M-S Schools Foundation 2025 Hall of Fame Class
Kyle Kimme 1997
Doug Parrett 1969
Joe Sapp 2003
Wendy Wagner Pierce 2001
Induction date: Friday, Sept.19, 2025
By FRED KRONER
We were two kids riding on a yellow school bus, mostly over gravel roads but with a mixture of a few asphalt pavements.
The stop at my house was about halfway through the morning route. The last stop before we reached school was at the rural home of Harold and Thelma Parrett.
Three children boarded the bus there. Julie was the oldest, then there was Doug and finally Tom, who was one grade ahead of me.
We didn’t often – if ever – sit together. Several of the other passengers were closer in age to the Parretts than me. The Turners (who are my cousins), the Andersons and the Bidners had multiple school-age children in the mid-1960s.
We five families had more in common than the commute. All of our fathers were farmers in Newcomb Township, or nearby north of Mahomet.
Some of us – not me – made the farming profession our livelihood. Others left the farmstead but kept their hands in the industry.
Doug Parrett was one who remained active and involved for life. After graduating from Mahomet-Seymour in 1969 – where he was a starter and co-captain in both football and basketball – Parrett enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he eventually almost became one of my instructors.
Only thing was, I didn’t know he had even gone to the UI nor did I realize he was a graduate assistant teacher when I made an appointment with one of the college’s agriculture instructors.
My go-to choice for the meeting was Dr. John Herbst, whose son, Robert, was my classmate and a future roommate.
Dr. Herbst single-handedly stopped me from being one of the 8,120 students who took Parrett’s Animal Science 100 introductory class during his tenure. When I told Dr. Herbst that I had absolutely zero interest in farming or even working in a related field, he correctly advised me it would be in my best interest to select other electives more suitable for my major in communications.
I didn’t see Doug Parrett again for a few years – actually, it was more like a few decades – until he spoke to me at a high school gymnasium and asked if I remembered him.
I was at Centennial High School in 1999 to watch a girls’ basketball game and, in particular, a freshman who was quickly establishing herself as one of the area’s elite players.
It didn’t require a math major to put this equation together. The freshman sensation was Annie Parrett. The person standing beside me was Doug Parrett, whom I correctly assumed was her father.
Of course, I remembered the smiling, jovial man who extended his right hand.
After a stellar prep career, Annie Parrett was ultimately enshrined in the Centennial High School Hall of Fame.
She won’t be the only family member to earn such prestigious recognition.
Doug Parrett will be honored posthumously by his alma mater in September, when he will be part of a four-member class inducted into the M-S Schools Foundation Hall of Fame.
My only regret is that it didn’t happen at least four years earlier. Doug Parrett died of a heart attack on Aug. 26, 2022. He was 71.
***
Doug Parrett was a halfback in football and a guard in basketball during his time with the Bulldogs. Those facts are mere footnotes to his illustrious professional career.
After spending his undergraduate years at the UI, Parrett devoted his next 49 years to the university. He taught beef production classes, including one on the morning he died, and the introductory Animal Science course which was required for freshmen.
He won 20 awards for teaching excellence at the UI. Parrett was a professor, a judging coach and a research collaborator as well as an involved father and husband.
He is one of a handful of people who were members of a national championship judging team as a student (1972) at the North American International Livestock Expo who also later coached students to a national title (1982) in the same event.
The success didn’t stop there. In 31 years of coaching, Parrett’s teams captured 16 national championships, mostly at the annual Meat Animal Evaluation contests.
His contributions didn’t go unnoticed.
Within 48 hours of his death, a memorial scholarship at the University of Illinois was established in his name to support members of the livestock judging team.
In 2023, Parrett was enshrined in the Angus Heritage Foundation Hall of Fame.
“That would have floored him,” his widow, Susie Parrett, says. The couple was married for nearly 43 years and had two children, John and Annie.
The UI stock pavilion was dedicated in his honor – the Dr. Doug Parrett Memorial Arena – on March 8, 2024.
In January, 2025, his myriad plaques were placed on display in locked cases at the stock pavilion.
“There are lot of things to keep his memory and legacy alive,” Susie Parrett says.
Parrett was twice chosen as the interim department head in animal sciences.
“He was a very efficient administrator,” says Dr. Tom Carr, who worked and coached with Parrett for more than three decades.
In 2017, Parrett was recognized as the winner of the Charles A. Luckman Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching at Illinois, an honor which signifies the top UI campus teaching honor.
Parrett earned both his master’s and doctorate degrees from the UI.
His impact and iconic status at the school – and to the community beyond the campus boundaries – was obvious on the day of his visitation, Sept. 6, 2022. The service was held at his second home, the UI Stock Pavilion.
“It was scheduled from 4-7,” Susie Parrett recalls. “I got there at 3 and people were already lined up. I saw the last one at 10 o’clock.”
Parrett judged cattle shows in 35 states and five countries.
For all of the individual accolades and national titles, it’s easy to overlook another key element of the Doug Parrett Story.
It’s the human component.
“He prioritized people,” Susie Parrett says. “He mentored his students like they were his children.”
Annie Parrett holds many fond memories of her father, the person she calls, “my most influential coach.”
One remembrance occurred years after her playing career had ended.
“When my parents sold my childhood home in 2021, my dad called me to meet him there for one last game of H-O-R-S-E before the closing,” Annie Parrett says.
Her dad was always a willing rebounder when she wanted to work on her shot at home, but the time together was more than her shooting a ball and him fetching it.
“As I grew, he always made time to play with me, even when I started consistently beating him in H-O-R-S-E,” she says.
“During hours of rebounding my shots on the driveway and endless nights of basketball practices, games and road trips, we talked about life and shared many special moments way beyond sports,” she adds.
“He taught me to be competitive from an early age and instilled in me a love of sports. Whether it be playing catch, skipping rocks, or shooting hoops, he developed my athletic skills by teaching me rules, strategies, and skills – how to shoot, pass, catch, throw, defend, etc.”
“He started a saying in my house growing up that went like this: ‘You’re Annie Parrett,’ which meant that I could do anything if I put my heart into it. This frequently repeated saying built my confidence and made me feel special. I think his words of encouragement and positive presence had a similar impact on every student he taught and player he coached.”
The H-O-R-S-E games were legendary, at least within the Parrett home and their neighborhood.
“In his obituary we included that family games of H-O-R-S-E were known to be highly competitive,” John Parrett recalls. “‘Highly competitive’ is the nice way of saying someone often came inside crying.”
Dr. Dan Shike, who co-taught with Parrett, has no doubts that Parrett was a positive influence on his students like he was with his family.
“Doug had an unbelievable ability to make everyone feel important and special,” Shike says. “He was so relatable.
“You could have a room full of Ph.Ds., a roomful of freshmen students or a room full of cowboys, and he could have a conversation.
“He’d light up a room when he was there.”
Parrett was also genuinely concerned about others.
“He’d lighten up when he was sharing stories about his kids,” Shike recalls, “and when mine got older and I started sharing, he was just as excited.”
Doug Parrett revamped the UI’s Animal Science department curriculum and he was credited with creating at least five new courses.
Dr. Bob Easter worked with Parrett at the UI, though they taught different disciplines – Parrett’s focus was cattle and Easter’s was hogs – but he recognizes why his colleague was so highly esteemed.
“He loved to teach and was a master teacher,” Easter says. “He knew the subject thoroughly.
“He was articulate and had a friendly personality. His office was always available and he probably gave advice that was beyond what he needed to do as a faculty member.”
Easter learned that there were no surprises when Parrett was involved.
“He called me one day and said eight truck loads of about 400 Angus were showing up,” Easter remembers. “They were worth two or three million and a donor was giving them to us (the University).
“It was because people liked Doug and trusted him. He built a reputation.”
Easter’s example reinforced a point made by the Parretts son, John, a 2001 Centennial High School graduate.
“Many times my dad told me, ‘the whole world is connected by cows,’” John Parrett says. “We saw this validated many times over the years through various connections that one would never expect.”
One particular instance was a company trip to Mexico. John Parrett’s wife was pregnant and couldn’t travel. He invited his dad as his ’plus-one.’
“The all-expenses-paid trip was to a resort that had a great golf course,” John Parrett recalls,” so my dad and I turned the trip into a golf trip.
“The CEO of my 140,000-employee real estate company happened to be in attendance. He has a big job and I’d never met him at that point.
“To no one’s surprise, within 10 minutes my dad had struck up a conversation with him. Turns out the CEO is a farm kid from Iowa who went to Iowa State and whose family had cows.
“At that point I gave in. He was right: the whole world is connected by cows.”
One newspaper article described Parrett as a teacher who “had an infectious enthusiasm for the subject matter.”
Another former colleague, Dr. Tom Carr, said Parrett’s reputation was invaluable to the UI.
“He judged a lot of Angus shows and that was a positive advertisement for the UI,” Carr says. “It was very beneficial for recruiting anyone in production agriculture.”
Carr and Parrett met before they were both associated with the UI. In March, 1974, they were each coaching students who were competing in Omaha, Neb., in the AK-SAR-BEN Meat Animal Evaluation Contest. Easter was coaching at Oklahoma State University while completing his doctorate.
That school year, Parrett had formed Illinois’ first Meat Judging Team.
In 1975, Easter took over that coaching role at the UI and Parrett switched to the Livestock Judging Team, a position he held until 2006. Both squads averaged about 10 students per year.
“Over the years, we spent an incredible amount of time traveling together to many different events,” Carr says. “We were both fairly outgoing in our personalities and we meshed well together.
“We were close colleagues until I retired in 2010.”
Shike said Parrett was well-known beyond his home state.
“I recently returned from Australia, and the number of people I ran into in Australia who knew Doug Parrett was staggering,” says Shike. “If you met him once, you’d remember him.”
Parrett’s penchant for cattle wasn’t restricted to the classroom or the show ring.
“My first car at age 16 was a hand-me-down from my dad,” remembers John Parrett, “a 12-year old Pontiac Bonneville with 100,000 miles and BEEF 99 on the license plate.
“My friends and I will never forget the ‘Beefmobile.’”
What associates witnessed at the UI are traits his childhood chums already recognized.
“Doug Parrett, Doug Turner and I were the best of best friends from kindergarten on,” Dale Mayol says. “Of the three of us, Doug Parrett was the most honorable.
“I don’t mean we were rascals. We weren’t bad kids, but Doug wouldn’t cause a commotion.”
Nick Taylor was not only a teammate on back-to-back M-S football teams that compiled 6-3 records, but also was Parrett’s cousin.
“Doug was a leader in his sports,” Taylor said. “He was very conscientious. He was a sympathetic guy who was super-kind and encouraged people.”
Perhaps there is no better validation of Doug Parrett’s impact than the manner in which John Parrett helps raise his own children.
“He was my best friend and taught me most of what I know,” John Parrett says. “I have four kids of my own and in my mind, the greatest honor I can give my dad is being a great parent to my kids.
“He certainly left me a strong example to follow.”
Besides his family and his profession, Doug Parrett found joy in the game of golf, which he played shortly before his death. In 2018, at the age of 67, he recorded his first hole-in-one.
He may have felt like that shot made him a winner. In the eyes and hearts of his associates, he already was a winner with a capital ‘W’.
