Greg Rose Hall of Fame Member

Greg Rose (1960-1994) by Dave Cyplick

"One of Will County′s Finest Distance Runners Killed By a Drunk Driver" was the headline in the Joliet Herald News on a September morning in 1994. Greg Rose, 34, had developed into one of the finest runners in Northern Illinois. He had finished in second place out of nearly 2,000 runners at the Lake County 10K and was nearly always finishing at the very top in local races, often dueling with Gary Moss, or Lance Bovard for first, second or third place.

Greg was a fairly soft spoken guy who was genuinely interested in what you had to say. I ran in my first 10K race in Morris in 1992. Afterwards, I was in the stands at Morris High School telling some guy how I struggled to finish, being way overdressed. He asked me a bunch of questions and we talked like we had known each other for a long time, rather than having just met. Just then, they announced the race winner, and the guy next to me turned out to be Greg, the winner of the race.

We honored Greg by holding a race in his memory at Pilcher Park. Greg′s brother was a Will County Sheriff and the number of Police that turned out was phenomenal! No race will ever have traffic control that good again! When I go on the Briggs Street overpass at I-80 where Greg was killed, I think about what happened there and how Greg was close to the end of a 15 miler he was doing that day. We all miss you, Greg!

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