Former Eastern Illinois football coach Darrell Mudra has passed away. He was 93.
Mudra, a 2000 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, was the head coach at Eastern Illinois from 1978-82. He earned the nickname Dr. Victory as he was able to turnaround football programs at several collegiate head coaching stops.
In 1978 he took a one-win football program at EIU the previous season and led them to the NCAA Division II National Championship. The program would lose in the 1980 NCAA Division II National Championship game and then advance to the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs in 1982, his final season at EIU.
Mudra posted a 47-15-1 record during his time as the head coach at EIU. He was inducted into the EIU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982.
He would serve as the head coach at Adams State (1959-62), North Dakota State (1963-65), Arizona (1967-68), Western Illinois (1969-73), Florida State (1974-75), Eastern Illinois (1978-82) and Northern Iowa (1983-87) winning national championships at both North Dakota State (1965) and Eastern Illinois (1978).
1978 EIU Football Coaching Staff (below)
