Friday, October 10, 2008 11:07 PM CDT
Temples inducted into Millikin Hall of Fame
By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
DECATUR -- Former Mattoon football coach and athletics director, who also coached football at Shelbyville and Oakland, was inducted into the Millikin University Athletic Hall of Fame last night.
“I am very excited and honored,” said Temples Friday afternoon. “I feel very honored to join the others in the Hall of Fame and there is quite a group that is already in there.”
Temples was one of eight inducted during the Homecoming Alumni Awards and Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner. The eight are also to be honored at halftime of the Homecoming game between Millikin, 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the Collegiate Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin and Illinois Wesleyan, a team that is 3-1 overall and also 0-1 in the CCIW. The game is set to start at 1 p.m. today at Frank M. Lindsey Field.
“Merle Chapman (former football coach and athletics director at Millikin and CCIW commissioner) called me and told me the news,” said Temples. “I have the utmost respect for Merle and it is really something special to have called me and tell me about it. They don’t come better than Merle Chapman. It meant a lot to me that he is the one that gave me the information.”
Chapman was the head coach from 1977-81, going 32-13-9 (.711) and in the 2002-03 school year the CCIW began the Merle Chapman Leadership Award.
Temples coached at Mattoon for 11 years, compiling a 62-48 record and nine of the losses occurred in his first season as he inherited a 28-game losing streak. After that Temples led the Green Wave to six playoff appearances despite having the smallest enrollment in the Big 12 Conference. His last year, 2007, Mattoon went 9-2 reaching as high as No. 3 in the Class 5A rankings and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Mattoon won the Big 12 championship in 1999.
Temples was 22-7 in three years at Oakland, including two playoff appearances. His 1983 team finished 9-2, reaching the Class 1A semifinals. At Shelbyville he coached for four years, going 30-11 with three trips to the playoffs. Temples was 134-75 overall, including 20-9 in three years at Macon. He was also an assistant at Central A&M where he was the defensive coordinator for the Class 2A runner-up team in 1996, where his son Wes was a co-captain, quarterback and defensive back. Wes Temples is now the coach at Normal.
To be inducted into the Millikin Hall of Fame you must have been a Millikin student for at least two years and a Millikin graduate, or a university coach for at least five years and you must be out of school for at lest five years and conduct yourself in such a way to reflect honor on the University and have qualities and standards of conduct most desirable in one who may be cited as an example for young people and hold a record in one or more intercollegiate sports or make a distinct contribution to sports.
“It was totally unexpected,” said Temples of the honor. “I am very honored by being inducted into a group that has a lot of good athletes and coaches and people that are very successful in life made up by a number of people that have been doing things right at Millikin.”
Temples is a 1973 graduate of Millikin and was an assistant coach under current McKendree coach Carl Poelker (a 1968 Millikin grad) from 1989-1996. The 1989 team made the Division III quarterfinals and Poelker was the CCIW coach of the Year.
From 1989-1996 Temples was the Big Blue golf coach and led the golf team to two CCIW championships as well as second place finishes in 1991, ’92, ’94 and ’96.
“I am overwhelmed and very humbled by the fact that I have the opportunity to join some really fine people,” said Temples. “I have run into someone that played when we won the conference (1989) and went to the playoffs and it was neat to be able to sit and talk with him. It is a fun situation to see kids that you coached when I was here and ones that I have not seen in a number of years.”
Another member of the 1989 team is Chuck Martin, a 1990 graduate and current head coach at the No. 1 Division II school of Grand Valley State University (5-0). Martin, a former All-American free safety and all-conference kicker, is in his fifth year as the leader of the winningest DII football program in the country, which has included two National Championships and a 50-4 record (prior to this season).
Temples said Martin was to be there Friday before going back to Allendale, Mich. for his game against Hillsdale. Former Mattoon assistant coach and 1998 Millikin grad George Barnett is in his first year as an offensive line coach for the Lakers.
Temples earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education, secondary teaching from Millikin and a master’s degree from Eastern Illinois University.
Temples was co-captain of the Big Blue in 1972, a team that went 7-2 under coach Lester Mathieson.
Temples, who retired last year, is employed at Daktronics, a scoreboard manufacturing and design company.
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
