BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- When Mark Hagen arrived as a wide-eyed freshman linebacker at Indiana in the summer of 1987, part of his orientation included an easel outlining exactly what was going to be done during the upcoming season.
Then-head coach Bill Mallory kept pounding the easel, the enthusiasm and fervor growing as he noted every single opponent the Hoosiers would face that fall. The seed had been planted, and it left a lasting impression on Hagen and his classmates.
That same energy Mallory used to invigorate Hagen and his classmates was the same energy he invested in the rest of the Mallory Men he had the opportunity to coach. Those same men remembered him on Saturday at his Celebration of Life at Memorial Stadium as equally tough and loyal and whose principals still guide them to this day.
"My mom and dad believed in Bill Mallory from the get-go," Hagen said, referring to when he was being recruited by the program.
He was not alone.
For Heisman trophy runner-up and first team All-American Anthony Thompson, his commitment to IU was sealed with a firm handshake from Mallory and after meeting “Mallory the man” despite Michigan, Ohio State, Illinois and Florida State coming after him.
Once Thompson arrived at Indiana, talking to the media after games became one of his least favorite activities - so much so that he would have one of the team's equipment managers sneak him out of the locker room before the press conferences began.
"Lift your teammates up. Praise them," Thompson recalled Mallory telling him during a meeting in Mallory's office one day. "That gave me new perspective."
Mallory had multiple stops along the way to collect the wisdom he imparted on his players, the first of which was at Miami (Ohio).
Mike Poff was a team captain for the Redhawks in Mallory's fourth season with the program in 1972. He had started as a sophomore two years prior, and in one of those games he received two holding penalties on the same drive. He added a third penalty on the same drive after drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct call by complaining to an official after his second call.
Mallory pulled Poff aside and game him an earful on the sideline. The next day, Mallory called Poff into his office and said "we don't do that at Miami of Ohio."
Sportsmanship aside, the amount of value Mallory placed on loyalty stood out the most to Poff.
"His biggest coaching success," Poff said, "was that he never had to fire an assistant coach."
That strong allegiance also applied to his players.
Steve Stripling was a two-year starter at left guard under Mallory at Colorado from 1974-75. He recalled one game where a fan in the stands threw a bottle onto the field as they were going for it on fourth down, causing the Buffs' offensive line to jump offsides and forcing them to punt.
Mallory looked back in disbelief, wondering why someone would do such a thing. As he kept looking back, the fans began drawing more attention to the culprit. Then Mallory did the unthinkable.
"He drops his headphones, he turns and then scales the playing wall - it's about seven feet tall - behind the bench and goes into the stands," Stripling said. "The fans erupt, they go nuts, security shows up, they kick him out. You want to talk about passion? How many coaches have gone up in the stands after somebody? That is passion."
Mallory would also use tough love to teach his players a lesson, as was the case when Stripling and a teammate broke the football dorm rule of bringing women back to the complex. They sprinted into an irrigation ditch too small for either of them but crawled anyway, thinking they had escaped Mallory's shouting until Mallory called Stripling into his office the next day and expressed his disappointment.
For Stripling, that was the toughest part to hear. It also shaped his approach to his own coaching career.
"I don't want to be the coach that they're scared of me because I yell or because I'm going to discipline," Stripling said. "I want to be the kind of coach that they're afraid to disappoint."
Vince Scott, a kicker for Mallory at Northern Illinois from 1980-83, remembers Mallory's competitiveness in intrasquad softball games, golf and of course his fiery halftime speeches. What meant as much, if not more, was what Mallory did long after Scott's college career was over.
Their relationship remained for many years after, so strong that he would come speak to the youth teams Scott coached. Mallory even encouraged Scott and his family to move to Bloomington.
One day, Scott's wife had to undergo surgery and was laying in a hospital bed recovering. Mallory and his wife learned of this and arrived quickly to be by their side.
"He and his wife sat there and spent the next three hours with us," Scott said. "That's the kind of man he was."
Tim Tyrrell, Scott's teammate at Northern Illinois under Mallory, reached the NFL as a fullback and was a member of the Atlanta Falcons team that met the 1985 Bears - featuring the likes of Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon and Walter Payton - in the Super Bowl.
"I wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for Bill Mallory," Tyrrell said.
Then there was Floyd Keith, who Mallory hired as an assistant coach at Miami (Ohio) at age 21.
"He recruited me," Keith said. "(But) I didn't know it was for a lifetime."
For Keith, the lasting memories were the 10 principles which Mallory lived by:
1. Coach your team as you would raise your family.
2. Never publicly criticize a player or coach.
3. There is no substitute for character.
4. Win with people.
5. Lock your jaw.
6. Education - Mallory cared about players getting degrees and going to class.
7. There is no substitute for loyalty.
8. Integrity.
9. Coaching is teaching.
10. Commitment.
Those principles followed Keith to Colorado and later Indiana, where he worked alongside Mallory for nine of Mallory's 13 seasons in Bloomington before becoming the head coach at Rhode Island.
Having known Mallory for an extensive period of time, Keith concluded with this:
"Hey College Football Hall of Fame - it's time."
If the ballot included the number of lives impacted in a career, Mallory would be a shoe-in.
Just ask Hagen or any other Mallory Man.
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