(02-22-2018 08:31 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  

(02-21-2018 11:22 PM)huskie1stdown Wrote:  Why did Jorgensen leave and who hired Luck?
What was his experience before NIU?

This was during time when racial unrest on college campuses spilled over to athletic departments, specifically in number of minority coaches.

Illinois State had just made Will Robinson the first black D-I basketball coach in history.

Jorgensen hired Luck, who as I recall had some HS coaching experience, as an assistant.

Some people at NIU, in spite of Jorgensen's success, wanted Luck to be NIU's Will Robinson.

Brigham was the AD. Jorgensen was forced out so Luck could be promoted to HC.

YIKES, I attended NIU those years and this is the first that I have heard anyone say that Jorgensen was forced out. I question that because he remained friendly with NIU and he always said that he lost his passion for coaching, was burned out and needed a change. I always took what he said at face value.

You are correct that there was a lot of racial tension on campus in the early 70's and I keep hoping that has improved over the years. You are also correct that there was a strong push for Luck to be head coach after Jorgensen left and I remember Luck stating publicly that if he did not get the HC position it would be because of racism.

I am not saying you are wrong but I do hope that you are wrong.

I knew some people who knew Jorgensen and the reason why he left was that he was tired of the college game and babysitting college players....

I believe he became an NBA scout.

Emory Luck may have been an awful basketball coach, but give him credit for recruiting both Matt Hicks when he transferred from DePaul and Paul Dawkins out of high school. Hicks and Dawkins became two of the greatest all-time Huskies. They were both a joy to watch when I was at NIU.

(02-22-2018 06:33 PM)golf4501 Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 05:16 PM)MajorHoople Wrote:  Pat Culpepper (14-29) was seriously out of place as NIU HFC, perhaps even more so than Charlie Sadler.

And the ironic thing was he left to be a Texas High School coach where he made more money!

The program was so seriously under funded at the time, Novaks program looked liked Alabama in comparison to financially. Guy didn't have a chance.

Pat Culpepper was a great guy. Wish he woulx have had better success. He was a legend at University of Texas. When he implemented the wishbone offense at NIU in 1976 he said it was because he had never seen anyone stop it. The 1-10 Huskies proved him wrong.

(02-25-2018 12:11 AM)NIU05 Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 06:33 PM)golf4501 Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 05:16 PM)MajorHoople Wrote:  Pat Culpepper (14-29) was seriously out of place as NIU HFC, perhaps even more so than Charlie Sadler.

And the ironic thing was he left to be a Texas High School coach where he made more money!

The program was so seriously under funded at the time, Novaks program looked liked Alabama in comparison to financially. Guy didn't have a chance.

NIU's football program wasn't underfunded in 1976 (when Culpepper was promoted to HC) compared to rest of MAC at that time.

Central Michigan still had assistants who had to teach part-time.

And Elliot Uzelac was hired the year before at WMU for a salary of $32k, his assistants $20k.

Luck was teaching one class back in 1974. His grading policy for Into to Basketball was: zero absence was an A, one absence was a B, two absences was a C, 3 or more was a D. I was the only one not a jock in the class. It never dawned on me that I was only one with a grading policy, all the other students received an A when I talked to them after the semester. North Carolina style of class.

I received a B for one hangover absence.

(02-26-2018 05:22 PM)NIU75 Wrote:  Luck was teaching one class back in 1974. His grading policy for Into to Basketball was: zero absence was an A, one absence was a B, two absences was a C, 3 or more was a D. I was the only one not a jock in the class. It never dawned on me that I was only one with a grading policy, all the other students received an A when I talked to them after the semester. North Carolina style of class.

I received a B for one hangover absence.

By contrast my roommate took basketball coaching with John McDougal. He said it was one of the toughest classes he took while at NIU, and he would have had a difficult time passing the class if it weren't for the fact that he played ball in high school. My roommate's major was Biochemistry, and he's been a successful dentist for the last 30 years!

Most college basketball coaches in the 70s would teach a class at their schools. Students could take classes from Joe Stowell (Bradley) and Bob Knight (Indiana)...

(02-26-2018 11:33 PM)jjj Wrote:  Most college basketball coaches in the 70s would teach a class at their schools. Students could take classes from Joe Stowell (Bradley) and Bob Knight (Indiana)...

Woody Hayes taught Military History at OSU.

I am sure that was an experience.

I would like to add Ryan Ludwig for wrestling. In his 7th season, no all Americans which in wrestling is a top 8 spot at the national tournament. He doesn’t have any high profile assistants. They just finished in last place in the conference tournament and only sent two to the national tournament. Given NIUs geography this is an absolute disgrace.

I actually just emailed Frazier on how NIU needs to aggressively pursue a good wrestling coach. Teams like South Dakota State, Wyoming, and Fresno have legends coaching them and will have all Americans. All three teams would wipe the floor with the Huskies. And Fresno just brought back wrestling.

To add to the wrestling team, we are in a good to great wrestling conference with Mizzou, ODU and the normal MAC teams. We are in a state that produces a lot of great wrestlers but still we struggle.

(03-05-2018 02:50 PM)HuskieJWN Wrote:  I would like to add Ryan Ludwig for wrestling. In his 7th season, no all Americans which in wrestling is a top 8 spot at the national tournament. He doesn’t have any high profile assistants. They just finished in last place in the conference tournament and only sent two to the national tournament. Given NIUs geography this is an absolute disgrace.

I actually just emailed Frazier on how NIU needs to aggressively pursue a good wrestling coach. Teams like South Dakota State, Wyoming, and Fresno have legends coaching them and will have all Americans. All three teams would wipe the floor with the Huskies. And Fresno just brought back wrestling.

I agree 100%
Major disappointment.

Did you guys know that a good portion of this years wrestling team are under class men. I think there is only 1 SN & 4 JRs on the team this season. Not to mention that the MAC Conference is one of the toughest in wrestling. He has been the head coach for 7 years now and basically had the team at .500 during his leadership. With the likes of Missu, Old D, CM and the rest of the MAC, this is a tough conference. I try to keep an eye on them, but there is not a lot of news either. Last years team had 5 guys qualify for the NCAA's. This year, only 2 and one of them was a huge upset.

I am not sure I agree, and I don't know a lot of the history of this team either. They performed poorly, but I would expect next year to be better due to the age of the team. They are young. Time will tell.

Should we be able to draw in a younger hungry coach to change things up. It would make sense as well. But, this is a non-revenue making sport for NIU. I am not sure how financially we could get a better coach?

(03-07-2018 09:54 AM)Splooie99 Wrote:  Did you guys know that a good portion of this years wrestling team are under class men. I think there is only 1 SN & 4 JRs on the team this season. Not to mention that the MAC Conference is one of the toughest in wrestling. He has been the head coach for 7 years now and basically had the team at .500 during his leadership. With the likes of Missu, Old D, CM and the rest of the MAC, this is a tough conference. I try to keep an eye on them, but there is not a lot of news either. Last years team had 5 guys qualify for the NCAA's. This year, only 2 and one of them was a huge upset.

I am not sure I agree, and I don't know a lot of the history of this team either. They performed poorly, but I would expect next year to be better due to the age of the team. They are young. Time will tell.

Should we be able to draw in a younger hungry coach to change things up. It would make sense as well. But, this is a non-revenue making sport for NIU. I am not sure how financially we could get a better coach?

Their best wrestler from last year also transferred to Minnesota.

(02-24-2018 05:28 PM)bikechuck Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 08:31 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  

(02-21-2018 11:22 PM)huskie1stdown Wrote:  Why did Jorgensen leave and who hired Luck?
What was his experience before NIU?

This was during time when racial unrest on college campuses spilled over to athletic departments, specifically in number of minority coaches.

Illinois State had just made Will Robinson the first black D-I basketball coach in history.

Jorgensen hired Luck, who as I recall had some HS coaching experience, as an assistant.

Some people at NIU, in spite of Jorgensen's success, wanted Luck to be NIU's Will Robinson.

Brigham was the AD. Jorgensen was forced out so Luck could be promoted to HC.

YIKES, I attended NIU those years and this is the first that I have heard anyone say that Jorgensen was forced out. I question that because he remained friendly with NIU and he always said that he lost his passion for coaching, was burned out and needed a change. I always took what he said at face value.

You are correct that there was a lot of racial tension on campus in the early 70's and I keep hoping that has improved over the years. You are also correct that there was a strong push for Luck to be head coach after Jorgensen left and I remember Luck stating publicly that if he did not get the HC position it would be because of racism.

I am not saying you are wrong but I do hope that you are wrong.

There’s more about Jorgy in the History thread - see post #74 for some articles.

http://http://csnbbs.com/thread-455533-page-2.html

(03-07-2018 10:29 AM)Doggone Wrote:  

(03-07-2018 09:54 AM)Splooie99 Wrote:  Did you guys know that a good portion of this years wrestling team are under class men. I think there is only 1 SN & 4 JRs on the team this season. Not to mention that the MAC Conference is one of the toughest in wrestling. He has been the head coach for 7 years now and basically had the team at .500 during his leadership. With the likes of Missu, Old D, CM and the rest of the MAC, this is a tough conference. I try to keep an eye on them, but there is not a lot of news either. Last years team had 5 guys qualify for the NCAA's. This year, only 2 and one of them was a huge upset.

I am not sure I agree, and I don't know a lot of the history of this team either. They performed poorly, but I would expect next year to be better due to the age of the team. They are young. Time will tell.

Should we be able to draw in a younger hungry coach to change things up. It would make sense as well. But, this is a non-revenue making sport for NIU. I am not sure how financially we could get a better coach?

Their best wrestler from last year also transferred to Minnesota.

Steve Bleise went to Minnesota because he thought he wasn’t challenged enough here. That’s an indictment on the coach, roster, or both.

As far as qualifiers, they should have north of four yearly. No all Americans in 14 or so years is a joke in wrestling, especially when you have great wrestling both West and east in under one hour.

As far as non revenue, wrestling is non revenue generating for all but a handful of programs. Look at South Dakota state, Wyoming, Fresno, and some others and compare their coaching staff to NIU’s. I think the coaching staff at Montini High School is probably better.

As far as the conference, you’re right, it’s a good conference, that’s why NIU should recruit well. In 2017-2018, NIU got one Illinois kid, and this hurts me to say because I wrestled 1A in high school, but it was a two time 1A title holder, he collected under five victories this year. NIU should be recruiting OPRF, Montini, Glenbard North, etc.

7 years is a pretty long time to be a coach, with nobody making it past the round of 12 and to be regressing.

Just my opinion, but they are either not taking advantage of the resources around them or they just can’t recruit or develop. Also, both NIU guys who got second are not Illinois kids. They lost to wrestlers who went to high school within NIUs immediate area of Plainfield East and Libertyville. The two NIU wrestlers were from out of state...