Former University of Illinois defensive back Mike Hopkins will be cheered on by the Illini football team in late September when he and five crew mates blast off for the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The former Illini football captain says his employer, NASA, is good about making life as normal as possible on long missions such as his six-month Expedition 37-38 journey. “We’re able to request TV shows or anything like that, so of course I’ve requested to make sure I have all of the games,” he says. “I may not get it live, but rest assured, I’ll certainly be watching every game.”
While an aerospace engineering major on the Illinois campus, Hopkins, a native of Lebanon, Mo., was a four-year letter winner, a first-team Academic All-American, and after his 1990 junior season was the recipient of the Bruce Capel Award for being the player who displayed the greatest courage and determination.
