Wisch List

Today’s column from the Kankakee Daily Journal and The (Ottawa, Ill.) Times …

Wisconsin boy’s memory has Packers fans Bearing Down

The WISCH LIST

April 3, 2010

The city of Burlington, Wis., sits about 70 miles closer to Soldier Field than it does Lambeau Field. But make no mistake about it, the Racine County town is firmly planted in Packers Country.

Or, at least, until recently it was.

“We do know that a lot of people in Burlington now own Bears shirts because of my son,” said Marie Baker, who lives with her family in the close-knit town of about 10,000, located 35 miles southwest of Milwaukee. “They may have hated wearing them, as some did complain. But they loved Slade.

“And Slade loved the Bears.”

On Monday, Jan. 4, 7-year-old Slade Baker was sledding with his 8-year-old brother, Damian, and a friend about a half-block from home when Slade’s sled carried him onto the ice covering the Fox River.

As Slade was walking back to the shore, the ice gave way and he was swept away by the river’s current below. Immediate efforts to save Slade failed and the next morning rescue workers located his body beneath the ice about 250 yards downstream, near downtown Burlington.

On Jan. 6., Slade’s obituary ran in the Kenosha News saying how, “He enjoyed football, baseball and basketball. He was a die-hard Bears fan. He was a ‘hands on,’ outgoing boy. He was a hard worker, a joker and an instigator, who lived every moment to the fullest.”

And thanks to Chicago Bears linebacker Nick Roach, Slade’s memory is still very much alive this weekend during the Final Four.

Even if Roach’s national championship pick (Marquette) is not.

“Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do,” Roach, a Milwaukee native, said about picking his hometown Golden Warriors to win it all. “You have to remember where you came from.”

That’s just what Roach did on Feb. 12 when he delayed a trip home to Milwaukee so he could swing by Burlington to attend a Slade Baker Fundraiser event.

“I heard from a friend about how big a Bears fan he was,” Roach said about Slade, who was buried in a Bears jersey and became a fan of the Monsters of the Midway because his best friend was. “And after the fundraiser I wanted to do a little more.”

Last month, Roach helped organize an online NCAA Tournament Pick ’Em contest in which more than 100 people made donations for the chance to bump basketball heads with the fourth-year Bear. The champion of the competition – which has raised an extra $1,200 for the Slade Baker Scholarship Fund – will win a pair of tickets to a 2010 Bears home game, while everyone who finishes ahead of Roach gets an opportunity to win a signed football or Bears shirt.

And as of right now, a lot of people have that opportunity – Roach currently sits at 95th place in his own pool.

“I just wanted to give everyone a chance to win,” the fourth-year Bear said with a chuckle. “If we had been picking football games, though, it wouldn’t have been fair.”

Sports prognostications aside, Slade’s father, Matt, said, “Nick has really made an impact up here. Everything he’s done has meant a lot.”

Marie Baker added that the family even got Slade’s grandfather – a lifelong Packers fan – to wear a Bears pin beside his Packers tie in recent weeks.

“And we know Slade was loving it,” she said. “His brother Damian is a Packers fan, so in our house during football time, it was a lot of fun. The two boys would talk smack about each other’s team. But now all these Packers fans here in Burlington have a different view on Nick Roach and the Bears.

“What Nick did was life-changing in Burlington.”

Anyone interested in making a donation to the Slade Baker Scholarship Fund can send an envelope to North Shore Bank, 116 South Pine Street, Burlington, WI 53105 along with a note it’s for Slade’s Fund.

Final Forlorn

Detroit has 8-year-old Ford Field (and the 2009 Final Four). Indianapolis has 2-year-old Lucas Oil Stadium (and the 2010 Final Four). And Chicago?

Well, it has 7-year-old Soldier Field (and bupkiss).

While on the topic of the Bears and NCAA basketball, I was thinking how nice it would be if this weekend the Final Four was being held beneath a retractable roof at Soldier Field.

Alas, it’s not … and never will be.

If the city of Chicago had any foresight, it would have decided a decade ago to construct a multi-purpose facility along Lake Shore Drive, rather awkwardly cramming a modern stadium inside the skeleton of old Soldier Field.

With Detroit and Indy also able to host Super Bowls, Mayor Daley & Co. really dropped the ball on that one.

In more sports than one.

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

Chicago’s other March Madness

The WISCH LIST

March 27, 2010

Way back in 1970, when my dad was a budding 24-year-old distance-running junkie, he started logging every mile he ran inside spiral notebooks that he then stored in a nightstand beside his bed.

Forty years, 17 marathons and thousands of less-maniacal jogs later, the number of miles my father has run – and, in more recent years, walked – stands at a whopping 45,319.

Unless, of course, he’s added more today.

For some perspective, that tally is equivalent to running around the equator (24,901.55 miles) darn near twice. Or, on a more local level, the same as trotting from the Kankakee County Courthouse to Wrigley Field – and back – 344 times.

(Still without ever once seeing a World Series.)

Thinking about what my father has accomplished in a pair of Nikes is something that makes me proud – and makes my own feet hurt. Although, last weekend, it wasn’t 45,000 miles that were on my mind, but rather 4.97 as I competed in the 31st Annual Shamrock Shuffle 8K in downtown Chicago.

With a record number of registered runners (36,000), the quirky and iconic road race – considered the official kickoff for the city’s outdoor running season – was billed as the largest 8K in the world. In terms of size, it’s second locally to only the Chicago Marathon and its 45,000 annual participants.

As it turned out, only 25,723 participants showed up last Sunday morning to start the Shuffle in the 35-degree temps and fog hovering above the Loop. And, 25,567 of them – 11,523 men and 14,044 women – managed to finish.

The one to finish quicker than anyone was John Kemboi, a 19-year-old Kenyan who was orphaned as a toddler in the early 1990s and spent nine years living in a neighbor’s backyard, minding their cattle for the payment of one meal a day.

On Sunday, Kemboi feasted on the field in Chicago, breaking the finish line in a blistering 23 minutes, 39 seconds. And following his first race on U.S. soil, he reflected by saying, “I feel pretty good after this race. It is very nice here, although very cold this morning.”

Yeah, well, he should have run the Shuffle last year.

On March 29, 2009, I took part in my first Shamrock Shuffle, and it was almost my last. That morning, I stood on the “L” platform near my apartment, awaiting a train down to Grant Park as a snow globe-worthy blizzard swirled around me. I thought, “I’m going to run five miles in this?”

But, I did. And as one of only 13,399 hardy souls – out of 32,500 registered participants – to show up, I finished the winding 8-kilometer course in a respectable 43:35, despite slogging through at least two inches of slush every single inch of the way.

I think my socks finally dried out just last week.

Last year, my time put me in 3,664th place overall, which wasn’t bad. But this year – in better conditions – I was hoping to improve.

And then last Saturday, it started snowing again.

Nike’s “Run Lucky” motto for the 2010 Shuffle seemed like an oxymoron until Sunday morning, when the precipitation stopped – and didn’t start again, prompting the race’s PA announcer to announced at the start line that “the weather is allegedly better than last year.”

And as I began running alongside competitors dressed as leprechauns and even Wilma and Fred Flintstone, the weather was. Although, shortly after we the race’s start, a big clump of snow still fell directly on some poor guy’s balding head as we passed beneath Millennium Park’s serpentine BP Bridge.

As I jogged the first couple of miles, I focused on a runner ahead of me wearing purple and yellow garb emblazoned with “The University of Northern Iowa.” My goal was to beat this guy in the race, but somewhere along Mile 3, he pulled away and I lost sight of him.

Like Bill Self and Kansas, I was upset.

Things were chugging along well when, along Mile 4, I found myself being passed by a bare-legged guy who was either wearing a kilt or a Catholic schoolgirl skirt. I tried to (skirt) chase him down, but couldn’t, as I finished the race in 38:46.

That was good enough for 2,913th place out of the 25,567 finishers overall and 2,382nd out of 11,514 men. And it was almost five minutes faster than my time last year, which is all great.

But I still got beat by a guy in a skirt.

I think I’ll leave that detail out of my spiral notebook.

Last May, the Wisch List returned to print in the pages of my hometown area newspaper, the Kankakee Daily Journal.

And, today, the Wisch List returns to its own roots, appearing for the first time in the pages of The Times in Ottawa, Ill., where I originally launched the column almost eight years ago on Aug. 22, 2002, back when the newspaper was called the Daily Times prior to its merger with the Streator Times-Press.

Next week, the Wisch List will fully enter into the world of syndication, running each Saturday in the Daily Journal and The Times, both members of the Kankakee-based Small Newspaper Group publishing family. But, without any further ado, here’s today’s re-introductory Wisch List column from The Times …

Happy ‘Homecoming’: Wisch List returns to its roots

The WISCH LIST

March 20, 2010

When I was 3 years old, there were few things – save, maybe, Santa Claus, Superman and sugar – that got my motor running more than the news that company was coming over to visit.

Because, immediately upon getting word from my parents that friends or relatives were headed our way, I’d hustle off to grab my box of Crayolas and pad of construction paper so I could get down to business.

Half an hour or so later, I’d proudly emerge from the salt mines with a mess of meticulously scribbled chicken scratch. And upon our visitors’ arrival, I’d hop up on the family room couch and proceed to regale them with the elaborate story that I’d just written.

Even though I didn’t yet know how to write.

Three decades later, I like to think that big imagination of mine is still alive, but that I’ve also picked up a few new skills along the way.

Including, you know, literacy.

For those of you who already know me from the seven years (1998-2005) I spent in Ottawa writing for the former Daily Times, it’s great to be back among friends. And for you those of you who don’t, well, hey, I’m Dave.

And this is the Wisch List.

(It’s pleased to be back, too.)

Way back in the summer of 2002, I launched the Wisch List in Ottawa as the self-dubbed column about “Life – and the people who live it.” And since then, both it and myself have been on quite the wild ride.

In November 2004, I published 75 of my columns about life in La Salle County in a book entitled, “Northern IlliNOISE: Tales of a Territory.” And eight months after that, in July 2005, I took a news reporting job with the Chicago Tribune, and took the “Wisch List” with me.

There, I adapted the column into only the third-ever blog to appear at chicagotribune.com. And after two busy years of covering the city and the suburbs both online and in print, I left the Trib in July 2007, but not Chicago.

These days, I write full-time for a suburban advertising agency, live just blocks away from Wrigley Field and revel in all the wonderful things that the Windy City has to offer (as well as occasionally grumble about what it does not).

And it’s Chicago that the Wisch List is now about.

Back in May, I resurrected this column for my hometown area newspaper, the Daily Journal in Kankakee, which like the Times is a Small Newspaper Group publication. And I’m now pleased to say that the Wisch List is its return to La Salle County.

Through this column I intend each week to bring Chicago closer to home for you, sharing stories about the interesting people I meet, the sights you should be seeing, the sports teams you care about, and the issues up here in the City of Big Shoulders, Taxes and Potholes that are relevant to you. Beyond that, you’ll also find me occasionally delving into other state-related topics, as I plan to be keeping you on your toes.

As for myself, well, I’m the same guy I was five years ago when I left the small town for the big city. I’m just a little older and a lot wiser – except, of course, when it comes to putting my faith in the Cubs.

I’d love to hear from old friends – and make new ones – so feel free to get in touch with me anytime, whether it’s by e-mail me at wischlist@gmail.com, finding me on Facebook, following me on Twitter (twitter.com/wischlist) or checking in with me through my blog at wischlist.com.

You can just say hello, or, even better, pass along a column idea or Chicago-related topic that you’d like to see explored.
In many ways it’s hard for me to believe, but it was nearly 5½ years ago that I opened my book with the following passage:

If nothing else, I am an Illinois boy.

Born (in tiny Clifton) and raised (in bigger Bourbonnais). Bred (on Chicago Cubs baseball) and fed (a steady diet of disappointment. Naturally).

Through thick (winter coats) and thin (wallets, as a college student). In sickness (again, Cubs fan) and in health (the Michael Jordan Era).

For richer or poorer. For better or worse. And so on, and so on …

‘Til death do us part.

(Which, hopefully, won’t be for quite some time.)

Those words still ring true today. Although, I should add that while I consider Bourbonnais to be where I grew up, I do consider Ottawa to be where I became a man. So, for me, bringing back this column to La Salle County truly is a return to my roots.

You could even say it’s like going home again, home again …

Jiggity jog.

I think my 3-year-old self would have liked that one.

Today’s Wisch List column from the Kankakee Daily Journal …

Irish eyes on Chicago: What you might not know

The WISCH LIST

March 13, 2010

In August of 1993, I was in Colorado visiting family, and Harrison Ford was in Chicago avoiding capture.

On the big screen, that is.

That summer, the blockbuster flick, “The Fugitive” – starring Ford, Tommy Lee Jones and the Windy City – debuted in theaters. And while on vacation out west, my father, brother and I bought tickets for a matinee showing.

Seated one row behind us that afternoon was a couple on a date. And throughout the film the guy made repeated ham-handed – and factually challenged – attempts to impress the girl with his so-called expert knowledge of Chicago.

In one memorable scene in “The Fugitive,” Ford’s Dr. Richard Kimble eludes Jones’ Lt. Samuel Gerard by blending in with the crowd during the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade as it proceeds past an emerald green Chicago River.

“See how green the river is there?” the wannabe Chicagoan whispered to his date as the movie screen flickered, “That’s because it’s so polluted.”

Now, while the Chicago River has no doubt had its pollution problems, even at 17 years old, I knew this guy was full of it.

And that the river was full of dye.

The Chicago River once again turns green today in preparation for the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade (noon, WLS-Ch. 7 or WGN-Ch. 9). So to help you prep yourself, I thought I’d share with you a few tidbits about St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish and the city of Chicago that you might not already know.

Although, no doubt, the guy behind me in that theater would say he knew them all.

Orange you surprised?

The dye used to transform the Chicago River into the “Emerald Nile” isn’t actually green. It’s orange.

And its effect was discovered by accident.

In 1961, Stephen M. Bailey, a city labor leader and pal of Mayor Richard J. Daley, reportedly was watching a plumber trace a leak in the Chicago River using orange dye. Upon its placement in the water, Bailey saw the dye instantly turn green, giving the proud Irishman the bright idea to employ that trick to help the city celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

The Green Mile

In 1962, the flamboyant Bailey held a press conference announcing his plans to pour a Green River and during it declared that, “The Chicago River will dye the Illinois, which will dye the Mississippi, which will dye the Gulf of Mexico, which will send green dye up the gulf stream across the North Atlantic into the Irish Sea, a sea of green surrounding the land will appear as a greeting to all Irishmen of the Emerald Isle from the men of Erin in Chicagoland, USA.”

And then he probably raised his arms and parted Lake Michigan.

Going ‘Green,’ circa 1962

In that first year of coloring the river, 100 pounds of dye were placed in the water, which turned out to be a bit of an overkill.

It kept the river green for an entire week.

Today, the city uses 40 pounds of a secret-recipe, vegetable-based concoction that is billed as safe for environment. And, rather than keeping the river green for days, it does so for just a few hours.

The Green House

Last March, in keeping with the tradition of her hometown, First Lady Michelle O’Bama, er … Obama, had the water that flows through the White House fountains dyed green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Elect me, I’m Irish

Chicago has had 54 mayors, and 12 of them – including Richard M. Daley, the city’s current king – have been Irish. That’s just 22 percent, however, those mayors have also governed the Windy City for more than 80 combined years – or nearly half of Chicago’s 173 years of existence.

Chicago has also had several other legendary Irish politicians, whose nicknames are at least as memorable as their accomplishments. They include, “Honest John” Comiskey (father of former White Sox owner Charles Comiskey), Michael “Hinky Dink” Kenna, “Bathhouse” John Coughlin and “Foxy” Ed Cullerton.

The Irish Invasion

When Chicago was founded in the 1830s, the city had only a few hundred Irish residents. But, by 1860, it was the fourth largest Irish city in America behind only New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

In 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 34.5 million Americans claim Irish ancestry – a number almost nine times the population of Ireland itself (4.1 million).

And Chicago now boasts more citizens of Irish descent than any other ethnic group, with an estimated 201,836 as of 2007. Next in line is German (200,392), followed by Polish (179,868), Italian (96,599) and English (60,370).

Lord of the Ring

Traditional Irish dancer Michael Flatley – yes, the “Lord of the Dance” – is a native Chicagoan.

And, as it turns out, a former Golden Gloves boxer.

“My family lived in a tough, racially mixed Chicago neighborhood in the mid-1970s,” the South Sider and Brother Rice High School graduate told the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper in 2004. “My brother and I had to learn how to protect ourselves.”

So, that’s where he got the footwork.

Float like an Irishman, sting like a bee.

Saturday’s Wisch List column from the Kankakee Daily Journal …

In Kankakee, Olympic connections multiply

The WISCH LIST

Feb. 27, 2010

Sure, Olympic gold medalists Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller might be able to criss-cross snowscapes quicker than an avalanche.

But how fast can they multiply?

“One girl in my class, she did an amazing feat,” 12-year-old Jimmy Pentuic, a sixth-grader at Kennedy Middle School in Kankakee, explained earlier this week with an Olympic-sized dose of excitement. “She did 100 multiplication problems in one minute and 30 seconds. And she got them all right in that amount of time.

“I got them all correct, too. But it took me two minutes and 30 seconds.”

Hey, what’s a Perfect 10, when you’re talking Perfect 100s?

Last I checked, at the 2010 Winter Games– which wrap up Sunday evening in Vancouver – they had handed out Olympic medals for curling, ice dancing, speed skating a bevy of other frost-tipped sports, but there hadn’t been a single one awarded for math.

Or for art.

Or book reading, or essay writing.

Thankfully, though, those bases were all covered in Kankakee on Friday afternoon.

In conjunction with the Olympics, 18 classes of fourth, fifth and sixth graders at Kennedy spent the past two weeks staging their own brand of “Winter Games.” And on Friday, they capped things off with a “Closing Ceremonies” celebration at the school.

During the competition, students’ academic strengths were put to test in a variety of events that included writing essays either for or against Olympic sponsorship, keeping track of how many minutes they read during the Games and creating posters modeled after the Olympic theme, “With Glowing Hearts.”

Students also took part in athletic competitions in P.E. and each classroom was also assigned a foreign country to root on and learn about during the course of the Vancouver Games.

“The kids, it’s given them a lot more of a vested interest in the Olympics,” explained Maureen Sandusky-English, a sixth-grade teacher at Kennedy and the sister of United States Olympic Committee Chief Communications Officer Pat Sandusky.

“Yeah, it’s kind of a cool way to learn about the Olympics,” Pentuic echoed. “We have fun activities that go beyond just watching the Olympics. Instead, we’re actually learning about it and its history.”

One big way the students at Kennedy learned was via Pat Sandusky, who helped bring Vancouver to Kankakee by carrying a little piece of Kankakee to Vancouver.

Kennedy principal Betty Peters-Lambert sent to Sandusky a paper version of the school’s mascot, the Kennedy Brave. Pat and his wife then carried “Flat Kennedy” to several different Olympic events and spots all over Vancouver, snapping photos and e-mailing them to the school.

Sandusky also answered questions from the students via e-mail, educating them about the Olympic Games — “I didn’t now the Winter Olympics started within the last 100 years,” Pentuic said. “I thought it was really old. Kind of like the Summer Olympics are dating back to Athens.” — and wrote letters detailing his own Vancouver journey.

“I was able to attend the Opening Ceremonies on Friday night,” Sandusky wrote to the Kennedy students at the outset of the Games. “It was astonishing. As an Olympic spokesman I was able to ride the bus with the American athletes to the event.

“They were all so nice and I even was able to get a picture with Shaun White, a snowboarder nicknamed ‘The Flying Tomato.’ He’s a gold medal hopeful!”

Yeah, but let’s see him do his times tables.

iO on Chicago

When you think of Chicago Olympians, names like Shani Davis, Evan Lysacek and Patrick Kane are probably the first that come to mind.

And names like Chris Farley, Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert are probably about the last.

But the latter three are local Olympians, too.

Just of a different sort.

Chicago, world-renowned for its improvisational and sketch comedy thanks in large part to Second City theater, is also home to another famous improv theater, the iO, located at 3541 N. Clark St., just south of Wrigley Field.

Known as the “Improv Olympics” when the likes of Farley, Fey, Colbert and many other now-famous comedians trained and performed there, the theater changed its name in 2001 when the International Olympic Committee threatened legal action over it.

On Sunday – if you’re in the mood for an Olympic-themed road trip to watch the gold-medal hockey match at 2 p.m. – you might consider heading to Chicago and catching it at one of the many Wrigleyville pubs in the vicinity of Clark & Addison. You could then stick around for the 7 p.m. show at the nearby iO. Tickets are only $5.

And if you’re really looking to pull off an Olympic feat?

Three more iO shows begin at 10:30 p.m.

Make sure to stretch.

Today’s Wisch List column from the Kankakee Daily Journal …

So, yah, maybe those Chicago winters aren’t so bad

The WISCH LIST

Feb. 20, 2010

I’m an Illinois boy, born and raised.

So, when it comes to surviving – and, heck, even thriving – in wintry weather conditions, I consider myself to be a pretty hardy soul.

I’ve shoveled my car out from my fair share of blizzards (including last week’s). I’ve stood atop “L” platforms in Chicago and stared down the howling winds off Lake Michigan with nary a flinch. And I’ve even frozen myself stiff in the grandstands at Wrigley Field.

In late June.

During this past month, for business purposes, I’ve covered more of the map than Rand McNally. And my travels have given me the opportunity to witness both the yin of winter in North Carolina, where a 35-degree day prompted a local to correct me, “Chili is something you put on a hot dog. This is cold.”

And the yang – or would that be the “Yah?” – of it in North Dakota, where I discovered this week that winter isn’t just a season.

It’s a lifestyle.

“Ya know, Fargo wouldn’t be so bad,” Blair Halvorson, a lifelong resident of the city famous for its accents, frigid temps and cinematic wood chippers told me this week as we pondered the piles of snow outside our hotel. “If we had a summer.”

Summers, of course, are what make living in Chicago from, say, November through March (or later) bearable.

I’ve always believed – or, perhaps, rationalized – that the wicked winters the Windy City experiences actually serve an important purpose for its citizens: They make Chicagoans appreciate summertime more than people in other towns.
But then I met the folks of Fargo, whose appetite for summer is perhaps rivaled only by their appetite for steak.

I learned from locals with names like Fridfinnson, Vandenberghe and MacGillvray that in North Dakota six-foot snowbanks can sometimes still be found standing in May – and are known to rise up again as early as September.

“It can get up to 100 degrees in between, though,” explained Lynn Kadlec, a native of the 39th State. “But then you get the mosquitoes.”

I can assure you, there were no triple digits (or mosquitoes) popping up in Fargo this week, something I was reminded of as I stood in line for security at O’Hare prior to my departure Monday morning.

“There are only two cities colder than Chicago, and you’re going to one of them,” the TSA employee said to the girl ahead of me in line, ribbing her about her trip to Minneapolis.

“Well, then, I must be going to the other one,” I said with a laugh, as I informed him I was bound for Hector International Airport in Fargo.

“Yes,” the TSA worker replied with a smirk. “I think that would be it.”

Apparently, the rumor got around quick. My United Express flight was delayed for an hour at O’Hare as the airline had to “recruit a flight attendant” for the trip up to the Great White North.

The original one was probably hiding beneath her bed, wrapped in quilts.

Upon arrival in Fargo, I found it to be about what you’d imagine with sharp winds whipping across barren, snow-packed plains. The rental car counter even had a sign warning: “It’s Freezing Out There!”

On Tuesday, it was Mardi Gras. I didn’t make it out on the town, as I was fighting a cold (imagine that). But I figure it was probably a pretty PG-rated affair, as any flashing in Fargo likely would have involved pulling up two sweaters … to reveal the third sweater underneath.

In some ways, I’m actually a fan of cold weather. I find it fascinating. On my iPhone, I often check the temperature in Barrow, Alaska, located 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle. When it’s minus-33 up there, I find 33 above in Chicago to feel much warmer.

On Wednesday morning, however, when I awoke I learned it was minus-6 degrees in Fargo.

And 5 above in Barrow.

Chilling … literally.

In spite of the long, harsh winters, North Dakotans love their state. Last week, a new Gallup poll showed that its residents lead the nation in satisfaction with their standard of living, with 82.3 percent of them saying they’re happy with “all the things you can buy and do.”

Gallup forgot to add “with mittens.”

(Illinois, for the record, was right in the middle of the poll at 25, with 73.9 percent of residents satisfied.)

That doesn’t mean things are peachy for everyone in Fargo, though. The local newspaper this week featured a front-page story with the headline “PEEK-A-BOO STREETS” that detailed how towering snowbanks are severely hampering driver visibility at intersections in town.

So much so that area resident Rodger Whitford told the paper that he planned to put his winter defensive driving skills on ice and flee south.

“I’m heading to Arkansas at the end of the week because I’ve had enough,” Whitford said, adding,” “I don’t know if I’ll be back.”

I actually liked North Dakota, so I very well might be.

Although, if I do, it’ll be in July.

And I’ll still bring a scarf.

Today’s Wisch List column from the Kankakee Daily Journal …

Find the love, Illini fans

The WISCH LIST

Feb. 13, 2010

I spent this past week in North Carolina, where tobacco fields, merciless traffic laws and college basketball are king.

Now, I don’t smoke. And while in the Tar Heel State, I kept my driving to a bare minimum. But I did make like the locals and take part in their proud tradition of college hoops hysteria.

Even if it was during an NBA game.

On Tuesday night, while seated about 20 rows off the floor at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, I watched former University of North Carolina star Raymond Felton drain a pull-up jumper with 1.9 seconds left to lift the hometown Bobcats to a 94-92 victory over the Washington Wizards.

It was pretty exciting.

But my big cheer – one that turned a few nearby heads and just might have sparked that earthquake back in Chicagoland – had come about 15 minutes earlier.

That was when I learned via text message that the University of Illinois had pulled off a stunning upset at Wisconsin, propelling the Illini (17-8, 9-3) into a first-place tie with Michigan State atop the Big Ten.

Three weeks ago, when Illinois sat at 12-8 overall and 4-3 in conference, few things – save, perhaps, a Midwestern temblor – could have seemed less likely.

But, as they say, good things come to those who wait.

And I think there’s plenty of good on the horizon for Illini hoops.

I’ve held off on writing about Illinois basketball so far this season, mainly because I just haven’t known what to make of this vexing team. But I also haven’t wanted to jump to any conclusions about it, something that too many Illini fans often seem very apt – and eager – to do.

Granted, the 2009-10 Illini have been more up and down than flights at Midway. They’ve lacked the toughness and defensive intensity of Bruce Weber’s past squads. And you’ll find more bulk on display at a Sam’s Club.

All of that coupled with bad early-season losses to Bradley and Utah, along with disappointing ones to Georgia, Missouri and Gonzaga, provided more than enough reason to question the future of this team and Bruce Weber’s program, in general.
But there was no good reason to condemn it.

While a lot of fans might not like to hear it, college basketball is often about patience. Personally, that’s one of the things I love most about the sport – the opportunity to watch players develop over four years.

And Bruce Weber has proved that he’s one of the best at developing players, particularly guards. From big talents Deron Williams, Dee Brown and Luther Head to lesser ones in Richard McBride, Chester Frazier and Trent Meacham, each of them improved under Weber’s tutelage and maxed out their ability by the end of their careers.

Demetri McCamey now appears to be on that same path.

Certainly, in college hoops, there are superstars who bolt to the NBA after just one or two seasons, and they’re great to have. But most programs are built around players who stick around long enough to become veterans.

And, quite simply, this year’s Illini squad lacked enough vets to excel at the outset of this season.

Illinois boasts just one senior in Dominique Keller, and he’s a junior college product who’s been in the program for less than two years. The Illini also began the season with two freshmen guards (D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul) in the starting lineup. And, while the team’s core of juniors may have had considerable game experience, they did not yet have leadership experience. Last season, the team relied on seniors Frazier and Meacham to fill that crucial role.

With one-time records of 8-4 and 12-8, Illinois might have disappointed to begin this season, but it didn’t underachieve. Rather, the expectations were simply too high too early for this bunch.

Many people discounted the impact of losing to graduation Frazier, Meacham and Calvin Brock, the team’s best three defenders.

And no matter how talented the current players might be, they still needed to learn how to lead and play as a team.
And the Illini still are learning, no doubt.

It would be nice if their fans could learn a bit, as well.

Illinois hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament yet, but it also hasn’t yet lost out on a Big Ten championship, either. Whatever does happen from here on out, I’d just caution Illini fans in the future to not so quickly count out a Bruce Weber-coached team.

Or program.

Let things play out. See where a full season takes you. And allow young athletes time to fully mature and develop as players and leaders.

Weber isn’t perfect (no coach is). And neither are his players (ditto). But their future – both for this season and beyond – does appear to be bright.

It doesn’t hurt to show a little patience.

And on this, the day before Valentine’s Day, it doesn’t hurt to show a little love, too.

LOST is fantastic. But might it have worked even better as a campy 1967 Sci-Fi TV series? Make like the Smoke Monster, and you be the judge.

From the Monday, Feb. 8, edition of the Kankakee Daily Journal …

Pat Sandusky named Olympics communications chief

By DAVE WISCHNOWSKY
Special to the Daily Journal

Feb. 8, 2010

Late last month, while sitting in his office on the campus of the United States Olympic Committee’s headquarters in Colorado Springs, Pat Sandusky kidded about his job title since mid-October as the organization’s acting Chief Communications Officer.

“Until you can do the job,” the 35-year-old Bourbonnais native said with a chuckle, “you just act like it.”

As first reported Jan. 30 in the Daily Journal and officially announced last week, Sandusky proved to the USOC during the past four months that his “acting” chops were more than up to snuff.

On Feb. 3, he was formally named as the full-time CCO of the coordinating body for all Olympic-related athletic activity in the United States.

A 1993 graduate of Bishop McNamara High School, Sandusky becomes only the third person since 1979 to serve as the organization’s head of communications and just the fourth since the job’s inception.

“It’s incredibly humbling,” Sandusky said last Friday while in a cab en route to O’Hare International Airport where he caught a flight to Canada for 2010 Winter Games, which begin this Friday in Vancouver.

“This job is not something that I looked at lightly,” Sandusky continued. “It certainly has some gravity to it, and I’m very excited about it.”

The former head spokesman and Vice President of Communications for Chicago’s 2016 Olympics bid, Sandusky will report directly to new USOC CEO Scott Blackmun.

Prior to Chicago 2016, Sandusky spent 10 years at the global public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, where he was Vice President of the firm’s sports marketing practice and managed large-scale, multi-national communications programs for both the Chicago and London offices.

In addition to his work with the Olympics, Sandusky – who played football at Northern Illinois University – has worked on projects related to Wimbledon, World Cup, Rugby World Cup, English Premiership, NASCAR and NCAA football.

Sandusky did not disclose the salary for his new position. According to tax filings released annually by the nonprofit USOC, Sandusky’s predecessor as CCO, Darryl Seibel, earned $367,779 in 2008. At the time of his resignation in May after serving 6½ years as CCO, Seibel was the USOC’s third-highest paid employee.

Unlike nearly all the 205 national Olympic committees that carry membership in the International Olympic Committee, the USOC receives no government funding. Rather, it makes most of its income from a lucrative deal with NBC, which is broadcasting the Vancouver Games, and contracts with 18 corporate partners, who use the committee’s iconic five-ring logo.

Sandusky, who has split his time between Colorado and Chicago since taking over as the USOC’s acting CCO, said he and his wife have begun looking at homes in Colorado Springs. They plan to relocate with their infant twins by the end of the summer, he said.

“We are extremely happy that Patrick has joined the USOC family for the long-term and that a leader of Patrick’s caliber is moving to Colorado Springs,” Scott Blackmun said last week in statement. “Having him on our team since last October has had a positive impact for the USOC, and I believe that both the Colorado Springs community and the Olympic Movement in the U.S. will benefit by Patrick and his family moving to Colorado Springs.”

Sandusky said the change in his job title won’t change his role with the USOC a great deal, but “I think it will have a little more permanency. The title of ‘acting’ carries a certain level of temporariness. But now, longer-term thinking will be applied.”

In Vancouver this month, Sandusky will manage daily press conferences for American athletes during the Winter Games and serve as the head spokesman for any news involving the U.S. delegation.

As for his rise to the top ranks of Olympic leadership in the U.S., Sandusky credited his upbringing in Kankakee County for providing the launching pad he needed.

“Kankakee is such a sports-mad area, and that rubbed off on me at a very early age,” he said. “From [Bradley-Bourbonnais] Little League baseball to high school football at Mac, it was just a sports-crazy town to grow up in.

“There are a lot of great people involved in sports. And I can tell you, I wouldn’t be here today [with the USOC] without the leadership of the community.”