My father played minor league baseball in the St. Louis Browns organization; Kris’ dad was a three-sport athlete at Iowa State. In fact, he was in the first class that got athletic scholarships at Iowa State. And those two set a trend that now goes on because our nephew, Eric Norman (Freeport, IL), son of Pete Norman, will go to University of Wisconsin Platteville to play baseball.
Kris’ oldest brother, Ron, played basketball at University of Iowa with Freddie Brown and his coach was the legendary Ralph Miller. Kris’ younger brother, Tom, played at Iowa in the days of Lute Olson and Ronnie Lester. Pete, her youngest brother, played at Eastern Illinois. Kris’ sister, Pat, is a basketball coach at Bartlett and her husband, Bob, was a D-I runner at Murray State University in Kentucky and an athletic director and former coach. Their daughter, Kari, just graduated from the University of New Hampshire where she was a track and field scholarship athlete. I played basketball and high jumped (once or twice) at Cornerstone in the mid 70s. Kris set the grade school record in our hometown for the 50 yard dash. (There were no womens’ sports in her high school days.) Our son, Lukas, played at Kansas and then for five seasons in the Cubs organization. Our daughter, Laura, played high school volleyball and softball.

One time my then colleague, DA Carson laughingly suggested I’d get more done if I spent less time watching the Cubs — which was a comment in part about the Cubs, I’m sure — and my response — well, it’s in the blood brother.