Oh yeah the IC i'm thinking of has a PLL with jitter reduction circuit and 8 outputs but I can't seem to find the copy of the datasheet in my pile. I'll try to find it and get back to you. It was a BB part though..
However there are lots of solutions from a lot of manufacturers as you mentioned but you have to watch out, most clock distribution is for much higher freqs(MHZ) and only certain ICs are stable at KHz freqs.
Gnd:
go ahead and try it! there are no rules when it comes to learning. Be forewarned though that simulations LIE. most opamp models are rather idealistic and refined, almost perfect. This of course is great for proof of concept but not good at all for real world usage, thus the R&D cycle of design, testing, redesign, testing, refining, testing, etc.
I'll digress as I'm sure you are already aware of this. Just be wary of overshoot, ringing, protection circuits, and great decoupling otherwise your circuit will happily introduce jitter, noise, ringing, etc. Also be wary of your cabling and proper termination of the signals both incoming and outgoing or else you'll get reflections and harmonics. And this is just the peripheral stuff!
When you get to choosing your opamp, all of this will either work for you or against you. Some opamps like driving loads, some hate it. Some like seeing capacitence on their outputs(designed for it..) and some fall down into oscillating piles of useless silicon when faced with it. Some opamps will overshoot while another will round the edges of a wave when placed in the same exact circuit.
Above all, I would suggest using an ADSL opamp. plenty fast, designed to drive cables, designed to work in demanding conditions with low voltage rails.
Good luck!
EDIT: it seems while i was taking my time writing this, the (ir)regulars came and stole my thunder.. oh well. I second what they are saying.