Mike Bianchi: Northern Illinois coach crying tears of triumph is what college football should be about

Two days after Thomas Hammock had just run for 172 yards on 38 carries in an upset of Wake Forest, his Northern Illinois Huskies began preparing for a game against USF in Tampa Bay, Fla., the following week.

But during a conditioning run on that fateful day, Hammock couldn’t catch his breath and something just didn’t feel right. Following a plethora of tests, he found out that he had a heart condition and that his football-playing career was over.

“I was devastated,” Hammock told me Wednesday. “I had NFL aspirations. When you’ve been playing football since you were 6 years old, and then you’re told it’s over, it hits you hard. But I found a greater purpose — helping mold and develop young men. And I’m enjoying every minute of it.”

Especially this week.

Hammock is now the head coach of the Northern Illinois Huskies, who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in recent college football history with a victory at No. 5-ranked Notre Dame on Saturday. It was NIU’s first-ever win against a top-10 team and the first time a team from the MAC has ever beaten a top-5 opponent.

Coach Hammock broke down and cried during the post-game TV interview. He cried because he loves his players, he loves his job and he loves his school. He met his wife at Northern Illinois. He named his son “Douglas” after the dorm he lived in at Northern Illinois. He will tell you that the college degree and the lessons he learned in the classroom and on the football field at Northern Illinois are among the main reasons he is what he is today.

“I grew as a player and man at Northern Illinois,” he says. “Everything that I am as a man goes back to me being a student-athlete at NIU. And now I am living out my dream coaching here.”

So much for all of the clanging cymbals in the national media who claim college football is just a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mike-bianchi-northern-illinois-coach-093000248.html

Author : Orlando Sentinel

Publish date : 2024-09-12 09:30:00

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