Ted Schmitz played on a lot of teams, coached many more and has provided radio analysis of the past 25 Illinois State football squads. He’s cherished it all, but one team was nearest to his heart.
It had a roster of two, just Schmitz and his wife of 55 years, Carolyn. She loved football as much as he did, if that’s possible, and was his biggest fan.
“She supported me in everything I did,” Schmitz said.
When Carolyn Schmitz died in March 2022, it hit her husband harder than any collision he had as a Little All-America linebacker in college. The pain ran deep.
“I’ll be very honest. I was screwed up for about two years. I went to GriefShare for two years,” Schmitz said. “Football is what kept me grounded. Boy I love it.”
At 80 years old, the game continues to love him back. Illinois State head coach Brock Spack has made sure of it. Spack and his staff have embraced Schmitz, treating the Learfield/WJBC radio analyst as one of their own.
Schmitz attends Redbird practice every day, enabling him to “keep up with the modern day offenses and the modern day defenses.” It also enhances his broadcast preparation.
When his wife died, Spack extended another invitation to Schmitz.
“He let me come into the office every day like I was one of the coaches,” Schmitz said. “I went into the defensive room every day for about a year. I didn’t bother anybody. Once in a while, they’d ask me a question.
“I think the world of Coach Spack and he’s let me be what I call part of the football family. I love him for that and the whole staff for that.”
Schmitz has a special place at Illinois State. He will receive the Campbell “Stretch” Miller Award on Oct. 18 as part of the Percy Family Athletics Hall of Fame inductions. It goes annually to a person who has made significant contributions to ISU athletics.
Schmitz has done that through serving nine years as an Illinois State assistant football coach in the 1970s and his quarter-century of calling Redbird games. He prepares tirelessly for every broadcast, a byproduct of his coaching days, and seeks to simply “do a good job.”
He’ll be at the microphone for Saturday’s 6 p.m. game against No. 1-ranked North Dakota State at Hancock Stadium. Truth be told – don’t tell his bosses – he’d probably do it for free. He certainly doesn’t do it for awards.
“I’m very, very appreciative and humbled,” Schmitz said. “I was surprised to be very honest with you. Coach Spack introduced me to the team one day and I thought he was pulling my leg. Then he told me, ‘Ted, it’s the Hall of Fame.’ I said, ‘Holy cow, Coach. I never dreamt about this.’”
Streator to Saskatchewan
Schmitz’s athletic journey began as a football, basketball and baseball star at Streator High School. He played football and baseball at Eastern Illinois, where as a senior he was captain in both sports and the football team’s MVP.
Schmitz hooked on as a graduate assistant coach on the EIU football team and was named defensive coordinator. After earning his master’s degree in 1967, he was an assistant coach at East Peoria High School for three years, then hired as defensive coordinator at Augustana College.
Schmitz went on to coach at ISU, with Saskatchewan and Hamilton in the Canadian Football League, at Bloomington High School and was the first head coach of the Bloomington Extreme indoor football team.
“It was just one of those things where it’s become my love,” Schmitz said of football. “It’s become everything for me and my wife was the same way.”
“I miss her a lot,” he said.
A football life has given Schmitz vast knowledge of the game. It is the backbone of his work as a broadcaster. He can dissect coverages and coaching adjustments quickly.
“He just knows football so well,” said Dick Luedke, who worked with Schmitz for 15 years on ISU football broadcasts. “By the time I started working with him, I knew football – I thought – pretty well. But I learned a lot from him and it helped me as a football broadcaster.
“And I think with the way we worked together, it helped me with basketball, too. He was just fun to work with.”
The two remain close. Schmitz stays in contact with Luedke’s daughter, Hannah Egger, as well. He taught her driver education at Bloomington High School and “she loved him,” her father said.
When Hannah and her family visit Bloomington from their home in Colorado, Schmitz often has dinner with them.
“I just feel like I’m part of the family … and maybe grandpa,” Schmitz said, smiling.
Broadcast partners
Schmitz has worked alongside Mark Johnson, Luedke, Greg Halbleib and John Fitzgerald on Redbird football broadcasts.
Fitzgerald was the play-by-play man in 2002, then returned in 2022 and has been with Schmitz the past four seasons.
“Every one of them was different,” Schmitz said. “They were all professional and I learned from all of them how to hopefully be a professional. All of them helped me a great deal.”
Fitzgerald said the time and energy Schmitz puts into the ISU program is “more than any other (analyst) that I know or I come across, not only in the league, but people I’ve known in the industry. I think he’s taken the work ethic that made him successful as a coach directly into broadcasting.”
There’s also this: if there was a Nice Guys Hall of Fame, Schmitz would qualify. He greets most people with a warm “How are you brother?”
“I don’t know that I’ve met a kinder, friendlier, better human being than Ted,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s absolutely no ego involved and he would give you the shirt off his back if you ever asked him for it.”
Technically speaking
Schmitz has had to work on striking a balance between imparting football knowledge without being too technical. He said early on he was “too much into calling coverages and didn’t have time to explain them.”
“You have to get away from that,” he said. “If you don’t have time to explain it, you don’t call it. You have to do it quickly. I’ve learned that. too. Get on and get off.”
Fitzgerald said in 2002, Schmitz “might have been speaking a different language, even to me in the booth.”
And now?
“It’s totally different,” he said. “He’s done a really good job of kind of reinventing himself as a broadcaster.”
Prepare, prepare
Schmitz’s commitment to preparation includes watching practice daily and delving into opponents’ tendencies. He even prepares diligently for the weekly Brock Spack Radio Show.
Each Tuesday, he presses Spack to tell him who the player guest will be on Thursday.
“I go home and start studying (on the player),” he said.
He's also preparing for the Oct. 18 Hall of Fame ceremony. The Stretch Miller Award winner gives a speech at the induction breakfast on homecoming Saturday.
“I’ve been working on it already, believe me,” Schmitz said. “I had it, put it aside. Had it, put it aside. I’m going to go one more time around and I’ll be ready. I hope.”
