Wisch List

My Sept. 1 Wisch List column from The Daily Journal (Kankakee) and The Times (Ottawa) …

By Dave Wischnowsky

The WISCH LIST

The place hasn’t claimed as many managerial careers as that famed burial ground at Clark and Addison in Chicago, but down at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, things rarely end well for Fighting Illini football coaches.

Perhaps not coincidentally, things don’t tend to start out so hot, either.

In its history, Illinois has had a dozen head football coaches, and their combined record is a meager 40-61-4 during their inaugural seasons. Since 1960, the coaches’ record is even worse at 30-55-3. But today, with the Illini kicking off the 2012 season vs. Western Michigan, first-year coach Tim Beckman isn’t only looking to buck the Broncos. He’s looking to buck that coaching trend, as well.

He has a solid shot.

Better than most of his predecessors, at least.

Since ’60, Beckman is the 10th football coach to grab the Illini reins and of those nine men, eight eventually left town after they were fired for either losing too much or breaking too many rules. The lone coach to leave on his own was John Mackovic, who galloped off to the University of Texas at the end of the 1991 season only to have the Longhorns give him the hook six years later.

Continue reading “Beckman looking to buck first-year trend at Illinois”

My CBS Chicago column from Aug. 31 …

(CBS) His management of Illinois’ special teams was, well, special. His ability to keep track of the score wasn’t exactly something you could count on. And if he wasn’t making a bad clock-management decision, then the guy probably wasn’t making any decisions at all. Nevertheless, in spite of all that – and the 34-51 record he left town with – Fighting Illini football fans do have a good reason to thank Ron Zook this weekend.

Really.

That’s because Zook, who was fired last year after seven seasons in Champaign, left the Illinois football program in far better shape than he found it. And at U. of I., that’s saying something.

To continue reading, visit CBSChicago.com …

My piece for ChicagoSide on Aug. 31 …

Ron Zook is in the CBS Sports Network studios. Bruce Weber is in Manhattan, Kansas. And Chief Illiniwek? He’s in absentia.

Former AD Ron Guenther is in retirement. His successor’s competency is still in question. Meanwhile, the football program is in the hands of a coach we barely know. Ditto for hoops.

On the academic side, there’s more upheaval, as the semester begins with Illinois’ third president in four school years.

Oh, and then, there’s the iconic Alma Mater statue.

She’s in rehab.

Where does that leave the University of Illinois today?

As an Illinois alum, dedicated observer, and longtime football season-ticket holder, I don’t know. As we head into 2012-2013 with Saturday’s football opener vs. Western Michigan, I can’t recall a time when Illini Nation has suffered an identity crisis quite like this.

To continue reading, visit ChicagoSideSports.com …

Photo courtesy of Illinois Loyalty.

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) I’m not sure if Mayor Daley has a sense of irony – maybe he leased it to a private company – but if Chicago’s old boss does, its meter should have been running at a premium last week.

That was when Daley, during an interview with Comcast SportsNet, picked up the notion of having a second NFL team in Chicago – and ran with it. The idea was one that I actually proposed way back in February after Indianapolis hosted Super Bowl XLVI while Chicago – without an enclosed-roof facility in town – instead twiddled its collective thumbs.

I had no idea that “Da Mare” was such a loyal reader.

During the pigskin discussion, Daley said as only he disjointedly can: “I really believe we could get a second football team. I’ve always believed – the Chicago Cardinals, Bears – why is it that New York has two? Florida has three, San Francisco has two. Now you think of that, we could easily take – Chicago loves sports and we could get a second team in here.

“You could build a new stadium, you could have huge international soccer teams come in, you could do the Final Four, you could do anything you wanted with a brand new stadium.”

And, yes. Yes, you could – if, you know, Chicago could reasonably afford one. Daley, however, was the driving force behind the deal that long ago locked the city into the logistical boondoggle that is Solider Field and the financial fiasco of its bond payments through 2032.

Like I said, irony. With a capital “I.”

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Back on July 12, after Chicago Simeon hoops superstar Jabari Parker omitted the University of Illinois from his “Final 10” list of potential college destinations, I wrote that Parker had done the Illini a favor. I wrote how it was a blessing that Jabari wasn’t stringing Illinois along, if it wasn’t a serious player. And I wrote that when it comes to recruiting, second place truly is the first loser. It still is.

But can 11th place also end up being the ultimate winner?

Well, apparently, John Groce thinks so.

On Monday, ESPNChicago.com reported that Illinois’ new basketball coach is continuing to recruit Parker, the nation’s No. 1 recruit, even though Parker mentally crossed the Illini off his list six weeks ago.

Or at least did so on Twitter.

“They’re still in touch,” Parker’s father, Sonny, was quoted as saying this week about Jabari and the Illini. “You never know. You never know how things are going to pan out.”

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) — Curious about the way that people in different parts of the country stereotype one another, venture capitalist and blogger Renee DiResta recently conducted an informal survey using Google’s quirky autocomplete function.

State by state, DiResta started typing, “Why is [state] so,” into her Google search bar, and let the engine’s algorithm guess the rest of the question. For example, when DiResta typed, “Why is Illinois so,” Google wondered if she was going to ask, “Why is Illinois so corrupt?”

For West Virginia, the top result was “poor.” Indiana and Maine produced “boring.” Georgia was “hot,” “racist” and boring.” And Oregon, “liberal,” “weird,” “rainy” and, again, “boring. Ohio, meanwhile, was also “boring,” but “important in the primaries.”
Not all the results were negative, however, as Colorado generated “healthy” and Delaware “business friendly.”

After reading about DiResta’s little experiment, it got me wondering what Google autocomplete might have to say about Chicago’s sports teams – and some of their rivals. So this week, I conducted my own “Why is” test, and the following are the questsions what Google autocompleted for me.

To continue reading, visit CBSChicago.com …

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

By Dave Wischnowsky

The WISCH LIST

After a decade between the berms at Olivet Nazarene, Chicago Bears Training Camp isn’t quite the experience that it used to be.

The NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement bans teams from two-a-day practices, meaning the Bears now spend as much time modeling shorts and T-shirts as they do bumping helmets.

Nevertheless, as I wrote last week in my sports blog at CBSChicago.com, I’m still glad that the Bears are camping in Bourbonnais amongst by their devoted fans rather than hidden away from them on their Halas Hall compound.

And it’s my hope that things stay that way for a long time.

On Wednesday, Crain’s Chicago Business sports blogger Danny Ecker reported that more than 100,000 fans visited ONU over the 3½ weeks of camp this year, the most since 2007 and the second highest total since the Bears began training in Bourbonnais in 2002.

That’s a good sign for 2013 when the team will be back at ONU. And it certainly can’t hurt talks between the Bears and Olivet, reportedly already underway, about extending the camp contract to 2014 – and beyond.

Continue reading “The Bears belong in Bourbonnais – with their fans”

Today’s column from CBS Chicago …

(CBS) Major League Baseball has a problem.

Check that, Major League Baseball still has a problem.

And Bud Selig & Co. needs to do all they can to actually nip it in the… well, in the bud before the problem’s latest incarnation can sprout into a weed that infests the sport and strangles its reputation.

Again.

In just the past week, we’ve seen San Francisco’s Melky Cabrera and Oakland’s Bartolo Colon both receive 50-game suspensions after tests revealed elevated testosterone levels, making the Bay area again the epicenter of PED use, same as it ever was.

On Wednesday, after Colon’s positive test came to light on, the New York Times commented that it was “a clear indication that illegal performance enhancers continue to exist as a stubborn element of the sport despite intensified efforts to eliminate their use.”

But my concern is that MLB’s “intensified efforts” may not be as intense as they could be. I worry that the sport’s wonks again want to hide the public from just how prevalent PED use may still be in baseball in the hopes of protecting its image. But if that is indeed is the case, it needs to stop – sooner rather than later.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …

LeBane, your reckoning is coming …