Indiana coach Terry Hoeppner dead at 59

He is the third former head coach at Miami of Ohio to die within the last year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

For the third time in one year, Miami University of Ohio is grieving the death of a former head football coach.

Terry Hoeppner, the coach at Indiana University the past two years after spending six years in charge of the RedHawks, died Tuesday of complications from a brain tumor. He was 59.

Bo Schembechler, the legendary Michigan coach, died the day before the second-ranked Wolverines’ clash with No. 1 Ohio State last November.

Schembechler was 40-17-3 as Miami’s head coach from 1963-68 before moving on to Michigan.

Former Miami coach Randy Walker died June 29, 2006, of a heart attack. He had been the head coach at Northwestern, and during his nine years at Miami had been one of Hoeppner’s mentors.

“I lost a friend and someone I learned a lot from in our time at Miami,” Hoeppner said shortly after Walker’s death. “He is a great man, a great family man and a great person. Words cannot express how much I will miss him.”

Now those same sentiments are being expressed by others who knew Hoeppner.

Big Ben’s coach

Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, a Findlay native recruited to play at Miami by Hoeppner, called Hoeppner a role model.

“Coach Hoeppner has inspired me to be who I am today,” he said in a statement. “He has been a second father, a teacher and a friend. He believed in me and I owe everything to him for where I am in life.”

Current Miami coach Shane Montgomery also felt the sting of loss.

“Everybody knew what a great coach he was, but he was a great person,” said Montgomery, who also played quarterback for Hoeppner and was his assistant at Miami. “He was a great person to be around. He was a coaches’ coach and a players’ coach and had a great attitude about everything.”

After two brain surgeries in the past 18 months, Hoeppner spent the last four months on medical leave. He died at 6:50 a.m. at Bloomington Hospital with his family at his side, Indiana officials confirmed.

“I know he was fighting until the last day, and that’s just the type of person he was,” Montgomery said. “We’re going to miss him. I’m going to miss him as both a coach and a friend.”

The 59-year-old Hoeppner was born in Indiana and went to high school and college there, but was steeped in Miami’s football traditions.

Came to Oxford in 1986

He came to Oxford, Ohio, as an assistant coach in 1986, became assistant head coach from 1993-98 and then took over as head coach in 1999 when Walker left to take the Northwestern job.

He had a record of 48-25 in his six years with the RedHawks. His 19 years as an assistant and head coach are the longest tenure of any coach in program history.

Along the way, he made many, many friends.

“Coach Hoeppner’s untimely death is a loss for the game of football, for the Big Ten, Indiana University, for his wonderful family and for the young people he touched,” said Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, who coached against Hoeppner-coached teams at Miami and Indiana. “Coach Hep was a difference-maker throughout his career.”

With Roethlisberger at quarterback, Hoeppner’s 2003 Miami squad went 13-1, won MAC divisional and conference championships and beat Louisville 49-28 in the GMAC Bowl. The RedHawks finished No. 10 in the final Associated Press poll, their highest ranking to end a season.

“He led by words and actions, from near and far, by example and intellect and as a perpetual teacher and student,” Miami athletic director Brad Bates said. “Terry was a great teacher, a better coach, an even better colleague and, most of all, friend.”

Dan Dalrymple, the New Orleans Saints strength and conditioning coach, was on staff at Miami for most of Hoeppner’s career there.

“He had unbridled enthusiasm and a zest for life and coaching,” Dalrymple said. “He has touched the lives of numbers of players and his legacy will go on because of the type of person he was. He had an impact on everyone he met.”