Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
He is being remembered for the jobs he did with the Miami RedHawks and at Indiana University, but if you want the truest measure of the man, go back to his days in Mullins, S.C.
That's when you really saw what Terry Hoeppner was made of.
The same thing goes when you consider the athletes on whom he's had the most profound impact.
Sure, his most famous pupil is Ben Roethlisberger — the former Miami quarterback who led the Pittsburgh Steelers to a Super Bowl ring and, to this day, considers Hoeppner "a second father." But there's another relationship involving some unknown American Indian kids and their coach that tells you more.
Right now, I'm numb over the news that Hoeppner, the 59-year-old IU coach, died Tuesday of complications from a brain tumor.
I've known him 18 years, covered many of his games, and spent hours with him talking a little about football and a lot about life.
Here are two stories you should know about him.
The first is from 1976, just after his two seasons as a player in the World Football League ended. He and his wife had started a family and, in need of work, he said he spotted a newspaper ad that read: Athletics director, coach, near beach, good job.
From Fort Wayne, Hoeppner knew nothing about Mullins but took the job. That's when he said he discovered "the beach was 40 miles away" and some people there were even further than that from his way of thinking.
He was called "The Yankee Coach" and before the season, he said one booster, looking over the many black players, asked: "Coach, how many white boys we got on the team?"
Hoeppner shrugged: "I have no idea. When everybody puts on those blue helmets, I can't tell."
For someone, that was the wrong answer. Two weeks later, the school burned down after an arsonist poured gasoline in the coach's office and lit a match.
But Hoeppner didn't melt, and by the third year, he said he had believers: "We ended up 8-2 and what made it special was that after such a horrible beginning, they needed what I had to offer."
Which was?
"Actually, they needed Abraham Lincoln," he'd said. "But, and I say this humbly, with me they got a guy willing to take everybody as they were. And things worked out."
They never worked better than at Miami where, after 13 years as an assistant — many to his late pal Randy Walker — he took over in 1999, compiled a 48-25 record, had the nation's No. 10 team in 2003 and a cherished place in the Cradle of Coaches lore.
But it was something else he did there — something few people know — that best reveals him. Through Jim Place, then Chaminade-Julienne's coach, he met Dominic Bramante, an Otoe Missouria Indian, who'd taken over the beleaguered football team of poverty-stricken Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Okla.
At one point, the team had lost 50 straight games.
Hoeppner would bring Bramante and his team to Oxford for his weeklong summer camp. He'd provide room, board, food and clothes.
On one visit, Bramante was close to tears as he talked about Hoeppner: "He's a great supporter of the Native American cause, but it's more than that. You can see it in the way he deals with everybody. He's just a good, good man."
That's who we lost.
Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
He is being remembered for the jobs he did with the Miami RedHawks and at Indiana University, but if you want the truest measure of the man, go back to his days in Mullins, S.C.
That's when you really saw what Terry Hoeppner was made of.
The same thing goes when you consider the athletes on whom he's had the most profound impact.
Sure, his most famous pupil is Ben Roethlisberger — the former Miami quarterback who led the Pittsburgh Steelers to a Super Bowl ring and, to this day, considers Hoeppner "a second father." But there's another relationship involving some unknown American Indian kids and their coach that tells you more.
Right now, I'm numb over the news that Hoeppner, the 59-year-old IU coach, died Tuesday of complications from a brain tumor.
I've known him 18 years, covered many of his games, and spent hours with him talking a little about football and a lot about life.
Here are two stories you should know about him.
The first is from 1976, just after his two seasons as a player in the World Football League ended. He and his wife had started a family and, in need of work, he said he spotted a newspaper ad that read: Athletics director, coach, near beach, good job.
From Fort Wayne, Hoeppner knew nothing about Mullins but took the job. That's when he said he discovered "the beach was 40 miles away" and some people there were even further than that from his way of thinking.
He was called "The Yankee Coach" and before the season, he said one booster, looking over the many black players, asked: "Coach, how many white boys we got on the team?"
Hoeppner shrugged: "I have no idea. When everybody puts on those blue helmets, I can't tell."
For someone, that was the wrong answer. Two weeks later, the school burned down after an arsonist poured gasoline in the coach's office and lit a match.
But Hoeppner didn't melt, and by the third year, he said he had believers: "We ended up 8-2 and what made it special was that after such a horrible beginning, they needed what I had to offer."
Which was?
"Actually, they needed Abraham Lincoln," he'd said. "But, and I say this humbly, with me they got a guy willing to take everybody as they were. And things worked out."
They never worked better than at Miami where, after 13 years as an assistant — many to his late pal Randy Walker — he took over in 1999, compiled a 48-25 record, had the nation's No. 10 team in 2003 and a cherished place in the Cradle of Coaches lore.
But it was something else he did there — something few people know — that best reveals him. Through Jim Place, then Chaminade-Julienne's coach, he met Dominic Bramante, an Otoe Missouria Indian, who'd taken over the beleaguered football team of poverty-stricken Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Okla.
At one point, the team had lost 50 straight games.
Hoeppner would bring Bramante and his team to Oxford for his weeklong summer camp. He'd provide room, board, food and clothes.
On one visit, Bramante was close to tears as he talked about Hoeppner: "He's a great supporter of the Native American cause, but it's more than that. You can see it in the way he deals with everybody. He's just a good, good man."
That's who we lost.
By Pete Conrad
Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
OXFORD — Mike Bath is, understandably, in a state of shock. Last year the former Miami University quarterback lost his first college football coach, Randy Walker. And now his second coach, Terry Hoeppner, is gone.
Hoeppner, who had completed two seasons at Indiana University after guiding Miami to back-to-back bowl appearances, died early Tuesday morning in Bloomington, Ind., from brain tumor complications. He was 59.
Hoeppner, a native of Fort Wayne, Ind., came to Miami as linebackers coach in 1986. He became the program's assistant head coach under Walker in 1993 and was named defensive coordinator in 1995. He replaced Walker as Miami's head coach before the 1999 season, and in his debut the RedHawks won 28-3 over the Northwestern team coached by Walker.
Walker died of a heart attack last June.
"Last year some of my friends were talking about how Walker was not supposed to die, that he was going to outlive us all," said Bath, who was a three-year starter at quarterback (1998-2000) and is now a Miami assistant, coaching the tight ends. "It's the same with Hep. We thought he would just take a year off and then be back."
Bath, the first of three straight record-breaking quarterbacks to play for Hoeppner — he was followed by Ben Roethlisberger and Josh Betts — remembered Hoeppner both as a family man and coach.
"Gosh, he's the example, seeing him with his family and such, that I want to use for the rest of my life for my family," Bath said. "You would see him with his wife and know that his love for her was never ending. I want to be like him, let me put it that way.
"As a player, we never got a hard tongue lashing," Bath said. "He got on us, but it was in a positive way. You never thought you were out of a game. The hill was never too big. It was so refreshing. I'm so lucky to have played for both Terry Hoeppner and Randy Walker."
Shane Montgomery, who was hired by Hoeppner, became Miami's offensive coordinator and then replaced him as the RedHawks' head coach, said he, too, tries to emulate Hoeppner.
"He was a very honest coach who let everybody know where they stood," Montgomery said, "and I've tried to follow that. He treated everyone fairly.
"He was a mentor to me," Montgomery pointed out. "He brought me along at a young age and gave me a chance to be a coordinator. He was a man I could lean on, and even after he left for Indiana, I could call him and he'd have an answer for me."
John Pont, who coached at both Miami and Indiana on his way to the College Football Hall of Fame, remembered Hoeppner's honesty.
He was the right man for Miami and he was the right man for Indiana," Pont said. "He had to reinvigorate the program (at Indiana) and he did it by being Terry Hoeppner.
"He believed in himself," Pont continued, "and he was a very honest person. That's how he could get things changed. He was honest with everything he did, with his treatment of people, of players. He reached out to people."
Mike Harris, assistant athletic director for sports communications at the University of Cincinnati, who held a similar post at Miami when Hoeppner was head coach there, said the former coach's death is a great loss to "the Miami family."
"He had such a passion for what he did and for his family," Harris said. "And it was contagious. He's a person I'll truly miss."
Dan Dalrymple, the head strength and conditioning coach for the New Orleans Saints — and a former Miami offensive lineman and strength and conditioning coach for the RedHawks — said he always thinks about Hoeppner's passion for football and love for his players.
"He had unbridled enthusiasm and a zest for life and coaching," Dalrymple said. "He has touched the lives of numbers of players, and his legacy will go on because of the type of person he was. He had an impact on everyone he met."
By Pete Conrad
Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
OXFORD — Mike Bath is, understandably, in a state of shock. Last year the former Miami University quarterback lost his first college football coach, Randy Walker. And now his second coach, Terry Hoeppner, is gone.
Hoeppner, who had completed two seasons at Indiana University after guiding Miami to back-to-back bowl appearances, died early Tuesday morning in Bloomington, Ind., from brain tumor complications. He was 59.
Hoeppner, a native of Fort Wayne, Ind., came to Miami as linebackers coach in 1986. He became the program's assistant head coach under Walker in 1993 and was named defensive coordinator in 1995. He replaced Walker as Miami's head coach before the 1999 season, and in his debut the RedHawks won 28-3 over the Northwestern team coached by Walker.
Walker died of a heart attack last June.
"Last year some of my friends were talking about how Walker was not supposed to die, that he was going to outlive us all," said Bath, who was a three-year starter at quarterback (1998-2000) and is now a Miami assistant, coaching the tight ends. "It's the same with Hep. We thought he would just take a year off and then be back."
Bath, the first of three straight record-breaking quarterbacks to play for Hoeppner — he was followed by Ben Roethlisberger and Josh Betts — remembered Hoeppner both as a family man and coach.
"Gosh, he's the example, seeing him with his family and such, that I want to use for the rest of my life for my family," Bath said. "You would see him with his wife and know that his love for her was never ending. I want to be like him, let me put it that way.
"As a player, we never got a hard tongue lashing," Bath said. "He got on us, but it was in a positive way. You never thought you were out of a game. The hill was never too big. It was so refreshing. I'm so lucky to have played for both Terry Hoeppner and Randy Walker."
Shane Montgomery, who was hired by Hoeppner, became Miami's offensive coordinator and then replaced him as the RedHawks' head coach, said he, too, tries to emulate Hoeppner.
"He was a very honest coach who let everybody know where they stood," Montgomery said, "and I've tried to follow that. He treated everyone fairly.
"He was a mentor to me," Montgomery pointed out. "He brought me along at a young age and gave me a chance to be a coordinator. He was a man I could lean on, and even after he left for Indiana, I could call him and he'd have an answer for me."
John Pont, who coached at both Miami and Indiana on his way to the College Football Hall of Fame, remembered Hoeppner's honesty.
He was the right man for Miami and he was the right man for Indiana," Pont said. "He had to reinvigorate the program (at Indiana) and he did it by being Terry Hoeppner.
"He believed in himself," Pont continued, "and he was a very honest person. That's how he could get things changed. He was honest with everything he did, with his treatment of people, of players. He reached out to people."
Mike Harris, assistant athletic director for sports communications at the University of Cincinnati, who held a similar post at Miami when Hoeppner was head coach there, said the former coach's death is a great loss to "the Miami family."
"He had such a passion for what he did and for his family," Harris said. "And it was contagious. He's a person I'll truly miss."
Dan Dalrymple, the head strength and conditioning coach for the New Orleans Saints — and a former Miami offensive lineman and strength and conditioning coach for the RedHawks — said he always thinks about Hoeppner's passion for football and love for his players.
"He had unbridled enthusiasm and a zest for life and coaching," Dalrymple said. "He has touched the lives of numbers of players, and his legacy will go on because of the type of person he was. He had an impact on everyone he met."
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