Norm Eash said he shared with family last Christmas that 2024 would be his final season as Illinois Wesleyan University's football coach.
The Chenoa native and IWU alum said he wanted to go out with one of his largest classes in program history [34 seniors].
Eash said he struggled with the proper time to make it public, considered making the announcement before the start of the season, then figured that was a bad idea.
“It would have been all about me the whole season and I didn’t want that,” Eash said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
He also considered announcing it during homecoming weekend, but said that would add to the team’s distractions. So, he settled on the week before the final game.
Eash, the winningest coach in the history of IWU and the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, informed his players on Sunday that this Saturday’s home game against North Central will be his last.
Eash said it was an ideal time because two people instrumental in him getting the job at IWU were on campus for the Jack Sikma Hall of Fame basketball invitational, including Sikma himself.
Eash said Sikma, the Basketball Hall of Famer, was his fraternity brother who convinced then-IWU athletic director Dennie Bridges to hire him in 1986 even though he had no college coaching experience.
“One of the reasons he took a chance on me was because he had someone in his ear and his name was Jack Sikma,” Eash recalled.
Thirty-eight years later, Eash is leaving as the longest-serving head football coach at any school in college football. He said he stayed as long as he did because of his passion for the job and the university.
“That was the dream and goal of mine to come back here to Illinois Wesleyan,” he said.
Eash, a 1975 IWU graduate, succeeded Don “Swede” Larson, who served in the role for 33 years.
Each said he developed a “tough love” coaching style that he adopted after Larson and others he played for at IWU. He said coaching to him was less about Xs and Os and more about mentoring young men, developing relationships with them and holding them accountable.
“That’s why you stay,” he said, acknowledging age was becoming a factor, too. He turned 71 in September.
“I am slowing down, I do become more tired,” Eash said in the interview at IWU’s Ames Library. “It’s a physical grind. You’ve got to be in good shape and I think I am, but it’s time for a younger person to take over.”
Changing times
Eash said a lot has changed about student- athletes in his nearly four decades as a coach.
He said the football program just recently started giving formal offers to recruits, a trend that’s becoming more common, even among Division III schools that are non-scholarship.
“At first, I thought it was ridiculous." said Eash. "I actually fought it and said, ‘We aren’t going to do that.’ That’s what we are going to offer, being a part of our football family. We don’t have anything to offer … no money or anything. But everyone was doing it and finally my young assistant coaches said, ‘Coach if you don’t do it, we are going to lose kids [to other schools].”
Eash said he also was uncomfortable with having recruits take photos in Wesleyan jerseys for social media, but said he relented on that, too.
“I evolved a little bit and you have to change your ways,” he said, adding he now texts recruits instead of calling them as he did for so many years.
Eash said IWU president Sheahon Zenger has offered him a role engaging with alumni and legacy building. He said that will be a full-time role for the rest of the school year, but is unknown beyond that. And, he’s not sure where he’ll be the first Saturday in September 2025 — when the next season begins.
When asked what he’s miss, he replied “everything.”
“Coaches will sometimes complain about the grind, but I think you’re going to miss the grind,” Eash said.
