Hall of Honor
Bill Mack was an outstanding football lineman whose success as a player carried over into coaching. A three year, two-way starter at linebacker and guard on Beloit teams that posted an overall 16-7 record, including a 7-1 mark in 1955, he was defensive captain and most valuable lineman as a senior. Mack also excelled in golf, playing on squads winning 26 of 36 matches from 1956 through 1958, when the team received an NCAA tourney invitation. After two seasons of semi-pro action with the Racine Raiders and selection as all-conference linebacker and team co-captain in ’59, he was drafted by the Denver Broncos of the American Football League, but acceptance of his first teaching-coaching contract and marriage prompted him to decline a tryout. In 26 years as a high school football coach, including two decades in Crystal Lake, Illinois, Mack guided teams to 154 wins and 5 ties while losing only 71 games. In 1987, he became the youngest active coach to be elected to the Illinois Football Coaches Hall of Fame; a year later, he installed the wing-T offense as a part-time assistant at Beloit College to help Ed DeGeorge revitalize the Buccaneers’ fortunes. Having also coached basketball, track, wrestling and hockey at the prep level, Mack chaired the cooperative education department at Crystal Lake Central High School before being named head football coach at North Central College last month.
