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Did you ever go to school with anyone famous?


Another Fan

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Whether it’s grade, high school, or college?

 

I went to high school with Jay Williams.  Former college basketball player of the year and Duke and now ESPN announcer.

 

 

Well he was actually a few years older than me but there was two years we intersected time there.  It was a Catholic school.  I hated the place and most other kids there.  I mean I never hanged or even met him but Jay seems a solid guy though.  I was impressed with him in the show Best Shot where he tried to mentor youth in the inner city.

 

I will just leave it as there are a lot of people imo in society that speak a good game but don’t actually gets hands on with trying to help.  It was a very good series 

 

 

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One former high school classmate, went to Hollywood and became a minor actor.  He changed his first name though for some reason.  Used to be Ken. 

Alex Carl - IMDb

 

Another classmate was arrested and served time for credit card fraud.  He worked for a company doing returns, and I forgot the actual process he was doing, but he was somehow giving returns to his own credit card.  

Carrier employee charged with stealing $350,000 - syracuse.com

Edited by Just Jack
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I was tight with Mikey Burnett up until I got married. He was/is a madman and a funny MFer. Lost a controversial decision from becomming the first UFC welterweight champ. I actually  called him a couple of weeks ago. Man it was fun to reminisce about the crazy ***** we did.

 

He was also a founding player on The Ultimate Fighter

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikey_Burnett

Edited by BUFFALOKIE
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Jim Bell was on my HS football team.  He broke Herschel Walkers HS RB rushing record, was star RB at BC, then won SB ring 49ers rookie year as kick returner.

 

I played a few baseball games against Jeff Bagwell- he was a monster back then too.

 

My buddy Christian Anderson was lead in Broadways Rent- he was always class clown and hilarious 

Edited by Pete
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Two people in my HS class, both lawyers. one good, one bad. The good one, became assistant Erie County DA.Lost in the primary  for county DA.

The  bad one, cheated clients out of close to $2 M. Caught and convicted. Served some time.  Last I heard of him  (during our 40th reunion) he was out on work release and drying cars at the car wash at a Delta Sonic.He was the guy who sold the house to Mario Williams of the Bills to pay off his swindled clients.

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not me. But my daughter attended high school with the first Asian character in the Star Wars movie franchise.

Professionally she uses her full name Kelly Marie Tran. But back then she was just Kelly Tran. The character is Rose Tico. She was a very sweet girl and involved in drama and choir with my daughter.

 

 

kelly.jpg

rose.jpg

Edited by muppy
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One of my high school classmates was editor-in-chief of one of the largest regional newspapers in Germany. Earlier in his career, he had uncovered that a bomb attack on a German prison for which a left-wing terrorist group was blamed, had actually been the work of the German secret service.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celle_Hole

Edited by DrW
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I was a freshman at CBA Syracuse when Earl Belcher was a senior. He went on to be the 2nd highest basketball scorer in St Bonaventure history, and was drafted in the NBA. Walt Patulski and Marty Domres played football there but before my time.

 

I was at Marquette University when Glenn Doc Rivers played there. He went on to a long career as an NBA player and is still a coach. I missed Al McGuire and the national championship by 2 years.

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On 2/17/2023 at 12:54 PM, Another Fan said:

Whether it’s grade, high school, or college?

 

I went to high school with Jay Williams.  Former college basketball player of the year and Duke and now ESPN announcer.

 

 

Well he was actually a few years older than me but there was two years we intersected time there.  It was a Catholic school.  I hated the place and most other kids there.  I mean I never hanged or even met him but Jay seems a solid guy though.  I was impressed with him in the show Best Shot where he tried to mentor youth in the inner city.

 

I will just leave it as there are a lot of people imo in society that speak a good game but don’t actually gets hands on with trying to help.  It was a very good series 

 

 

 

My brother-in-law a few hours away in Greenville, SC had kids in school with Zion Williamson. You had to buy season tickets to get into those private high school hoops games! 

 

On Prom night they had a bunch of kids over for a pool party. The doorbell rings, and Zion joins the party. His parents came to be sure this was a more wholesome environment than the first prom party.  (I freely admit I could fit into either party.) 

 

EDIT: To clarify, nobody I knew went on to be famous. But even better, some went on to be quite successful without being famous! 

Edited by Augie
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My wife attended school in Lackawanna with Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. She still has her Grade 5 class picture with him in it. LoL...

979144924_TrumanGrade5ClassOf78.thumb.jpg.bbfb073a3ca61c6efdf0deaffbee6a2f.jpg

She's the one,  first to left, first row kneeling with wings and goofy sweater. Hubba hubba! Pure class attracts class!😆 🤣 

 

I went to HS, graduated with:

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Strzelczyk

 

On football team with him.  Weird, I was lineman, he was wide receiver.  Pretty tragic with the CTE and death incident. Really good guy...

Edited by ExiledInIllinois
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7 hours ago, muppy said:

not me. But my daughter attended high school with the first Asian character in the Star Wars movie franchise.

Professionally she uses her full name Kelly Marie Tran. But back then she was just Kelly Tran. The character is Rose Tico. She was a very sweet girl and involved in drama and choir with my daughter.

 

 

kelly.jpg

rose.jpg


She got a lot of crap from “fans” even tho she wasn’t the one who wrote the dialogue / story or the spacecraft charge against Kylo Ren that was like 400 feet but lasted 10 minutes. I hesitate to say that Rian Johnson ruined the sequels, but… he did them no favors.

 

I had a gen-ed class at the U where I sat next to Sue Bird; most of the rest of the women’s team was also in the class, they won the national championship. Passed by many of the athletes at the time but just walked by, they were just trying to do school too. … Childhood best friend has been in several movies and shows. Not BIG parts, but decent, including scenes with ScarJo and Tom Cruise. Cool to see someone you know on the big screen.

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Heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney grew up a couple of blocks from me but he's a few years older. I can remember him visiting the high school leading up to one of his title fights.

 

And I was in the same college graduation class as NHL Hall of Famer Adam Oates. A few other players had lesser success in the NHL including Sabres goalie Darren Puppa. I remember crossing paths with him once in an administration building and overheard someone tell him to make sure to let them know if he needed anything. Not sure why, but I didn't get a similar offer from the staff.

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I went to college and played volleyball with George Santos, obviously I was the backup as his skill set was so incredible that he took up two positions on the court any time he was out there. Sadly he played in 26 of the 22 games we played, so I really never had a chance to show my stuff.

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9 hours ago, UConn James said:


She got a lot of crap from “fans” even tho she wasn’t the one who wrote the dialogue / story or the spacecraft charge against Kylo Ren that was like 400 feet but lasted 10 minutes. I hesitate to say that Rian Johnson ruined the sequels, but… he did them no favors.

 

I had a gen-ed class at the U where I sat next to Sue Bird; most of the rest of the women’s team was also in the class, they won the national championship. Passed by many of the athletes at the time but just walked by, they were just trying to do school too. … Childhood best friend has been in several movies and shows. Not BIG parts, but decent, including scenes with ScarJo and Tom Cruise. Cool to see someone you know on the big screen.

I read about her catching flack for stuff beyond her control like you said but also a lot of racial hate. Haters are gonna hate. Poor girl. The internet can be vicious even cruel. I saw this cartoon recently and it fits. Shrug it off as best you can Kelly. That kind of speech is  routed in jealousy as far as Im concerned.

 

Random fact here but where I live borders on 2 high school boundaries. When the new Westview high school opened current junior and senior students got to choose which school they attended.  My daughter and Kelly chose Westview. The Queen and American Idol star Adam Lambert attended   Mt Carmel High a few years earlier which was the other choice. He also was a drama kid and was active with a group in Poway that my daughter was. Small world sometimes

 

Someone famous eh? Yeah OOF the guy in Colorado who dressed as Batman and entered the movie theater in Aurora CO? James Holmes . Westview class of 2006

 

daughter 2005 son 2007. Super smart guy went shizophrenic

 

 

haters.jpg

Edited by muppy
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11 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

My wife attended school in Lackawanna with Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. She still has her Grade 5 class picture with him in it. LoL...

979144924_TrumanGrade5ClassOf78.thumb.jpg.bbfb073a3ca61c6efdf0deaffbee6a2f.jpg

She's the one,  first to left, first row kneeling with wings and goofy sweater. Hubba hubba! Pure class attracts class!😆 🤣 

 

I went to HS, graduated with:

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Strzelczyk

 

On football team with him.  Weird, I was lineman, he was wide receiver.  Pretty tragic with the CTE and death incident. Really good guy...

 

 

 

Even me someone who lives 400 miles away from Orchard Park recognized Mark's name.  It seems he always used to pop up in stories talking about Buffalo Bills fan behavior at and or around the Stadium 😂

 

 

 

I don't remember Justin.  Seems he had a very fascinating short life.  You might have just gave me something to watch some night this week that Concussion movie 

 

 

 

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Not sure how "famous" he is, but I went through high school at St. Joe's and graduated with Vaughn Parker in 1989.

 

He was an all NY State phenom football player; went to UCLA; got converted to OLman; drafted by SD Chargers; played for many years as the starting left guard for the Chargers.

 

I can still see him walking down the hallway at school, wearing khakis, a button down, and a tie...and being a head taller and way bigger than anyone around; he was like 6'4" and 280 as a teenager.

 

157530-10193802Fr.jpg

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11 hours ago, SinceThe70s said:

 

Heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney grew up a couple of blocks from me but he's a few years older. I can remember him visiting the high school leading up to one of his title fights.

 

And I was in the same college graduation class as NHL Hall of Famer Adam Oates. A few other players had lesser success in the NHL including Sabres goalie Darren Puppa. I remember crossing paths with him once in an administration building and overheard someone tell him to make sure to let them know if he needed anything. Not sure why, but I didn't get a similar offer from the staff.


I remember Adam Oates from his Adirondack Red Wings days. I’m pretty sure I was in 2nd or 3rd grade at the time. 

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