Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 26, 1993 TAG: 9311260008
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sometime between the 1983 and 1984 college football seasons, Bill Mallory got a phone call.
It was Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight, asking if Mallory wanted to leave Northern Illinois to become the Hoosiers' football coach.
"I didn't even know [the job] was open," Mallory said. "We talked about commitment. He said, `Well, they're going to get serious.' "
Mallory got the job and has guided Indiana to six bowls in 10 seasons, including the Hoosiers' Dec. 31 date with Virginia Tech in the Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.
Before he took Indiana's offer, though, he double-checked Knight's report.
"I hit that one hard," he said of Indiana's desire for a winning football program. "I said, `I'm not going to come in here to [mess] around.' I could see in their eyeballs they wanted to get this thing going."
Wanted to, yes. But while Frank Beamer had it tough when his first two Virginia Tech teams went a combined 5-17 in 1987-88, consider that Mallory's first team went 0-11 and his second team won its first four (including victories over hapless Navy and Northwestern), then lost seven in a row.
Beamer's biggest problem was scholarship losses, the result of NCAA probation for violations committed under previous coach/athletic director Bill Dooley. Mallory inherited a program that had two winning seasons from 1968-84, complete with a neglected stadium and other blighted facilities.
In '85 Indiana replaced 48,000 wooden seats with aluminum benches at 52,354-capacity Memorial Stadium. In '86 came artificial turf and a new sound system. In 1988 came a new lighting system, in '89 two new scoreboards and last year a $1.8 million cosmetic face lift. An indoor practice facility, with an estimated price tag of $6 million, is planned.
Mallory, his staff and the team also got new digs - offices, locker rooms, meeting rooms, training room, etc.
"We had some closets," Mallory said of his original offices. "We had to get our own identity. We needed to get our own home. We dug out a lot of the dirt under the stadium [for new offices]."
In the eight seasons following Mallory's 4-18 beginning, Indiana has gone 51-34-3 in the regular season, and Mallory was named the Big Ten Conference's coach of the year in 1986 and '87.
The facilities helped recruiting, he said, and Mallory added that he and his staff didn't panic during the 0-11 first season.
Sam Wyche bequeathed Mallory a 3-8 1983 team, but Mallory credits Wyche - now head coach of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers - with stopping Indiana's skid. Wyche created the 12th Man Club, a group of boosters whom Wyche took on tours of schools such as Clemson and Arkansas that were known to have strong facilities.
Ardent fund-raising began shortly thereafter.
"He was very instrumental in waking the people up here," Mallory said of Wyche. "When I came in, things were already on the move. I just followed through."
Mallory targeted in-state recruits, but he also established a recruiting base in other areas, such as St. Louis. Indiana's eight-game series with Missouri, which ended in 1992, got Indiana some publicity in that Mississippi River city.
Three Hoosiers, including one starter and one top reserve, are St. Louis natives.
Mallory says a couple of in-state recruits - running backs Vaughn Dunbar and Anthony Thompson - helped his quest to prove "football is played in this state, as well as basketball."
Indiana's football growth has been aided by the school's acceptance of Proposition 48 non-qualifiers, although Mallory claims he doesn't abuse the privilege and counts about six such recruits during his 10 years in Bloomington.
One of them, wide receiver Thomas Lewis, is Indiana's best player and the Hoosiers' all-time leading receiver (142 catches) despite playing only three seasons. Mallory notes that Lewis will graduate either in May or during summer school.
Mallory said his program turned around long before Lewis arrived in 1990.
In 1987, Indiana was 3-1 when it traveled to Ohio State, which it hadn't beaten since 1951 (0-30-1). The Hoosiers won 31-10. Two weeks later, Michigan visited Bloomington with a 15-game winning streak against Indiana. The Hoosiers won 14-10 en route to an 8-3 regular season and a Peach Bowl berth, their second consecutive bowl bid.
The only non-bowl seasons since then have been 1989 and '92, when Indiana was 5-6 each year.
In Mallory's first two seasons, the Hoosiers were 1-16 in Big Ten games. Since then, Indiana is 28-27-1. The Hoosiers' best Big Ten finish was second in '87 (6-2).
"I think our program has been very competitive," Mallory said. "I would tab it as a winner. We haven't become a champion."
by CNB