Ancient History

[MadBird]

Was cleaning out the "archives" a couple weeks ago, and tossed out many many old Pantagraph stories and columns from Lefty and even Jim Barnhardt. But one interesting one included speculation on the new FB coach back in 1995 - the final three candidates were FBS assistants Pete Hoener from TCU, Todd Berry from E.Carolina, and Larry Korpitz from Wyoming.

Hoener is now 67 and an assistant for the Carolina Panthers. Peoria native and BU grad. Had been an ISU assistant for a year in late seventies. At that point in his career, had been at InSU for 6 years as OC, couple years as TE coach with St. Louis Cardinals, an OL assistant with Illinois and Purdue - was at TCU as OL assistant and OC in 95. Stayed on at TCU a couple more years and then continued coaching odyssey thru college and pros as mostly OL or TE assistant.

Korpitz sadly passed away about two years later from brain cancer. Oddly enough, he was a Joe Tiller assistant at Wyoming, who moved on to Purdue with Tiller and then passed away shortly thereafter. He was OC and QB coach at Wyoming when he applied at ISU. Can't find much else about his background (other than that he was from Evergreen Park and attended Brother Rice HS>).

Back to our regularly scheduled programming . . . . .

 

[Total Red]

Interesting look back. I remember the name Pete Hoener and I remember him being in contention for the FB HC position but I thought he competed for the job when Coach Spack was hired. My memory isn't what it used to be. At least I remember it being better.

Anyway it's clear that the right person was hired in '96. Todd Berry did a great job by reaching the playoffs in '98 and the National Semi-finals in '99. As I recall when AD Rick Greenspan hired Berry he said that he was impressed by the way Berry pursued the job. He was the OC at East Carolina at the time. I believe Berry was also a candidate to return to Illinois State in 2009 but he did not actively pursue the job. Berry did later land another FBS HC position at Louisiana-Monroe but he didn't fare all that well there. It might have been a missed opportunity but it was his decision and it's working out fine anyway. We have a HC that knows what it takes to make it the National Championship game and he's working hard to get us back there. Ready for '19.

 

[MadBird]

I'm a little surprised Hoener never landed a HC job, I guess, altho he's clearly had staying power in the profession. No question Berry was the right guy, that's for sure.