Famous D3 Alumni

[Ron Boerger]

Keith keeps talking about "if I ever create that Famous D3 Alumni" thread, so here it is.   

[Ron Boerger]

And here's the first entry:

If I ever get around to starting that famous D3 alum thread, former Heat GM Randy Pfund was a Wheaton guy.

[doolittledog]

Tony Danza wrestled at the University of Dubuque 

[Schwami]

Appropriate adds for this election day:

Ronald Reagan played football for Eureka.

Richard Nixon played football for Whittier.

Barack Obama attended Occidental.

[dc_has_been]

Roger Goodell graduated from W & J in 81.

[Pat Coleman]

We did a Randy Pfund story on D3hoops.com -- in fact, he's not the only Wheaton alumnus to be an NBA GM, by the way.

http://www.d3hoops.com/features/wheatonnba.htm

[OshDude]

I'll start with some of my Midwestern-ish favs:
Kathy Kinney (UW-Stevens Point), lady who played Mimi on The Drew Carey Show
Sandra Lee (UW-La Crosse), besides Giada the Food Network host college guys watch most
Kato Kaelin (UW-Eau Claire), didn't graduate, but ...
Harrison Ford (Ripon), didn't graduate
Spencer Tracy (Ripon)
Fred MacMurray (Carroll), Steven Douglas on My Three Sons
Willem Dafoe (Lawrence)
Robert Duvall (Principia)
Val Kilmer (Principia)
Robert Guillaume (Wash U), Benson!
Jodi Benson (Millikin), Ariel in The Little Mermaid (don't act like you didn't see it)
Harold Ramis (Wash U)
Joel Hodgson (Bethel), MST3K
Michael J. Nelson (UW-River Falls), MST3K guy after Joel (again, didn't grauate, but ...)
Wes Craven (Wheaton, Ill.)
Peter Krause (Gustavus), Six Feet Under, Sports Night
Peter Berg (Macalester), director of Friday Night Lights
Ari Emanuel (Macalester), agent for Larry David, Sasha Baron Cohen, etc.
James Arness (Beloit), Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke
Gene Rayburn (Knox), Match Game announcer
Dave "Gruber" Allen (Augustana), "The Naked Trucker"

Curt Menefee (Coe), Fox NFL
Fred Hickman (Coe), ESPN/CNN/TBS/YES
Greg Gumbel (Loras)
Dave Kindred (Illinois Wesleyan), Sporting News and in Sportwriter's Hall of Hame

Bob Mould (Macalester), musician/leader of Husker Du, Sugar
Peter Tork (Carleton), the Monkee
Herbie Hancock (Grinnell)
Al Jarreau (Ripon)
Sufjan Stevens (Hope)

Bernie Kukar (St. John's), NFL ref
John Hammond (Greenville), Bucks GM
Lute Olson (Augsburg)
Tom Davis (UW-Platteville), Iowa BB coach
Bill Fritch (Coe)
Marv Levy (Coe)
George Allen (Alma), NFL coach
Wayne Huizenga (Calvin)
Don Denkinger (Wartburg), Jorge Orta still not safe at first base
Wayne Messmer (Illinois Wesleyan), dulcet tones at Wrigley Field

Arnold Schwarzenegger (UW-Superior)
Kofi Annan (Macalester)
Walter Mondale (Macalester)
John Ashcroft (Chicago)
Antonin Scalia (Chicago)
John Paul Stevens (Chicago)
John Podesta (Knox)
Dennis Hastert (Wheaton, Ill.)

Dennis Johnson (Wartburg), co-founder of Hooters
Jim VandeHei (UW Oshkosh), co-founder of Politico.com
John Harris (Carleton), co-founder of Politico.com
Drew Curtis (Luther), founder of Fark.com
Aaron Kennedy (Augustana), founder of Noodles & Co. (Thanks, Aaron!)
Candy Crowley (Principia), one of many CNN political commentators I look forward to not seeing
Harry Smith (Central), CBS news
Evan Cohen (Beloit), co-founder of Air America Radio
Mark Johnson-Williams (Luther), co-designer of Tickle Me Elmo
Kurt Vonnegut (Chicago)
T. S. Eliot (Chicago)
Carl Sagan (Chicago)
William Jennings Bryan (Illinois College)

My personal Fav: Emily Niemeyer Anderson (St. Catherine), inventor of the sour cream and onion flavor potato chips, according to Wikipedia. Thanks, Emily!

[HScoach]

Kathy Kinney (UW-Stevens Point), lady who played Mimi on The Drew Carey Show

She's from Wisconsin?  Why doesn't this surprise me? 

[Toby Taff]

These are famous people from a NOW D3 school.  They were not D3 in their day...
Buddy Groom - MLB pitcher - UMHB
    * Detroit Tigers (1992-1995)
    * Florida Marlins (1995)
    * Oakland Athletics (1996-1999)
    * Baltimore Orioles (2000-2004)
    * New York Yankees (2005)
    * Arizona Diamondbacks (2005)

Ma Ferguson - First Woman governor of Texas (second in the US) Baylor Female College (now UMHB)

Oveta Culp Hobby - the first director of the Women's Army Corps ...first Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, now, the Department of Health and Human Services

[Ron Boerger]

Hmm ... my alma mater [ Trinity (TX) ] hasn't given us much in the way of "famous" people, more like semi-famous:

John Cornyn, US Senator, (R)-Texas
Davey Johnson, former MLB manager/player.  Scholarship athlete
Gavin Maloof, co-owner of the Sacramento Kings.
John Silber, former chancellor of Boston University.
Jaclyn Smith, actress.
Alice Walton, daughter of Sam "Walmart" Walton.
Professional tennis players Chuck McKinley, Dick Stockton, Anne Smith, Brian Gottfried Scholarship athletes
Bob West, aka the voice of "Barney"

Rumour has it Ms. Walton never donated a penny to TU.   

[OshDude]

Hmm ... my alma mater [ Trinity (TX) ] hasn't given us much in the way of "famous" people, more like semi-famous:

John Cornyn, US Senator, (R)-Texas
Davey Johnson, former MLB manager/player.
Gavin Maloof, co-owner of the Sacramento Kings.
John Silber, former chancellor of Boston University.
Jaclyn Smith, actress.
Alice Walton, daughter of Sam "Walmart" Walton.
Professional tennis players Chuck McKinley, Dick Stockton, Anne Smith, Brian Gottfried
Bob West, aka the voice of "Barney"

Rumour has it Ms. Walton never donated a penny to TU.   

Barney, an Angel, an NBA owner, the co-author of Bats [an awful book despite Golenbock's involvement] and one of the richest people in the world? Besides Chicago's alumni roster that goes on forever, your school's looks like one of the best to me ... especially the Angel part.

[AF4]

Huntingdon College:

Sen Jeff Sessions (US Senator- i spoke to im on sat at the Principia game)
Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird...but she was expelled)
Kathryn Tucker Windham (author)
Leura Garrett Canary (US attorney)
Joe Durant (pro golfer)

and some mo'

but Springfield College has the best
my favorite is John Cena- former Spingfield center/exercise science major
...and now WWE SUPER STAR

keep the faith

[CobberFvr]

Concordia College

Philadelphia Phillies Catcher Christ Coste

[K-Mack]

Keith keeps talking about "if I ever create that Famous D3 Alumni" thread, so here it is.   

Yeah,
The reason I kept waiting is because I wanted to organize it a certain way. So as not to mix entertainment and political celebrities with, say, Jerheme Urban, a decent NFL player from Trinity, or Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski, who went to Whitewater. Or Redlands' Danny Ragsdale, now a coach at Minnesota-Mankato (or somewhere).

That's cool, but it's not the same as Obama going to Oxy and Nixon to Whittier and Belichick/Mangini to Wesleyan.

I just think there's an effective way to organize this thing ... plus there needs to be some clarification on whether it counts if you just went there for a while and didn't graduate (I vote yes) ... and also we had this discussion for several pages on the ATN thread once before and I wanted to transfer that list to the new thread so we didn't have to rehash stuff.

But maybe I'm just being a big nerd and you guys can enjoy your free-for-all.

[K-Mack]

It's not that I wasn't smart enough or motivated enough to make a blank thread with "Famous D3 Alumni" at the top 

Thanks for the effort though Ron.