Countdown to 2018 IUFB Kickoff: 18 Days (Bill Mallory)

Written by Lauralys Shallow

Countdown to Kickoff: #19- Bill Mallory

This year will be the first season following the death of IU football’s winningest coach, Bill Mallory. Mallory died earlier this summer on May 25th after falling and having emergency brain surgery. He was 82.

"Coach Mallory is not the greatest coach in the history of IU Football because of all the games that he won,” Indiana Head Coach Tom Allen said. “It is because of the kind of man that he was and the kind of person that he was in the hearts of his players. He did a tremendous job molding them into men. In my mind, he is and will always be what Indiana University Football is all about."

Mallory’s 69-77-3 record is the winningest record in the history of the program. In his 13 years at the helm of the program, IU had seven winning seasons and made six bowl appearances; both achievements are program records. Mallory has two of the Hoosiers’ three all-time bowl victories, winning the 1989 Liberty Bowl and the 1991 Copper Bowl. Mallory was the first coach in Big Ten history to win conference coach of the year honors back-to-back in 1987.

Mallory coached at Miami, Colorado and Northern Illinois before accepting job as head coach of IU in 1984. Mallory’s first season was winless, with an 0-11 record. However, Mallory turned the program around quickly. Between 1986-94, IU won 60 games and saw prominent IU football players such as Heisman Trophy runner-up Anthony Thompson. 

“Coach Mal was respected like none other. Revered, in fact,” Thompson said. “The kind of respect and reverence that is earned through love and leadership. Not because of a title or being in a position of power. Rather, it’s because he led with every fiber of his being alone with his booming voice, his locked jaw and his whole heart.”

Mallory was 168-129-4 overall in his head coach career, with 69 wins at IU. He was inducted into the Indiana hall of fame in 2002. Mallory took a struggling Indiana football program and made it competitive in the Big Ten. In 1987, Mallory beat Ohio State and Michigan in the same season, and he is the only coach in program history to accomplish that feat.

Mallory is a cornerstone of this football program, and he sparked the most successful era of IU football. He remained active in Bloomington and with the program after his coaching career ended. Mallory left a lasting legacy on the IU football program.

Quotes are from IUHoosiers.com