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| Augustana athletics photo |
Bob Reade, who brought unprecedented positive national recognition to Augustana during the 1980s, passed away on Sunday, July 5 in Geneseo, Illinois. Reade led the Vikings football program to four straight NCAA Division III national championships from 1983 through 1986.
He was 87.
The four consecutive national titles is a record which still stands.
“People used to say to me that Bob was one-in-a-million,” said Tom Schmulbach, the coach who would eventually succeed Reade as Augustana's head coach. “I would say to that person ‘I think you are underestimating the man’.”
When Reade assumed the reins of the Augustana football program in the spring of 1979, few people at the school near the banks of the Mississippi River in Rock Island, Illinois could have predicted the success that was going to become synonymous with the Vikings on the gridiron. One look at Reade’s history, however and one would have a good indication that the father of 11 children – he had nine when he took the job – was no stranger to building a powerful program.
He left behind a powerhouse at J.D. Darnall High School in Geneseo where he went 146-21-4 in 17 years and was coming off three straight Class 3A state titles in 1976, 1977 and 1978. From 1965-71 his Maple Leafs had an unbeaten streak of 52 straight games.
His approach to the game fit in perfectly with Augustana’s liberal arts curriculum as he made few demands on his players outside of the two and a half to three hours of practice every day.
“That was something he believed in strongly,” said Schmulbach, who worked as an assistant under Reade at Geneseo and from 1982 through 1994 at Augustana. “When we would recruit student-athletes he promised them that we would have no Sunday meetings and that when practice was done the time was their own. He stuck by that throughout his entire career and it certainly paid off for us.”
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| Bob Reade, right, with longtime Mount Union coach Larry Kehres. Kehres and the Purple Raiders passed Augustana in total titles, but nobody has matched the Vikings' run of four consecutive national championships or 60 consecutive games overall without a loss. Augustana 2015 file photo |
In 16 years at Augustana, the success never stopped as Reade compiled a record of 146-21-1 overall and 112-12-1 in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin. His teams were in the NCAA Division III playoffs 11 times, including a then-national record 10 straight appearances from 1981-90. The Vikings won four straight NCAA titles from 1983-86 and his legendary senior class of 1987 went through an entire career without a loss. That group of 13 seniors finished their collective careers with a record of 49-0-1 and had a hand in all four national championships.
Augustana won 12 CCIW titles during Reade’s time on the sidelines, including eight straight from 1981-88.
“When I heard the news of Coach Reade’s passing all I thought about was his family and all of us that were lucky enough to be part of his life,” said Jay Penney, the quarterback on Augustana’s first national championship team in 1983. “He had a direct impact on me and the entire Penney family and was a mentor to thousands of young men. His greatness will not be the championships and all the wins but the positive effect he had with all of us. He is a great man and will be truly missed. My thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Reade fmily.”
In January of 1998, four years after he coached his last game, he was awarded the prestigious Amos Alonzo Stagg Award by the American Football Coaches Association and in August of that same year, he was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana.
He won four straight national Kodak Coach of the Year awards as picked by the AFCA and was chosen as CCIW Coach of the Year nine times. Starting with the first game of the 1983 season and ending with the second round of the 1987 playoffs, Augustana put together a streak of 60 games in a row without a loss (there was a 0-0 tie with Elmhurst to open the 1986 season. That streak still stands as an NCAA Division III record and is the second longest in NCAA history, regardless of division.
Dennis Riccio was the defensive coordinator during the four straight NCAA title years from 1983 through 1986. He eventually went on to become the head coach at Frostburg State and St. Lawrence. He appreciates what he learned during his time under Reade.
“Bob gave you a responsibility and then gave you the freedom to do your job,” said Riccio. “I always respected him for this. Later, as a head coach I realized how hard it was to do this when ultimately you were responsible. Of course, if you weren’t doing your job you would hear about it privately. When you worked with Bob he made you feel that your family became part of his family. I have so many great memories of our years with Bob, it was a very special time of my life.”
Because of the success of the Vikings, and the unique way that Reade ran his program, Augustana’s name was in front of the national media in an unheard of fashion for a division III institution. The Vikings appeared on network television seven straight years from 1981-87 and nearly every major newspaper in the country ran features on the team’s exploits. At the 1986 homecoming game, the small and cramped press box at Ericson Field had reporters from USA Today, the Dallas Morning News and New York Newsday covering the Vikings and the remarkable run. The Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone Magazine both ran features on Augustana and Reade also authored a book called “Coaching Football Successfully.”
Greg Bednar was the team captain on Reade’s first undefeated team in 1981. He talked about the lessons learned that translated from the football field.
“Coach Reade's lessons on the football field were really lessons for success in life - keep it simple, but execute it to perfection; be better prepared and work harder than your competition," said Bednar who was an Academic All-American in 1981. "Coach Reade created a winning culture by emphasizing fundamentals and creating an environment that allowed us to be better prepared than our opponents - which also is a winning formula for success in life"
During his career, the Blue & Gold – wearing the trademark jerseys with the long, vertical stripes down the sleeves – would routinely average 300 yards per game rushing and give up less than 10 points per contest. His Vikings compiled a 76-7 record at home during his career and three of those losses came in the first season of 1979. Eleven times during his tenure, Reade’s team went undefeated at home and he retired after the 1994 season with a CCIW home-field winning streak of 18.
A total of 37 players earned NCAA Division III All-America honors while Reade was the head coach and he had 10 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans and 106 first team all-CCIW performers. In his 16 seasons, a Viking was named the league MVP 13 times.
One of those CCIW Most Valuable Players was offensive center Greg King, who would go on to his own Hall of Fame coaching career at Sterling High School in Sterling, Ilinois.
“The thing that stands out to me were his rules: obey the law and be a gentleman. That made it pretty simple for all of us and we knew exactly where we stood with him,” said King who was an All-American and team captain of the 1984 national champions. “The other thing that I took with me into coaching that I learned from him was the fact that it is all about fundamentals. Every scouting report said the same three things ‘Run. Block. Tackle.’ He was actually a fairly quiet man who didn’t raise his voice much. But, he demanded respect and perfection at all times.”
Reade was the first coach in college football history to win 100 games in his first 10 years as head coach. During the decade of the 1980’s Augustana was 103-10-1 for a winning percentage of .908, which was the best single decade mark ever recorded at the time. His teams were always known for getting better as the season progressed, as evidenced by his record of 44-6 during the month of November.
In addition to the College Football Hall of Fame, he was also enshrined in the Quad City Times, Augustana Tribe of Vikings, Geneseo High School, Cornell College (his alma mater) and Illinois Football Coaches Halls of Fame.