I’ve had a few brushes with the famous – or at least the renowned, sometimes even the notorious – over the years.

My long career in journalism of course brought me within a notepad or recording device of numerous big-name politicians, from governors and members of Congress to ex-presidents and several presidential hopefuls.

Perhaps my favorite interview of all time, though, was with Jello Biafra, ex-frontman of the punk band the Dead Kennedys, when he made a bid for the Green Party nomination to run for president. Unfortunately for him, that was the same year another big name and personal hero of mine, Ralph Nader, got the nomination and shook up the 2000 election. I covered the Greens’ nominating convention in Denver that year, and while Jello was more than accommodating for some one-on-one interview time, Ralph’s time was reserved for the big-time media.

During the 1996 election year, I did have the chance to go hear Nader speak at Fort Lewis College in Durango and ended up being invited along with several others to join the man of the hour for dinner at the local Denny’s.

Talk about a Grand Slam!

Except that we were at opposite ends of the big table, and I didn’t really catch a word he said for all the banging from the nearby kitchen.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about my college days at Eastern Illinois University, especially with the recent resurgence of the Denver Broncos under the tutelage of head coach Sean Payton.

During our senior year in 1986, he quarterbacked the EIU Panthers to an 11-2 record and the Gateway Conference championship, capped by a quarterfinal run in the NCAA Division 1-AA playoffs.

I vividly remember being in the stands for the homecoming game against Northern Iowa that year, when his talents as a star quarterback out of the Chicago suburb of Naperville were on full display. Yet, it was the strong foot of kicker Rich Ehmke who secured the 31-30 win with a 58-yard field goal — an almost unheard of distance at the time, college or pro, let alone in the thick air of east-central Illinois.

Although I was a sports writer for the campus newspaper, I didn’t cover the football team and never had a chance to interview Payton, Ehmke, defensive lineman John Jurkovic or any of the other stars on that team.

I did run across some of them on the occasional weekend night rampage, where the main purpose of my group of Deadhead hippie outcasts was to crash as many frat parties as we could get away with, without getting our butts kicked.

Eastern was made up of a lot of University of Illinois rejects and junior college transfers, like myself. While I had true farmland roots, having grown up in the cornfields between Rockford and Peoria, the vast majority of the student body came from Chicagoland.

Some of the most iconic ’80s teen movies were set in places like Glencoe, Elgin, Northbrook and Lake Forest. Think “Risky Business,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “brat pack” classics like “Sixteen Candles,” “Pretty in Pink” and “The Breakfast Club.”

No one defined the “yuppie” era better than kids from the Chicago ‘burbs. The Jim McMahon-led Chicago Bears, who won the Superbowl the same year the EIU Panthers had their 5 minutes of fame, also seemed to epitomize that period of time.

With the exception of Walter Payton and Mike Singletary, I didn’t much care for Da Bears and even rooted for the Champaign Tony Eason-led New England Patriots in the big game. Glad I didn’t have money on that one.

But I always had a soft spot for Sean Payton, maybe because of his shared namesake with “Sweetness.” Later on, I had to hand it to Coach Payton and the New Orleans Saints for giving Drew Brees a second chance when the San Diego Chargers wouldn’t. That worked out pretty well.

The “bounty” scandal of the 2011 season was definitely a low point in Payton’s coaching career — chalk it up to self-absorbed suburbanite yuppie-ism.

That aside, I’ve always admired his coaching prowess, and if it can turn the Bronco ship around, so be it. It’ll be fun to watch, anyway, and that Eastern Illinois connection worked once before.

Among some other famous Panther alumni are former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, ex-Vikings and Chiefs coach Brad Childress, NFL QBs Tony Romo and Jimmy Garoppolo, former MLB all-stars Marty Pattin and Kevin Seitzer as well as former NBA all-star Kevin Duckworth (Boy, was he fun to watch in his college days!).

On the entertainment front, our biggest claims to fame are actor/director John Malkovich – and of course, who can forget one of the greatest holiday voices of all time, Burl Ives.

Oh by golly, have a Holly, Jolly Christmas, this year! And, go Broncs!

John Stroud is a freelance writer and longtime Roaring Fork Valley journalist living in Carbondale.