TSG Sun

Play or Pose Reunion…get on the bandwagon now!

By all accounts, Billy stuck to his word and never worked another day in his life after he quit Coslow’s. At one point, when he could no longer afford to life in Champaign, he was living in Rantoul and would walk, pockets empty, to the Esquire hoping to see a familiar face who would favor him a drink.

Lars noted in recent years whenever he would see Billy around town he would buy him a beer, give him five dollars and a ride. He said he last saw Billy on Friday at the intersection near where he was killed on Saturday, however, the amount of traffic was prohibitive in allowing him to get Billy’s attention to give him a ride.

CHAMPAIGN – Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup released the name of the man struck by a train on Saturday evening.

Northrup said William “Billy” Hayes, 52, of Champaign was struck by a northbound train about 100 yards north of the Springfield Avenue viaduct while attempting to cross the tracks at about 8:25 p.m.

Northrup pronounced Mr. Hayes dead at the scene at about 9:15 p.m. Saturday.

According to Northrup, Mr. Hayes died from multiple traumatic injuries. No autopsy was performed.

Northrup said he is waiting for the results of toxicology tests and that an inquest may be held at a later date.

The incident continues to be investigated by the Champaign County Coroner’s office and the Champaign Police Department.

 TSG

…coincidence?

The Daily Illini hosted the Illini Media Hall of Fame dinner on September 15, and I took a day off to attend the dinner. It was fun to get out of Chicago for the day and see C-U again.

I got a chance to skate the skateboard park in Champaign. Which, by the way, isn’t that well constructed and is only marginally fun.

The whole thing was pretty cool. Author Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, McSweeneys) did a reading and presentation and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Eggers was inducted along with Gene Shalit, Larry Doyle (The Simpsons, Beavis & Butthead, Spy Magazine) and Robert Novak (The Prince of Darkness, Sun-Times political columnist), among others.

Dinner was great and then most of us went to The Esquire for further conversation and beverages.

Downtown Champaign has changed dramatically. I barely recognize it. It looks grownup. I was really impressed.

My brother Steve, Phil Rockrohr and Mark Royko (all former DI) all pussed out on me, despite my constant begging to go down.  PANSIES!

Last year, by coincidence, The Didgits played down there. Randy Gawlik and Scary came into town. My brother Steve attended. And we had the honor of hanging out with Lars. That was incredibly fun. This year was not so eventful. I kept hoping I would run into Don or Lars, but it didn’t happen. Oh well…it was fun anyways.

Do you guys remember Pat Fremgen?

He was never a member of TSG. But he was acquainted with many members of the house. I believe he was a roomate of Todd one summer. He somehow became my roomate sophomore year in the dorms in Scott Hall due to some hardly remembered circumstances. So Tall Rich, Oreo, TK, Todd and others were familiar with him.

Pat was a nice guy. Smart. I guess that’s obvious since he made it to medical school.
Pat liked to drink. A lot. More often than was healthy, he would drink a wee too much and then have “confrontations” with others. Often this would lead to fisticuffs. More often than not, Pat was on the receiving end and came home with various bruises, contusions, etc.

Pat is now Dr. Patrick Fremgen. He’s an ophthalmologist. In other words, (for Scary’s sake) he’s an eye doctor. He is partners in a Wisconsin-based Eye Clinic.

Here is a link to his website:

http://www.eyephysician.com/html/drfremgen.html

According to his bio, he is not married.