maly, too: Chris Creighton Leaves Drake for Football Coaching Job At Eastern Michigan; Assistant Rick Fox Replaces Him

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Chris Creighton Leaves Drake for Football Coaching Job At Eastern Michigan; Assistant Rick Fox Replaces Him

Rick Fox has been named Drake's head football coach, replacing Chris Creighton, who accepted the job Wednesday at Eastern Michigan.

Creighton was at Drake for six seasons, and won two Pioneer Football League championships there.

“On behalf of Drake University, I am thrilled to welcome Rick Fox as our new head football coach,” athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb said. “He and Chris Creighton have worked together to build a culture of integrity and excellence in our football program and he is the perfect person to lead the Bulldogs into a new era at Drake University. Rick brings experience, knowledge and a deep sense of caring to his work. I am excited for the future of our program under his leadership.”

Fox, a veteran coach with 27 years of experience, was a member of Creighton’s staff for the past six seasons as the assistant head coach while also coaching the Bulldogs’ offensive line and special teams units. He has guided an offensive line that has generated 4,000 or more total yards in each of the last three seasons. In 2010 he was named the Football Championship Subdivision Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association.

“It’s an incredible privilege to be the next head coach at Drake University,” Fox said. “The history of Drake, both academically and athletically, makes this a great honor. Additionally, having the opportunity to build on the foundation and tradition that’s been laid by the former players and coaches, especially Coach Creighton who I’ve been friends with for 20 years, is a special privilege. I’m extremely excited to work together with our team and build upon that foundation.”

As the Bulldogs’ special teams coordinator, Drake ranked fifth in the nation in FCS in 2010 in both punt and kickoff coverage, allowing opponents an average of just 3.4 and 16.1 yards per return, respectively. Drake's punt-return average of 13.5 led the PFL and ranked 15th nationally. This past season, Fox’s kickoff coverage unit led the PFL with a net average kickoff of 41.2 yards.

Fox joined Creighton’s first staff at Drake with an extensive coaching background after serving as offensive coordinator at Centre (Ky.) College from 1999-2007. He was promoted to associate head coach at Centre in 2006. During his eight seasons at Centre, Fox coached 16 first-team all-league performers and 50 total offensive all-conference players.

Fox was offensive line coach and special teams coordinator at Wheaton (Ill.) College from 1992-99 and offensive line coach at Aurora (Ill.) University from 1987-92. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Wheaton in 1986.

He was captain of the Wheaton football team in 1985 and graduated in 1986 with a bachelor of arts degree in history and secondary education. He also earned a master's degree in Biblical studies from Wheaton.

He was recipient of the Presidential Award for Distinguished Service to Centre College in 2005. Fox and his wife Julie have three children, Rebecca (18), Hannah (16) and Caleb (14).

Creighton won two conference titles and amassed a 44-22 record at Drake.

“No words can describe my gratitude for Chris Creighton and the leadership that he brought to the Drake football program, the athletics department and to the university,” Hatfield Clubb said. “All those that he has touched are better people as a result, including me. I am excited for Chris and his family as they embark on a new journey at Eastern Michigan University and wish him the very best.”

Creighton’s 44 victories were the sixth-most in program history and his .667 winning percentage was the highest in the Bulldogs’ 120-year history, and the back-to-back league titles were the first for the program in 81 seasons.

“These past six years at Drake and in Des Moines have been phenomenal,” Creighton said. “Our kids’ earliest memories will be from here and we have built friendships that will last a lifetime. I am so proud to have been able to lead the Drake Football program. Leaving Drake is incredibly difficult, but I cannot wait to see the great things that this program is going to do in the near future. My family and I want to thank everyone who has been so good to us throughout these years and we look forward to continuing those relationships.”

--Ty Patton, Drake sports information

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.