The Deuce

The Deuce
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Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson….

Posted by LeatherneckIllini User icon on October 15, 2026, 07:06:51

Believe he went to Lanphier. Grew up with my old roommate in Decatur. Came to visit for a week in law school and the D-1 guys we were playing wirh made the mistake of pissing him off. OMG. Went to camp with the Celtics and I think the Heat and played 20 years as a pro. Player with Troy Hudson but he never went turbo mode like Monty. Honorable mention Mike Grzanich. Hit my first homerun off him as a freshman in HS. Two weeks with the Astros. But wasn’t even best HS player I saw.

Titcus Pettigrew*

Posted by Rynounc99 User icon on October 15, 2026, 23:58:36, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

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Ervin Small*

Posted by Tortillini User icon on October 15, 2026, 23:25:33, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

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I lost in straight sets to a D1 tennis player from Louisville in college back in the mid 90s

Posted by illinilosch User icon on October 15, 2026, 17:54:48, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

Name of the opponent is unknown but I was a solid underdog. No clue if the guy went on to do anything extra with tennis afterwards. But he was a stud. Or at least IMO he was.

Got up 4-1 before getting steamrolled 6-4, 6-1.

That's all I got.

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My mom sent me to golf camp back in the day and Tiger Wood's old Caddy was our day coach.*

Posted by DiamondDazzle User icon on October 15, 2026, 16:32:52, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

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Jamie Brandon*

Posted by Poldark User icon on October 15, 2026, 16:06:09, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

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Social Misfit who wants to coach Illinois women's basketball.

"The game was fun and glad that Fitzee decided he'd had enough football and wanted to go slap asses in the shower room."

With: Pat Moran (16" Softball HOF) a few years older than me and Larry Peoples stud forward on my...

Posted by MtHoodIllini User icon on October 15, 2026, 15:48:36, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

HS Basketball team.............Against: Bo Ellis, Sonny Parker, Riley Dotson. Dotson was my year in school and played for our arch-rival, Von Steuben, so I had to cover the effer for several years in a row. Played against Bo in a X-mas tournament and Sonny in home and home pre-season games vs Farragut. All three are in the Illinois B-balll HOF.

https://basketballmuseumofillinois.com/hall-of-fame/

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*looks around for Walkon**

Posted by Jackie User icon on October 15, 2026, 15:47:17, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

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Against: Jayson Werth in summer ball before my freshman year of hs.

Posted by DanSaint User icon on October 15, 2026, 14:49:46, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

Just before I hurt my knee for a second time.

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Shaun Livingston in 6th grade church league basketball*

Posted by Dilbert User icon on October 15, 2026, 14:14:01, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

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Baseball against Steve Baumgartner

Posted by RockHollywood User icon on October 15, 2026, 13:56:36, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

Defensive end and linebacker for the Saints and Oilers circa 1973-79. All-America defensive end at Purdue.

Played HS football & basketball with Troy Drake.

Posted by EffinIllini User icon on October 15, 2026, 13:11:48, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

Played defensive tackle at Indiana, then moved to offensive tackle for 3 seasons in the NFL with Philadelphia and Washington.

Possibly not the best "pure athlete" I ever played with or against, but I can't name anyone else who was on a D1 scholarship or played in the NFL.

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Also, if I haven’t said this here before, my Dad was on the HS football team at CVS with Butkus.

Posted by EffinIllini User icon on October 15, 2026, 16:15:42, in reply to "Played HS football & basketball with Troy Drake. "

I think Dad was 2 years younger.

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kevin Turner and Bryant notree showed up at our law school gym

Posted by apusikam User icon on October 15, 2026, 12:59:37, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

middle of summer, 1996, it was dead. there were a few guys who knew the facility manager and played pickup there regularly and apparently got Turner and notree out there because it was an uncrowded decent gym.

I went there to lift after bar exam class with a few of my friends from school. we would get in the pickup games once in awhile if they were short that day. after turner and notree worked whatever stuff they needed to work on, they played with the regulars. they were short. my friend and I got drafted.

holy shit, notree was something he wasn't even trying. just an athlete. he was pretty good natured too. Turner was quiet and intense.

this was before turner broke out as a star iirc.

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Mark Mulder*

Posted by GMAW User icon on October 15, 2026, 11:24:34, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

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Richard Keene - played against him in HS.

Posted by uofi1998 User icon on October 15, 2026, 11:19:37, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

Thomas Hamilton & Rashard Griffith @ King also, though I was nowhere near matched up with them directly.

On campus, played a bunch of pickup at IMPE with the BB team and a bunch of the football guys, including Simeon Rice. Played pickup w/Fred Wakefield as well.

Played in runs with Simeon & Mike Bibby out here in AZ at Lifetime.

Are you going to bark all day, little doggie? Or are you going to bite?

I played his cousin and brother. In gym class.*

Posted by SurfTheBoneyard User icon on October 15, 2026, 17:33:43, in reply to "Richard Keene - played against him in HS. "

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Sky Marshal of the Luftwaffle

“Surf is just a national treasure.” — Jackie

Probably Jack Griffin

Posted by AintHatin User icon on October 15, 2026, 11:17:43, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

he won the 118-pound national championship in wrestling for northwestern in 1990, then was a grad assistant for the illini in 1992 when i was a sophomore on the team. i basically worked with him every day during that season. he mostly whupped my ass but i had a few moments.

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Played pick up hoops with Quin Snyder & David Henderson.

Posted by Chicago1995 User icon on October 15, 2026, 11:15:59, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

Guy i went to law school with had been TE at UCLA and I had to guard him in hoops. Brutal.

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Tangent: Brushes with athletes not playing their typical sport

Posted by VIV User icon on October 15, 2026, 11:05:51, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

And this one wasn't even me.

A friend of mine got asked if he could sub to play softball for a rec men's league about 15 years ago here in STL. He's up to bat and hits a solid line drive that looks like it'll be a gapper, but the guy in left center gets to it with relative ease.

The next inning, the same guy gets up, hits an easy line drive at the left fielder. Solid single type hit. By the time the fielder got it on 2 hops, this guy is already rounding first and makes it to 2nd easily.

Who TF is this guy? Average height, average weight looking white guy. He goes on to make routine plays out of what would be nice hits in the outfield. Turned what would normally be a double in the gap of his own into an inside the park HR.

Turns out, it was Danny Amendola when he was with the Rams.

"the alchemy of the tartar sauce and cheese with the fish combined with the buttery steamed bun is so good." - Sounder re: a Filet O Fish

Used to play basketball with Trev Alberts when he was in college.

Posted by WhitmansFolly User icon on October 16, 2026, 06:39:02, in reply to "Tangent: Brushes with athletes not playing their typical sport"

He was much better at football 🏈

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Not exactly the same, but Shane Steichen coaches his son’s flag football team.

Posted by tvillini User icon on October 16, 2026, 01:29:48, in reply to "Tangent: Brushes with athletes not playing their typical sport"

We play in this indoor league just to do something in the winter. We sorta knew it was coming because we saw him a few weeks earlier. Was super with the kids. Both his and ours. They beat us senselessly not because you can really scheme your way to a win in 3rd/4th grade flag football. It was because the kids who knew who he was pressed and made a bunch of mistakes trying to impress him. Our QB went full Hoekstra, and then bawled after the game.

When our dad was in law school at UofI he used to play basketball all the time with a guy...

Posted by LeatherneckIllini User icon on October 15, 2026, 14:14:40, in reply to "Tangent: Brushes with athletes not playing their typical sport"

who spent a bunch of years with the Steelers. Our dad played a year of fr ball at WIU so he was a really good player. He would tell us that when this dude turned it on it was game over. Whole other level of athlete whether it was basketball or anything else.

Related tangent to this: Geoff Alexander was on my softball team when we played in the state playoffs in Kankakee.

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Played basketball in H.S. gym with Trezelle Jenkins

Posted by AintHatin User icon on October 15, 2026, 12:22:40, in reply to "Tangent: Brushes with athletes not playing their typical sport"

played ot at michigan and was later a first-round pick of the chiefs

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Played craps with Kirk Hammett*

Posted by bjl63 User icon on October 15, 2026, 11:38:50, in reply to "Tangent: Brushes with athletes not playing their typical sport"

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MJ playing BJ on 3 separate occasions*

Posted by chorizo User icon on October 15, 2026, 11:17:13, in reply to "Tangent: Brushes with athletes not playing their typical sport"

First time I forgot to split aces.

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Baseball against former NFL punter Reggie Hodges.

Posted by assassin User icon on October 15, 2026, 10:50:42, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

He sure could pitch too

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Brandon Schrock of Laredo, Texas, told the federal government that his employer was “poop,” and his occupation was “pooper.”

Played HORSE in the driveway with Scott Nagy when we were kids. *

Posted by Tuscy User icon on October 15, 2026, 10:48:32, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

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"I wouldn't mind the DP here." - jumpingdan

Washington Capitals defenseman Yvon Labre

Posted by timmer User icon on October 15, 2026, 10:46:38, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

The Carousel in OCMD. Hockey clinic on their mini rink. He was on my 3 v 3 team at age 16

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(for rent)

not competitively, but shot hoops a few times with the kruger & self illini

Posted by VIV User icon on October 15, 2026, 10:42:31, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."

frankie, cook, lucas, damir, arch, etc. at ubben and ASS HALL.
played horse with kevin kruger at the kruger compound in champaign when coach had a bunch of krush members over for a party.

"the alchemy of the tartar sauce and cheese with the fish combined with the buttery steamed bun is so good." - Sounder re: a Filet O Fish

I played some pick up ball with Matt Heldman and Bears players back in the early 90s at

Posted by bucktownillini User icon on October 15, 2026, 10:22:43, in reply to "Ok fun poll. Best athlete you ever played with or against. Monty Wilson…."