Darrell Mudra obit

Darrell Mudra, who coached NDSU's first national title team, dies at 93

Legendary coach led North Dakota State to the 1965 college division championship

 

He was not on the list.

FARGO — Darrell Mudra, who led North Dakota State to its first of 17 national football championships in 1965, died Wednesday in Tallahassee, Fla. He was 93.

Mudra is credited as the man who started the dynasty that continues to this day. He was named the NDSU head coach in 1963, a year after the program went 0-10. The Bison went 10-1 in 1964 defeating Western State (Colo.) 14-13 in the Mineral Water Bowl.

The Bison went 11-0 in 1965 defeating Grambling 20-7 in the Pecan Bowl. In all, Mudra coached 27 years at eight different universities or professional teams with a record of 207-88-4. He was 24-6 in his three years at NDSU.

One of those stops included the University of Arizona. The Forum published an opinion piece on Mudra last week before the game.

Mudra was inducted into the Bison Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.

Mudra, a 2000 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, was the head coach at Eastern Illinois from 1978-82.  He earned the nickname Dr. Victory as he was able to turnaround football programs at several collegiate head coaching stops.

In 1978 he took a one-win football program at EIU the previous season and led them to the NCAA Division II National Championship.   The program would lose in the 1980 NCAA Division II National Championship game and then advance to the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs in 1982, his final season at EIU.

Mudra posted a 47-15-1 record during his time as the head coach at EIU.  He was inducted into the EIU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982.

He would serve as the head coach at Adams State (1959-62), North Dakota State (1963-65), Arizona (1967-68), Western Illinois (1969-73), Florida State (1974-75), Eastern Illinois (1978-82) and Northern Iowa (1983-87) winning national championships at both North Dakota State (1965) and Eastern Illinois (1978).

In 1952, Mudra was hired as an assistant basketball coach at the University of Omaha—now known at the University of Nebraska Omaha—where he was also pursuing a master's degree in English.[4] He was hired as the head basketball coach and assistant football coach for Ashland High School in Ashland, Nebraska, in 1953. He was hired to coach for Tekamah High School in Tekamah, Nebraska, in 1954.[6] He was hired to coach at Huron University in 1957 and was hired to coach at Colorado State College in May 1958.

Mudra served as the head football coach at Adams State College from 1959 to 1962. He had a 32–4–1 record for the Adams State Grizzlies and won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship in three consecutive years from 1960 to 1962. He was then hired to coach at the North Dakota State University in 1963. The North Dakota State Bison had a 3–5 record in 1963 and a 10–1 record in 1964, winning the North Central Conference. The team went 11–0 in 1965, again winning the conference championship, and also winning the school's first national championship. He earned a Doctor of Education at Colorado State College in 1964.

In 1966, Mudra coached the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL). After one season with Montreal, with a 7–7 record, he quit to accept the head coaching position for the University of Arizona. The Arizona Wildcats went 3–6–1 in 1967 and 8–1 in 1968, losing in the 1968 Sun Bowl to the Auburn Tigers. He coached for Western Illinois University from 1969 to 1973, with a 39–13 record in those five seasons. They won the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1969, and appeared in the 1973 NCAA Division II quaterfinals.

Mudra was hired by Florida State University to coach the Florida State Seminoles football team after they finished the 1973 season 0–11. Mudra had a 4–18 record in the 1974 and 1975 seasons, and was fired and replaced by Bobby Bowden.

Mudra next coached at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois, taking over in 1978 following a 1–10 season. In 1978, Eastern Illinois went 10–2 and won the NCAA Division II national championship. He coached at Eastern Illinois through the 1982 season, and then coached the University of Northern Iowa from 1983 to 1987. The Northern Iowa Panthers won the Gateway Football Conference in 1985 and 1987. Twice, he led the Panthers to the NCAA Division I-AA semifinals.

Mudra compiled a career college football record of 200–81–4 (.709). He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2000.

Mudra had an unorthodox coaching style. Throughout his days as a head coach, Mudra worked from the press box while a game was being played rather the sideline as most head coaches do.

Mudra graduated from Omaha South High School in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1946. He attended Peru State College and played as a fullback on their gridiron football team. He graduated from Peru State Bobcats in 1951.