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Terry Hoeppner, RIP

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by BigDog, Jun 19, 2007.

  1. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    RIP. :'(

    never met him, which sounds like my loss. :( :( :(
     
  2. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    I know nothing about Hoeppner other than what I've read on this board, but when I heard this ealier this morning, it just seemed incredibly sad ..as many have said, life just isn't fair.

    RIP
     
  3. crimsonace

    crimsonace Well-Known Member

    Terry Hoeppner was one of the best people in the football coaching business I've managed to meet.

    To show his impact on the state's football community ... I was in a meeting this morning with three current/former Indiana HS football coaches. As soon as someone called with the news, all 3 coaches immediately stepped outside to break the news to their wives.

    Hoeppner was a unique person -- someone who said it was his lifetime dream to be the head football coach at IU -- a job that a lot of coaches would consider somewhere between purgatory and hell. He was energetic, enthusiastic, and tried to make a rather dormant (and apathetic) alumni/student/fan base energized about football. He began the process of turning the program around pretty quickly -- IU looked to be turning a corner last year and came within a touchdown of going to its first bowl game in 13 years.

    This is a sad day for IU, and the football community in Indiana.

    Unfortunately, IU's football program has had some experience with this in the 2000s. Pete Schmidt's death in 2000 was, IMO, the moment that really took Cam Cameron's coaching tenure off the tracks for two years -- IU went from a team close to turning a corner into one that seemingly found ways to invent losses. Buck Suhr, who has been around the program for many years and had a son play basketball at IU, also lost his daughter to cancer in recent years.

    RIP.
     
  4. trounced

    trounced Active Member

    Man, Indiana deserves better. There can't be a much tougher job in all of college football and when they find the perfect guy for the job he loses his fight with cancer.

    I talked to a former IU player today and he said that Hoeppner was remarkable in his passion for Indiana University. He truly wanted to coach there more than anywhere else. This person also echoed CrimsonAce by telling me how much Pete Schmidt's death derailed Cameron's program. He said that Cameron spent countless hours at Schmidt's bedside during the cancer and that, coupled with the loss of Schmidt's veteran leadership, really got things off track. He said, rightly or wrongly, Cameron put Schmidt's cancer ahead of his concern for the team. He said Schmidt was also a wonderful man.

    Just horrible news.
     
  5. lantaur

    lantaur Well-Known Member

    I know this is kind of a repeat of an earlier post, but Randy Walker last year and now Terry Hoeppner gone. Two really good guys, and not only to deal with as a media member. RIP.
     
  6. trounced

    trounced Active Member

    Yes, and both are Miami (Ohio) guys.
     
  7. Mmac

    Mmac Guest

    And who worked together at Miami, OH, for several years. A bit bizarre.
     
  8. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    No doubt Oxford, Ohio and Bloomington will both be in mourning tonight and for some time to come. RIP.
     
  9. PopeDirkBenedict

    PopeDirkBenedict Active Member

    RIP to one of the best coaches and men I have ever encountered. When you read Hep's press conferences, the printed page made him sound deluded. Here was a guy talking about how he expected victories at IU; he didn't consider it a dead-end program. But if you were in the room, he spoke with such clarity, conviction and energy about IU football that you couldn't help but get sucked in. His energy wasn't an act: he truly believed in the program and the players. I can see why he was such a successful recruiter.

    He treated everyone, from the university president to the media to the janitors, with great respect. He didn't resent the basketball program for its success and the way it could suck the oxygen out of the room; instead, he became fast friends with Kelvin Sampson. You would often see Sampson roaming the sidelines at football games and Hep would be seen at hoops games.

    Bloomington has the town-and-gown problems that are typical for a city that is dominated and defined by the university. There are the locals -- cutters -- who resent the university, but Hep won them over as well. In two years, IU and Bloomington fell head over heels with Hep and he made them care about football for the first time since Bill Mallory left. It is a sad day in Bloomington today.
     
  10. Mmac

    Mmac Guest

    Yes, the Indiana football program has been exceptionally ravaged by cancer. Right when Cameron appeared to be turning the corner, Schmidt's horrifying cancer fight began and really seemed to take Cameron's focus to another place. Then, right when Hoeppner had generated the most enthusiasm for Indiana football since Mallory, he is horrifyingly stricken with a brain tumor. And don't forget Buck Suhr's daughter.
     
  11. D-3 Fan

    D-3 Fan Well-Known Member

    This is a tough day not just in Bloomington and Oxford, but in Big 10 country as a whole. It was shocking to lose Walker last year, but to hear that Hep is gone is unfathomable and gut-wrenching to deal with this morning.

    I was at my college homecoming last year and stopped at a bar to watch the Iowa-Indiana game. When Indiana kicked a FG before halftime, I turned to a buddy and said, "Iowa's going to lose. IU will do everything not to screw the pooch." Sure enough, the Hoosiers won and I didn't mind losing to them, though it was bad for Iowa. I was happy to see IU get a much deserved big win.

    Losing one of the good guys in this league is going to be really difficult as August rolls in. Condolences and prayers to Hep's family, Hoosier and RedHawk nations on this day.
     
  12. Highway 101

    Highway 101 Active Member

    I'm proud to be wearing my IU ring today.

    Hep did many things to get the football program at least pointed in the right direction. It's sad he'll be watching it from up above.
     
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