(CHICAGO,IL) -- Hugh M. Hefner, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Playboy magazine, has been named ``Most Notable Alum'' in a student survey at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. Also on the list in the Daily Illini, an independent student newspaper, were movie critic Roger Ebert, football greats Dick Butkus and Red Grange and stand-up comic Andy Richter.

Hefner earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois after only two and one-half years by doubling up on classes while drawing cartoons for the Daily Illini and editing the campus humor magazine Shaft, where he introduced a new feature called Coed of the Month.

Hefner founded Playboy magazine in 1953 and is noted for his profound influence on society in the second half of the 20th century. Playboy continues to be one of the world's best-selling men's magazines.

Hefner has a long history of giving to the University of Illinois and most recently contributed $500,000 to the University's College of Communications. The gift is used to fund five graduate student fellowships in the Department of Journalism. These students, named the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Fellows, study First Amendment freedoms and issues. Hefner made this gift in honor of his longtime friend Ted Peterson, former Dean of the College and Dean of American Magazine Journalism.

The Daily Illini, with a circulation of 27,000, conducts the student survey of ``Campus Picks'' once a year. The results were published in the January 14, 2000 edition.

Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA - news) is a brand-driven, international multimedia entertainment company that publishes editions of Playboy magazine around the world; operates Playboy and Spice television networks and distributes programming via home video and DVD globally; licenses the Playboy and Spice trademarks internationally for consumer products; is developing a Playboy-branded, location-based entertainment business, anchored by casinos; and operates a direct marketing business, including Critics' Choice Video and Collectors' Choice Music catalogs and Web sites. The company also operates Playboy.com, Inc., which includes the Playboy.com, Playboy Cyber Club, Playboy Store and Cyberspice Web sites.