Category: Hall Of Fame

Biographies of people from the Kenosha area who made it to the big time.

Dick Bosman

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Dick Bosman
Athlete Birthplace: Kenosha, WI and Pinellas County, FL You Know Him As: Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and Oakland Athletics. Dick Bosman holds a distinction that no man in history may ever equal: He’s the only man from Kenosha to ever throw a no-hitter in a Major League Baseball game. Bosman did the deed on July 19, 1974, as a member of the Cleveland Indians. In that once-in-a-lifetime performance, Bosman no-hit the eventual World Series champion Oakland A’s in a 4-0 Indians victory. Unfortunately, he had nobody to blame but himself for missing out on a rare perfect game, committing a throwing error in the fourth inning that put the only A’s runner on base. Nonetheless, his no-hitter against a lineup that included Reggie Jackson and Sal Bando was a spectacular accomplishment. Bosman was born in Kenosha on Feb. 17, 1944, and was known throughout his... More

Alan Ameche

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Alan Ameche
Football Player Birthplace: Kenosha, WI You Know Him As: Winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1954;played for Baltimore Colts until 1960. Did You Know?: As a youth, Alan won the light heavyweight Golden Gloves novice boxing championship of Kenosha by default; all of his rivals dropped out after learning Ameche had entered the tournament. It’s one of the most famous pictures in NFL history. A man crashing into the end zone past a defender, a classic black-and-white photo of the ending to what’s known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” In the background is Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas, one of the most iconic figures the NFL has ever known. But the man crashing into the end zone with the ball? Well, he’s from Kenosha. It’s Alan Ameche, certainly the best football player Kenosha has ever produced and arguably the best athlete overall. He scored what remains one of the... More

Nick Van Exel

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Nick Van Exel
Basketball Player Hometown: Kenosha, WI You Know Him From: NBA’s LA Lakers, Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks Nick Van Exel Biography by Mike Johnson Perhaps NBC broadcaster Bob Costas described the early days of Nick Van Exel’s NBA career the best: “It seemed like there was always some problem, something that he was upset about.” Costas said these words in 1998, when Van Exel was sent from the Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA’s penthouse suite, to the Denver Nuggets, the NBA’s dumpster. The main reason for L.A.’s trade? Van Exel’s attitude. Van Exel didn’t exactly give off the best impression his first few years, and he often butted heads with coaches. He and then-Lakers head coach Del Harris weren’t friends, and they had a well-publicized rocky relationship. Van Exel was also the culprit in one of the NBA’s most infamous incidents, shoving referee Ron Garretson into a scorer’s table during... More

Jim Chones

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Jim Chones
Athlete Birthplace: Racine, WI Did You Know?: All five of his children would eventually become Division 1 basketball players. The trend of basketball players leaving college early for the pros or skipping college altogether is familiar these days. At one time, however, it was not. Like in 1972, when Racine native Jim Chones chose to forego his senior season at Marquette to play professional basketball. After being named that season to the UPI and AP College All-American First Team and playing in the 1972 Pan American Games that year, Chones decided to go pro. That made him just the second player in NCAA history to leave college before graduating to turn pro. It’s safe to say the decision worked out, as Chones enjoyed a successful 10-year pro career that began in the American Basketball Association with the New York Nets in 1973 and the Carolina Cougars in 1974. Chones joined... More

Chuck Jaskwhich

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Chuck Jaskwhich
Football Coach Birthplace: Kenosha, WI You Know Him From: The name across the stadium at Indian Trail High School Did you know?: Charles Joseph Jaskwhich (March 4, 1911 – January 12, 1988) was an American football player and coach. Jaskwhich was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin to Polish immigrant parents. He attended Kenosha High School where he graduated in 1929. Jaskwhich attended Notre Dame University, where he played on the last Fighting Irish football squad coached by Knute Rockne in 1930. After graduation Jaskwhich accepted the position of head football coach for the Holy Cross Tigers in New Orleans, and then in 1938 he was hired as both head basketball coach and football backfield coach for Ole Miss, where he spent five years. During World War II, he served in a temporary capacity as the assistant football coach for the Naval pre-flight school on the University of Georgia campus. In 1945... More

Orson Welles

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Orson Welles
Actor/Director Birthplace: Kenosha, WI You Know Him From: Radio broadcast of War of the Worlds (1938) and Academy Award-winning screenplay, Citizen Kane (1949). Did Your Know?: As Orson once noted of his hometown, “I never blamed my folks for Kenosha — Kenosha has always blamed my folks for me.” “Hitler managed to scare all of Europe to its knees… but at least had an army and an air force to back up his shrieking words. But Mr. Welles scared thousands into demoralization with nothing at all,” wrote Dorothy Thompson in an article in the New York Tribune regarding the disastrous effects of Orson Welles’ theatrical radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds.” It all happened the day before Halloween on October 30, 1938. Millions of Americans had tuned in to the station that featured plays directed by and often starring Orson Welles -except this night was different-Orson had made... More

Concetta Tomei

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Concetta Tomei
Birthplace: Kenosha, WI You Know Her As: Major Lila Gureau on China Beach; Ellen McGrath on Picket Fences. Mom from Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead (1991), Lynda Hansen on NBC’s Providence. Did you Know?: Tomei is a non-smoker in real life, and for her role on “Providence,” she used herbal cigarettes. Concetta Tomei was born on December 30, 1945 and grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin as an only child. Since being an only child was quite lonely, Concetta recounts that “animals were my friends and probably my surrogate brothers and sisters.” Likewise, her father was a police officer who enjoyed doing animal rescue work and he often brought the animals home because he didn’t want them ending up in a shelter. Concetta explains saying that “there would be a litter of kittens and they would want to put them to sleep and my day would bring them home to... More

Mark Ruffalo

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Mark Ruffalo
Hometown: Kenosha, WI; Virginia Beach, VA; San Diego, CA You Know Him From: The Avengers , Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and 13 Going on 30 . Did You Know?: Richard Anderson, managing partner of Kenosha’s Chops On The Lake restaurant, lived with Ruffalo in Los Angeles in the 1980s while they both attended Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting and, like true starving actors, ate “batches of tuna with noodles for weeks straight.” Mark Alan Ruffalo was born November 22, 1967 in Kenosha, WI to Marie Rose (a hairdresser/stylist) and Frank Lawrence (a construction painter). He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott. Mark lived in Kenosha until his teen years, when his family relocated to Virginia Beach, VA. After his high school graduation from First Colonial High School, Mark followed his family to San Diego, CA., but eventually migrated north and settled in Los Angeles.... More

Al Molinaro

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Al Molinaro
Birthplace: Kenosha, WI You Know Him As: Al on Happy Days, Murray the cop on The Odd Couple. Did You Know?: While the band actually formed in Los Angeles, California, most people continue to assume that rock band, Weezer, hails from Kenosha. Credit for this misconception goes to Molinaro who, when given the option of using the city name of his own choosing for the intro to the ‘Buddy Holly’ video, snuck in a plug for his own hometown: “Arnold’s is proud to present Kenosha, Wisconsin’s own… Weezer!”. People familiar with the sitcom “Happy Days” and the TV commercials for On-Cor frozen dinners are of course familiar with charismatic Al Molinaro. Al was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin on June 24, 1919. He grew up there with his parents Rafaele and Teresa and his ten brothers and sisters at his boyhood home at 2417 53rd Street in Kenosha’s “Old West Side”... More

Frederic March

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Frederic March
Actor Birthplace: Racine, WI You Know Him As: An actor most active during the ‘20s-’40s for such movies as “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946), “Inherit the Wind” (1960), “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1931), “The Iceman Cometh” (1973) and “A Star is Born” (1937). Did you know? In 1924 March met and married Ellis Baker, a dancer in one of the local shows. However, their marriage lasted only three years. On Aug. 31, 1897 Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel was born in Racine to parents John Frederick Bickel and Cora Brown Marcher Bickel. He was the youngest of four children. His siblings were Harold Leroy (1887), Jack M. (1892) and Rosina Elizabeth (1889). John Bickel was president and treasurer of Racine Hardware Manufacturing Company, which manufactured both wagon hardware and office supplies. Little Ernest Bickel had a happy middle-class childhood. He attended Winslow Grammar School (established in 1855) and... More
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