SIU AD Tommy Bell Dismissed--Jerry Kill Takes Over

[underdawg]

www.siusalukis.com


Tommy Bell let go and Kill (former SIU, NIU and Minnesota Head football Coach) takes his place--

[VULB#62]

What do SIU fans think?  Justified non-renewal of Bell's contract? 

[valpo64]

I believe that Bell was AD at IPFW prior to his stint at SIU.

[FWalum]

I believe that Bell was AD at IPFW prior to his stint at SIU.

Bell left IPFW in July of 2013 to go to Western Illinois and then signed a three-year deal with SIU in 2015.  I always enjoyed talking to Tommy when he was here in Fort Wayne.  He was very approachable and I thought had a good vision for the IPFW athletic department that he felt was frustrated by a lack a commitment from the state legislature.

[valpo64]

He screwed up when he didn't coddle up to Sen. David Long and Mitch Daniels who basically led the fight behind the scenes to get IU out of F.W. and put Purdue in the driver' seat on the FW campus.

[bbtds]

I've always felt that SIU has never really filled the shoes of Jim Hart after he was forced out in 1999 due to a chancellor change. Hart is a former NFL quarterback with the St Louis football Cardinals. He was signed as a back up to Charley Johnson in 1965. When Johnson went to fulfill an ROTC commitment in 1967 (things sure were different in the NFL in the 60's during the Vietnam War) Hart won the Cardinals starting QB job. It was in 1972 that Don Coryell was hired as Cardinals coach and he orchestrated a change that ultimately transformed the nickname of the team to the "Cardiac Cards." St Louis won their division in 1974 and 1975. Hart was a very big part of the resurgence of the team.

Jim Hart was from Niles West HS in the Chicago area and had a very fine career at SIU from 1963 to 1965. Hart was very fortunate that his college coach, Don Shroyer, had been hired by the Cardinals and Hart was given a tryout. He won the back up job to Johnson in camp in 1966. 

From 1984 until 1989 Hart worked with Dick Butkus on Bears broadcasts on WGN TV.

He was then hired as the AD at SIU and served there until 1999. It was under Hart that SIU became prominent in many sports under his stewardship.

BTW, today is Jim Hart's birthday. Happy 74th birthday to the "Hart" of the Cardiac Cards!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hart_(American_football)

Some will also remember that he is part owner of the restaurant chain "Dierdorf and Hart" steak house with Dan Dierdorf (who was on Monday Night Football for a long time) and a Pro-Bowl lineman for the Cardinals protecting Hart.