in the morning. It was kind of like Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.”

Sager went on to attend Northwestern. He failed at an attempt to walk on to the football team, did get some playing time after walking on to the basketball team and spent time wearing the Willie the Wildcat costume.

His career goal was to join Jack Brickhouse on Cubs broadcasts, but he ended up working as a weather forecaster in Tampa, Florida, before becoming a sports anchor.

He started working for CNN in March 1981.

Sager’s second wife, former Luv-a-Bull Stacey Jo Strebel, is a Rolling Meadows High School grad.

While working the sidelines for TNT, Sager constantly was reminded of his roots in Illinois high school basketball.

“You look at that time, I used to play against (Elgin’s) Rick Sund,” Sager said. “Doug Collins was playing downstate in Benton. Not too far removed was (Duke coach) Mike Krzyzewski (at Weber High School). (Spurs coach) Gregg Popovich was playing at that time (in Merrillville, Indiana).

“Later, there was Doc Rivers and Isiah Thomas. Before that, we had Jerry Sloan and Jerry Colangelo. There’s just a tremendous bond between those of us who played high school basketball in Illinois.”