Sept. 17, 2009
DEKALB, Ill. - To the left of the first tee box at Seven Bridges Golf Course sat a familiar face. He was sitting there, legs crossed, his right arm on the back of the bench wearing his glasses, a red Huskie polo and the biggest smile you'll ever see. He was talking with an old friend as he watched his successor visit with a foursome of Huskie fans there for a day of golf. After the group, the final of the day, teed off, NIU head coach Jerry Kill walked over and took a seat next to his predecessor and friend, Joe Novak, who had made the trip to suburban Woodridge, Ill. from his home in North Carolina for the Brigham-Novak Golf Outing.
The two men talked and laughed for a while. Off the field, Novak's wide grin and gentle demeanor is more grandfather-like than gridiron general, while Kill's down-home country gentleman mannerisms make him a down-to-earth individual. However, on the football field, those two are as fierce a competitor as you'll ever find. Novak spent 12 seasons prowling the Huskie sidelines, turning Northern Illinois' struggling football program into a contender in the Mid-American Conference while garnering national attention with wins over ranked opponents. He led NIU to a school-record seven straight winning seasons (2000-06), two bowl games, an appearance in the 2005 MAC Championship game and four MAC West titles. Kill came to NIU in December 2006, a few weeks after Novak announced his retirement, following seven seasons at Southern Illinois, where he turned around the fortunes of the Saluki football program. During his tenure in Carbondale, Kill led SIU to five Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoff appearances (2003-07), including a trip to the semifinals in 2007.
As the two men head into the clubhouse for lunch, continuing their conversation as they make their way inside, they are joined by two other former NIU football coaches, Pat Culpepper and Bill Mallory, who were finishing up their rounds and were making their way back to the dining room for food and fellowship with former players, fans and to visit with a group of current Huskies. To know where the Huskie football program is now, you have to look at where it's been. These four men have played a key role in building the NIU football program into what it is today. When you take a look at Huskie Stadium, with the Yordon Center sitting majestically in the north endzone, it looks so natural. It's almost hard to imagine a time without it. One man distinctly remembers those days.
"When I came to Northern, there wasn't anything here," Culpepper, NIU's 14th head coach, said. "There was no particular area for the football players in the offseason to call their own and work with weights. We did the best we could with what we had."
Culpepper came to Northern Illinois in 1975 as defensive coordinator for Jerry Ippoliti and was elevated to head coach after the '75 season. When Culpepper, a native of Cleburne, Texas, was given the head coaching job, he was charged with building a Division I program deprived of facilities. In order to build those facilities NIU needed to be successful, then as now, the Huskies had to schedule top competition for big paydays.
"We were just starting out in Division I," Culpepper said. "We were playing Wisconsin, Louisville, Long Beach State and Wichita State, teams that were already in Division I and had their programs going. We needed that for money, but it also was tough on us to try and win those games. I understood what we had to do."
Over the next four years, Culpepper slowly built the Huskie football program. NIU went 1-10 and 0-6 in the Mid-American Conference in Culpepper's first season and posted a 3-8 record and a 2-5 mark in the MAC in 1977 in his second season. It was during that 1977 season when Culpepper saw that he was on the right track. NIU fell to Central Michigan, 25-21, at home. Roy Kramer, head coach of the Chippewas at the time, paid a visit to the Huskie locker room following the game.
"Coach Kramer came in our locker room after the game," he said. "We were all pretty down, because it happened on a kickoff return, and he told us, `Someday, you boys will be winners because you're doing the right things.'" While NIU showed improvement the next two seasons, going 5-6 in 1978 and 5-5-1 in 1979, a change was made.
"The program needed to change," Culpepper said. "The budget was not changed at all while I was here. They needed to do something that way."
The change came in the form of Mallory, who arrived in DeKalb after five seasons as head coach at Colorado. Even before he came to NIU, Mallory felt the Huskies could be a force in the MAC. Head coach of Miami University from 1969-73, he saw firsthand the Huskies' potential.
"I've always believed strongly in Northern and its location," Mallory said. "I felt that back when it was just coming into the MAC. This is a great setting for building a championship contender because there is a lot of good football around here which would be the hub of your recruiting."
It didn't take long for Mallory to turn things around, thanks to a solid senior class. A class recruited by Culpepper.
"We recruited a good group my second year here and those boys became the foundation for coach Mallory's first year," Culpepper said. "That was a good group of kids. I was proud that we recruited the kind of boys that could accept the transition quickly. They won, and were solid kids
"The cupboard wasn't bare," Mallory said. "We had a good attitude group in that senior class. It was a strong senior group."
Mallory led NIU to a 7-4 mark and a third-place finish in the MAC in his first season in DeKalb. However, there a bit of a drop off the next two seasons. In 1983, Mallory and the Huskies achieved that potential he saw 10 years earlier, as the Huskies went 10-2, their second 10-win campaign and first in 20 years, and 8-1 in the MAC, en route to the school's first MAC Championship. They capped off the 1983 season with a 20-17 victory over Cal State Fullerton in the 1983 California Bowl.
Mallory's success didn't go unnoticed. One day he received a call from Bobby Knight to gauge his interest in Indiana's vacant coaching position. It had always been Mallory's goal to coach in the Big Ten and it was opportunity he couldn't pass up. While it was his dream to coach in the Big Ten, his decision to leave was not an easy one.
"I felt bad when I left, because we had a lot of good players coming back," he said. "My passion was definitely here at NIU. I could have stayed right here and been very happy. It was a nice situation. I felt good about what where were going and what we could do."
When he left Northern, Mallory took his defensive coordinator, Joe Novak, with him. Novak spent the previous four years running the Huskie defense and would spend the next 11 at Mallory's side in the same capacity at Indiana. During that time, the NIU football program struggled, going through three head coaches and posting three winning records. The Huskies endured four losing seasons before calling Novak back to DeKalb. No one was happier for Novak than his longtime friend.
"I was so happy when Joe got the job because he was such a perfect fit," Mallory said. "He had been here, and he knew what NIU was all about. I think that's important."
Unfortunately for Novak, success did not come as quickly for him as it did his mentor. Novak entered a far different situation than Mallory. One of the biggest challenges he faced was changing the culture.
"I think the biggest thing was just getting everyone to believe, not just the team, but the people in the community, the campus, that we could be successful," Novak said. "Change in attitudes was the big thing. The physical things on the field aren't nearly as difficult as getting people to believe."
Novak and NIU won just eight games in his first four years. Fortunately for Novak and NIU, he was given time to succeed. NIU posted its first winning season in nine years when it went 6-5 in 2000 to begin a string of seven straight winning campaigns. However, Novak didn't really feel things were turning around until a year later in Champaign-Urbana.
"I think the Illinois game was the biggest game for us," Novak said. "We were ahead late in the fourth quarter, and we got beat in the last couple minutes of the game. I told the kids that week, we're not going down there to play, we're going down there to win, and I want you to believe that.
"I remember walking in that locker room after the game, and the kids were crying. They expected to win the football game. I thought to myself, we made a big stride. Playing Illinois close ain't good enough. We went there to win and we didn't do that."
The next season, things took off for Novak and the Huskies. They opened the 2002 season with a 42-41 victory over Wake Forest, finishing the season with an 8-4 record. In 2003, the Huskies knocked off No. 15 Maryland 20-13 in overtime to kickstart a 10-2 finish to the season. Novak left NIU after 12 seasons at the helm and is the third-winningest head football coach in NIU history. He not only helped build a football program, but also a building.
"I'm really proud of the Yordon Center," Novak said. "That was harder to build than a football team. At the end, I was probably spending more time on that building than I was on the football program. Maybe I had taken a little bit of an edge off our football team, because I was spending so much time on that building, and that's not fair, but I wanted to see that thing built. That had to get done."
Novak was only able to enjoy the Yordon Center for one season, announcing his retirement at the conclusion of the 2007 season. During his press conference, Novak laid out his reasons for leaving Northern Illinois.
"I felt that if I retired when I did, the new coach only had 10 scholarships," he said. "He could recruit a few and his next year would be the big year. If I selfishly stayed one more year, he's going to be stuck taking a job in late December having to recruit 23 or 24 players. I really felt that would set things back. The best thing for this program was to have that change come when it did."
The beneficiary from Novak's foresight was Kill, who was appreciative of the program he took over.
"I think Joe always had the best interest of the program over his self interest," Kill said. "Joe leaving, in his mind, was the best time to leave the program and I think he felt it was the right time. When you're new, certainly being able to have a period of time to understand what we needed in the program helped. Joe could have stayed another year. I think it was more about him passing the baton and he felt it was the right time."
Kill inherited a situation very similar to Mallory. The Huskies struggled the previous year, but the cupboard wasn't bare.
"We've got good kids in our program," Kill said. "Joe is a high-character guy, an old-school guy like we are. We've got good people in the program. Joe left us with good people."
Kill took those players, infused them with his enthusiasm and energy and led the Huskies to a 6-6 regular season record and a berth in the 2008 Independence Bowl. While it's still early in his tenure Kill has the program back on course and is adding his chapter to the Huskie legacy.
