The 52-Year Football Journey of Coach Bill Lynch

You gotta be honest about, uh, the role that they may have. Because if you don't, it's gonna come back to bite you. Like it just means something. It was that moment that I knew, wow, coach Lynch. Incredible guy. My grandpa's greatest strength being interested rather than trying to be interesting. As you look back and think about a 50 plus year coaching career mm-hmm. What are some of the most special moments for you from that time? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Every child deserves to wake up and feel the magic of Christmas morning. With your help, we can ensure that every family in the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program doesn't have to worry about providing gifts to their kids. It's super easy. Go on the Salvation Army's website, look at the Angel Tree program. You can filter it by age, gender, what the kids are looking for. For right around a hundred dollars, you can provide Christmas. For a local child in our community, the team at Get Indiana is sponsoring two kids. We're buying a bike for one of them. We're buying an RC car for another. We're gonna spend just over a hundred dollars on each of these kids, and we're gonna help make an impact in our local community. These families in our local community need our help. Go on the Salvation Army's website, look for the Angel Tree program for around a hundred dollars, you can help make sure that children in Indiana have the magic of Christmas underneath their tree. My guest today is a very special one: Coach Bill Lynch is a longtime Indiana based football coach who served as the head coach at Butler from 85 to 89, Ball State from 95 to oh two. Indiana University from oh seven to 2010 before returning to Lead DePauw's program until his retirement in 2019. He's a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame. His reputation extends far beyond wins and losses. He's known for mentorship, humility, and shaping the future generations of athletes and coaches across the Midwest. I'm also joined by a great friend of mine, Lexie Manor, who is Coach Lynch's granddaughter. She's also DePauw alum. Shout out to the Tigers. She produces the Words of the Wise podcast, a podcast that captures the stories and life lessons of the older generations, including her very first interview with her great-grandpa, Dick Lux, who served as Butler's Equipment Manager when Coach Lynch was there. So today on the podcast there is representation of three. Generations of Indiana athletics and storytelling. I'm really excited to tell this story. I actually got the, uh, the fortune. I will not say I played under Coach Lynch. I will say I was on the team while you were the coach. I feel you have to get into a game to be a technical player, but I got my start after a conversation with you in social media. I think it was, I tell this story often about going into your office. It might have been after like maybe halfway through junior year and we kinda had the convo like, Hey coach, I'm never gonna play. Right? Like, the freshmen have jumped me on the depth chart, the water boys ahead of me. Like, you know, I'm playing football night, not be in my cards. But I remember saying like, well, I'm kind of good at this social media thing. Like maybe you could gimme a chance. And you, I think we walked right over into Coach Dietz's office right after that and you said, Hey. He's gonna do this Twitter thing for us, and we were off to the races from there. So who knows? Yeah. Without that conversation, we might not be here. And didn't you say that was your first like viral video? Yes. My fir, I made a Monon Bell hype video before my junior year, so this would've been the 2017 game. Okay. It got like 50,000 views on Twitter. It's no longer there because I used like an AC/DC song and apparently with copyright like that you weren't allowed to do that. But I was hooked from that moment on. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So shout out to you without Coach Lynch, I mean, not have been here. Um, but this story goes far beyond my, uh, my journey of the story. So it starts with you growing up in Indianapolis mm-hmm. Where you got to play at one of the greatest schools, uh, high schools in the state of Indiana. You were the quarterback for Bishop Chatard, correct? Correct. Yeah, that's right. And you ended up, I mean, throughout your time there, you became what Indianapolis City Athlete of the Year, which is a huge honor. Bishop Chatard has been amazing, uh, through the years. And, uh, little history of it there. Uh, the, the school didn't open till the mid. Sixties took their lumps the first few years in athletics because, um, Broad Ripple was very, very strong at the time. Cathedral was still, you know, getting kids from all over the city of Indianapolis. Uh, Broad Ripple was a very, very good ac uh, athletic school as well as an academic. Bishop Chatard was kind of the new kid on the block. Well, how did you end up choosing or, or like deciding to go there? Like you probably could have gone to Broad Ripple or like, I'm sure the established Cathedral High school was like, Hey, this is a stud football player. We probably want him to, to come over there. Uh, my father, um, it was a devout Catholic and we were going to go to Catholic school. Cathedral came and kind of recruited me about going down there. Well, they don't do any recruiting. There definitely wasn't any no recruiting. But I do remember this. My, my father built the house we lived in on Evanston Avenue, and I remember going in and my mom and and dad were there and. And, uh, I said to him, what? And my mom, my mother grew up in a cathedral family. I mean, at that time it was all male. But I said to him, what about, uh, me going down to Cathedral? I, I'm, I'm kind of getting recruited. And my dad looked at me. He said, son, I didn't build that house on Evanston Avenue to send you downtown to go to high school. You're going to Chatard Wow. Conversation. He, he ended up hating cathed conversation over, which was the greatest thing in the world because I was, our group was on the front end. Yeah. Of the success and, uh, so, you know, and, and really all sports, but football was one that took off. Wrestling was very strong. Obviously basketball was good. Uh, but, and you ended up playing basketball as well there and track. You were a three sport athlete in high school there. Uh, yes. But was football like you were That was the thing. Football and basketball. Yeah. You know, if you think about it, uh, at that time, basketball is still big in the state of Indiana. It's still big in, in, uh, Marion County. But basketball was king at that time. Well, it was single class, right? Like everyone talks about you had to be, oh my gosh. I was just down in Dubois County. Mm-hmm. They said you had to be a season ticket holder to get on the list to buy sectional tickets. Yeah. Around the state of Indiana. Absolutely. Now, the Cathedrals of the world were still, you know, football, but Cathedral was, you know, a huge basketball school. North Central was a, a big basketball school. Lawrence Central was a new school Really, but became a good basketball school. Yeah. On the, on the West side, Ben Davis. You know, I mean, so, um, there was a lot of good athletics in both football and basketball. And so your high school career goes spectacularly well and you end up getting the opportunity to play while, uh, when you go to college. Mm-hmm. Where were you between, was there a thought of, I'll get to the story, is you end up going just down the street to Butler University. Mm-hmm. He hated downtown so much that he never wanted to leave the greater broad ripple area. But were you deciding between other places around the state or maybe even around the Midwest? My dad was realistic enough that you're not gonna go play at Notre Dame, you're not gonna go play at Purdue, you're not gonna play at India. You're just physically not gonna be able to play there. So if you wanna play, you're going to, you need to find one where you fit. Butler was really part of, uh, uh, the Lynch family. You know, the story was told me when I was young that my grandfather. In the early thirties, I wanna say. Uh, he died watching his sons play In Hinkle Fieldhouse or at the Oh, in the, in the football stadium. The football stadium. At the, yeah, in the, and, uh, Butler was in our family. Yeah. Oh my. Pretty strong. And I always, in the back of my mind wanted to do it. And, and the biggest thing was I went the year after Coach Tony Hinkle retired, but, you know, he was coach three sports all the way to the end, and he wanted his athletes to play more than one sport. So I wanted to play football and basketball. And at Butler was. If you can make the team, no problem there. You know, there was no issue. They, they're gonna take the top 10, top 12, whatever it was. So I was fortunate enough to get to play both sports and it, and, you know, a lot of it had to do that. That was the Tony Hinkle way. Like what was the landscape? Who did Butler have in the schedule was like, I know today they're in like the Pioneer League or the Horizon League or something. Yeah. Like, I know that they're not like a, they're an FCS school. Uh, back in the day, like, was Butler lining up and playing against the IU or who was like on the schedule around then? We were a heavy Indiana spill out a little bit. Uh, we didn't travel very much at all, very few overnight trips. Were you playing for like Valparaiso for the helmet back then? We, it was Valparaiso, Saint Joseph's. Um, Wabash really, uh, we played Wabash every year, but they weren't in our conference. Evansville was a big athletic school and a good football school, good basketball school. So that's really where we, you know, was the main focus of our schedule. Ball State and Indiana State were in our conference. I wanna, I don't have the years Right. But it was about the time that I was in high school that they bounced up. Oh, okay. And I can't even tell you what they, I don't think they went all the way to the Mid-American conference, but I'm sure there was some kind of a league that they, they just fit it Yeah. A little bit more. And I'm rambling here, but that goes all the way. No, I love it. Back to playing basketball against Larry Bird. Yeah. You played basketball against Larry Bird. You did twice. Did you have to guard him, tell you the story? Yes. He loves the snort. You know, he was a good, uh, high school player, but. F you know, down in southern Indiana and didn't get a lot of Marion County, stole all the news and uh, reporting and, and all that in those days. But he was made the All-Star team and for some reason he didn't go. He sat out a year, came back to Indiana State? No, I think it was IU. I think he went to IU. I'm pretty sure he went to IU and then he, and then got homesick or something and like did not finish. No. Yeah. And uh, played at Indiana State. So one of the first time for early games, I mean it was game one, game two. 'cause Butler always played Ball State twice a year. Indiana State, twice a year, home and home. That was just, you know, standard. It was like the first time down the court, and uh, I got switched off my man and it was all of a sudden I'm guarding Larry Bird and the shot goes up and I go up to get it and the next thing I know, I see this big arm come over. Grabbed the ball, slam it to the ground, hit the ground, put him up, hit me in the chin. I looked at, I was spitting blood, honest to God, and I turned and looked and saw him running the other end of the court. He got 42 points on us that night and my last college game was against Ball State. Mm-hmm. It was in Hinkle Fieldhouse. So by then he had attracted where the field house was. Full Indiana State. Yeah. Yeah. Indiana, you know, against Indiana State. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. This is your last ever collegiate basketball game. Yeah. Last your last ever collegiate sporting event. 'cause basketball would've after football as a player. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, we went out and we got 'em, and we held 'em to 47 and they beat us. But they, you know, obviously they had a great run there When Bird was there. We got, he was 47. He was, uh, he was a great player. I mean, obviously everybody knows, but playing against him, he, yeah, we weren't in his world. Yeah. I mean it's, so, it's really interesting. So he ends up going to play at Bloomington? Mm-hmm. Or he gets a scholarship from Bob Knight. Mm-hmm. 74. After less than a month on the Indiana University campus, Bird dropped out of school finding adjustment between his small hometown and the large student population of Bloomington to be overwhelming. So he returned to French Lick and enrolled at the Northwood Institute, which was at West Baden Springs, the high school before then, uh, getting, uh, going over to Indiana State and then getting to come to Hinkle Fieldhouse and obviously get locked down by Coach Lynch. Um, so obviously, you know, college sports hugely impactful. Not only in your life, uh, your playing life, but obviously you made your entire career about this. From the moment you graduated college, did you know you wanted to be a coach? Uh, yeah. Second semester of my senior year, everything was at a slower pace. Um, you didn't really start thinking about getting a job until after your senior season year is over. And, but I, I remember, uh, good, good friend, Joe Dowd, uh, who we played together through high school and college. And, and all that. I, I remember, you know, we were graduating and starting to try to figure out what to do and I, I, I told him, well, I think I'm going to, uh, go to Butler. And he said, you know, I think I will too. His dad was the university physician and, and so he was close to the Butler Athletic program and all that. Mm-hmm. Um, so Joe and I went to Butler together. Okay. And ended up, you know, I mean, we were great friends and he didn't go the coaching route. I went to coaching route. So you guys were buddies from Chatard? Yes. Yeah. Buddies from Chatard. You end up going to Butler together, right. And then at the end of your Butler career, you decide, Hey, I'm gonna stick around sports and I'm gonna be a, I'm gonna get into coaching. Cool. Yeah. Wasn't it, wasn't it your sophomore year, you originally were like an econ major or something like that, and you were coming home from a game and he is all stressed about having to take this test. And one of your buddies is like, what are you stressed about? And you're like, well, what do you mean? I like, what are you not stressed for? And he said, I'm in a teaching coach. And then didn't you go in the registrar's office? He is like, Hey, I want to be an education next day. Yeah. I went and how do I get in, you know, to, yeah. Oh yeah. That was, you graduate from Butler? Mm-hmm. Did you already have your first job lined up and know what you wanted to do? I knew what I wanted to do. I, I can't say for sure that the first job was locked up. What, what was the first job you ended up getting after Butler? Well, I, I talked to, you know, the different high schools. And then Bill Sylvester, who was the head football coach, as an athletic director, he said, you can help us. Well, bill Sylvester was the head football coach at Chatard? Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. Butler at Butler. Oh, at Butler. At Butler. Oh, yeah. See, I worked with Bill at ap, my first job out of college. I worked with Bill. Great guy. You did at Apex? Yeah. That was my, that was my first gig, bill Sylvester. Great. So he's the head coach at Butler. You're graduating. He says, Hey, come back and join our staff. Yeah. So what do you get to coach that first season at Butler? Whatever he told me to. Amen. But that's not unusual back then because I, I say we had four coaches and Yeah. A hundred players. Okay. What year did you graduate from Butler? 1977. Because I went five years. I, I, I had a knee surgery year and back then, you know, you didn't recover as fast. So I, I was a five year, five year. Yeah. And, and I didn't graduate until after basketball season. Because back then you couldn't be a graduate and mm-hmm. I forget. Mm-hmm. And finish out the season. Yeah. Yeah. Because you would've, you would've, technically, it would've been like four and a half. You would've been done halfway through basketball. Right, right. Okay. So you end up getting that first job at Butler Helping Out Bill. That's hilarious. Um, and then where does that lead you into next? Like where was your, what, what did the ladder, the coaching ladder look like in 1977? I mean, it, you, the story ends like, you get, you ascend all the way up to. Under Lee Corso. Mm-hmm. As well as leading the Hoosiers at IU who just knocked off the Oregon Ducks, which is incredible. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a good time to be, uh, part of the Hoosiers state. Yeah. So what did that ladder look like for you as you were climbing up? I had no clue. Be honest. I, you know, I knew I was gonna graduate and we were gonna get married. Linda and I were, you know, gonna get married that June, and she was a nurse, so she had a job. So we were kind of feeling our way, you know, what we're gonna do. And, uh, then wanted to stay in the Indianapolis area. And quite honestly, I wanted to, to be involved with Butler. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I had the opportunity, I, I can't remember exactly, somebody on the staff left and Coach Sylvester said, you know, you, you still want to coach. And Yes, sir. Okay. It was, you know, there wasn't an interview I did. No. Just like you're in, you're in, you're in, how many years did you stay with Butler? Five. Okay. And, and they were great. I was an assistant that whole five years. My last year we, we got to be a national kind of team and I wasn't, I wasn't good enough to play, you know, at the next level. Yeah. And, and that's where really, coach Vester had a lot to do with that, that, you know, it was subtle. Yeah. But, uh, if, if you're still looking. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah. And how long were you an assistant coach at Butler though? Well, I was probably an assistant six years, something like that. And what was the next opportunity after Butler? Northern Illinois. Wow. Absolutely. Absolutely. Under Lee Corso. Yeah. Thank you. From So Butler, so five, five years at Butler. Then you get the opportunity to go to Northern Illinois and coach with Lee Corso. How did you get connected to Lee Corso? I had bounced around. Doing all the summer camps Yeah. To make a little extra money in the summer. And I went to a lot of them and there were college coaches that were there. Didn't Dick Han or something know him or everybody, you know, kind of knew him. Yeah. But yeah. Um, but anyway, I got the opportunity to go with him to Northern Illinois. To Northern Illinois. So you, well, this is great. You leave the Hoosier State after not leaving the greater broad area for your first Oh man. 25 years. 27 years of life. Yeah. You decide, Hey, you're, I mean, you at that point, do you have children yet? Oh, yeah. I, I'm thinking we might've had three. Yeah. Or um, yeah, Joey was a baby. Joey was a baby. And you pack everything up and you head to Northern Illinois to be on Coach Lee Corso's staff. Yeah. And, and, uh. Most of these stories are, are, uh, true. Some of of 'em are a little bit, well, but this one's true. This is part of it going that Linda never thought she was gonna leave Indianapolis. Yeah. Marion County, we're driving down that interstate, uh, I can't remember the number now, but from Chicago out to DeKalb and if, have you been to DeKalb? I have not. It, it's, it's out in the country now. Yeah. And, uh, I mean, it's a great city because it's a big university and, and all, and it's not that far from Chicago. But anyway, I'm driving and I look in the rear view mirror and, uh, it, she's just slowing down. I'm like, oh my God, something's wrong. So I pulled off the interstate going, you know, heading to our new home in Chicago or outside Chicago, and she pulls off the side of the road. So I put it in, I kids are in the car, I go down, she's crying. I can't move from Indianapolis. I can't, you know, it's like I said, what's too late? Don't worry about it now. So we jumped in and, and, uh, you know, got it going. You end up, you had a, you had a small pause and I, she's been a saint and was really a saint through the years of coaching all the different moves. Yeah. And their coaches wiser that way. But Linda was terrific. 'cause, you know, we went to some places that she hadn't heard of before, you know, and, and, uh, but she'd pack it up and go and, uh, but, but I remember that was the first move she had to make. And I remember that she pulled off the road and, and, uh, end up having friends from DeKalb, Illinois to this day. Yeah. And when you guys left there, she was sad to leave. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Because you only spent one year up in northern Illinois before Lee Corso, and you end up making an even bigger move. Yeah. Coach Corso, he was, you know, he had spent. All those years at IU. I think he sat out a year, then he got back at Northern Illinois. And Bill, I'll tell you, they got Bill Mallory was the coach before him. So they were able to get some, you know, elite head football coaches. Yeah. Uh, at that time. And Corso took a job in the USFL. Was he as revered? Like today? He is iconic, you know? Yes. First ballot, hall of famer all the night. Like was he that well-known? Well-liked back then, he was about as well known and well-liked as you could be in that time Wow. Time period, you know? Yeah. Because, uh, you know, for the most part you stayed within your geographical area. Yeah. Whether you're a Big 10 fan or a shoot. The Big 10, everybody was in, in, in three states, you know, now they're coast to coast coast You know, that stinking graphic before the games keeps expanding. Know it's crazy. It, it's, it's so different. But anyway, uh, she went and, uh, we, you know, with Coach Corso and, and. To this day, uh, he took care of me because I remember when he made an announcement to the team that he was leaving and all, and we were there and, you know, everybody was, was this news to you? Oh, it was news to everybody. Uh Oh. Wow. But as, and you just packed up your life and moved across state lines with your wife who didn't wanna go in the first place with him? Yeah, but when he was leaving and I was there, he said, bill, I'm gonna take care of you. And, and he said, just trust me. So he took off and I'm like, and I went home, told Linda, I said, I don't know what it is going to Orlando, but he did. He called me, he said, come, I got an assistant job for you. So, okay. So now you're in the USFL. Now I'm in the USFL in pro football and, uh, coaching quarterbacks. Yes. And what was the USFL for those that, like, it's no longer around or, or maybe it's been around in some different. Sizes and shapes, but it's not. Yeah. Was it like a developmental league that like was supposed to lead to the NFL? Yes, but it was, there was some big, big money guys that did it. They wanted their own football league. Yeah. It was like, uh, somebody couldn't get a football franchise, so the heck with it I'll buy a league. Yeah. It's like the, the, 'cause it's like, NFL owners is like the old boys club of old boys clubs. Right. It's like there's only 32 of them available, cost a couple billion dollars to get in. Yeah. And it's like the most exclusive country club you could be part of. Yeah. So they're like, oh, you're not gonna let me in. I'll just go build my own. Yeah. And but you, your time in Orlando. Well one, I guess I wanna ask, picking up and moving your family Uhhuh twice in two years mm-hmm. Further and further away from home and from Indianapolis, how hard was that for you? All easy for me. It was, that's where, you know, Linda was a saint. I mean, she never, okay, let's go. And, and fortunate enough that she's from a big family. Brothers and sisters. I mean, everybody helped out, uh, to make the move easier. We weren't there long. Yeah. Uh, one year, right? I'm not sure. Little less than that. Even I think like, I'm not nine months or something. So you're down there for nine months? Yeah, one season. Oh, half a season. I mean, I think I went in the winter and by the fall, and here's another where I was fortunate, bill Sylvester, who was my head coach, who hired me for, from my first job, he heard that the league, you know, it was folding and that I didn't have a job. And he called me and said, come on back. He said, you be the head coach and I'll just be the athletic director. So he took care of me again. Um, but he, you know, he was, he was ready to, you know, just be an ad. And more sports had grown, all that kind of stuff. And by that point you were what? You were like barely 30, right? Yeah. That's 30 years old. So you're just turning 30 and you get your first head coaching job back at your alma mater? Yes. Wow. And you'd already coached professionally too, you know, like it wasn't the NFL, but it was still professional football. Yeah. Was that another hard dis conversation to have with Linda saying like, all right, the leagues fall and we live in Florida now. Like, oh man, she was out the door. I mean, I don't think she packed. It was so, and it, you know, turned out great. So you end up coming back to Butler mm-hmm. From the 85 season to the 89 season mm-hmm. As the head coach at Butler. Right. You know, things are, are there memorable moments through there? Like, is Butler a desirable job to the state, to the country, or was it like in your head, did you have higher aspirations to keep going? No, I, uh, at that time I was a Butler grad. I mean. Butler was my, my school and, uh, so many friends and going back to Indianapolis, it was, you know, it was perfect. Yeah. And Coach Sylvester left a really good football team. It wasn't like taking over a job that, you know, you gotta rebuild. And, uh, you know, we, we had, you know, really good, uh, seasons. And then, and then at the late eighties, you know, things started changing at Butler and I totally understood it. And I was a Butler basketball player and, and all that. Barry Collier was one of my best friends, fraternity brother, uh, all that. But it was at that time that they had to put the resources into basketball so they could only really pick one of those two Right. To like pursue at a higher level. And they chose basketball. And it ends up, I mean, working out for, working out pretty well, you know. Oh, yeah. Say the Gordon Hayward years and all this crazy stuff that happens in the future day. Oh, unbelievable. Brad Stevens. Yeah. Ball guy too. Yeah. The, the most fa the most, the most famous Butler alumni is actually a DePauw alumni. Yeah. Right. Classic. Um, so you end up then you to ball state in 1990 mm-hmm. To be the offensive coordinator in the QBs coach. Mm-hmm. Did that feel like a step up from being the head coach, or did that feel like a step back to be a coordinator positions coach again? Oh, how you read into it? Mm-hmm. Uh, one, I needed a job. That's true. We, we didn't. I, I shouldn't say we didn't. I, I wasn't, you still had the job at ler. I had the job and I could have stayed there forever, but, you know, I had far enough, along enough I wanted to be a football coach and, you know, I, I kind of wanted to be, uh, or Linda really kind of wanted to be at home. Yeah. You know, not moving all over the world. Our kids were getting older, all that. So, you know, that, that led to, you know, staying. So then you end up going out to Muncie mm-hmm. From 1990 to 1992. Mm-hmm. Paul Schudel. Right. Paul Schudel was the head coach. They would just come off being a Mid-American Conference championship, playing in the bowl game. Offensive coordinator, quarterback coach took another job, I can't remember, but it was a step up kind of job. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I knew a lot of the networking by that time, uh, in there. And I, you know, had some friends who were on the ball state staff and, and Paul Schudel was head coach and. Went up and interviewed with him and talked to him, he hired me. So it was a good, good, that was a good move because it was division one with a good program and it was an easy transition for Linda and the kids. So then you moved out to Muncie, right? Yeah. How old were your kids at that point? They were young at that point. 'cause they, they were there that, that was the first time they were there? Yes. Then they ended up coming back obviously. But that was middle school years. My mom was in sixth grade actually dated my now dad. Oh. In sixth grade? In sixth grade. Who? He dumped her. Uh, but you telling the whole state about that? Yeah. I didn't really mean to do that, but uh, yeah, that was like middle school years. 'cause Billy would've been eighth grade. The oldest. Yeah. Joey and Kevin were young. Yeah. And then, so you're at Ball State. You are the offensive coordinator of the QBs coach. You end up then from the, so there is, I love that you talk about, uh, Linda being a saint. 'cause she's going from Florida to Indianapolis. You get, you almost set some roots down. You're here for five. Four years at Butler, then two years out to Ball State, then one year down to Indiana as the quarterback's coach, and then kind of boomerang back to Muncie. Yeah. Did your family go down to IU when you went down there for a year? Oh yeah. I think we were, we're there two years? Yeah, maybe just, I was two years. 93, 94. Yeah. Yeah. And then in 95 you end up coming back and get some, get seven years at Ball State. And that was where you're, you were a Division one head coach at Ball State? Correct. Did that kind of feel like you had made it in a sense, like you're in the, you're in the MAC. Mm-hmm. You're at big school, you have scholarships, the whole nine yards. Like how did that feel to get that first big division one coaching job? Well, it was good, you know, I obviously, uh, wouldn't have taken it if it was, you know, at that point, you know, you, you look at your career and you got a big family and you know, you can't. You know, you gotta be, I wanna say smart about, you know, where you go and who you're gonna work with and is, you know, is there stability in the program and all that, knowing that, you know, you can move at any time, but yeah. So you end up doing seven years there, uh, from 95 to 2002. And in that, I think there's like one of your signature seasons, right? The 1996 MAC title, right? Yeah. Like, that's pretty, like, that would've been your second year as the head coach. Yes. Mm-hmm. You win the MAC. Yes. What did that mean for Muncie, for Ball State, for that pro and for your own, I don't wanna say like, like for your coaching career, you know, you win a MAC title with Ball State, like, I feel like that that's a pretty big accolade. Yeah. Mm-hmm. The, the, the program had been in good hands and, uh, where traditionally, um, Ball State was probably somewhat, you know, had had success in basketball, had gone to the NCAA tournament a couple times, and all. Paul Schudel came in and he had been a long time assistant at Michigan, so he had a pretty good background into how to, you know, run a program that, you know, really what had happened is back at Butler, they, you know, they were gonna do some things different and football wasn't part of it. Yeah. And Paul Schudel called me and asked me to come on up and, and, uh, yeah. Be the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. And it, it turned out to be great in that, you know, networking and met a bunch of new coaches that were really good guys. And then you end up getting the job after Paul. Yeah. Correct. As the head coach I had left and gone to IU with mm-hmm. Uh, bill Mallory. Yeah. With Bill Mallory for two seasons. Two seasons. And then you get the call back from, from Ball State. Yes. And what had happened with, did Paul retire or did he, he might've gone back to Michigan. Maybe. So he leaves, he he leaves and they call you up? Yes. Mm-hmm. How did it feel to get that call? Well, excited. Wanted to be a head coach again, and, yeah. And, you know, so that was, it was a good opportunity. I knew most of the coaches on the staff. So you win the MAC in 96? Mm-hmm. Did you have more success while you were at Ball State? No, we had the longest losing streak in the country. Seriously? Oh gosh. We, I, we, yeah, I've tried to wash that that way, and it's a hundred years ago, but we lost about 22, 23 games in a row. How? Over the course of two seasons. So how do you go from what, in 1996 you went eight and four and won the MAC, and then, and you go to the Las Vegas Bowl. Mm-hmm. And then, yeah, what, what happens? And I talk about, you know, building this team. I think it's an interesting distinction when you go from a. Division three, division 2D. This is someone's job and their career mm-hmm. Is to win football games. Right. Well, what you feel bad is that it's, uh, all the assistance and their jobs and careers and families and all that. You know, the first year, it was about halfway through the season, um, we won a losing streak and it went through the end of the season, came back the next year and, you know, we had worked hard. We'd recruited hard, all that, but it was a tough league. It's still a tough league, but at that time they could really recruit. I say they, the MAC, you could get some guys that may had, uh, big 10 ability, but they weren't available. Yeah. There wasn't like Hudl. They kind of Yeah. You know, like there wasn't a Hudl where you could see every player everywhere across the country at, in like the snap of a finger. Absolutely. Yeah. Getting, getting in a car, getting in a, uh, travel and finding, you had video you could watch and film and all that, but remarkable. Is that we lost 22 games in a row. And I was born during that stint too. I can't, I can't believe I, I can't remember who it was we beat, but anyway, we won a football game, but I think we won like five outta our last six games or, or something like that. Where after losing all that, we had good kids that fought and, and you know, they're getting embarrassed on campus. You're a football player, you lost 20 straight games. But it wasn't a, you know, they didn't just start transferring. They wanted to be a part of and, and, and got it back there. And then we went another year that we were pretty good, but new ad came in, you know, time to move on and yeah. So then you found yourself, uh, how, what, what year did all of your aunts and uncles and parents graduate? So that's high school is so interesting and he might be the only. One of the only like division one college football coaches that this is the case. But every single one of his kids graduated from high school at Delta High School. Shout out Eagles. Shout out the Eagles. Yeah. Um, and they all married people from Muncy. That's like further down the road, but Muncy really is home for Yeah, all of us. So that 2002 season, my uncle Joey. Would've graduated. Right. Um, and they still had Kevin, but he only had two more years left of high school. So they kind of worked it out where he could graduate. Yeah, they could, they could stay in Muncie and not move 'cause you were, he ended up at topology. If you've been hunting for a brunch spot that understands food allergies and has bold flavors, look no further than Fire & Ice Cafe in Indianapolis. This hidden gem serves up European inspired dishes that are entirely gluten free. They're also completely free from peanuts, tree nuts, soy, sesame fish and crustaceans. We're talking biscuit sandwiches, crepes falafel, bowls, pastries, and of course all your favorite brunch drinks. Crafted with serious care and a whole lot of flavor. Whether you've got food restrictions or just interested in great taste, this place is a must visit. Seriously, I don't have dietary restrictions, but the food actually rocks here. You definitely need to check it out. Grab your brunch crew and head to Fire & Ice Cafe at 6 2 1 1 Allisonville Road and your taste buds are gonna thank you. Sure. So you find yourself 2002, no longer the head coach of Ball State. Kind of figuring out what comes next. Was there a time where you thought, you know what, we had a good run with coaching. Maybe I should do something different? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, and I, and I thought about that for about, um, a day and then decided, no, I want to, he remembered that economics class and that test that he was stressing about and said, no, I think I'll take, I think I'll take coaching. And how do you end up getting in contact with DePauw and taking over that team? Their legendary head coach had announced his retirement. Shout out coach. Nick. Nick. Oh, shout out Coach Nick Mourouzis. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, he's the best. He was getting out and he kinda there, there, I think they had a pretty good pool of guys that won the job. But he called me and he said, bill, he said, are you, are you done with the division one? And because he had done the same thing. He had been at Northwestern, you know, staff got fired. Whatever he landed at. Uh. At DePauw. At DePauw and spent about 30 years there or whatever it was. What do you think the, the main difference in your job and responsibility as a division one head coach versus a division three head coach? Is you work the same hours, you're just doing different things. Yeah. Uh, when you're a division one, you know, you're overseeing a huge group of people and, you know, just things that you have to do besides just the coaching part. Yeah. And, um, the responsibilities there and, and all with the vision. Three head coach, you work just as many hours, but yours is spending time trying to find players 'cause you're going and you don't have scholarships to give. So you gotta work really hard. And I got great respect for anybody's Division III coach. You know, you're selling your program and you're selling the, the university and the education you're gonna get. You're not selling any of this. Oh my gosh. Even, especially today in like the NIL era too, where it's like you can go into some of these places at the division one head coach and you're just, you're just a checkbook. Mm-hmm. Like what's, what's in it. But when you go into a living room of a player who might be between going to IU to be a student, like hanging up the cleats and being just a normal Kelly School of Business person. Yep, yep. Or come to DePauw and be a football player. Right. Uh, it's hard. It's hard, but the, the one thing that you're really selling is the, if you graduate from DePauw, you got a chance to, to go somewhere. So the sale is, I can't give you money now, but if you graduate from this place, somebody's, it's an investment in your future. Oh yeah, that's right. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. So you end up at DePauw for the 2004 season? Yeah, that sounds right. Okay. And then you end up going to IU. Iu, yeah. For the first stent. Yeah. This is second stent. Oh, your second stint at IU? Yeah. So you were the O the offensive coordinator or the tight ends coach From oh five to oh seven. He was there for Bill Mallory. And then Terry Hoeppner called you? Yeah, in oh five. Yeah, I was with Bill Mallory and then I had a chance to go to Ball State as a head coach. Yep. I was an assistant for Bill. And then the same thing happened here. Yeah. So then you get to go to Ball State, or sorry, to IU ter, and you're on staff there with Terry Hoeppner. So one year in Division III and you're like, you know what, I'm not done. I'm not done with division one yet. And Right. But first of all, it was IU and so Linda and the kids, they didn't have any problem with that because they had spent, you know, so many years down there and had friends and then graduated by then too. Where did your boys, okay, where did all your kids go to college? Billy went to Ball State, played football at Ball State. For you. Mm-hmm. He was on the team when the losing streak team. Oof. And that was when I was born anyway. It was what, A year? Rough year. Rough year. But you got, I mean, um, so Billy went to Ball State, Joey went to Ball State, was a quarterback. He was going to play for you, or he did play for you? He played for me a year. The year he redshirted it? Yeah. And then I got Did he, and then he got ahead. Did he get to stay? Yeah. Was that a little awkward? Brady Hoke. Brady Ho was a great Okay. He said from, and, and I knew him through the, the years and all that. And, uh, he was a Michigan guy assistant. Yeah. You know? Mm-hmm. And, uh, no, he was, and he told me, he says, bill, if he wants to stay, I want him to stay and I'll treat him like the rest. Mm-hmm. And he, he was great to Joey. Yeah. And then Kevin went to Franklin College. But when he was at IU, Billy was an assistant at IU. And that's a big reason why I think, um, I was too young, but, and you can correct me on this, but I think that's a big reason why he took it too. 'cause yes, it was IU, but he would've gotten the opportunity to coach with his son Billy. So you were both assistants at the time at IU? Mm-hmm. Wow. Did your Terry Hoeppner and I, yeah. Were really good friends from the coaching profession in that, again, I go back to the, the, the summer camps. Uh, and Terry and I worked camps together for probably four or five years. Yeah. And I just, and then he was coaching at Franklin College when I was coaching at Butler. He was an assistant at Franklin. Mm-hmm. So I knew what a really, really good coach he was. Yeah. And then when he ended up getting the IU job, 'cause he had been, had a lot of success over at Miami. Okay. So you end up at IU mm-hmm. On the staff mm-hmm. With your son in similar roles. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then. Uh, what happens that leads you to being the head coach at IU? Unfortunately, Terry passed away. Wow. It was really, really sad. Was it, was it during the season? It wasn't in the No, it was not in the season. Summer before. So the summer leading up to the season, the head, head coach Terry Hoeppner. Yes. He passes away. Yes. Is there like a process or is it just like, Hey, we're you have experienced coaching in Division one team, like now you're leading this, this group of men, Terry had done a phenomenal job. You know, it's one more thing of taken a, a program that was down and, you know, things were a little bit negative and he came in with, uh, enthusiasm and Yeah. And, uh, it, it, it filtered throughout the entire athletic program to tell you the truth. And, uh, but then unfortunately he got sick with cancer. Wow. And I, I can't remember how many months he hung in there, but. I think it was like maybe a year, but you got word that he was really bad. This is interesting piece. Talk to me about the first time you addressed the team. Mm-hmm. After the coach that probably spent time in their living rooms mm-hmm. Eating around their dinner tables. Mm-hmm. Recruited a lot of these guys. Mm-hmm. To come down to Bloomington, he passes away from cancer and you're this assistant coach that is elevated and is now in charge of this locker room. Who's supposed to get around to play a football season even though like there's this, this tragedy. Mm-hmm. Talk to me about that. That was very difficult. First you had to know Terry. He, he, his enthusiasm and personality was infectious. He passes away and the team is, you know, well I take over, well I can't be Terry Hoeppner, you know, I've seen guys before. Well this is the way he did, so I'm gonna do it that way. 'cause it comes across as either phony or mm-hmm. You don't know what else to say. So fortunately I'd been a head football coach at a couple different places. So I, I, I had an idea of where I gotta start with this thing. And the first thing was the entire staff stayed and, uh, were fortunate there because normally you would think they would all take off and find other jobs, but they wanted to be a part of it too, in memory of Terry. Uh, 'cause it was really tough on the kids and the, those coaches were good enough guys. They knew these kids need. Some direction and, and all that. And, and we did and it led, it was unbelievable. It led that, you know, we won the old Oakland bucket game at the end of the season. Yeah. So in your first season, you led the 2007 Hoosiers to a seven and six record The best for any Hosier head coach in their first year since 1905, and the best record for an Indiana football team since 1993. So, and your first bowl appearance since 1993 as well. Mm-hmm. So like, it seems as though like people are fired up and that year goes well. That then, like when you got to the end of that season, how did that feel? How did that locker room feel as you, you know, obviously you don't win the bowl game, but it's still been an incredible year. You know, the whole thing was really tough. Yeah. Everybody kind of banded together, starting with the administration at the university, I mean, down through. Everybody. And, and a lot of it was because the respect they had for Terry and yeah, his family. And it was a hard, hard year made simpler for me because of the great staff, the great kids. Yeah. Everybody worked together. And was there someone that you were looking for for mentorship during that time? Like I don't, there's no playbook to No. You know, taking over that team. I didn't know if there was like another coach where you're like, Hey man, this is the situation that we have here at IU. Like, I don't know if there's wisdom or, or what were you leaning on to confide into or get mentorship onto what to say to these men? I talked to a lot of guys. Yeah. A lot of guys who gave great advice. The biggest thing I knew is don't try to be Terry Hoeppner. Yeah. ' cause Terry had an infectious personality and he was really well liked. He was a guy that went active in the on campus and did things and. Uh, it, and it really affected to the player, especially the ones that he recruited. Yeah. So I knew, you know. Don't try to be Terry and I had that much respect for Terry. I didn't wanna Yeah. Try to, you know, 'cause that was gonna be a failure. So anyway. Yeah. Hard hard year. Yeah. And so then you end up going on and the 2008 season, a tough one due to a lot of injuries, I think they say in here too. Like against Wisconsin you had three separate quarterbacks in four separate centers. That's, I dunno, that, that's just tough luck right there. Does it also say in there they got 62 on us or something like that? Oh, I, I, I wasn't gonna pull that one on you. K. Oh, he's, he has no, he'll say whatever. So, I mean, that's a long time ago. They can't get me now. Yeah. That's there. Yeah. And I think you end up having 13 of your 22 starters are injured during that season. Like tough to win when you're down that many guys 2009, but, but you do end up pulling a really good recruiting class. Mm-hmm. So I think there was a secret and, and I think that one of your strongest suits was recruiting and like getting guys to come and play for you. What do you think your key to getting. Players to come, whether it's IU, DePauw, ball state, wherever you are. It does seem like you, young leaders, young men, want to come and play for teams that you coach. Well, the first thing is you gotta develop a relationship with them. In my coaching career, you go all the way from division three to Big 10. Okay. So there's a lot of different styles of recruiting as you go along. Non-scholarship, public school versus private schools, scholarship players. So you've gotta kind of handle that whole thing. Having that experience helped me because I had played what was division two, even though they didn't call it that way, but small college football, I, I, I had coached at every level. So the job was, is going to be very, very tough on anybody. But I had been in a lot of those situations. Yeah. Not where your head coach passed away. Believe me. Yeah. But other things were families, kids, you know, things that happen. I, I personally think that my grandpa's greatest strength, and you talk about this all the time, is being interested rather than trying to be interesting. And he meets people where they are, looks at them versus like trying to play him up. Yeah. Um, and I think that that's, that was his biggest strength in recruiting and having grown up in Indiana, coaching all throughout the state, it's easy to recruit a place that you genuinely love. And I feel like that's how we won people. The, the other thing I, I'll say in, in recruiting, the high school coaches in this state tried to help us. They had great respect for Terry and IU. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And where in other years, maybe they didn't get involved, but there, there were a lot of high school coaches that really, do you have advice, let's say I, I'm sure there are gonna be some high school and some college football coaches today that are gonna listen to this, that are currently battling, you know, whether it's getting people to come to DePauw, let's say Coach, Coach Dietz will listen to this, for sure. Coach Dietz is listening to this, or maybe a long time fan of the pod. Coach STI is definitely gonna listen to this too. Obviously you've been doing this a long time. If there are coaches that listen to this and want to know your advice on getting the top kids to come to their school and to play for them, do you have advice of, of what they should be thinking about? Uh, be honest. Yeah. I mean, you gotta be honest with what you're selling. You gotta be honest about. Uh, the role that they may have. You be honest with them about the education and, you know, I mean, it's because if you don't, it's gonna come back to bite you. Do you have advice for walking into to houses? Like, I bet you've had dinner at so many kitchen tables across the state of Indiana. Yeah. But it's kind of like, I don't know, were you, were you ever nervous to walk in there? Like you kinda have to hype yourself up a little bit and go in or what? Uh, not really. No. You just, no. You, you, you try to do your homework and get a little idea what the Yeah. Did you have a go-to conversation starter? You sit down, dinner gets served and you're like, well, now what? I can't remember. Oh, that's funny. I probably did, but I can't remember what it is now. Okay. I do wanna dive before we we're gonna kind of land the plane on the career side. Okay. But I do wanna dive in. Is there any. Recruits that, that you got, that ended up blossoming into Be Spectacular. Like anyone where you, like I sat and I had dinner with so and so and then they ended up being incredible. I coached some of those guys. Yeah. But I don't wanna say I took credit for recruiting. Yeah. There we go. I, I can't really come up with that one kid. That, or, or were there any players that like, you know, you went in, you recruited and you're like, oh, this will be a great, like, role player, but then ends up being an all star, just like absolute stud. It happens all the time. Happens all the time and, and so many with walk-ons. Yeah. It's all changed at Division I Now I don't, I don't even pretend to understand exactly what they can and they can't do in recruiting. But, you know, we always had a goal, how many scholarship guys we wanted. And generally the scholarship guys needed to somewhat fit a position. You know, we, we need some, you know, before you go out on the road, we need. Uh, five offensive linemen. We need two defensive linemen. We need three linebackers, uh, two inside guys, one out, you know, that kind of thing. And that's what you're looking for. What happens is, um, you don't have total control up until back in those days, signing date. And, uh, so you get a commitment from a kid and then you hope you could hold onto 'em, in all honesty. And you didn't have the things that you could throw at 'em that the, but you can now. Yeah. You had to sell the education and you had to sell the, you know, the university. Fortunately, the places I had, it was easy to sell the education at those universities. Yeah. I mean, every single place. Mm-hmm. I don't know, I guess, I don't know the education of Northern Illinois. I don't know how good that is, but I know, you know, Butler, IU DePauw. Ball State's good Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Like I, those are all, especially from the Division III side, you know, like the DePauw side, it's like, hey, it's easy to sell if Yeah. Yeah. If, if for, for the right people that, that have the aspirations to do the right things. Okay. So I was, I was wondering though, I always found the, the one though our friend group always talks about is Nate Orrison, uh, he came on and we've talked to, to Nate about it and he always, like, I basically had to recruit myself. Like I really wanted to come and he ends up getting the strip sack in the final Monon bell game in 2017 and helps us like, bring the bell home. That's amazing. And it's like, he was a kid who was like, I really wanna come here. Like, coach is like, please let me come here. And it ends up being an absolute step. So I always find those ones funny of like, you never know, especially when they're as high school, like there's seniors in high school. Yeah. There's so much growth and opportunity that comes throughout those next four years by the time they become a college senior. It's like you go from being like. A boy to a young man. Right. We're gonna, we're gonna talk about, time wraps up at IU. So there is the iconic clip of you. Are you at me? Lexie set the scene for us. So we're at Michigan. I was at that game. I would've been in third grade though maybe. So I don't, it's kind of light. I only remember what he got after, but I think we were down by three. Um, had a really good chance to be Michigan. At Michigan. Mm-hmm. That has to be crazy. Yeah. You have him, you have him on the ropes. Yeah. And there was a call, I think it was a past two, I'm pretty sure it was DeMar Demarla Belcher. And they essentially like stripped it from him on the ground, on the ground and said it was an incomplete pass and or interception or something like that. Yes. And so, yeah, my grandpa Papa Bill is, I call him running down the sidelines and. Takes his gum and throws it looked like Chucky. That's what people like to say, he looked like when he gets angry. And I, I don't really remember essentially that happening in the moment, but I know that I forget what gum company it was, but sent him boxes and boxes of gum and he gave it to my, my siblings and I. No way. Yeah, they, it was like a brand deal, like Wrigley or kind of something like this is like NIL here. You you, you spend your whole career working hard to recruit and coach and visit with parents and all. And you remembered for throwing gum. What a great career. No, no. But I do think, uh, for anyone who has set and spent a significant amount of time with you that like. That is not what you're known for. No. Like anyone that has actually sat down and talked with Coach Lynch and had a, a long in-depth conversation, or even a five minute conversation knows that like, but that also shows the passion that you have. Like you, you're in there in Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Yeah. You're down three points. You're driving the field and the wrong call's made and in the heat of passion like you, this thing's getting intense. Oh, I'm sure that place is rocking. I'm sure that it's just like so much emotion and things going through and hey, and you got free gum for all the kids. Well, and I will say to that point, like he is the nicest guy. If you do know him to anyone except official, that's really, you know, only time where it's, uh. No, that's just the heat of battle. Oh yeah. No, you're competitive. This episode of Get IN is sponsored by Accounted For a team of Indiana CPAs who believe accounting should work for business owners, not against them, instead of hourly bills and slow responses accounted for, gives you everything, tax, bookkeeping, consulting, and virtual CFO services under one fixed monthly fee. It's all cloud-based, transparent and designed to keep your business moving without interruptions. You'll have direct access to a real CPA who knows your numbers and your goals because they think like business owners too. Learn more@accountedforcpa.com and tell them to get in. Team sent you, so you leave IU, you go to Butler. Mm-hmm. Working with Barry. Yep. And you end up doing that for three years. Mm-hmm. And then DePauw fires their old coach Midseason. Mm-hmm. The legendary coach circuit takes over as the interim. Yep. And after that season, they end up, do they call you up? Do they post this job? How do you end up getting back in contact with DePauw? I think I called him. You call him and say, Hey, you know, I'd like to. Get one more run or Yeah. You know, do this whole Exactly. And at this point were, you would, had you said, you know what, I think that's the stab, or maybe not the stability, but division three, that kind of thing is gonna be what I want do. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Because I kind of grew up in it. Yeah. So I didn't have any ego about, well if, you know, if you're not coaching scholarship football, you're not really coaching and DePauw is, you know, a easy sell. You, you, you, you gotta go to the right folks, you know? Yeah. But if you can get 'em on campus and get 'em involved, you know, you've got a chance to recruit. Yeah. And you end up taking over in 2013. I think you go four and six on the year and you end up taking a four and six team to seven and three. Eight and two. Eight and two. Eight and two. Do you, and then, I mean, a, a down year or so, but you end up doing very, very well during your time at DePauw. You bring the bell back, uh, help coach that team in 2017. Yep. Led by great friend Matt Hunt, uh, who goes absolutely berserk. One of the craziest football games. Again, people need to remember I did not play football, but I was on the sideline for that game. Oh yeah. Yeah. I had, you can tell by how white my uniform is in the post-game picture. I was on that sideline. Come on now. Um, oh, that's funny. Yeah. And so you end up taking over at DePauw and finishing the remainder of your coaching career out there, or a legend. I mean, I don't know how many total, I don't know how many total seasons you've been on a sideline, Lexie, you know that one, but it's a lot of seasons. 52 years. Yeah. Yeah. 52 years. 52 years. You were on a sideline in some capacity. It's incredible. As you look back and think about a 50 plus year coaching career What are some of the most special moments for you from that time? Probably that game, uh, the year Hoeppner had died. When? When, uh, yeah. We won the final game there. The bucket game It was Purdue. Yeah. Yeah. In our stadium. Um, but that, that one jumps out at me 'cause that was the emotions of that whole year. Ended up, you know, saw Hoeppner's family. I mean, it was just that, that one really stands out. It was like Austin Starr came down to it. Yeah. Feel goal. Long field goal. Yeah. No way. Yeah. Yeah. 27-24 Yeah. Yeah. It was tied. Final game to secure going to a bowl too, right? Yes. Bowl game wins. Austin Starr kicks a 49 yard field goal with 30 seconds left to win. Yes. Yeah. Was the stadium silent as that kick went up? Oh, it was, yeah, because you know, for one, we. We weren't a winning program, you know, like they are right now. I mean, we, you know, have a, a season above 500, then a season below 500 and, and all that. But, uh, what was Purdue's record that year? Had they been good? They had had a pretty good run. They were 8-5 Yeah. They finished the season Purdue. So like, you were definitely the underdog. Yeah. Right. Wow. Yeah. I feel like when you were at IU Yeah, Purdue was pretty good. Yeah. Every year. Yeah. Yeah. Was that like, just after, when did, when was Drew Brees there that he kind of started it? They, he, and they were still kind of riding the high of, they went to the Rose Bowl in the early 2000s They were really good. They were recruiting, you know, really good players and they had good skill and that'd be a heck of a one to remember. Just like the ultimate season to one. Yeah. The, the best season a first year head coach at IU had had since 1905, the best season since 93. First Bowl game since 93. And, and just honoring a friend of yours. Yeah, that's a, that's a special year. Yeah. Yeah. How did it make you feel as a dad when your sons decided to carry on the family business and go be part of, be on sidelines as well throughout their careers? I didn't force 'em into anything, but when they decided to do it, I was glad they were gonna give a shot. And I, I was never, you know, especially starting out knowing, uh, you gotta work your way up, you know, you're generally not gonna get something from the start, so you gotta be willing to, if it's coaching division three football or coaching division two football or, you know, whatever it is that you gotta do to, to get there. Now sometimes you're fortunate and as the years gone on, programs have had, you have more graduate assistants, but other type of. Positions like that. Yeah. You know, coach gets a, a job and he needs to hire some young guys to Yeah. All that. So that's kind of how most young guys get in it. Mm-hmm. Is yeah. To go as grad assistants and whatever. And Kevin was a grad assistant for him at IU too. Oh yeah. So he was coaching with two of his sons. Wow. So, I mean, yeah. The footprint of the Lynch family across football, not only in Indiana, but what Vanderbilt? Yeah. Joe, Texas A&M. Joey was at Vanderbilt and now he's at Texas A&M. Uh, Billy's the head high school football coach at Delta now by Eagles flag. Yeah. But he had coached at Rice before Miami of Ohio. Iu, obviously. Iu, and then now Kevin at Ball State. And then Butler. And now Butler. Bill. Billy went down to Texas too for a year. Yeah, Billy was at Rice. Uh, Joey before he went to Vanderbilt was at Colorado State for a year, and then he was at Ball State before that. So over just like all over the place, like legendary. What advice would you have for this next generation that wants to get into coaching? Whether it's football or whether it's anything? Yeah. Like the world needs coaches, coaches make huge impacts, but what would, what would be your sales pitch to this next generation when it comes to coaching? You gotta have a passion for doing it. Not afraid to give it a try, but if it's you'll, you're gonna know that, Hey, I really like this. 'cause you're, you're working ungodly hours. You're, you're, when you first start off, why, like, why, why would you want to travel and uproot your family multiple times? Why would you want to be on a sideline every Saturday in the fall? Give up every afternoon, weekend, watch film. Why do it, coach? Uh, I love up, you know, love doing it. I, I, I really do think, uh. It's really fun to coach, you know, especially at the college level, not only for their ability, but their, you know, one bad shot to the leg and they're looking for a job and moving on and being able to give advice and, you know, 'cause there's only so many, they're gonna get a chance to play the next level. When you look back and your players come and listen to this, what do you hope a lesson that they take from you and over your tenured of coaching, playing, being on sidelines, building a family, what do you hope they remember from Coach Lynch? It really goes back to work hard and be loyal. Yeah. And, and I mean that, that, uh, work ethic is, there isn't a profession in the world where, uh, the work ethic isn't going to, you know, get you somewhere. But the loyalty part, uh, I learned, uh, being a player, being a coach, you know, the young people to, to be loyal to 'em, be honest with them. Be loyal to your assistants. Be loyal to your university. Um, yeah, obviously loyalty to your family. I, I, I think that's really important to me. Yeah. I'll give you a story real quick. Can I give a story real quick? Yeah, yeah. I have one too of, of this isn't just words that Coach Lynch says. This is, this is, uh, I like a core pillar to your character. Uh, and it wasn't just the players who were good. Let it be known. Like I, I took a few JV snaps throughout my day, but never, actually, never actually contributed a meaningful snap to DePauw football. But it would've been after my fall semester, my sophomore year, I ended up transferring home and my mom was sick and she ends up passing away. Uh, this would've been spring of 2017. Mm-hmm. And I'm no longer at DePauw. I am not a student there. I go to, I ended up graduating from Ancilla Junior College up in, uh, northern Indiana and at my mom's funeral. Who else would walk in other than Coach Bill Lynch? I didn't play a snap. I had gone down there and I had, you know, been around the locker room and, and, and all that stuff there. And you walked into my mom's funeral and. I, I just couldn't believe it. I, I was in legitimate disbelief. My, my fraternity brothers had come some of my friends and mm-hmm. You know, that, that group of people, but I, you didn't have to do that. And you talk about loyalty to everyone in, within your program Yeah. To your school coaches, all the, like, your players. And it was, at that moment, I knew, I knew I was going back to DePauw, I was gonna go back to DePauw, but I was like, it was even, and I was gonna rejoin the football team and be a part of it in some way, shape or fashion. Mm-hmm. And you making the two and a half hour drive from Greencastle to Breman Indiana to be there on one of the worst days of me in my family's life, just like reiterates the fact mm-hmm. That loyalty and hard work, all those, like you could have been driving to go try to get a new recruit in southern Indiana and you drive up for the, the third string JV safety that never will, like, it just means something. And, and it was, it was that moment that I knew, wow. Coach Lynch. Incredible guy. I appreciate that. That goes back to that. Be loyal. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. And like you've always told me and my uncles talk about all the time, like it really is about the people and making those relationships with every single member of the staff, every single player down to like, you don't, you don't treat anyone like they're great or like better than you or worse than you. He is like very even keeled and um, story kind of about that being loyal too. Uh, after the Bell game my freshman year, so 2018, um, my family and I are waiting for my grandpa to get out. We did lose the that year, unfortunately, but we're waiting. We're like, where is he? The whole team had been outta the locker room and he comes out with the janitor in a trash bag in his hand, like he was cleaning up the locker room and. Like he doesn't, I feel like you don't, he doesn't act like he's better than any. No. Anyone. Um, and genuinely cares about every single person. And your story is a great example of that too. Yeah. Like, yeah. Yeah. I, I just, it, um, it was very, of, such the most special justice. Not very often that, I don't have words to say.It was one of the most special gestures, uh. Uh, what he said on this podcast, what you've said about like these lessons that your previous players or, I mean, the coaching tree you have just is incredible. It spans all divisions from, I'm sure almost every player that's ever played has coach, like at the peewee level to the professional level. You know, like you, it spans far and wide, but the hard work and the loyalty isn't just something that you put on the wall isn't just something that you hype your players up in the pregame. It was something, it is something that you live by. Right. And I think that you are one of the greatest testaments to that. I could talk all day long. I do have to ask. Okay. Couple roundup questions. One, talk to us about Coach Dick Dullaghan. Oh boy. And your, your relationship with Coach the best. Yeah. As a kid going to Butler football games with my dad and grandpa and you know, big but Butler fans, footballer basketball. Yeah. And there was this little guy that was a running back receiver type thing and he was the quickest, I mean, he was unbelievable. And it was, you know, it was probably a game against Evansville or something like that. And it was Dick Dullaghan. Well, I'm, I don't know what I am in grade school, but I'm playing, he's, you know, leaves Butler and he takes a job at Sheard High School. And so that's about the time that I'm going, uh, to Chatard High School as a freshman. And so he was an assistant coach, but he had that enthusiasm, as he said, enthusiasm unknown to mankind. But he was kind of that way. And, uh, I, I just, you know, I remember well then I found out he was the uncle of some Chatard kids. By the time I get to be a sophomore in high school, he is now the head football coach at, at, at Chatard. He had been assistant for Carol Purichia. Carol Purichia. He was. Really got the program going. He went to couch in college. So Coach Dullaghan is the first head coach. So anyway, I played football, I played basketball. I, I didn't really wanna play baseball. I could have played baseball, but I wasn't a great baseball player. And so anyway, but I went out for the baseball team and at lunch one day, coach Dullaghan comes up and kind of grabs me by the shoulder and he says, come here. What are you playing baseball for? I said, well, I, you know, all of my friends are playing in baseball. He goes, I'm gonna tell you something, kid. He said, you got a chance to be pretty good, but you gotta get stronger. You're just, you know, and you're not gonna get stronger playing baseball. So I said, well, how do you do it? He says, well, there's Hoffmeister's Gym downtown Indianapolis. And there, there was, and the Hoffmeisters were a Chatard family. Dad was one of the first weightlifting, strength development kind of guys that checks out, that checks out so much. So three days a week, school's out, every, our guys are all going, running around and me and a couple other guys are standing on the street corner on Kessler Avenue pick us up and take us all the way down to the circle. And we went and lifted weight. So I couldn't lift a weight any more than I can this Yeah. Gadget right here. He, but anyway, what it taught was a work ethic. Yeah. That if you wanna get something, you gotta work. And, and, uh, you know, it, it was a great lesson for me and, and in the long run it was good for me. Yeah. Because I played football and basketball. I had a chance in the spring and then the, uh, track. Um, but it, it really worked out well and it was, yeah, it was something that, that was important. And that was the start of your friendship with Coach Dullaghan? Well, because, 'cause you guys end up doing football camps Yeah. For forever still. Well, hi, his, it was family kind of thing. His younger brother was in my class. Ah, okay. It was a football player and Coach Dullaghan, he, he probably was 25 years old at the time, you know, he was And he's the head coach Ard. Yeah, he was the head coach. Good for him. I know. And, and, uh, I mean, we won a lot of games. Uh, if, if there was a lesson that you learned from Coach Dullaghan from playing for him and coaching with him, do you have one? He was a hard worker. And it, I don't know exactly how the phrase goes, but he was a hard worker, but he did it with great enthusiasm. Yeah. And, and, and, you know, if you went to a camp or whatever, I mean, the guy's enthusiasm, he's still that way. He's still working football camps. Mm-hmm. He's, he's his, he was last summer. Like, he, he's his enthusia. He was, he was old a hundred years ago. Yeah. And he's still can do the I love football jumping jacks. Perfect. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he, he was an amazing guy, but he had a great impact on me. Yeah. Um, and, and the other thing that he had a great impact on me was deciding to go to college. It was, you know, one of those things, what do you wanna do? I said, I wanna play in college. He says, what do you wanna play? And I said, well, I wanna play football and basketball. And he said, go to Butler. And I was like, I remember going home and, you know, and I'd been a Butler fan and stuff. I'd never thought of myself as being. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, I had a chance to do that. We've come to the end of the show. We have a fun, couple fun Indiana questions as we wrap up. Okay. The show's obviously all about the state of Indiana. The first question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homeisjchart.com. My question for you, coach, you've been in northern Illinois, you lived in Florida for a little bit there. You've spent most of your life in Indiana calling yourself a Hoosier. Right. Why do you call Indiana Home? Starts with my family and, and my wife's family. I mean, they were as Indiana as you come as well. You know, we moved around some for job purposes, but I, I think Linda and I always felt like we were gonna end up back in Indianapolis. And, uh, we're a little stretching it, uh, Muncie right now, but, but you know it, that's 'cause of family too. But yeah, it, it, it was always about family and, and, uh, what was gonna be best when they were young, what was gonna be best for us, being able to do the things we wanna do Yeah. Later in life. And the kids learned to adjust. The people in the family, the, the people have in Indiana are spectacular. Yeah. Lexie, what is a lesson that you've learned from your grandpa? Control what you can control. And that's actually a lesson that he learned from Bill Sylvester we were talking about in the car. He mentioned it in the podcast, but he's not a very anxious worrier. Like he work, he worries about like his four walls, his family, um, but then in the games, like it would be easy if you're the head coach at IU and you're not doing very well or having the longest losing streak in college football, like he said at Ball State to get all worried about what the fans are saying and all these other things, but. Um, he just controls what he can control, and that's his attitude and his work ethic and how he treats other people. And so, yeah, that's a, that's a big lesson that I've learned from him is just, yeah. Worry about what, what is truly important and that is family and how you treat others. Absolutely. As you travel the state of Indiana signing the greatest football recruits that the state had to offer, where was your favorite place to visit? Like if you knew you had a, a visit, you had to go recruit or go watch a football game somewhere, what place were you always excited to go check out? I was gonna go where my friends were. Yeah. You know, I had a lot of friends that, you know, uh, became head coaches in high schools. Yeah. All around the state and, uh, so on Friday nights when you gotta go out recruiting. I generally, you know, where are a few of those spots? Central Indiana. Yeah. I, I was a, a big central Indiana guy because, uh, I grew up there. I I, I would visit other parts of the state, you know, when there was a player. Mm-hmm. But I knew I could get guys outta Central Indiana. Yeah. Where was your favorite place in central Indiana to watch a Friday night football game. The old stadiums in Indianapolis, I really liked. Yeah, the old Broad Ripple and Arlington and, well, I mean Arsenal Tech downtown. Oh yeah. That's a, that's a heck of a place. And it was, we, and it, that's just our background. We never traveled anywhere. We, we went to Carmel one time we got in that bus and we went, hell, we thought we were going to Michigan. It seems so far. And honestly, we lived within 4 65 and when I was a kid, it wasn't even 4 65. Um, so we didn't travel too many places. Yeah. And so many of our friends and my friends in the coaching profession were in Marion County, so Friday nights, that's kind of where I wanted to see my buddies coach. Yeah, I love that. So obviously the one, the, the bucket game in 2007. Mm-hmm. Obviously that's like one of the most memorable experiences of your coaching career, just in general. When you think of, when you think of the o the battle for the Old Oaken Bucket versus the battle for the Monon bell, what do you love? What do each rivalry, what do they bring to them and which one? If you had to choose one of them as your favorite, which one? Well, best DePauw really heard it your first every time. Why? Why is that? It's a bunch of guys playing their hearts out. That, and a lot of 'em, they'll never gonna play again. It's their last game. That's just a really neat game. What I found. Is how important it is to the alums. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's like arguably more important than the players. It's, it's not that way at Purdue, and it's not that way at IU. I mean, there's, there's the handful, but even, even, uh, the faculty who don't have any interest in, uh, football per se, they know that's a big week. Yeah. And they want to be a part of it. What would you tell the, the average Hoosier, who's never been to a Monon Bell game? Mm-hmm. Why do they need to attend the Monon Bell game? Uh, because it's one of the really unique games in the country, I would say. Yeah. You know, I think every state has that rivalry game or, you know, whatever it may be, and at the big time level. But for a given Saturday, there's no place where it's not more important to the, the guys playing in that game. I mean, and, and, and the. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You know, because, you know, again, that may be the only game they go to, but they go with the idea, I'm gonna cheer for my team, and that's pretty cool. Yeah. It's, I mean, you've coached at every level all through Indiana. Mm-hmm. Is the Monon Bell the greatest rivalry in the state of Indiana? You know, percentage wise, yes, because it's a hundred percent. Yeah. Come on that, that Old Oaken Bucket game, there's a whole lot of people down there that don't know. There's a football game that Saturday, I would say at at DePauw, at Wabash 100, the art students, the mm-hmm. Media students, the English literature majors, the alumni that are doctors, that are lawyers, that are business people. Everyone knows that there is a, there is a rivalry football game going on in Greencastle or Crawfordsville. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's a wild one. It's amazing. Wow. Oh my gosh. It's interesting too, because I grew up playing Wabash DePauw. In in the old conference we had. Yeah. And they talked about it. And I'm thinking, well, when we played DePauw, there's nothing special about playing DePauw. We played Wabash. There's nothing special about that. And then when I was involved with the game, it was like, holy cow. Yeah. Do you remember the first time you went to the Monon Bell game? I coached in it the first time You ever saw the game you coached in it? Yeah. Did and did when they started, did they roll bleachers in at that point too? Oh yeah. So you were like, what the heck? Are we rolling bleachers? Yeah. I, I was warned by the other coaches on the staff and all that. Through all of your time coaching the Monon Bell game, is there a specific memory that sticks out to you? Like one that you will never forget? We won the last game of coached and I was getting older. Yeah. And in the back of my mind, I had been thinking, you know, do I have the same enthusiasm and all that? And I remember the game's over and everybody's jumping and then he kinda have to walk. And I walked off with Lyn and I said, that's it. I'm not coaching. And it was, I don't know what would had been leading up to that, you know, over a six, eight week period or something that Yeah. Because I didn't wanna be one of those guys that hung on and didn't do the recruiting and didn't do all the things it takes to, uh, be successful. Yeah. And, and if you wanted, anyway, this was the, I remember that the 2019, was this the Chase Andries-to-Gavin Ritter touchdown down the sideline. Yeah. Yes. And it's like, Hey, let's go out on a high baby. Come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was an amazing game. Oh. And 'cause we knew that he was likely gonna retire after that game. My whole family and I couldn't tell anyone. And so the Bell game as a student, I was a sophomore at the time, I was like, of course, wanted to win for a lot of reasons, but in the back of my mind I'm like, this might be his last game coaching. He can't lose. Yeah. Yeah. His last game coaching every, and everyone else is probably like cheering and smiling. Rich is like crying. Yeah. Like. Uh, is there a specific memory of watching your grandpa on the sideline that sticks with you? Probably him leaving the 2008 Monon Bell just afterwards to 20, 20 18 when we lost at Wabash. Yeah. And he came out with the janitor? Yeah. Oh, not like that wasn't him actually coaching, but just I feel like is really reflective of his character and yeah. Who he is. So. Alright. These are the final three questions that we ask every guest who comes on the show. First one, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana? It's a great state, and the, the best place is Heritage Lake. There you go. Okay. So, well, that was gonna be the hidden chicken. So this is, this is where you get to, uh, uncover something that more people across the state need to know about. It could be a park, a restaurant, it could be a drive-in movie theater, anything. But what is a hidden gem in Indiana? Uh, watching a basketball game at Butler University. Oh, Hinkle Fieldhouse. Hinkle Fieldhouse. Oh yeah. Okay. Uh, daytime, nighttime. Nighttime, nighttime game at Butler. Mm-hmm. Hinkle Fieldhouse. That's, that's a true, if you call yourself any sort of basketball fan, you need to go see a game. Yeah. Particularly when they're like, when they're good and they're rocking and the place is rocking and you know, it's a night game on a weeknight and maybe the kids have been out hanging out a little bit before and they, they bring a little bit of rowdy in there. Yeah, that place lights up. Finally. This is your chance to help enlighten us about someone else across the state who's doing big things. Someone that we need to know about. Could be a future guest, could be just someone who you respect and, and love what they're doing. Who's a Hoosier? We need to keep on our radar. Someone who's doing big things. Yes, hyper. She's got her own podcast. I know the Words of the Wise podcast and yeah, I think it's amazing. I agree. If you do not follow Lexie on social media, you definitely need to, uh, I mean, what you're doing with Words of the Wise, uh, you can give a little bit of an overview for us. Yeah. So I interview people 60 plus about their life stories and ask for advice, but Nate and I have talked about this before, really just trying to get people to ask their grandparents questions and yeah, uncover those. Family histories and life lessons that are in there, they're hidden. Maybe that, maybe that's my hidden Jim is just the people around you. Um, my grandpa has shared a lot with me and I, I wouldn't know a lot of the things that I do now if I hadn't asked him questions. But yeah, my podcast, we just sit down for like an hour and a half and, and whether you listen to it for the content or you listen to it for the questions that you should be asking your grandparents. Yeah. Either way you should listen to at least one episode because I'm assuming mo most people, whether when you get to be 25, 26, 27, somewhere in there, you're like, wow, I'm not gonna have my grandparents for forever. Mm-hmm. I'm really gonna wish I asked about that a little bit more than how the weather was for the 17th time this year. And you know, we sat down and you kinda like hang out at Christmas and you ask the same four questions and then you move on with your life, you're gonna wanna know, I don't know what these impactful questions Yeah. But one, they're interesting and two. I feel like the older generations sometimes don't feel like they have a lot of value to add, which is ridiculous because they've lived more lives than Amen. Anyone. So just sit down, ask, ask a couple questions about their high school years or mm-hmm. When they learned how to drive, stuff like that. Well, Lexie, I have to ask from Muncie to Green Castle now to Indy. What is your hidden gem in Indiana? I would say Heritage Lake. I don't know how much of a GA hidden gem it is necessarily, but it's a private lake. Just a short, like 15 minutes from DePauw. But my grandparents got that lake house in 2004. Mm-hmm. When I was four. So it's been around my whole life and Heritage Lake. Come on now. Coach Lynch. Lexie, thank you so much for coming on, hanging out today. It's been awesome. Recapping your journey. What? Oh my gosh. You're from Evanston Avenue? Yeah, over to Butler. Really? It started 57, 58 North, north Ralston. 57, 58 North Ralston, north Ralston. And then we made a big move. Where was a big move too? It was about six blocks. I remember six blocks down the street, but it was on the other side of 62nd Street. Hey. So we, it was a little dangerous across, you know, 60. Wait, so you went, where were you at? Right, right across the street from Broad Ripple Park. You lived in my backyard? Like you live I live like two blocks, no, maybe four blocks away from there. I met, I don't live there now. Well, no. Where grew? No, I, I live like four. So right across from Broad Ripple Park, like south of there, like south of Broad Ripple Park. Where the woods are? Yeah. Off Evanston. Oh. You walk out the driveway and you, you walk right into the woods. Wow. I gotta go, I drive by this house every day. Sometimes twice a day if I have to go leave home and come back. Yeah. Wow. Look at that. It's still there. Um, that's incredible. Well, your journey from Broad Ripple over to Butler, Chatard to Illinois, down to Florida, back here to Bloomington, Muncie, Greencastle, all over Heritage Lake. You're a true legend across not just the football community across Indiana. Uh, I know that there are countless, countless players who would love to sit here and have the same conversation, and I'm honored to be, to be one of them that get to sit and, and talk with you. You've made an impact in countless lives of young athletes, future leaders, whether it was on the field, on the court, just in life in general. Uh, I've always appreciated the fact that Lexie hit it on the, hit the nail on the head. It didn't matter if you were the star or the water boy. You treated everyone with the same level of respect, and I know that that tons of players. If you haven't yet, guys, reach out. Tell Coach Lynch maybe share a favorite memory. Yeah. A, a lesson that, an impact that he's made in your life. Mm-hmm. Uh, I got to share mine today. I'm lucky. Uh, I knew that I'd the next time I saw you, I had to tell you about that and the impact that, that two hour drive one way, uh, made in my life. And I'm really, really honored and, and appreciative to call you a coach. So thank you. Also, shout out, go listen to Lexie's podcast. That's a wrap on this episode of Get IN. I appreciate y'all for making the time and obviously Go Tigers. Go Tigers. Thank you. Thanks Nate. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoosier State great. We'll see you next time here on Get IN.