Lmao at the Erika Harold stories!
Fella’s I was a student of her Mother’s! Mrs. Tanner-Harold is an amazing Professor!! She has stayed connected me throughout my journey after College, working side-by-side with me and a volunteer in the community and still keeps in contact with me now that with the UofI.
Donna Tanner-Harold is a very active advocate in the community for single mothers, victims of abuse, and underserved families... every ounce of what Donna is, has been poured into Erika, who is just as amazing, if not more so... in her own right!
But I just wanted to show some love to Momma Harold on here since you guys are all miss America’d out right now!
I also have a cool Erika story, we just so happened to sit court side together unintentionally at NBA All-star weekend last February at one of the charity events that was held in Rosemont for All-star weekend!
And funny enough, Erika even asked to take a selfie with me so she could show it to her mom! I think I’m still in love....
We had a couple celebrities with us courtside for the event which was a couple of youth vs adults street ball games and we had a blast! D-Will was in the house! Tim Hardaway was court side! But i didn’t care because I was sitting next to Miss America
I've got two (I'm older than most on here)...I sat in an empty Kam's and drank with Ken Norman one night during spring break week, a couple of days after his final game as an Illini - the 68-67 disaster of a loss to Austin Peay. To say he was crushed is an understatement. And I had the chance through a mutual friend to play a round of golf at Lake of the Woods with Jack Trudeau (and WR Randy Grant). Trudeau struck me as a pretty easy guy to get along with.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
I remember catching Jeff Jordan, BP3, and DJ out at Firehaus and then again at Guido's a couple times. They liked to party. Also used to see Robert Archibald out at Kams and drank with him a couple times. Awesome guy and so sad (RIP). At Quad Day one year I was manning the Illini Powerlifting Team booth and had these super strong grippers to have people try to close them to see if they could do it. Nate Scheelhaase came by and gave it a go. He got pretty close to doing it but not quite. I lightly teased him a bit about it, but he was good natured about it. We chatted a bit about football, etc. for a few minutes. Cool guy.
This is my new favorite thread.
I had a class my last semester that by the way it was described sounded like it was gonna be very writing heavy and pain of a class. On the first day the TA started doing a roll call and I heard the names, "Nathan Scheelhaase, AJ Jenkins, Tavon Wilson, and Corey Lewis" called out. I think there may have been a few others, but not that I can recall presently.
It was a pretty small class. Only about 20 or so people, most of whom were athletes I believe, with a few of us "normies" scattered in. Turns out we were incredibly lucky because this class, and especially this particular TA, were known amongst all the athletes as one of the easiest A's you could get, and it would be a rush when registering as to who all could get in his class.
Tavon Wilson and especially AJ Jenkins treated it like the blow off class that it was and really didn't interact with anyone other than the football players. Granted, I would too if I knew I had a good chance of playing in the NFL (especially if I was gonna get drafted in the first round like Jenkins). However, I recall that Scheelhaase was the nicest, most down to earth guy for being the starting QB, and always took the class seriously...well as seriously as anyone else did.
I was obviously a fan of Scheelhaase before, but after my very minimal interaction with him, and how good of a guy he was, I became an even bigger fan from that point on. It's why I wish him the best of luck in his coaching career. It's the smart call to stick with Iowa State right now, but I hope eventually he can make his way back to Illinois one day.
It was a pretty small class. Only about 20 or so people, most of whom were athletes I believe, with a few of us "normies" scattered in. Turns out we were incredibly lucky because this class, and especially this particular TA, were known amongst all the athletes as one of the easiest A's you could get, and it would be a rush when registering as to who all could get in his class.
Tavon Wilson and especially AJ Jenkins treated it like the blow off class that it was and really didn't interact with anyone other than the football players. Granted, I would too if I knew I had a good chance of playing in the NFL (especially if I was gonna get drafted in the first round like Jenkins). However, I recall that Scheelhaase was the nicest, most down to earth guy for being the starting QB, and always took the class seriously...well as seriously as anyone else did.
I was obviously a fan of Scheelhaase before, but after my very minimal interaction with him, and how good of a guy he was, I became an even bigger fan from that point on. It's why I wish him the best of luck in his coaching career. It's the smart call to stick with Iowa State right now, but I hope eventually he can make his way back to Illinois one day.
Buck Turgidson
- Massachusetts
Playing pick-up games at IMPE one Saturday in early 80s. Got in with a good crew and we won several games in a row. Next up was a group with Big George and Quinn Richardson. Quinn was faster on the dribble than everyone else just sprinting. Couple oops to George. We might've scored a point.
Also...playing golf on the Orange course at Savoy. Waiting on a par 3. Group comes zooming up on carts. Mike White was passenger in the first cart. "You guys don't mind if we play through," he said while teeing up. "Umm, no problem, coach. Good luck this year."
In my past job, Sergio would use my office occasionally to check his email. He left it logged in a couple times, I was polite and signed him out instead of snooping.
I got a few others. I had a history lecture with Brian Cook in Lincoln Hall. You couldn't miss him. He was this giant 6'11 guy sitting in the back of the lecture hall in tiny seats. It couldn't have been comfortable for him. I had a class my last semester in Fall 2004 which was just "basketball". It was a 1 hour class in Huff where we played basketball for an hour. Jack Ingram was also in the class, but he never played with the rest of us. He just stayed on the side and shot free throws. I assume he didn't want to risk getting hurt in a pick up game. Somehow I got a B in that class. I have no idea how it wasn't an A. I worked at Pizza Hut as a delivery driver in 2001, and delivered a pizza to Frank/Jerrance apartment in Savoy. This situation upset me because Jerrance opened the door, I can see Frank inside playing video games, I give Jerrance the pizza, he gives me the money (it was like 12.20 and he gave me 13 bucks), and Jerrance asks for change back (like coin change). And I told him I'm sorry but delivery drivers don't carry coins so he was out of luck. But the fact he was rooming with a 1st round NBA pick, and he's trying to get 75 cents back was like surreal to me. I think he was the only person I ever delivered a pizza too that asked for coin change back. Before I got to U of I, my sister had went there. And my dad was in Evansville Indiana shopping for cars during the time my sister was at U of I. Well, the dealer and my dad start talking and my dad mentions that he has a daughter at U of I. And the car dealer was like, "oh that's great, my son also is a student there". And my dad looked as his name tag, and it turns out it was Kevin Hardy's dad. And this was when Kevin Hardy was a Jr/Sr so he was going to be a big time NFL player. But his dad was just as humble as could be and just mentioned to my dad that his son also went there. No mention of football at all. It was pretty cool. I've never seen that type of humbleness
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
Standing in line for C.O.'s one night, Dee walked up and was standing talking to some girls next to us for a few. He nodded and smiled his Dee smile, but we realized that he was not 6' 1" tall as listed at the time. My buddy is 6'2" and was easily 4 inches taller than Dee! I'm not quite 5'10" and he was much closer to my height.
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
I took a "Basketball Officiating" class in 86 that I think was taught by Coach Nagy. Most of the hoops team was enrolled, along with a bunch of football players. Of course very few of them attended outside of the tests, except for Scott Meents, who I think was at every class.
Back when there was a Busey Bank on the northeast corner of Sixth and Green, I went in one day to cash my paycheck and I was in the same line as Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice.
While they waited, they were having a mock argument about who would be picked first in the draft. It was awesome.
While they waited, they were having a mock argument about who would be picked first in the draft. It was awesome.
Stevegarbs
- Mokena, IL
Meeting Dee Brown at the Big 10K a few years ago led me to this same observation- I am 5' 11" and was about the same size as him (height).
ChiefIlliniwek
- Omaha, Nebraska
Had a class for a few days with Corey Bradford (he eventually dropped it). It was a SPCOM/THEAT class. One of the first days we did some sort of team building exercise where you had to get the entire class across the room with all our ankles tied to the people next to us (or something along those lines... this sounds very weird now that I am typing it). People had various ideas of how best to cross the classroom. I came up with a system that was quickest and most efficient. When we reviewed everyone's idea Corey said he thought mine was the best because it was quick, but also took teamwork. I remember the TA (who was a real BLANK to me for whatever reason) said, "Just because it is the fastest doesn't mean it's the best." I remember she gave me a hard time for missing class on 9/11 when the school sent out an email telling students classes for the day were optional.
I also had a journalism class with Brandon Lloyd. Not sure anyone remembers seeing ESPN laughing at his broadcasting clips outtakes where he couldn't get a sentence or two out without having to stop and start over... haha. I remember on the first or second day, our instructor told him something along the lines of, "My friend has told me I have to call you Mr. Sticky Fingers" since he was so good at hauling in passes. Brandon was a heck of a nice guy I recall.
Matt Sinclair was not a nice guy... although that was probably more my fault. Found myself in line next to him at Bamba's at 2am after some terrible loss in late 2003. Everyone else was saying how great he was, and sucking up to him. After the loss that day (and I'm sure a night of heavy drinking) I was not quite in a mood for singing anyone's praises. I asked, "So Matt? Who is our next head coach when they fire Ron Turner?" Probably not a wise question to ask. His response was something along the lines of, "He only asks something like that because he knows I can't break his nose and get away with it." Still not sure how I did escape any sort of beating from someone in line that night.
Also had Kurt Kittner call a few times on my radio show on WPGU (107.1 the Planet back then) to chime in on whatever the heck I was going on about.
Ran into tallest player in Illinois history Nick Smith at Clybourne right after Self left and BW came in. Not often when I have to actually crane my neck to look up at someone! Asked him what his thoughts were on the change. Seemed like a nice guy.
Fun times!
I also had a journalism class with Brandon Lloyd. Not sure anyone remembers seeing ESPN laughing at his broadcasting clips outtakes where he couldn't get a sentence or two out without having to stop and start over... haha. I remember on the first or second day, our instructor told him something along the lines of, "My friend has told me I have to call you Mr. Sticky Fingers" since he was so good at hauling in passes. Brandon was a heck of a nice guy I recall.
Matt Sinclair was not a nice guy... although that was probably more my fault. Found myself in line next to him at Bamba's at 2am after some terrible loss in late 2003. Everyone else was saying how great he was, and sucking up to him. After the loss that day (and I'm sure a night of heavy drinking) I was not quite in a mood for singing anyone's praises. I asked, "So Matt? Who is our next head coach when they fire Ron Turner?" Probably not a wise question to ask. His response was something along the lines of, "He only asks something like that because he knows I can't break his nose and get away with it." Still not sure how I did escape any sort of beating from someone in line that night.
Also had Kurt Kittner call a few times on my radio show on WPGU (107.1 the Planet back then) to chime in on whatever the heck I was going on about.
Ran into tallest player in Illinois history Nick Smith at Clybourne right after Self left and BW came in. Not often when I have to actually crane my neck to look up at someone! Asked him what his thoughts were on the change. Seemed like a nice guy.
Fun times!
Ran into Bruce Weber at a party right after he’d been hired. I was in a semi-circle of other guys talking to him and someone asked him about this or that recruit that signed elsewhere and he said something to the effect of, “We all know they were cheating,” and laughed. We all thought he was joking until the school went on probation later that year.
Wish I could remember the specifics. Might have been Missouri.
Wish I could remember the specifics. Might have been Missouri.
Illiniaaron
- Geneseo, IL
This is really lame but I sat next to offensive lineman Cam Pepper all semester in Fall of '90 in Russian History class.
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
And past recruiting failures, the history of the high schools we attended, legendary Illini players, Larry Bird's athleticism, and how many beach houses we own.