Former Northern Illinois University football coach Joe Novak has died at the age of 81. Novak led the Huskies from 1996-2007.
Novak turned a team that struggled to get three wins in as many seasons into a competitive program that became a force in the Mid-American Conference, winning several MAC West division titles and appearing in the MAC Championship game.
Current NIU play-by-play broadcast team announcer Andy Garcia tells WNIJ that Novak stayed connected with the program after his retirement.
"[The announcers] would call [Novak] on the way to some of the games," Garcia recalls. "He was great to talk to. He loved NIU. He loved football. Once you talked to him once, you wouldn't forget him."
During a stretch of seven consecutive winning seasons from 2000-2006, the Huskies under Novak achieved a national ranking in 2003, reaching as high as 12th in the AP poll and 10th in the BCS poll during a 10-2 season. In 2004, the team went 9-3 and went to its first bowl game in 21 years, defeating the Troy Trojans in the Silicon Valley Football Classic.
His efforts earned him Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year in 2002 and American Football Coaches Association Region 3 Division I-A Coach of the Year in 2003.
Novak was born on April 19, 1945, in Mentor, Ohio, where he played high school football. He was a defensive end for 1965-66 MAC co-champions Miami University in Ohio, coached high school team Warren Western Reserve to an Ohio state championship in 1972, then moved into the college ranks to work as an assistant at Miami, Illinois, Northern Illinois and Indiana before taking the helm at NIU.
On November 26, 2007, with an overall record at NIU of 63 wins and 76 losses, Novak announced his retirement from coaching, saying it was time to do so. He remained involved in NIU sports afterwards through fundraising and other efforts.
Novak was inducted into the Miami University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007, the Northern Illinois University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013, and the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame in 2014.
