Neal Doughty and Alan Gratzer were neighbors — living across the hall from each other at the Illinois Street Residence Hall dormitory. They soon realized both were into music, and a jam session ...

In 1966, Neal Doughty and Alan Gratzer, two college students in Champaign, Illinois, got together to start a band called REO Speedwagon. That band went through a number of different lineups ...

The band’s roots go way back in Champaign — Neal Doughty and Alan Gratzer met on at the University of Illinois in 1966. Then in 1967, the two created REO Speedwagon after Doughty saw the name ...