After leading Indiana to six bowl games in eight years and becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach, it would have been easy for Bill Mallory to be bitter when he was fired in 1996.
Instead, Mallory locked his jaw, and doubled down on IU.
Mallory lived in Bloomington until his death in 2018. And two of his sons went on to become assistant coaches at IU under different staffs.
One of those sons, Curt Mallory, is leading his Indiana State program to Bloomington on Friday night as the head coach of the Sycamores. It’s a game that never would have taken place without the lessons learned from watching how his father handled the end of his coaching career.
Curt said at his weekly press conference that Bill never turned on the IU football program or its players.
“My father was fired at Indiana, but he never, ever stopped loving Indiana,” Curt said on Wednesday. “And it taught me more about anything in this profession, because it wasn’t about him. It was about the program, it was about the players. He always backed them. He never lost his love for Indiana. It was always about the players. He was always supportive of whoever the coach was.
“I was fortunate to go back there and coach, and unfortunately was on a staff that was let go. My brother Doug went back there, but we would have never gone back there if it weren’t for my dad, if it wasn’t for his love and continued love for a program. And that’s probably as big of a lesson as you can learn. That it’s not about you, it’s about the program and the young men.”
Some other notes from Curt Mallory’s comments:
- Mallory said Indiana will honor the 30-year anniversary of his father’s 1993 team on Friday night. That squad went 8-4 and played in the Independence Bowl. IU also wears uniforms from his father’s era.
- Curt said he expects a lot of family to be at the game, including his mother and sister.
- Indiana State has 63 players from the state of Indiana on their roster.
- Mallory on what he saw from IU in week one:
“They’re a much improved team. Watched them a year ago and watched them his past week. I think they’re improved. Really good up front. It’s not surprising to see the improvement that they’ve made on the offensive line from last year to this year. I’m very close to Rod Carey, I know he was part of that last year, and Bob Bostad is the o-line coach now, and there’s no question why they’re better. They’re very well coached. Defensive line, they’re very active. I think it always starts up front, and I think that’s where they made the most improvement.”
- Note: Carey was on the 1993 team being honored and still works on Tom Allen’s staff.
- Mallory was asked about his affection for Tom Allen:
“My son plays for ISU, wouldn’t want it any other way. One compliment you can give another coach. If he wasn’t playing for me, I’d want him to play for Tom Allen”
(James Mallory is a 6-foot-1 redshirt sophomore wide receiver for ISU).
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