When Mike Wittkowski won $40 million in the Illinois Lottery two decades ago, the media reported worldwide on what was called the largest prize ever won by an individual in North America.

Strangers wrote from as far as Poland and Italy, begging him to send some of his winnings their way.

Since then, Wittkowski has maintained a low profile. For years he and his wife even kept the windfall secret from their children. Their eldest son, Bryan, now 17, only learned of the family fortune in 2nd grade.

"One of the kids said, `Your dad won the lottery,'" said Wittkowski, 48. "My kid didn't know what it meant, and he didn't know what to say to the guy. The kid said, `Your dad's a millionaire.' ... Then we had to explain some of what happened."

After Wittkowski won on Sept. 1, 1984, he divided the money equally with his father, brother and sister. He decided to take his share in 20 annual installments, retired at age 28 and lives off investments with his wife, Fran, in northwest suburban Inverness, Ill.

Although the winnings liberated the couple from worrying about college payments, they still coach and volunteer at schools. Wearing the same full mustache he sported 20 years ago, Wittkowski drinks Miller Lite, says he hasn't traveled abroad since the year after he won the money and drives a 2-year-old Chevy Tahoe.

True, he did buy a couple of hard-luck racehorses and dump a little money in a restaurant that turned out to be a sinkhole. But the couple has invested carefully so they won't ever have to work, they say, and they have raised their children in a middle-class environment.

"We're just very normal," said Fran Wittkowski. "I want my kids to know that."

In inflation-adjusted dollars, the $40 million of 1984 would equal roughly $72 million today. Lottery payoffs also have swelled with multistate jackpots, and the biggest win on record is a $363 million Big Game payout in 2000, the Illinois Lottery reports.

But in 1984, the win "spawned near hysteria in Illinois for two weeks," the Chicago Tribune reported then. When the word broke that a Chicago bachelor was the sole winner, teenage girls showed up to gaze at his Albany Park home. Neighbors joked that Wittkowski might buy them new lawnmowers.

"He's not going to change much," a friend predicted. "I mean, he'll be wearing jeans and gym shoes a few months from now, but he'll have that $40 million in his pockets."

Stories like the Wittkowskis' tend to spur ticket purchases, but the chances of winning remain infinitesimal, said Brother Donald Kelly, a statistics professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

The chance of winning the New York lottery, for example, is equal to that of randomly grabbing a specific dime from a stack 22.6 miles high.

"That's a great opening argument why not to play the lottery," Kelly said. "The chances are almost nil."

Illinois Lottery spokesman Courtney Hill said most people buy just for the enjoyment of taking a chance on winning. "The main thing with the lottery is it's a form of entertainment," he said.