By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
There were never any doubts in the minds of John and Bonnie Dauer where they were going to further their educations.
For John, a graduate of Decatur's St. Theresa High School, driving a bright orange 1971 Kaiser Jeep, accented with a Block I on the hood, told the story about how his allegiances were aligned.
As for teenager Bonnie Glasscock of Plainfield, her father, Robert, and mother, Tana, had earned University of Illinois degrees in Champaign and Chicago, respectively, so she had been thoroughly enveloped by the Illini Family.
John was the first member of his family to go to college. His father, Leo, was a Decatur policeman for 33 years, and his mother, Arlene, worked at Decatur Memorial Hospital as assistant director of food services. They provided their son with $500 a year toward his education, but John was expected to pay the rest of the tab for tuition, plus room and board at UI's Townsend Hall. He traveled home to Decatur every weekend as a freshman to work at the local K's Merchandise store, then began a three-year stint as a student manager at the Illinois Street Residence Hall's (ISR) cafeteria.
John eventually recruited Bonnie, a Wardall Hall resident, to his cafeteria staff. Though they didn't begin dating until after John graduated in 1989, he proposed to her just two days after Bonnie's graduation in 1992 (speech communication). A year later, they married.
The Dauers absolutely glow about their student experience at Illinois.
Bonnie rushed Phi Sigma Sigma sorority as a sophomore and served as a "little sister" at Sigma Tau and Kappa Sigma. She also was a football season ticket holder all four years at the U of I.
"The electricity of the game and the crowd just made it fun," remembers Bonnie. "It's a time where you bond with both fellow students and past (Illini) generations. I especially remember my dad coming down for Dad's Day. It was a reminder that this is who you are. Those are memories that make me smile."
John, who earned a chemistry degree from Illinois, fondly remembers his attendance at Memorial Stadium and the Assembly Hall.
"My favorite football memory was the Indiana game in 1988," he said. "We were a couple of touchdowns behind and it appeared it wasn't going to be our day. Suddenly we scored twice in the last two minutes and ended up winning."
"In basketball, the '89 team was magical. I particularly remember destroying Michigan. Even though we didn't win the national championship, I'm hard pressed not to believe that we weren't the best team in the nation that year."
Twenty-five years later, in 2014, John attended the 25-year reunion of the Flying Illini.
"I got to meet Coach (Lou) Henson and many of the guys, including Kenny Battle," Dauer said. "I've maintained a friendship with Kenny ever since."
Now Vice President of SCC Inc., a division of Siemans, John oversees the day-to-day operation of the North American sales office that's headquartered in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. His company sells control apparatus for boilers, burners and combustion devices.
Bonnie eventually received her Master's degree in Library Science at Dominican University in River Forest, but she's spent the past few years helping guide two children through their college careers. Their daughter, Samantha, will graduate from Pittsburgh's Point Park University in April, while their son, David, is a sophomore at the University of Missouri.
The last few years, John and David have made a special father-son trek to St. Louis for the annual Braggin' Rights Game.
"Bonnie had a trophy made for us after the first year we went," said John. "It's a full-sized gold basketball on a wooden stand. We have an in-home ceremony, just between us."
Recently, the Dauers have been decorating the basement of their home in Wayne, Illinois with a wide assortment of authentic Illini memorabilia that was available through the auctions on FightingIllini.com.
Among their items are banners that have hung in the rafters of the State Farm Center, a Maui Invitational surfboard that was autographed by the 2012 Illini team, and a variety of football and basketball trading cards.
One of John's favorite items is made of nylon.
"It's the net that the team cut down after we beat Syracuse to go to the Final Four," he said.
Bonnie admits that she probably doesn't know the full extent of the collection.
"I have had to talk John out of a few items," she chuckles. "This is still our home, so we have to tone it down a little bit."
As for Bonnie, she treasures the photo she had taken with Illini legend Dick Butkus last summer at the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame Gala inside Chicago's Field Museum.
Despite a season when Illini victories have been hard to come by, John remains confident about the future.
"I'm very optimistic about Josh Whitman's leadership," he said. "Bonnie and I fully support him and the coaches he's hired. Two days after Lovie (Smith) was hired, we renewed our season tickets again. Everything is going to turn around. There's no better time than now to jump on the bandwagon."
"We just need the facilities that Josh is seeking," said Bonnie. "We can compete with Alabama, Florida ... anybody! We've been on top before. Josh is definitely taking us in the right direction."
No doubt about it, the Dauers are Orange and Blue, through and through.
"Our family has been so blessed with what we have and where we've been able to go," said Bonnie, "and all of that comes from the foundation that we got at the University of Illinois. Everything that we've become stems from the seeds that were planted in Champaign."
