My Three Sons

For Bill Mallory and Family, Footbal is Just a Way of Life
by: David Purdum
© More from this issue

          
In Bill Mallory’s Bloomington, Ind., office, there is a picture hanging on the wall of the former coach celebrating on top of his team’s shoulders. Like all good pictures, there’s a story behind this one, and it reflects what family and football is all about.

In 1987, Mallory, in his fourth year as head football coach at Indiana, had his team off to a 5-1 start, and with wins over Ohio State, Northwestern and Minnesota, it was the Hoosiers sitting atop the Big Ten, awaiting a visit from mighty Michigan.

Indiana had not beaten the Wolverines in 20 years, and Mallory’s teams had been outscored 96-21 in their three losses to Bo Schembechler’s squads. Memorial Stadium was packed with Hoosier fans on that October day. The Mallory family was in attendance: Wife Ellie rooting for her husband as always, and the couple’s youngest son, Curt, a high school senior, was in the stands checking out the maze and gold uniforms, which he would be wearing the following season. Mike, the Mallory’s eldest son and a four-year letterman at linebacker for Schembechler from 1982-1985, was now on the Indiana sideline in his second year as a graduate assistant.

Bill and Mike would lead the Hoosiers to a 14-10 win over Michigan that day, and the celebration would begin.

Amidst the party on the field, a Michigan player made his way through the madness to congratulate the winning coach. That player was junior safety Doug Mallory, and even though he was suffering from the agony of defeat, he wanted to shake his father’s hand. At the bottom of that picture hanging in Bill’s office, Doug’s Wolverine helmet can be seen, along with his hand reaching out toward his dad.

“When Bill took the Indiana job,” said Ellie, “Doug and Mike were at the Sugar Bowl. Bill wanted to tell them that he had accepted the position, because those things have a way of leaking out; so he called them and when he told them, Doug said, ‘I hope I graduate before you beat Michigan.’”

To this day, football plays a major role in the Mallory family. Mike is in his third year at the University of Illinois, where he coached the safeties for two years before taking over the linebackers this season. Doug is in his second season coaching the Oklahoma State Cowboys’ secondary, and Curt is in his second year as Indiana’s secondary coach.

“Football was obviously a shared family interest,” Bill said, “but it was never forced upon them. That was something I really tried not to do. I wanted them to enjoy it, but without going overboard. I didn’t want to put any pressure on them.”

Mallory was adamant about letting his sons enjoy their childhood: If they wanted to go play with their friends, great; if they wanted to watch a game, even better.

But it didn’t take long for Doug, Mike and Curt to find their passion for the game, and at an early age, they could be found at their dad’s practices or working out at the school’s facilities. Mike and Doug each were ball boys for their father.

“I never really looked at any other schools besides Indiana and Michigan,” said Curt, who was a part of five Big Ten championships at Michigan, four as a player and one as a student assistant. “I really never saw myself anywhere else but those two places. In the end, I felt maybe it was time to get away from home, branch out.”

“I’d always dreamed of playing for my father growing up ... or someone like him,” said Mike, who after his days at Michigan had a tryout with the Green Bay Packers.

Bill says he was never disappointed about not getting to coach any of his sons. “To be honest, we were such a close family,” he said, “so, I felt it was time for them to get away and be their own person. I talked to other coaches who had sons that played, and decided that now would be a great time for them to move on and get involved in another program, with a great coach.”

“I never dreamt that our sons would enjoy it as much as we did,” said Ellie, “but they have. They all three have a great passion for the game and the people involved.

“We talked about a lot of things (at the dinner table),” she said. “But the boys grew up with it, and they saw how much their dad enjoyed the game and coaching. And how much we enjoyed the players and the coaches ... it was a good life for us.”

It was a good and busy life, especially for Ellie. As the wife of a head coach and the mother of one daughter, Barb, and three sons who all played in college, Ellie’s weekends were spent traveling from game to game and school to school, all this from a woman who knew very little about the game when her and her future husband first started dating.

“I really didn’t know much about football. I was a music major,” said Ellie, who graduated, like her husband, from Miami (OH). “I knew nothing. When Bill was a G.A. at Bowling Green, and I was still at Miami, I asked him to explain the game. He didn’t want to, because he wanted to watch it, of course. He said, ‘just look at the scoreboard.’

“So, the first play, I looked at the scoreboard, and, I said ‘well, the scoreboard’s wrong. It says down 2, and I know there are at least 11 guys on the field. That’s how much I knew about football ... but he still married me anyway.”

The Mallory’s now have nine grandchildren.

Needless to say, Ellie’s knowledge of and love for the game has increased. Late in the fourth quarter of this year’s Oklahoma State-Texas Tech game, she watched in dismay as the Red Raiders stormed back from a 48-21 fourth-quarter deficit against her son’s secondary. But she kept her cool, and late in the fourth quarter, with the game on the line, she thought she better take control of the situation. She looked over to OSU head coach Les Miles’ wife, Kathy, who was holding their three-month-old baby girl and said, “You better give me that baby.” Ellie’s immaculate interception was followed promptly by an interception by Cowboy defensive back Jon Holland to preserve an OSU victory.

These days, Ellie enjoys the game immensely.

“The side of football that I saw was the people,” she said. “I got to know the coaches, their wives, the players and the families, and that’s what was important to me.”

Ellie took that appreciation for the people of football and helped form the American Football Coaches Wives Association in 1989. She was the first president of the AFCWA and is currently a member of the board of trustees.

Roll with the punches

Bill Mallory inherited a program with only five winning seasons in nearly 40 years when he came to Indiana in 1984. He promptly took the Hoosiers to five bowl games in his first eight seasons en route to becoming Indiana’s all-time winningest coach. But in 1996, after suffering through 13 consecutive conference losses, Mallory and his graduate assistant Doug Mallory were terminated, relieved of their duties, fired. But that’s not the “F” word, especially in the world of major college football. It happens – to anyone, anywhere, at any time. The hot seat seems to be getting bigger each season. And, like it or not, your position may be on the list someday, making a coach’s mental toughness every bit as important as that of his players.

“It was tough, to say the least,” Bill Mallory said. “In this business, you’re going to have hardships; that’s the testy times that as a coach or for anyone in any profession. Football conditions you for life. It’s a great teacher of life.”

Mallory says, although saddened by the decision, he still had the determination and passion for football and the University of Indiana. “There was no time for head hanging,” he said. “Naturally, I was disappointed, but never bitter.”

He remains at Indiana to this day.

Doug moved on, joining brother Mike at Maryland. The two brothers coached the Terrapins for one season, before it happened again.

“We just got back from visiting them at Maryland,” remembered Bill, “and they were really making progress. They both enjoyed it. “We got home, and Ellie checked the answering machine. She said, ‘you’ll never guess ... the boys were fired. I thought, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me.’”

Both Mike and Doug, showing some of their father’s perseverance landed on their feet, Mike at Illinois and Doug at Oklahoma State.

“Like any profession, you just really have to keep going,” said Ellie. “Keep your head up and keep moving forward.”

The Bowdens: All in the Family

Playing or coaching against a family member can be a daunting task. However, the Mallorys each said once the games began, their focus shifted from their father or brother on the opposing sideline to their opponent.

“It was difficult to see what my father was going through after a loss,” said Doug, “but, really once the game started, you really focused in on the game.”

Former Auburn coach and current ABC college football analyst Terry Bowden has it a little tougher. He has to analyze, second-guess and sometimes criticize two of his siblings and his father in front of a national television audience. Younger brother Jeff is the offensive coordinator at Florida State, where father and head coach Bobby has climbed to the top of the Division I all-time wins list. And the embattled Tommy Bowden is currently in his fifth season as head coach at Clemson.

“The hardest part is making yourself be critical,” says Terry, who joined the ABC staff after resigning as head coach at Auburn. “My job is to look at their team, at the plays that were called and the decisions that were made and decide if I agree with them.

“It goes one step further with me, because I’m critiquing my family.” Terry says he’s lucky because his family is light hearted and easy going. “When I first started, my dad told me, ‘Terry, if you knew as much as I do, you’d still be coaching.’

“Still, sometimes the hardest part for me is not to overcompensate,” he said. “I’ll overdo it and pick against their teams. What people don’t understand is the reason I pick a team has nothing to do with who I want to win. I analyze and based on a team’s talent is how I make my pick.”

This year has been especially difficult for Terry, as Tommy has come under heavy scrutiny at Clemson.

“Even though he’s beaten their No. 1 rival, South Carolina and Lou Holtz, three out of four years and taken Clemson to bowl games in each year, the ‘fun’ thing to write about is him being on the hot seat,” said Terry. “I’m not going to make my mark in this business by being mean-spirited or controversial just for shock value.”

He’s also stood by his father’s march to the top of the Division I wins list, which has come under scrutiny because of Bobby Bowden’s wins at Samford.

“First of all the rule says, once a coach coaches in Division I for 10 years the wins count. So no matter what I say the rule’s the rule. But it was a lot more difficult to win at Samford than at Auburn or at Florida State,” said Terry, who also spent time coaching at Samford. “Ask any coach, everybody wants to win at every level ... winning doesn’t get any easier at any level.”

ATTITUDE Charles Swindoll writes about attitude, “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to be, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, talent, or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our attitudes.”

NEW BOOK!

Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach