Top of the Morning, Aug. 23, 2023
Aug. 23—With Mike White's Rose Bowl Illini headed back to campus for a 40-year reunion on Sept. 2, we're collecting stories from fans who enjoyed the ride in '83. Email Jim Rossow at jrossow@news-gazette.com with yours.
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Matt Allen was hours old when he got his first earful of Illinois football. Born at 8:43 a.m. on Oct. 1, 1983, he listened in as his parents — 1972 UI grads Mark and Linda — enjoyed the Illini's 33-0 romp over Iowa on the radio from a room at Methodist Hospital in Peoria.
"To this day," Matt said, "my parents and aunts and uncles remind me of that game every year on my birthday and the season in which the Illini went undefeated in the Big Ten."
Now living in Monticello with his wife Lisa and 5-year-old son Bradley, Matt (Class of '06) followed his parents to the UI, joining his dad's fraternity (Alpha Gamma Rho) and rooting just as hard. During his time in C-U, though, basketball was king. A member of the Orange Krush, Matt was courtside for a magical 37-2 run that took him to the Final Four in St. Louis. " I will always remember Bruce Weber having pizzas delivered to us while waiting in line for games," he said. "Every TV in the Alpha Gamma Rho house was always tuned to SportsCenter that season, because everyone knew they were going to talk about the Illini at some point."
Matt appreciated the 2005 basketball season like his parents did the '83 football season.
"Everytime Dad talks about that season and those Mike White years, he has a gleam in his eye," said Matt, 39, a vice president at Prairie State Bank & Trust who also farms. "He talks about how exciting it was on campus and what it was like to see Memorial Stadium filled game and game again."
More from Matt:
— "My grandparents and lifelong Illini fans, Kenneth and Lora Mae Kesler, farmed near Dewey. My grandma talks about taking a break from driving the grain truck that day, when she got the call that I was born. It was an eventful day between harvest, my birth and the big Illini win."
— "I also learned that my father and his good friend, Allen Beymer, a Delavan resident, made a bet on the game. Allen Beymer was an Iowa native and big Hawkeye fan. He told dad he wanted to bet $20 on the game. My dad said he had to have points. When Al asked how many, dad said 28. Al had a quick, one word response: Done."
— On the 2005 basketbal season: "It sticks out in my memory how when the fans could not get tickets to the Assembly Hall because of sellouts, they started selling out other Big Ten arenas in order to see the Illini. My parents and both of my siblings made a family trip to West Lafayette that year to see the Illini beat Purdue in front of a sold out crowd. I believe that was the first game Dee Brown did his infamous 'jersey pop' to show off the 'Illinois' print. I unfortunately was also present in Columbus, Ohio, with college friends when the undefeated season came to an end on the last day of the regular season."
— The Illini won the Big Ten in football (2001) during Matt's senior year in high school in Delavan. "I was at the game played on Thanksgiving Day when Illinois beat Northwestern to win the Big Ten. My earliest memories were the first couple Lou Tepper seasons, when Illinois was still making bowl games. It was common for our family to come Friday night for Illini volleyball, stay the night with my grandparents in rural Dewey, and attend the football game the next day."