Clubhouse Chatter: The best athlete ever to come out of the suburbs
What our Sports staff has to say while waiting for the games to resume.
Quarterback Otto Graham, who grew up in Waukegan, played collegiately at Northwestern and went on to play for the NFL's Cleveland Browns. He threw 174 touchdown passes while leading Cleveland to three league championships.
- John Dietz
Red Grange, Wheaton's very own. One of my favorite Bob Frisk stories is the Daily Herald legend giving the autograph he got as a kid of the football legend to former Wheaton Warrenville South star Dan Dierking at our DuPage football banquet.
- Joe Aguilar
Geez, that's tough, and I'll admit I had to search the internet so as not to miss someone. Due to his essentially helping found the NFL after starring at the University of Illinois, I'd have to go with Wheaton's Red Grange ahead of Joliet Catholic's George Mikan, Waukegan's Otto Graham, Maywood's Ray Nitschke and Robbins' Dwyane Wade. If Joliet is not really a suburb, then add Elgin's Brian Oldfield to the list, if not Batavia's Dan Issel and Harvey's Lou Boudreau.
- Dave Oberhelman
Candace Parker of Naperville Central.
- Jerry Fitzpatrick
In terms of a true "athlete," I'll go with Waukegan graduate Jim Rucks and Maine West alum Mary Just. They might have been the last male and female three-sport athletes in Division I collegiate sports in Illinois. Rucks was a three-sporter at Illinois, while Just was the same at Loyola in Chicago.
- John Leusch
Candace Parker, WNBA legend from Naperville Central.
- Patricia Babcock McGraw