Wisch List

Today’s CBS Chicago column …

(CBS) The American presidency is no stranger to American sports.

Gerald Ford played center and linebacker for the University of Michigan. George H.W. Bush was a first baseman at Yale. And Richard Nixon… well, he liked to bowl.

As gifted as those men might have been at their respective sports (or, you know, games), each of them became better known for their talents in politics as they rose to the highest office in the land.

But here on Election Day, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some former-athletes-turned-politicians who probably are still best known for their sporting exploits, no matter how successful they’ve been at scoring votes.

Interestingly, all eight of the men on this list were accustomed to having the ball in their hands during their athletic careers, which could be why they went into politics.

After all, playmakers need to keep making plays.

Kevin Johnson – Mayor of Sacramento (2008-present)

A three-time NBA All-Star and one of the premier point guards of the 1990s, the 6-foot-1 KJ still holds the Phoenix Suns records for assists, free throws and free throws attempted.

In 2008, Johnson became the mayor of a city that’s home to one of the Suns’ divisional rivals when he was elected as the first African-American to lead the Sacramento. The mayoral job is non-partisan, but the 46-year-old KJ is considered a Democrat. His initiatives have included a push to keep the Kings in town – and, I suppose, to keep the Suns visiting.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

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

The WISCH LIST

By Dave Wischnowsky

Come Tuesday when you step up to the voting booth, you’ll have the option of turning to the left or turning to the right.

But in Chicago this November, you don’t have to pick a side. You can vote for holiday fun all month long, and then elect to enjoy even more. With that in mind, here are your Holiday Party candidates …

Nov. 10-11: Veterans Day Ceremony

Vote for: Honoring those who have served in our military. Nestled serenely along the Chicago Riverwalk between State and Wabash, the city’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial will host Veterans Day Remembrance ceremonies at 11 a.m. on both Nov. 10-11.

Elect to: Also visit the National Veterans Art Museum on Nov. 11 to celebrate the opening of its new location at 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave. The free event runs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and includes the debut of the new exhibition “Welcome Home.”

Nov. 16: Ice skating at Millennium Park

Vote for: Treating your withdrawals from the NHL lockout by getting in some of your own skating – not hockey sticks allowed – beneath the beautiful setting of some of the city’s most beautiful skyscrapers. Skating is free and skate rentals are available for $10. The outdoor rink will remain open through mid-March.

Elect to: Swing by Park Grill – located at the gateway to Millennium Park along Michigan Avenue – after working up an appetite on the rink. Check parkgrillcicago.com for restaurant hours.

Continue reading “Elect for holiday fun in Chicago this November”

Saturday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Forget Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge? Never mind Eugene and Gainesville? And don’t bother searching Columbus or South Bend?

Perhaps. Because, if you’re looking for the best college football player in the country, you might not need to look very far. He could be in DeKalb.

Really.

“I have to cackle a little,” my good friend and former colleague Mike Murphy of The Times in Ottawa, Ill., emailed on Thursday. “All the MAC schools breathed a little after [former Northern Illinois quarterback Chandler] Harnish graduated. Then they look at [current NIU QB Jordan] Lynch and say, “Oh (expletive).”

Along with an “Oh wow,” or three.

An NIU alum and longtime season ticket holder, Murphy knows more about Huskies football than anyone. So when I heard this week that Northern Illinois is organizing a Heisman Trophy campaign for its prolific quarterback, I asked the expert, “Is Jordan Lynch the best college football player in the country?

“Maybe,” Murphy responded. “He may have the best stats.”

It’s difficult to argue against that. Currently, the six-foot, 216-pound redshirt junior from Mount Carmel leads the nation in total offense (3,169 yards) and total touchdowns (32) and is No. 2 nationally in rushing (1,185 yards).

To continue reading, visit CBSChicago.com …

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) I can remember Sept. 2, 1995, like …

Well, not like it was yesterday, but I can certainly remember it.

That afternoon, I was sitting with a pack of buddies in the Block I student section at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, having just started my sophomore year at the University of Illinois.

And as we watched Michigan torch our Illini 38-14 in the season opener, the stadium’s PA announcer clicked on his microphone to announce to the crowd a different game’s shocking final score.

Northwestern 17, Notre Dame 15.

At that moment, everyone inside Memorial Stadium couldn’t have been more stunned if we’d just been told that alien ships were doing loop-de-loops above the Sears Tower. Or if the Cubs had won the World Series.

Seventeen years later, it’s truly impossible to fully quantify just how incredulous that score was to college football fans in 1995. After all, this was a Northwestern football program that had won only 37 games – in the previous 20 years. And this was a Notre Dame team that was a mere two seasons removed from being a late-season Boston College upset away from playing for the 1993 national title.

In the five seasons prior to 1995, Northwestern won a total of only 13 games and hadn’t tallied more than four victories since 1971 (when it won seven). But during that magical Rose Bowl run of Gary Barnett, Darnell Autry and Pat Fitzgerald (as a player, not a coach), the Wildcats went on to win 10 games in ‘95.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Tuesday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Just when you think things can’t get any worse for Fighting Illini football, the schedule shows this: “Nov. 3., at Ohio State, Columbus, Ohio, 2:30 p.m. CT.” And then you think to yourself, “Well, crap.”

Or, you know, something along those lines.

This past Saturday, after even lowly Indiana feasted on Illinois during a 31-17 victory in Champaign, Illini football coach Tim Beckman revealed to the media a new weight loss plan: coaching a 2-6 football team.

“I’ve lost 22 pounds,” Beckman said, although he was hardly bragging about it. “You think I like losing? I haven’t been around it. I hate it. We just continue to go and plug forward.”

Or backwards, depending on how you look at it.

With the loss to IU on homecoming, Illinois suffered its fifth consecutive ugly defeat (average score 39-12) and its 10th consecutive Big Ten setback. In the game, the Illini also squandered what was likely their best chance to notch a conference victory this season.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Another weekend, another Illini loss.

Sigh.

Early this morning, I was invited onto the radio airwaves down in Quincy, Ill., to share my latest thoughts about the (increasingly sorry) state of University of Illinois football and the job status of both head coach Tim Beckman and athletic director Mike Thomas with my buddy Josh Houchins of WGEM SportsCenter.

If you’d like to tune in, you can listen to the podcast 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

While driving out of Chicago on Interstate 55 last weekend, I spotted nearly as many roadside billboards hawking Haunted Houses throughout the area as I did highway mile markers.

Maybe more.

Every one claimed to be spookier than the next, but what they managed to scare up in my head was this: What are the most (supposedly) haunted places in the city of Chicago itself?

This week, I dug into that topic and here are a few of the skeletons that I uncovered inside some of the Windy City’s creepiest closets …

The Museum of Science & Industry

Known for its scientific and technological exhibits, the museum on Chicago’s South Side also is purported to have some other things on display.

Those of the spectral variety.

Originally built as the Palace of Fine Arts for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, MSI is the only structure that still survives from that legendary event. Perhaps attracted to its history, the museum is said to home to a number of ghosts, most famously that of Clarence Darrow, the lawyer who famously battled with William Jennings Bryan in 1925 over the issue of teaching evolution in schools and who also defended the young killers in the infamous “Leopold and Loeb” murder trial in 1924.

Darrow lived in Hyde Park and when he died in 1938 his cremated remains were scattered in the Jackson Park lagoon beside the museum. In 1957, the bridge spanning the lagoon was named in honor of Darrow and it’s said that the elderly attorney’s ghost is often seen walking near the lagoon or strolling through the museum’s halls.

Continue reading “Scaring up the most haunted places in Chicago”

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Jereme Richmond could have been spending this weekend preparing to start his junior season at the University of Illinois.

Instead, he’s spending it in jail.

And for that sorry fate, he has no one to blame but himself.

On Thursday afternoon, I wrote a “What if” column about Ben Wilson, the Simeon High School basketball phenom who was tragically slain in 1984 at the age of 17 before he had a chance to fully mature – both as a player and a man.

Ironically, less than two hours after that story was published, we learned “What is” with Richmond, the onetime Waukegan High School phenom who, at the age of 20, still hasn’t matured as a man – and by this point, is unlikely to ever do so as a player, either.

Richmond, whose celebrated commitment to Illinois as a 14-year-old ended up lasting four times as long as his hoops career there, added to his criminal record on Thursday when he was sent back to Lake County Jail. Officials said that the wayward baller had failed to meet multiple conditions of his probation related to his guilty plea in January on charges of unlawful use of a weapon.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Jim Newman told Judge John Phillips that on Oct. 19 Richmond tested positive for marijuana use, failed to comply with a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, and did not attend required orientation for domestic violence treatment.

To continue reading, visit CBSChicago.com …

Thursday’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) In Chicago basketball lore, there’s no bigger “What if?” tale than that of Ben Wilson’s. And when it comes to Illinois basketball lore, the exact same question applies.

What if Wilson – the Simeon High School superstar whose tragic shooting death at age 17 was immortalized this week in “Benji,” the latest installation of ESPN Films’ “30 for 30” franchise – had lived and gone on to play basketball at the University of Illinois?

What if Wilson had still been in Champaign as a senior and played on the 1989 Flyin’ Illini? And what if the Illinois basketball program had been able to market the super-smooth Windy City baller as its trademark NBA superstar for the past two decades?

What if …

In November 1984, the 6-foot-8 Wilson was on top of the prep basketball world, as “Benji” captures in gripping detail. The previous spring, he had led Simeon to the first state championship in school history. That summer, he was tabbed as the nation’s No. 1 high school player. The following spring – likely after winning a second state title – he was planning to announce his college choice.

However, on the eve of the first game of his senior season, Wilson was involved in an exchange outside Simeon High School with two students from Calumet High, one of whom shot Wilson twice in the abdomen. Hours later, the budding hoops legend was dead.

To continue reading, visit CBSChicago.com …

On Saturday, October 13, while on a trip out in San Francisco, I popped the question to my girlfriend Debbie Harvey.

Remarkably, she said yes. 😉

Much thanks to all our friends and family who have wished us well in the days since.

And also very cool of Chicagoland Radio and Media this past Monday to congratulate Debbie and I on our recent engagement.

Very much unexpected, but very much appreciated. Although, hey, what’s up with Mancow getting top billing? Haha.