Notable People From Champaign-Urbana Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. When you think of movie critics, I bet you think of this longtime Chicago Sun-Times critic. Born and raised in Urbana, he is often remembered for the television program which he hosted with Gene Siskel, where they would rate films with a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down".

Answer: Roger Ebert

Ebert was born in 1942 in Urbana. He graduated from Urbana High and the University of Illinois. Early in his career, he wrote for the local Champaign News-Gazette and the Daily Illini newspapers.

Ebert is also still remembered for "Ebertfest", a film festival held annually in April at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign. It started as "Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival" in 1999. Ebert passed away in 2013.

A statue of him was erected in front of the Virginia Theatre in 2014.

2. This commentator is known for his bow tie, glasses, and love of baseball, in addition to his political views. Born in Champaign, who is this Pulitzer Prize winning writer?

Answer: George F. Will

George Will was born in 1941 in Champaign. His father taught at the university. He attended Uni High before leaving the area for college.

Will edited the National Review in the 1970s, and had a syndicated column on political commentary for the Washington Post. He also was a television commentator on ABC, and later Fox News.

Known for libertarian and conservative views, Will has also made a name for himself as a baseball fan, especially for being a fan of his beloved Chicago Cubs.

3. This Champaign woman was a darling of the Winter Olympics at Lillehammer in 1994. She won two gold medals in speed skating, and landed herself on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the Sportswoman of the Year. Who is she?

Answer: Bonnie Blair

Bonnie Blair was actually born in New York state, but her family moved to Champaign when she was very little. She attended at Centennial High School in Champaign, where she was a cheerleader and member of the student council. She also took some classes at the local community college, Parkland. Blair won five total gold medals in her Olympic career: one at Calgary in 1988, two at Albertville in 1992, and the final two at Lillehammer. I can recall how the whole community was thrilled with her performance at Lillehammer.

She now has a street named after her in Champaign, Bonnie Blair Drive.

Blair is hardly the only speed skating Olympian from Champaign. One of her teammates in Lillehammer, Chantal Bailey, was also from Champaign, as was Katherine Reutter, who won a silver medal in speed skating in 2010 at Vancouver. Jonathan Kuck, an Urbana native, also won a silver medal in speed skating on the men's side in 2010.

4. Philip W. Anderson from Urbana won a Nobel Prize in 1977, which he shared with two other people, "for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems". In what field do you suppose he won?

Answer: Physics

Champaign-Urbana can claim many Nobel laureates, although quite a few are simply those who attended or taught at the University of Illinois and don't otherwise have a connection to the community. A few are natives, however, including Anderson. Anderson, though born in Indiana, was raised in Urbana and attended Uni High.

Uni High, officially University Laboratory High School, is a competitive lab high school on the University of Illinois campus. It can claim three Nobel winners to date: Anderson, Hamilton Smith (Medicine, 1978) and James Tobin (Economics, 1981).

5. This actor and rap artist was born in Champaign, though he didn't grow up there. Born Christopher Brian Bridges, he has achieved multi-platinum status with albums like "Word of Mouf" and "Chicken-n-Beer". He's also an actor, appearing several times in the Fast and Furious film series. Who is this 'ridiculous' man?

Answer: Ludacris

Christopher 'Ludacris' Brown was born in Champaign in 1977, and spent his first several years in the community, moving away at age 9. He returned to Champaign for a concert at the Assembly Hall in 2004.

6. Champaign-Urbana, like many college towns, has a thriving music scene. One artist in particular is a standout, winning over 20 Grammy awards to date in the field of bluegrass, placing her among the most awarded artists in history. Who is this artist that performs with Union Station?

Answer: Alison Krauss

Though born in nearby Decatur, Illinois, Alison Krauss grew up in Champaign. While still a child, she played fiddle at the Champaign County fair and later the Illinois State Fair. She attended at Champaign's Central High School, though she did not graduate.

In 2021 she was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in Owensboro, Kentucky. Champaign has renamed a block of West Hill Street the "Honorary Alison Krauss Way".

7. On to literature! Iris Chang is from Champaign-Urbana. She is well-known for writing a shocking best-seller, called "The Rape of -------" in 1997. What was the fourth word in the title?

Answer: Nanking

Chang was born in New Jersey but raised in Champaign-Urbana. She attended at Uni High and later the University of Illinois, graduating in 1989 with a journalism degree. Her parents were both professors originally from China. In grade school, she wrote her own advice column, and she continued her writing at Uni High.

Told as a child about the Nanking Massacre, she was unable to find books on the subject at the Champaign Public Library. This made her wonder about the event, which led her to write her novel on the Nanking Massacre.

Released in 1997, "The Rape of Nanking" was a New York Times bestseller. Chang received several offers to lecture and interview on the subject following the book's success. She died in 2004.

8. Bob Richards was an Olympic pole vaulter, winning the gold medal twice in the 1950s. He's a Champaign native that's also known for what first for athletes? You might know this if you ate breakfast today.

Answer: Having his picture on the front of a Wheaties box

Richards was born in 1926 in Champaign. He attended at Champaign Central High and also the University of Illinois. He competed in three Olympic games between 1948 and 1956 as a pole vaulter and decathlete, and is, to date, the only two-time Olympic pole vaulting champion, winning in Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956.

He was Wheaties's first spokesperson, as well as the first athlete to be pictured on the front of the box. (Wheaties had previously pictured athletes on the sides and back, but never the front.) A devout Christian, Richards was a minister in the Church of the Brethren, being ordained in 1946. He also ran for President on the Populist Party ticket in 1984.

9. You may not know the name Michael Stern Hart, but you may know his work. This Urbana resident created an internet site where e-books are freely made available. It's named after the inventor of a moveable type printing press. What is it?

Answer: Project Gutenberg

Hart was born in Washington state in 1947, but moved to Urbana as a child. He attended at Urbana High School and later the University of Illinois.

In college, Hart had a friend that set him up with an account and time to use a university mainframe computer. Encouraged by this boon, Hart considered what would be the best use of this time. He one day typed and uploaded the text of the American Declaration of Independence, to be made available to anyone who could access it.

This became the first of many works of literature, which eventually became Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg is a website where volunteers make available works of literature that are in the public domain, which can be downloaded as e-books. It's now grown to over 60,000 titles, and has inspired similar websites in other nations. Hart's work has led to some sources even crediting him as the inventor of the e-book.

Hart passed away in Urbana in 2011.

10. Bill Geist is a Champaign native who worked as a journalist. He can claim a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! For what field of work did he receive it?

Answer: Television

Bill Geist was born in 1945 in Champaign. He attended at Central High School in Champaign and at the University of Illinois, where he earned a degree in communications.

He worked as a reporter and columnist for the Suburban Trib in Chicago, and later the New York Times, before joining CBS News in 1987. He did commentary for CBS's evening news program as well as CBS Sports, "CBS Sunday Morning", and "60 Minutes II". He is also the author of several books. Geist is mainly remembered for lighter commentary on culture.

He won two Emmy awards for his work, and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011. He retired in 2018.

Source: Author bisaacs90

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ponycargirl before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Champaign and Urbana, Illinois, are twin cities mainly known for being the home of the University of Illinois's main campus. But they have had their share of notable people. I bet you know a lot of these!

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