In pursuit of the almost famous in the suburbs
Pop quiz time.
Q. What do Glenn Kotche, Don Schulze, Keith Hackney and Mark Gorski have in common?
(Though possibly true for some of you, the answer I'm looking for is not: "People I've never heard of.")
A. All are famous people who lived in Roselle.
OK, you could argue we stretched the definition of "famous" a bit, but let me assure you it was no slam dunk to come up with these names for a top-secret project at the Daily Herald involving similar research for the 125 or so communities in or near our circulation area.
In fact, Roselle was among the towns in our corporate footprint where we were initially stumped for famous people. It was baffling. Roselle's been around since 1922, and it's a good-sized town of more than 23,000 people. Yet, an initial check of the usual online sources turned up no famous or infamous people.
That led to Step 2. We started asking local movers and shakers if they were aware of any famous or almost famous people who had passed through Roselle and stayed awhile. I had some vague notion that there was a connection between rocker/bow hunter Ted Nugent and Roselle, but I think the extent of that was Terrible Ted might have bought some of his gear at Roselle Music.
With deadline fast approaching, I hauled out the heavy hitter. Jake Griffin, who covers DuPage County government for us, is known as someone who can dig up information in a hurry. He took the tack of working through the high school pages in Wikipedia. And, sure enough, about 10 famous alums popped up on the Lake Park High School page. But Lake Park's attendance boundaries go outside Roselle and into Bloomingdale, Hanover Park, Itasca, Medinah and Wood Dale. But after some phone calls and e-mail inquiries, Griffin discovered the following celebrities not only graduated from Lake Park, but lived in Roselle while doing so:
• Glenn Kotche, drummer for the rock band Wilco.
• Don Schulze, a journeyman Major League Baseball pitcher from 1983 to 1989.
• Keith Hackney, an actor and mixed martial arts fighter and pioneer.
• Mark Gorski, the 1984 Olympic Summer Games gold medalist in cycling.
That's where our research took us in Roselle. It wasn't the only town where we struggled; in some communities we dug up only one famous person (again, perhaps stretching the definition just a shade); other towns, such as Naperville and Wheaton, have an ample supply.
In looking over our efforts in other areas, I noticed the name "Jack Nicklaus" entered for North Barrington.
Wait a minute, I thought. The Golden Bear never lived there. But the entry next to his name said he designed the Wynstone golf course there, The editor in charge there told me North Barrington "is obscenely proud of having a Jack course and THEY identify Jack with North Barrington."
But the research continues, she says.
"If we can come up with a better person for North Barrington, I'd take Jack out of there like a shot."
jdavis@dailyherald.com