East Central Illinois can lay claim on fame

From deadly three-point shooters to fabulous singers to brilliant scientists, the great and the near-great have called East Central Illinois home.

Some still grace us with their presence, but many of them have gone on.

Herewith, an incomplete list that grows every year (often because someone reminds us of a person we've mistakenly left out):

Sports

Deron Williams made a bigger name for himself this year, leading the Utah Jazz to the Western Conference finals in the NBA playoffs and drawing rave reviews for his play. Williams now will get a chance to play for Team USA – the first step to the Olympic team.

Dee Brown also played for the Jazz during its surprising playoff run.

Their college teammate, James Augustine, spent most of the season with the Orlando Magic and hopes to play a bigger role in 2007-08.

Two other ex-Illini are still in the NBA: Luther Head with the Houston Rockets and Brian Cook with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Roger Powell Jr. and Frank Williams each enjoyed successful seasons in the NBA Development League and hope to crack an NBA roster next season.

A number of former Illini played in the pros and now are reporting on it, including Kendall Gill, Eddie Johnson, Derek Harper and Stephen Bardo.

Former Illini Nick Anderson and Ken Norman also had long NBA careers after their Illini years ended.

Brian Cardinal, Tolono product and son of former University of Illinois athletic trainer Rod Cardinal, played again for the Memphis Grizzlies. "The Janitor" had a stellar career at Purdue, where he never lost to Illinois.

Several former Illini basketball coaches made news at their new homes, led by Billy Gillispie, who now is under the microscope as Kentucky's coach; Lon Kruger took UNLV, including his son, former Centennial High School standout Kevin, to the Sweet 16; and Tim Jankovich got the job at Illinois State, where he hired Rob Judson as an assistant.

Former Illini Jerry Colangelo, in charge of picking the next Olympic basketball team, also has been rumored as a potential new owner for the Chicago Cubs.

Lou Henson retired after a Hall of Fame career in college basketball. Another Hall of Famer, Itch Jones, coached his last Illinois baseball game in 2005.

Not many ice ponds in Champaign-Urbana, but the area produced speedskater Bonnie Blair, one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.

Olympic pole vaulter Bob Richards, who grew up in Champaign and received bachelor's and master's degrees from the UI, went on to become the star of a million Wheaties boxes.

Urbana's Latoya Bond became the first area woman to be drafted by a WNBA team, the Charlotte Sting. Former Illini Angelina Williams also played in the WNBA.

Nancy Thies Marshall was an Urbana-born Olympian. She went on to become a sports commentator.

Linda Metheny, a Tuscola native and UI graduate, was another champion gymnast who trained in Champaign.

George Halas, the "Papa Bear," took the UI colors when he started his fledgling professional football team back in 1920: in Decatur, not Chicago. The Decatur Staleys moved to Chicago the next year, and in 1922 the franchise was renamed the Chicago Bears.

Harold "Red" Grange began his legendary football career by galloping through defenses as a member of the Illini. He signed with the Bears in 1925, negotiating a $100,000 deal.

And before Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus began ripping the helmets off running backs and spitting on opposing players in the NFL, he played football at the UI. His nephew, Luke, is now an assistant coach with the Bears.

Former Illini star Ray Nitschke became an equally nasty linebacker with the Bears' archrivals, the Green Bay Packers.

Among NFL players of more recent vintage, Henry Jones leveled wide receivers as a member of the UI defensive backfield. He later played in and lost three Super Bowls. Hey, cut him some slack. He played with the Buffalo Bills. Enough said.

Kevin Hardy, who played with Jacksonville, Dallas and Cincinnati, and Simeon Rice of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were part of the Illini's famed defensive squads of the early '90s. They were the second and third picks, respectively, in the 1995 draft. Rice was the 1996 NFL defensive rookie of the year with the Arizona Cardinals.

Like Champaign's Todd Peat and Rantoul's Sean Bubin, Champaign's Reggie Hodges got to play in the NFL and hasn't given up on his punting career.

For the first time since 2005, Illinois had a player taken in the NFL draft: The Dallas Cowboys selected cornerback Alan Ball in the seventh round.

The NFL playoffs were full of former Illini coaches and athletes. When the Chicago Bears played the New Orleans Saints for the NFC championship, coaches Sean Payton (who was a star quarterback at Eastern Illinois University) and Greg McMahon were on the sidelines for the Saints, Steve Weatherford was their punter and Danny Clark was at linebacker. The Indianapolis Colts' Kelvin Hayden returned an interception for a touchdown against the Bears and former UI coach Ron Turner in the Super Bowl.

Hayden's Illini teammate, Duke Preston, plays for the Buffalo Bills. Tony Pashos signed a deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Nathan Hodel and Neil Rackers are still with the Arizona Cardinals, Jameel Cook is with the Houston Texans, Brandon Moore is with the New York Jets and David Diehl is a mainstay with the New York Giants.

Former UI assistant coach Brad Childress is now the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.

Former UI quarterback Jeff George was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1990 draft, the only Illini to hold that honor. He had stints with the Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks.

Ken Dilger established himself as a pro tight end, first with the Colts and then Tampa Bay, playing in Super Bowl XXXVII and retiring in 2005.

Tuscola native and former Illini Fred Wakefield is a tight end for the Oakland Raiders.

All four primary receivers from the 2001 Sugar Bowl team made the NFL: Walter Young (first with Carolina, now with Pittsburgh), Brandon Lloyd (San Francisco, now with Washington), Greg Lewis (Philadelphia) and Aaron Moorehead (Indianapolis). Another member of that team, Eugene Wilson, won a Super Bowl ring in each of his first two seasons with the New England Patriots.

Former Illini David Williams, a hero of the 1984 Rose Bowl run, was named to the College Football Hall of Fame.

On the baseball diamond, the late Lou Boudreau played for the Illini before starting his Hall of Fame career in the majors with the Cleveland Indians.

Champaign native Matt Herges, who pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants last season, resurrected his major league career with the Florida Marlins and is now with Colorado. Darrin Fletcher, who played for the Illini and still lives in Newtown, is no longer playing in the majors but active in the area youth baseball scene. He also works in broadcasting for the Blue Jays. Former Illini Chris Basak is with the Yankees.

Ex-Illini Scott Spiezio won a World Series ring in '06 with the St. Louis Cardinals, the same team his father also earned a ring with.

Fred Marx played high school basketball for University Laboratory High. OK, so that's not quite the NBA, but Marx became famous for co-producing the award-winning film "Hoop Dreams," about two Chicago youngsters' efforts to reach the NBA.

No Tiger Woods connections here, but two-time PGA tour event winner Steve Stricker went to the UI. So did D.A. Points and current UI men's golf coach Mike Small, who continues to flourish on a part-time basis. Stricker was the comeback player of the year for '06 in the PGA.

Several members of the recent dominant UI tennis teams are in the pros now, including Rajeev Ram, Amer Delic, Graydon Oliver, Cary Franklin, Jamal Parker, Alex Muresan and Jeff Laski. Mike Kosta has traded his racket for a microphone doing stand-up comedy; he has a myspace page. Delic and Ram played at Wimbledon this year.

Music

Bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss has her fingerprints on 20 Grammys. The Champaign native hasn't forgotten her roots. When she came back to town a few years ago for a sold-out concert benefiting the Virginia Theatre and the Crisis Nursery, she spoke onstage about spending time at Aunt Sonya's and Old Orchard Lanes. (She can't go to Aunt Sonya's anymore. The site was torn down to make way for new hotels at Kirby Avenue and Neil Street.)

Adrian Belew, the idol of many a rock guitarist, lived here before moving to Wisconsin.

Dan Fogelberg, another folk-rocker, used to play open stage nights as a student here in the 1970s and wrote at least one album review for the Daily Illini. Key recommendation: "David Crosby's album is excellent – you should buy it and share it with someone you're into" (the year: 1971).

You might see a sign marking "REO Speedwagon Way" in downtown Champaign. The band's two founding members, keyboardist Neal Doughty and drummer Alan Gratzer, met at UI's Illinois Street Residence Hall. Centennial High alum Bruce Hall became the band's bass player in 1978. The band's second album featured a photo taken at the former Vriner's, on Main Street, er, REO Speedwagon Way.

Nathan Gunn, who has performed at Chicago's Lyric Opera, New York's Metropolitan Opera and venues worldwide, maintains a home in Champaign-Urbana and has a faculty position at the UI.

Opera stars Erie Mills and the late Jerry Hadley both graduated from the UI. Another Grammy winner, the late jazz organist Jack McDuff, grew up in Champaign-Urbana. One of his early bands included a guitarist by the name of George Benson.

Concert violinist Gil Shaham was born in Urbana and moved to Israel at the age of 7. He performs with the world's leading orchestras and has released 20 CDs.

Composer Michael Masser, a UI grad, is known for many popular songs, including "The Greatest Love of All" and "Theme from Mahogany."

The late Bobby Short, cabaret singer who wowed 'em at the Carlyle in New York for years, grew up in Danville.

Movies/television

Danville was home to Dick and Jerry Van Dyke, stars of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Coach," respectively.

Also from Danville was the late Donald O'Connor, who starred in "Singin' in the Rain." One of his last public appearances was at film critic Roger Ebert's 2003 Overlooked Film Festival.

And Gene Hackman, the two-time Oscar winner, was back in Danville a few years ago, signing copies of a murder mystery he co-wrote.

In show business, who needs education? Allan Sherman was kicked out of the UI but went on to a successful career as a television game show writer and nightclub comedy star. He wrote and sang the '60s smash "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah."

Andy Richter, former Conan O'Brien sidekick and star of the Fox series "Quintuplets," "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" and "Andy Barker: P.I." also attended the UI – briefly.

The late Jerry Orbach, best known for his longtime role as police detective Lennie Briscoe on "Law & Order," attended the UI. He also had a long career on Broadway.

Actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who starred opposite Tom Cruise in "The Color of Money" and in "Robin Hood" and "The Abyss," studied music at the UI.

Alan Ruck, co-star of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and the TV series "Spin City," passed through as an acting student at the UI.

Barbara Bain of TV's "Mission: Impossible" also attended the UI, as did actress Donna Mills of "Knots Landing."

Taiwanese-born film director Ang Lee graduated from the UI before going on to win the best director Academy Award for "Brokeback Mountain." His film credits include "The Hulk," as well as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Sense and Sensibility."

Comedian Mark Roberts graduated from Urbana High and got his start in comedy at the long-defunct Chicago Club in Campustown. He had a role in the syndicated television show "The New WKRP" but has moved on to much bigger and better things: He's now the producer and a writer for the CBS show "Two and a Half Men," which stars Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer. He also wrote "Welcome to Tolono," which premiered to sold-out crowds at the Station Theatre in Urbana and which he made into a film.

David Ogden Stiers attended Urbana High. Among his film and television credits, he was Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III on TV's "M*A*S*H" and the voice of Cogsworth in "Beauty and the Beast."

Arte Johnson, nearly forgotten star of "Laugh-In," attended the UI.

Jennie Garth moved away from Sadorus and became snobby rich kid Kelly Taylor on the TV teeniebopper smash "Beverly Hills 90210." She followed that with the role of Val on "What I Like about You" on the WB network.

Yvonne Suhor, a Champaign native and Central High graduate, became the Pony Express-riding cowgirl on the canceled television series "The Young Riders." She guest-starred on "Northern Exposure" and "Star Trek: Voyager."

Crystal Lawes Green, who appeared in the MGM movie "A Family Thing," got her start acting in ex-Champaign playwright Cheryl West's plays at Parkland College.

The late Lynn Thigpen, 1997 Tony Award-winning actress for "An American Daughter," was a UI graduate. A Joliet native, she was the Chief in "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" and appeared in the CBS series "The District."

Authors/publishers

Hugh Hefner worked at The Daily Illini while he was a student here and later donated a complete collection of his Playboy magazines to the UI library.

Dee Brown (no, not that Dee Brown) is a former UI librarian who wrote "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee."

Timothy Zahn, who studied physics at the UI, writes best-selling science fiction. He moved to Oregon.

Godfrey Sperling grew up in the area before becoming a Washington political columnist for the Christian Science Monitor.

Richard Powers, a UI graduate now teaching at the university, has published novels to considerable critical acclaim and won a McArthur Foundation genius grant.

Another UI grad, David Herbert Donald, is best known for his biography of Abraham Lincoln, but he also won Pulitzer prizes for his biographies of Charles Sumner and Thomas Wolfe.

The late Shel Silverstein, author of "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "The Giving Tree," attended the UI, as did Beth Henley, who won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for "Crimes of the Heart."

Financial adviser and author Suze Orman is a UI graduate, as is Nicole Hollander, syndicated cartoonist of "Sylvia."

Dave Eggers is a former UI student who wrote the Pulitzer-nominated book "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius."

The late Iris Chang, a graduate of Urbana's University Laboratory High School and the UI, wrote "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II," a widely reviewed and much-praised history of Japan's invasion of China in 1937, and followed with "The Chinese in America: A Narrative History," published in 2003.

Temple Grandin is a high-functioning autistic author who is also noted as a professional designer of humane livestock facilities.

David Foster Wallace, author of "Infinite Jest" and winner of a MacArthur genius grant, is from Urbana.

Media types

The late John Chancellor, who attended the UI in the early 1940s, became an NBC newsman, anchor and commentator.

Hal Bruno, a UI grad who worked part time at The News-Gazette in 1950, went on to become an ABC news executive. Dennis Swanson, former president of ABC Sports and ABC Daytime and Children's Programming, is also a grad.

The late James "Scotty" Reston graduated from the UI to become a New York Times political columnist. His family donated his vast collection of papers to the UI Library.

UI alumnus Robert Novak, a longtime columnist and CNN commentator whose reporting sparked the controversy over CIA operative Valerie Plame, keeps close ties to campus. Columnist Roger Simon is another UI grad.

George Will is no mere columnist. A philosopher of baseball and politics, he grew up here and was a member of the Uni cross-country team.

Roger Ebert grew up in Urbana and started his journalism career at The News-Gazette. He's gone on to be a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic. His annual film festival, at the Virginia in downtown Champaign, generally sells out before it ever opens.

Bill Geist, a 1968 UI graduate, appears on "CBS Sunday Morning." And he appeared on the stage at the Assembly Hall for the 2005 UI commencement.

Rick Kaplan, former head of CNN and president of MSNBC who now is a CBS News executive, is a UI grad. He has at least two dozen Emmys to his credit.

Artists and architects

Renowned artist John David Mooney grew up in Champaign, attended Holy Cross School, graduated from high school in Champaign and received a master's degree at the UI.

Photographer William Wegman, best known for capturing Weimaraner dogs in costume, is a UI graduate.

Lee Falk, the creator of "The Phantom" comic strip, also graduated from the UI. His real name was Leon Harrison Gross.

Sculptor Lorado Taft was an early graduate of the UI.

Max Abramovitz, another UI graduate, is one of the world's best-known architects. He designed the UI Assembly Hall, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and the United Nations building in New York, among many other buildings in a stellar career.

Another architect, Cesar Pelli, who has been called one of the 10 most influential living American architects, earned his master's degree at the UI.

Business

Marc Andreessen helped develop the World Wide Web surfing program Mosaic while an undergraduate student at the UI. He went on to found the company that produced Netscape.

Robert Johnson owns the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, following in the footsteps of Colangelo, who owned the Phoenix Suns and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Dot-com bust? What dot-com bust? If you do much buying or selling online, and you use Paypal, you have UI grad Max Levchin and his colleagues to thank for developing the Internet-payment company.

YouTube co-founders Jawed Karim and Chad Hurley attended the UI. They co-founded the video-sharing company, recently sold to Google.

Thomas Siebel, the founder of Siebel Systems, recently committed $100 million to his alma mater, the UI. That company was sold to Oracle Corp., which was co-founded by another former UI student, Larry Ellison.

Doris Kelley Christopher graduated from the UI before founding The Pampered Chef. A building on campus is named for her.

Harry Gray, the former president of United Technologies, is a UI grad. So are Richard Frank, former president of Walt Disney studios; Thomas Murphy, former CEO of General Motors; and Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric.

Politics

John Anderson got his law degree from the UI in 1946, became a U.S. congressman and ran for president as an independent in 1980. He didn't win. Jesse Jackson ran and didn't win anything twice. He was a student here briefly and has sent some of his children to the UI, including U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who earned his law degree here.

Sam Skinner attended the UI and became U.S. secretary of transportation and later chief of staff for the first President Bush.

Lynn Martin, former U.S. labor secretary and congresswoman who led an internal investigation into sexual harassment at Bloomington-Normal's Mitsubishi Motors plant, is a UI graduate.

The current president of Ecuador, Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado, has two degrees from the UI. The former president of the Philippines, Fidel Ramos, is also a UI grad.

The highest-ranking woman in Taiwan's government, Vice President Annette Lu, attended the UI. The lawyer and novelist was sentenced to 12 years in prison for a 20-minute political speech while the country was under martial law in 1979. Several years after her release from prison, she was elected to the Taiwan legislature.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, seriously injured in an automobile accident this year, has a degree from the UI.

George Frampton, Bill Clinton's assistant secretary of the interior for fish, wildlife and parks, is from Urbana.

Noble Nobels

In 2003, UI professors Anthony Leggett and Paul Lauterbur won Nobel Prizes in physics and medicine, respectively, one of the few times in the award's history that two professors from the same university have won in the same year. Professor Lauterbur died in April 2007.

The late John Bardeen was co-inventor of the transistor and on the UI faculty. He won two Nobel prizes.

Uni High has three Nobel laureates among its graduates: Champaign native James Tobin, who won the 1981 prize in economics; Philip Anderson, a 1977 laureate in physics; and Hamilton O. Smith of Urbana, who won the 1978 prize in medicine.

Edwin Krebs, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize for medicine, is a former resident of Urbana. And Robert W. Holley, 1968 winner of the Nobel for medicine or physiology, was born in Urbana in 1922 and earned a bachelor's from the UI.

Other folks

Erika Harold, who was Miss America 2003, is from Urbana.

Dorothy Day, who helped found the Catholic Worker House movement, attended the UI on scholarship at age 16.

UI alumni Joe Tanner, Dale Gardner, Steve Nagel, Scott Altman and Lee Archambault are astronauts. Tanner is from Danville. Archambault was on the space shuttle mission in the summer of '07.

Adm. Archie Clemins, who was commander of the Pacific Fleet when he retired from the Navy in 1999, is from Urbana.

UI alumnus James Brady, former White House press secretary, was wounded during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan and became a spokesman for handgun control.

Fellow UI graduate and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy was also wounded that day, blocking a bullet aimed at Reagan.

Jill Wine Banks, the miniskirted Watergate prosecutor, studied journalism at the UI but bypassed a column for a distinguished law career.

Mary Murphy Schroeder, who grew up in Urbana, is chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, the largest federal court circuit, which covers nine western states and two U.S. possessions in the Pacific.

Morris Cohen, the communist spy credited with helping the Soviets steal the secrets of the atomic bomb, attended graduate school at the UI and helped found a cooperative restaurant here. Hey, they couldn't all turn out well.