CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Ron Zook kept interrupting his storytelling with smiles and chuckles. Despite enough pressure around his fifth year as head football coach at the University of Illinois to tackle a Galloping Ghost (you know, as in Red Grange from the Illini's distant glory days), he was having a blast.That's because, as Zook leaned forward on the couch inside his office near Memorial Stadium, he couldn't stop rattling off 35-something-year-old memories of Hepburn Hall, the most unusual of college dormitories.
"What game are they coming to?" said Zook, with wide eyes, looking across the way to his wife, Denise. After she replied, "Michigan State," he named some of the old Hepburn Hall gang and others that he invites to town every year. "About 20 of them," Zook said, before adding, "After the game, they come to my house, and it's a good time." Then he said with a little laugh, "They have a lot more fun than me."
I dare you to find another dormitory like this one. You won't, by the way, and to make my point, I'll occasionally tell you during the next three weeks about several of the 270 or so dreamers who spent the mid-1970s inside this three-story, Georgian-styled residence hall, located among the eternal red bricks and highly manicured grounds of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
This was one of 36 dorms on a campus of around 15,000 students, and like those others, Hepburn Hall was for anybody. It didn't exist solely to house nuclear physicists, CEOs of large companies or even sports journalists and prominent folks in other aspects of athletics. Even so, our generation of Hepburn Hall produced all of that. And here's the strangest thing: Many of us knew much about each other (as in our strengths, weaknesses, wishes, desires), but none of us saw any of this coming.It just happened. It happened fast, and it happened big time. For instance, regarding the sporting universe, our Hepburn Hall produced ...
Two guys who captured national and conference Coach Of The Year honors at the Division I-A level of college football. A member of the NFL All-Rookie team who became a prolific runner in the league for a decade. A starting second baseman for a dozen years in the major leagues. A veteran pitcher who helped set the foundation for a team's record 14 consecutive division titles. An NFL offensive coordinator who was among the original icons of an expansion team. A multiple award-winning baseball coach who has taken his team to three College World Series trips. An accomplished minor-league manager for a storied franchise. A Division II athletic director.
Oh, and a national sports columnist for FanHouse.
So what's the deal here? I mean, this would be slightly more than incredible if you had this collection of individuals as alumni of the same college at any time -- but at the same time and inside of the same dormitory?
This is The Twilight Zone times The X-Files.
"I don't know what caused this. I really don't, but I do know that (Miami) is just a great, great university that's great academically, and it's kind of a little utopia with its beautiful campus that just grabs you," said Zook, 55, a native of Loudonville, Ohio . "I know from the sports point of view, most of us, but not all of us, were from the state of Ohio that has very, very good high school coaching. Then at Miami, people were recruiting character students, and the evaluation was much more on finding football players, for instance, and not so much on height, weight, speed. That sort of thing."
That was a good thing for Zook, a walk-on, who eventually spent his senior year as the captain of Miami's 1975 football team. Zook's Miami was THE Miami in the nation before that other one in south Florida. In fact, during his tenure at Miami (Ohio) as a hard-slamming, high-energy defensive back, his team known as the Redskins back then finished 32-1-1 with bowl victories in consecutive years over Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The only thing that kept Miami from going undefeated during that stretch was a one-point loss at Michigan State and a tie at Purdue.Not only that, with Zook demanding that his teammates do nothing less along the way, Miami finished those three seasons ranked 15th, 10th and 12th respectively in the final Associated Press polls. Said Zook, "I can remember many times that we would be down playing Kentucky or whoever, and it would be a tough game, but never was there a concern on our sidelines as to whether we would win or not.
"It was always like, 'We better get our butt together. Hey, we got to get going.' And all of those lessons that I learned at Miami are the lessons that I've tried to instill into our team here and at every place I've ever coached."
In case you're wondering, Zook has coached forever, and this makes no sense. "I know I never saw this coming," he said, shaking his head, reflecting back on his days at Hepburn Hall, where he often returned from the grueling summer practices of hard-driving coaches Bill Mallory and Dick Crum with earaches, other aches and deep thoughts of never seeing shoulder pads or chinstraps again.
Which leads us to Zook chuckling again while sharing one of his favorite Hepburn Hall stories. To have him tell it, he wasn't chuckling to start his senior year at Miami -- not with the prospect of suffering more aches from those coaches by arriving late to summer drills. In fact, Zook said he was frowning back then as he roared down one of the extremely scenic but infamously dangerous two-lane highways that winds through southwestern Ohio into Oxford.
"So we're coming down that long hill heading toward town, and I'm driving, with Jim Feucht (noted Hepburn Hall wild man and Zook teammate), knowing that we're going to hell with another one of those football camps, and I'm passing these cars, and there's a car coming right at us," said Zook, rocking on the couch, with hands moving to describe the scene. "Well, Feucht looks at me and says real calmly, 'I don't think we're going to make it,' and I just keep flying down the highway."
Then Zook glanced at his wife, Denise, and said, "You never heard this story," and he continued in the same breath, "The next thing you know, I'm zipping around on campus, and we pull right up on the front yard of Hepburn Hall.
"We're out there unloading our stuff, and there's a freshman named Pat McDermott and his mom, and she's telling Coach Crum, 'You wouldn't believe it, these kids. Whoever was driving this car out there on the highway almost got killed.' "
With a baffled expression, Denise said, "Did your brakes go out?"
Zook responded, "No, I was just ..."
He laughed. In addition to his story of the moment, he could have been tickled by his career path since leaving Miami. Somehow, this northern Ohio kid who wished to become a dentist evolved into a prolific football recruiter and defensive coaching specialist. His career has spanned from Murray State, Cincinnati, Kansas and Tennessee to Virginia Tech, Ohio State and Florida. There were stops in the pros with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs and New Orleans Saints.
Zook also did the equivalent of shoving a kicking tee down his throat by succeeding Steve Spurrier as head coach at Florida. Not surprisingly, he was fired after three decent seasons in 2004, mostly for not being the other guy, and then he took over a traditionally mediocre Illinois program that showed a pulse two seasons ago. The Illini pulled an upset at Ohio State along the way to a 9-4 finish, but they ended as losers overall last year for the third time in Zook's four years at Illinois.
Thus the pressure on Zook right now. Consider, too, that the Illini were wretched during a 37-9 loss in their opener this season against Missouri. They handled lowly Illinois State last week, but they play three real teams in a row (Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan State) beginning a week from Saturday in Columbus.
Still, Zook's goal for Illinois hasn't changed, and it is expressed in the word "believe," which is written everywhere throughout the football complex.
"The best chance you have at reaching your own goal is to have everybody having the same goal and also having everybody help each other reach those goals," said Zook, who sounds like Ara Parseghian, which is to say his voice is inspirationally hoarse. He also is a 21st century version of Woody Hayes, a noted scholar of military history. In other words, as a disciple of the Blue Angels and all things U.S. Navy, Zook resembles the late Hayes by taking a soldierly approach to coaching.
It's just a coincidence that Zook has the traits of Parseghian and Hayes, both College Football Hall of Famers and both among the slew of those who rocked the Cradle of Coaches at Miami (Ohio) with Paul Brown, Weeb Ewbank, Bo Schembechler and others that I'll discuss in the future.
This isn't a coincidence: Once upon a time, when the world was decades younger, Zook was one of us.
Terence Moore, Class of '78, was part of Hepburn Hall, a dormitory at Miami (Ohio) University that produced a slew of prominent sports figures. He will continue with part two of this four-part series next Wednesday.
