Former IU football coach Bill Mallory, 82, dies

BLOOMINGTON – Bill Mallory, IU’s winningest all-time football coach and one of the most-beloved figures in Indiana athletics history, died Friday. He was 82.

Mallory’s son, Indiana State football coach Curt Mallory, announced his passing.

“Bill Mallory, beloved husband, father, grandfather, coach and friend, passed away peacefully Friday, May 25, 2018,” Curt Mallory wrote in a statement published to Twitter. “He was surrounded by his extended family these last days with love, gratitude and celebration.”

► Mallory remembered: Family, friends and former players express gratitude for IU legend

The former IU football coach had entered hospice care Thursday, after suffering a fall and undergoing emergency brain surgery earlier in the week.

His fight prompted an outpouring of support from the IU community, the Bloomington community — which Mallory still called home — and the wider Big Ten football community.

Former players, assistants and friends offered tribute this week to the man who elevated a struggling IU program to Big Ten competitiveness, and made football relevant at a basketball school.

"The best way I could describe coach Mallory, he’s just a complete person, from top to bottom," said Mark Hagen, who played linebacker for Mallory and now coaches IU's defensive line. "I’ve never been around a more humble person. It was never, ever about Bill Mallory. He knew he had to help young men grow into young adults."

An Ohio native who played for Ara Parseghian and John Pont at Miami (Ohio), Mallory came to Indiana from Northern Illinois in 1984. He inherited a program that had finished 3-8 in the previous season under Sam Wyche.

After a winless first season in Bloomington, Mallory spurred the Hoosiers toward the most successful era in program history.

Over nine seasons between 1986-94, Mallory’s IU teams won 60 games, qualified for six bowl games, turned out program legends such as Heisman Trophy runner-up Anthony Thompson and established a level of competitiveness neither achieved since Indiana played in the old Western Conference, nor repeated since.

Mallory played a physical brand of football that emphasized the run game, turning out stars such as Thompson and Vaughn Dunbar, who finished sixth in Heisman balloting in 1991. He leaned on the motto "Lock Your Jaw," emphasizing a toughness opponents would not be able to match.

His players called themselves "Mallory Men," a term used endearingly to this day, and they called him Coach Mal.

"The guys that came through the program, the people that refer to themselves as Mallory Men, we were all in," Hagen said. "It was never half in, half out. None of the guys ever doubted anything he said. He was a true leader in every sense. We were fully engaged, fully bought in.

"We looked at coach Mallory on the same level as our fathers. I know I did."

In 1987, Mallory became the first coach in Big Ten history to be awarded back-to-back conference coach of the year honors. He claimed two of the program’s three all-time bowl wins — the Liberty Bowl in 1988 and the Copper Bowl in 1991.

He finished with a winning record against rival Purdue, 7-6, and he remains the only coach in Indiana history to defeat Big Ten powerhouses Michigan and Ohio State in the same season.

"Coach Mal was respected like none other. Revered, in fact," Thompson, a member of the college football hall of fame, said in an obituary posted to IUHoosiers.com. "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 along with his booming voice, his locked jaw and his whole heart."

Mallory's time in charge at IU concluded in 1996. During his tenure, he coached some of the program’s greatest all-time players, including Thompson, Dunbar, All-American linebacker Van Waiters and future NFL quarterback Trent Green.

“He helped mold thousands of young men through the game of football,” Green said in a tweet offering prayers for Mallory on Thursday. “He’s had a lasting impact on my life and countless others. Integrity, toughness and hard work only begin to describe Bill Mallory.”

Mallory finished his career with 168 wins, including 69 at Indiana. That career also included stops as head coach at Miami (Ohio), Colorado and Northern Illinois. He was inducted into, among others, the IU hall of fame in 2002, and the Mid-American Conference hall of fame in 2013.

In retirement, Mallory and his wife, Ellie, remained in Bloomington, and Mallory remained a fixture around the Indiana football program, attending practices and games as recently as last season. A road on Bloomington’s east side bears his name: Bill Mallory Boulevard.

"Coach Mallory is not the greatest coach in the history of IU football because of all the games that he won," IU coach Tom Allen said in the IUHoosiers.com obituary. "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."

All three of his sons followed him into football coaching.

In addition to Curt Mallory's work at Indiana State, Doug Mallory coaches defensive backs for the Atlanta Falcons and coordinated IU's defense for three years under former coach Kevin Wilson. Mike Mallory currently serves as assistant special teams coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Mallory is survived by his wife, Ellie, sons Mike (wife Kim), Doug (wife Lisa) and Curt (wife Lori), daughter Barbara (husband James), 11 grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

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