UIUC Tales

#1      
BOOM!!! Welcome home George!!!

so quick story. my very first class as a FR at UIUC was an 8:00 SPCOM 111 class. First thing the TA did was put us in small groups and had us do an impromptu speech introducing the members of our group to the class. The guy I introduced was George McDonald Ashford. :)

I know, “cool story bro.”
 
#2      
BOOM!!! Welcome home George!!!

so quick story. my very first class as a FR at UIUC was an 8:00 SPCOM 111 class. First thing the TA did was put us in small groups and had us do an impromptu speech introducing the members of our group to the class. The guy I introduced was George McDonald Ashford. :)

I know, “cool story bro.”
Now that's a Story!!! Even more memerable now for you.
 
#3      

MoCoMdIllini

Montgomery County, Maryland
BOOM!!! Welcome home George!!!

so quick story. my very first class as a FR at UIUC was an 8:00 SPCOM 111 class. First thing the TA did was put us in small groups and had us do an impromptu speech introducing the members of our group to the class. The guy I introduced was George McDonald Ashford. :)

I know, “cool story bro.”
That is cool.

And condolences on the 8am class.
 
#5      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
BOOM!!! Welcome home George!!!

so quick story. my very first class as a FR at UIUC was an 8:00 SPCOM 111 class. First thing the TA did was put us in small groups and had us do an impromptu speech introducing the members of our group to the class. The guy I introduced was George McDonald Ashford. :)

I know, “cool story bro.”

That's awesome! I have a similar story with Miss America Erika Harold in my Political Science class! Didn't introduce her, but she was in my small group!
 
#8      
In 2001 Kurt Kittner was in one of my Gen Ed 4 person study groups, but can no longer remember which class. Didn’t have to look very hard to find big name athletes enjoying the night life either. Of course that was before everyone had a 4K video camera in their pocket. 🙄

Went down Green last Sunday which I hadn’t done in quite some time. An eerily quiet and empty street framed by a completely unrecognizable assemblage of random buildings. 😳
 
#14      
I had Sergio McClain in my freshman orientation small group.
My wife was a sub for a Spanish class at Peoria Manual in 1994. She isn't from Illinois and didn't know who he was. She was taking attendance and pronounced his first name with a Spanish pronunciation (Sair-he-o). The entire class burst out laughing. After she got home that night I told her who Sergio was. She couldn't believe it.
 
#17      
Audie Matthews was in my Music Appreciation electives class, but when the Prof. did role call people just snickered when his name was called.
Steve Lanter was in my Rhet 105 class. I think one of the papers he wrote was about dribbling a basketball.
 
#19      
I love these memories - please keep them up. Fun City!
 
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#20      
I had quite a few big lectures with both basketball and football players but my favorite was a small summer class in 2010. It was public speaking and we had a debate tournament and the winner got a grade bump on our next speech.
I beat Joelil Thrash in round 1 by debating the color red over blue. Beat Steve Hull in round 2 with Burger King over McDonald's, (even called him out for making an ad hominem argument). But fell to Nate in the championship because well he's Nate and it was a class vote and because I had to argue Superman over Batman and Dark Knight was still huge then. I still think I was robbed.
 
#24      
I was in school at U of I from 99-04 and I had quite a few interactions with Illini athletes, but by far the most bizarre was in spring of 2003. I ended up meeting this girl at CO's and we go back to her place. I come out of her room about 3 am to leave and I start walking thru their living room. I look on their couch, and it's Kyle Wilson. Her roommates had brought him back to their apartment, and then just apparently left him in the living room sort of passed out, because he was the only one there. There wasn't any after party or anything going on. And I had to do a double take, because I'm like "is that really Kyle Wilson? What in the hell is he doing here?". And we had a small conversation and were just alright bro see ya. That was that. Couple days later I piece together that Kyle was also at CO's that night with this girls roommates, and they brought him back to their apartment. This was still during the season but he had quit the team so I guess he was just off on his own doing whatever at that point. Not that Kyle Wilson was any big Illini celebrity, but as a follower of the team I knew who he was so when I saw him in the living room I was like well this is weird.
 
#25      

POWURR

From Downtown
[please don't judge me]
Greg Hall - I was a sophomore when I took a class with a familiar-looking basketball player and we ended up as project team-mates. When he introduced himself as Kiwane, I commented that I thought PGs would be a lot taller.

I'm 5'7 😬