A digital special section of | Subscribe


Michael Layman

Michael Layman

VP/regulatory affairs | International Franchise Assn. | Class of 2001

An Illini love story, Kam's edition:

"Cliche as it may be," Michael Layman says, "my story is about Kam’s, where I met my wife on the night I stole my roommate’s sorority blind date. 

"It was March 5, 1999. My friend Jenny had set up my Weston Hall roommate Brent with a blind date to a Kappa Kappa Gamma event, and I was appalled she had not given the date to me.

"Brent was sleeping off the previous evening late into the day of the event. Rather than wake him up, when it was time for the event I got dressed and told Jenny I would be standing in for Brent tonight. Jenny was annoyed, but relented and she and I left for Kam’s, where I was introduced to my future wife, Christi. We bonded over a pitcher of domestic light beer.

"As great as that sounds, our first date was only mediocre, as I and the rest of the guys spent the event ignoring our dates that night and watching the Illini upset Indiana in the 1999 Big Ten tournament.

"But Christi and I have been happily married for 15 years," reports Layman, now the VP of federal government relations at the International Franchise Association.