Baseball players lead list of famous Buckley residents

Though the town numbers slightly less than 600, a few Buckley residents have received national and international recognition.

One of these people is Scott Garrelts, who was born in 1962 and went to St. John's Lutheran School and played baseball for Buckley-Loda High. Garrelts started playing baseball in Little League and eventually played for the Buckley Dutchmasters.

Garrelts never pitched for the team, but was drafted in the first round to play major league baseball as a pitcher when he was 17.

Garrelts was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 1979. He made his first major league start for the Giants in 1983 and contributed when the Giants won the National League pennant in 1989 and played in the World Series that year.

In 1990, Garrelts came within an out of pitching a no-hitter, the day after his daughter was born. He tore a ligament in 1991 and retired in 1995.

Garrelts now lives in Shreveport, La., and travels the South with his 16-year-old daughter's softball team.

Garrelts said his Buckley upbringing kept him grounded while playing professional baseball.

"(It) just helped me to be humble," Garrelts said. "When I did finally make it, I never really felt like I was anything special or better than anyone else."

Garrelts returns about four times a year to central Illinois and is excited about bringing his daughter with him for the sesquicentennial celebration.

"I'm just excited about seeing everybody I haven't seen. There are going to be a ton of people there," Garrelts said.

Mark Scheiwe was Garrelts' teammate since kindergarten, and caught the eye of major league scouts while they were watching Garrelts. The Chicago Cubs drafted Scheiwe as a pitcher in the 15th round. Scheiwe played two seasons in the minor leagues before experiencing shoulder soreness that inhibited his pitching.

He was released in July 1981 and lives at Lake Iroquois in Loda. He works for Eastern Illini Electric and farms with his brother. He played for the Buckley Dutchmasters until 2003. Scheiwe's son, Ryne, plays on the team and for Kankakee Community College.

Mark Scheiwe is still friends with Garrelts.

"I try to talk him every chance I get when he gets back this way," Scheiwe said.

Buckley has grown more than just baseball players, though. Native son Derald Brackmann is a world leader in otology and neurotology. He specializes in treating tumors in the inner ear and base of the skull.

Brackmann was born in Buckley in 1937, earned his undergraduate degree from University of Illinois and finished his medical degree at the University of Illinois Medical School in Chicago.

Brackmann is now president and a physician at the House Ear Institute, Los Angeles. He's worked as a professor of otology, or ear medicine, at the University of Southern California, and lives in South Pasadena.

Brackmann is listed in "Best Doctors in America" and was involved in the development of the cochlear implant and in diagnoses techniques of acoustic tumors. He is currently investigating the auditory brain-stem implant, which would produce auditory sensation in deaf patients.

The Buckley native has lectured on every continent and helped physicians in Jordan develop a cochlear implant program. He examined and operated on the late King Hussein of Jordan.

Brackmann is modest about his accomplishments.

"I just worked hard and I've been in the right place at the right time," he said.

"It's been exciting and rewarding."

He plans to return to Buckley for the sesquicentennial celebration.

"It's a great place to grow up, a warm, friendly community," Brackmann said. "It's like a little Bavarian village transformed from Germany to Illinois. There's a lot of support and comradery."