Wisch List

Thursday’s column from CBSChicago.com …

(CBS) It’s the city of Love (Bob) and the city of Roses (Derrick & Family). It’s the city of heart taps (Sammy’s) and the city of kisses (Sammy’s … again). It’s the city of passions (ever seen Cubs fans?) and the city of swoons (ever seen the Cubs?).

And here on Valentine’s Day, Chicago is the city whose sports teams we still hold dear – even when they play like they’re frozen in headlights. So, in lieu of a Hallmark card for Feb. 14, I’m going to provide Chicago – and the Land of Lincoln – with a list of a few of the things that I currently love about our local sports scene.

But, hey, I’d hardly be a Windy City sports writer if I didn’t also crack open a bottle of whine and tell you what I currently hate as well, right? And, with that, it’s on with the ode.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Tuesday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) On Monday morning, a Facebook friend posted a status asking where people thought Illinois will be seeded in the NCAA Tournament. His guess: as a No. 8 seed.

Later in the day, a co-worker told me his buddy, an Illinois alum, sent him a text on Sunday night after the Illini rallied to beat Minnesota on the road. The message breathlessly read: “We’re in!”

Meanwhile, my own friend also shot me a text after that big Illinois victory over the Gophers, asking the question: “Tournament?”

My answer: “Keep winning.”

Contrary to this pre-March Madness that’s suddenly sweeping through the Land of Lincoln following the giddy, four-day whirlwind during which Illinois upset both No. 1 Indiana and No. 18 Minnesota, the Fighting Illini are not yet in the NCAA Tournament.

In fact, at 4-7 in the Big Ten, they’re still not even close.

But it is true that the Illini can now see a tourney bid from here – as long as they don’t get caught looking ahead to it.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Friday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) It was a win that only the heaviest orange Kool-Aid drinker could have possibly seen coming, but it’s a victory that will forever be viewed by every Illini fan as among the greatest in school history.

No matter what happens the rest of this basketball season.

But what needs to happen the rest of this basketball season is for Illinois to build upon its stunning 74-72 upset of No. 1 Indiana on Thursday night and make it mean even more.

Namely, by using the win as a springboard to an NCAA Tournament berth – and, in turn, truly launching John Groce’s Illini coaching career.

Now at 16-8 overall and 3-7 in the Big Ten, Illinois had lost six of its previous seven games before Tyler Griffey’s layup kissed the glass at the buzzer on Thursday, sending the Assembly Hall crowd into a fit of Champaignia. The afterglow of the epic win is sure to last until at least Sunday evening, when it’s up to the Illini players to keep it shining after a 5 p.m. tipoff at Minnesota.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

This weekend’s Wisch List newspaper column from The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …

The WISCH LIST

By Dave Wischnowsky

It’s the 9th of February.

So, you have five days to get your act together, fellas.

But if you’re still struggling with how to butter up your sweetheart as the calendar creeps toward Valentine’s Day. Or if you just want to impress – and this goes for you too, ladies – then I have some suggestions on how to make him or her swoon up in Chicago.

Wine and chocolate at City Winery

For some people, Valentine’s Day is about roses and teddy bears and poems and stuff. For others, it’s about sweets and spirits. If you fall into the latter camp, City Winery (1200 W. Randolph St.) is pairing up with local chocolatier Katherine Anne Confections to offer a Feb. 14 wine and chocolate pairing.

For $65, patrons will enjoy a casual walk around sampling of exotic chocolates and wines with “intense, surprising and usual pairings” to be expected. Doors open at 7 p.m. To purchase tickets, visit citywinerycom/chicago.

Continue reading “In the Windy City, Valentine’s Day ideas are in the air”

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) College traditions aren’t widgets.

You can’t just manufacture them.

Nevertheless, down at my alma mater in Champaign, a student group is again trying to do just that by attempting to replace banished school symbol Chief Illiniwek – and, this time, another group of students is trying to stop them.

Last month, Campus Spirit Revival (CSR), a registered student organization at the University of Illinois, re-ignited passions among Chief loyalists by announcing an online contest to vote for a new school mascot intended to succeed the Illiniwek – even though very few Illini students, alumni or fans have any interest in that happening.

I don’t personally know a single soul who does.

“We don’t need to have a mascot to have school spirit,” Illinois grad student Josh Good told me this past weekend. “Whether you’re pro-Chief or anti-Chief, it’s preposterous to say that Illinois is lacking school spirit. What lack is there?”

Good and fellow Illini alum Bryce Dirks are of the school of thought that if Illinois can’t have Chief Illiniwek as its symbol, then the school is better off with no symbol at all. “Chief or nothing,” was how Good put it, and to that end, he and Dirks have launched an online petition against the election of a new mascot or symbol, which has more than 3,200 signatures.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Monday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.

Why in the name of Joe Flacco are we working today?

It’s Super Bowl Monday, after all. The day when no one in America really wants to be working, but pretty much all of us are.

Or are supposed to be, at least.

For all intents and purposes, Super Bowl Sunday is now a national holiday in the U.S. It’s a day when millions of us get together with friends and family to overeat, drink a few too many and shout at the TV while watching football. It’s like Thanksgiving in February.

So, why don’t we just treat it that way?

It’s time to make the Monday after the Super Bowl a national holiday – just like the day after Thanksgiving is. And I’m not the only one who thinks that way. Josh Moore is the latest red-blooded, football-loving, holiday-wanting American to pipe up about this topic.

“This has been an issue that my friends and I have been talking about for years,” Moore, the owner of the fantasy football website 4for4.com, told Business News Daily last week. “It seems like every year we talk about how many people watch the Super Bowl and how many people don’t feel like going to work the next day.”

The difference this year is that Moore is actually trying to do something to change that. Last month, the Detroit Lions fan established a petition at WhiteHouse.gov that calls or the establishment of a Super Bowl Monday holiday. As of this morning, the petition has More than 14,400 signatures (including my own) and if it reaches 100,000 by Feb. 23, it will warrant an official response from the Obama administration.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

On Friday, I was on the Tay & Jay Show on ESPNCU 93.5/95.3 in Champaign. We talked Illini hoops. We talked Big Ten basketball. We talked the Super Bowl. And we talked PEDs in baseball.

But, most importantly, the guys unveiled my first-ever radio intro “theme song,” which was quite humbling – but mainly amusing. If you want a laugh, it’s worth a listen and you can do so by listening the podcast segment right here.

This weekend’s Wisch List newspaper column from The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …

The WISCH LIST

By Dave Wischnowsky

The 2nd of February is meant to be a day where we cheer on a chubby rodent just for peeking his head out of a hole and letting us know whether spring will be coming soon.

But these days, when it comes to the primary meaning of “Groundhog Day” for many people, it’s as if Punxsutawney Phil has become an afterthought.

That’s because thanks to the 1993 film during which a self-centered Pittsburgh TV weatherman played by Bill Murray finds himself trapped in a time loop repeating the same day – Feb. 2 – again and again, “Groundhog Day” now has taken on a very different meaning. Today, it refers as much to experiencing “déjà vu” as it does playing “peek-a-boo” with a woodchuck.

But not one to quibble with pop culture, I thought I’d offer up some “Groundhog Day” events from throughout Chicago history. None of them happened on Feb. 2, mind you, but they did happen.

And then happened again.

Continue reading “Groundhog Day is twice as nice in Chicago”

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

OTTAWA, Ill. (CBS) Colin Kaepernick hears voices in his head.

But it’s not as if the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers needs to see a shrink before Sunday’s Super Bowl. After all, Baltimore Ravens QB Joe Flacco hears voices, too.

For that matter, so has every other NFL signal caller since 1994, when the league officially allowed teams to use wireless radio communication during games. Today, a quarterback couldn’t shake the voices out of his helmet even with the help of a team psychiatrist.

At the start of this season, the NFL dumped the analog system that coaches have used to relay plays onto the field since ’94 in favor of a digital network designed to improve signal clarity and connection. For a league that has often embraced new technologies at a glacial pace, the NFL’s switch to digital was a significant advancement.

But it wasn’t nearly as momentous as the advancement made more than five decades ago by a small-town Illinois high school that invented and employed its own radio-equipped football helmet during the early 1960s. So successful was this radio system for the Pirates of Ottawa Township High School that after four seasons they ended up getting the thing outlawed by the Illinois High School Association.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

The only thing that would make this T-shirt better is if it had a big number “6” on the back.

(“Friday Night Lights” fans will appreciate that.)