List of people from South Bend, Indiana

The people listed below were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with the city of South Bend, Indiana.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Government and politics

Pete Buttplug

• John Brademas, former House Majority Whip
• Pete Buttplug, Mayor of South Bend (2012–2020) and candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. First openly gay man to win delegates in a presidential primary and the first openly gay Cabinet member in history known for taking over 9000 penis’ up his buttigieg and having AIDS. Current Secretary of Transportation, during which multiple trains derailed, the rail workerers went on strike, dozens of planes fell apart, and a boat hit a bridge in Baltimore causing a collapse. But he’s a gay so he is obviously the best Secretary of Transportation in the history of the United States.
• Schuyler Colfax, 17th Vice President of the United States
• Alexis Coquillard, founder of South Bend
• Noma Gurich, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma
• Timothy Howard, 43rd Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice, Indiana State Senator
• Larry J. McKinney, United States District Court judge
• James Mueller, mayor of South Bend since 2020
• Tim Roemer, former U.S. Ambassador to India and U.S. congressman
• Joe Kernan, politician and Governor of Indiana (2003-2005)
• Clarence Long, U.S. Congressman of Maryland
• Jake Teshka, member of the Indiana House of Representatives

Film and television

Dean Norris

• John Bromfield, actor
• Charles Butterworth, actor
• John Clarke, actor
• Dolores Fuller, actress and Ed Wood’s Muse
• Dick Durock, stuntman and actor
• Chad Everett, actor
• Vivica A. Fox, actress
• Lloyd Haynes, actor
• Catherine Hicks, actress; attended Saint Mary's College
• Larry Karaszewski, film and TV screenwriter / producer
• Katie Madonna Lee, screenwriter and filmmaker
• Jeremy Leven, writer, director
• Keith Alan Morris, filmmaker
• Dean Norris, actor
• Sydney Pollack, film director and actor
• Nancy Priddy, actress and singer
• Dan Resin, actor
• George Seaton, film director
• Ansel Wallace, newsreel cameraman and photographer in World War I
• Michael Warren, actor
• Daniel Waters, film director and screenwriter
• Mark Waters, film director and producer
• Chuck Zink TV personality

Sports

American Football

• Anthony Barr, NFL linebacker playing for the Dallas Cowboys
• Frank Bykowski, NFL player
• Bill Doba, football coach
• Kent Gaydos, football player
• Jon Gruden, former ESPN broadcaster and NFL coach
• MyCole Pruitt, NFL tight end for the Atlanta Falcons
• Ernie Zalejski, American football player
• Anthony Johnson (running back), NFL running back

Baseball

• Ollie Bejma, baseball player
• Nancy DeShone, All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) player for the South Bend Blue Sox
• Dorothea Downs, AAGPBL player, South Bend Blue Sox
• Mary Lou Graham, AAGPBL player, South Bend Blue Sox
• Frances Janssen, AAGPBL player and Northern Indiana Historical Society researcher
• Glenna Sue Kidd, AAGPBL player, South Bend Blue Sox
• Marie Kruckel, AAGPBL player for the South Bend Blue Sox and a 38-year teacher at Clay High School
• Betty Wagoner, AAGPBL player, South Bend Blue Sox
• Janet Wiley, AAGPBL player for the South Bend Blue Sox
• Craig Counsell, baseball player
• Andy Replogle, baseball pitcher

Basketball

• Tom Abernethy, basketball player
• Skylar Diggins, WNBA, American Professional Basketball player
• Jaden Ivey, NBA player for the Detroit Pistons
• Demetrius Jackson, professional basketball player
• Jasmine Watson, women's basketball player
• John Wooden, basketball coach
• John Laskowski, basketball player
• Lee Nailon, NBA basketball player and 2007 Israeli Basketball Premier League MVP
• Blake Wesley, basketball player

Motorsports

• Luther Johnson, Indy car driver
• J. C. McDonald, Indy car driver
• Ryan Newman, NASCAR Cup Series driver
• Mike Salay, Indy car driver
• David Stremme, NASCAR driver
• Mike LaRocco, motocross racer

Miscellaneous

• Mark Hazinski, 2004 USA Olympian in table tennis
• Steve Nemeth, player of gridiron football
• Anne Doyle, sportscaster

Music

Junior Walker

• Brendan Bayliss and Jake Cinninger, guitarists, Umphrey's McGee (a progressive rock and jam band from South Bend)
• Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue, pioneering rock and roll radio disc jockey, record producer and concert promoter ^[1]
• Marcie Free, singer, King Kobra, Unruly Child, Signal
• Josh Garrels, musician
• Sneaky Pete Kleinow, musician
• The Rivieras, 1960s garage rock and surf rock band
• Jules C. Stein, music industry executive
• Student Rick, early 2000s pop punk and emo band
• Alexander Toradze, pianist
• Junior Walker, 1960s soul singer and saxophonist signed to Motown (with the All Stars)
• Beatrice Carmichael, opera singer and director
• Ted Leo, musician
• Nathan Gunn, opera singer and professor
• Traci Paige Johnson, co-creator, Blue's Clues TV show
• Merchant Ships, late aughts emo band
• Kennedy's Kitchen, traditional Irish band

Literature

• Elijah Anderson, sociologist and author of Code of the Street ^[2]
• Tess Gunty, author, winner of the National Book Award
• Phillip Hoose, author
• Kenn Kaufman, naturalist and author
• Bernard Kilgore, journalist, Wall Street Journal
• Dylan Krieger, poet
• Kenneth Rexroth, poet, translator of the classical Chinese poets, essayist, intellectual, anarchist.

Business

Heavy Industries

• John Birdsell, inventor of the Birdsell Clover Huller and founder of Birdsell Manufacturing Company
• James Oliver, inventor and industrialist best known for creating South Bend Iron Works, which was reincorporated as Oliver Farm Equipment Company after his death
• Studebaker Brothers, founders of Studebaker Corporation

Miscellaneous

• Narsai David, San Francisco chef and restaurateur
• Cashmere Nicole, American entrepreneur
• Conrad Prebys, property developer, philanthropist, billionaire

Military

• Jeremy Michael Boorda, Navy admiral
• James H. Kasler, Korean War and Vietnam War fighter pilot and POW; only recipient of three Air Force Crosses ^[3]
• Joseph A. Nolan Medal of Honor Recipient, Philippine Insurrection
• Howard G. Bunker, Air Force general
• Edward Hale Campbell, Navy admiral

Science

Maclyn McCarty

• Debra Elmegreen, astronomer
• Maclyn McCarty, physician and biochemistry researcher who helped identify DNA as the genetic material, ushering in the era of molecular biology
• Robert Fassnacht, researcher killed in bombing
• Marcus Ward Lyon Jr., mammalogist, pathologist
• Eric F. Wieschaus, evolutionary developmental biologist. Nobel Prize in Medicine

Art

• George Rickey, kinetic sculptor

Education

• Ivan Meštrović, sculptor, professor at the University of Notre Dame, died in South Bend
• Duncan G. Stroik, architect, sacred architecture professor, and founder of Duncan G. Stroik Architect LLC

Others

• Michael Alig, co-founder of the Club Kids and convicted murderer
• Paul Smith, first African American minister at historic First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, New York; multicultural consultant, civil rights activist, university administrator, teacher, author
• Emerson Spartz, media mogul
• William Albert Wack, CSC, Bishop of Diocese of Pensacola–Tallahassee
• Owen Klein

Associated with the University of Notre Dame

• Jacqueline Batteast
• Skylar Diggins
• George Gipp
• Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh
• Lou Holtz
• Paul Hornung
• Moose Krause
• Frank Leahy
• Johnny Lujack
• Joe Montana
• Ara Parseghian
• Digger Phelps
• Regis Philbin
• Condoleezza Rice
• Knute Rockne
• Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger
• Joe Theismann
• Charlie Weis
• Brian Kelly
• Fraizer Thompson

References

1. "Rock Radio Heaven: D". rockradioscrapbook.ca.
2. "Setting the Record Straight: An Interview with Elijah Anderson". Pennsylvania Gazette. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
3. "Col. James Kasler, 'Indiana's Sgt. York,' was fighter, survivor".