Al Martin: A Hall-of-Fame career revisited

With a career varsity football head coaching record of 254 wins and 66 losses, two state championships as well as a pair of runner-ups, and a grand total of 24 playoff appearances in 27 seasons, you'd be hard pressed to find a better resume than the one sported by Du Quoin Hall-of-Famer Al Martin.

Not bad for a guy who says he "fell into coaching football."

After graduating from DHS, and a four-and-a-half year playing career at Murray State University, Martin says his desire was not to coach, but to teach. His coach at Murray State, Bill Ferguson, assisted him in landing a teaching job in Grayville, Illinois following Martin's graduation in 1976. The next fall, Tom Wheeler asked Martin to come teach and coach at Christopher High School.

"At that time I wanted to get closer to Du Quoin, so I took the job and moved to Mulkeytown," said Martin. "I started coaching, and a guy by the name of Mike Shapkoff, a very close friend of mine, we really hit it off together as coaches. We coached the freshman and junior varsity football teams at Christopher, and we prepared every one of our teams like they were varsity players."

In 1979, Martin got a call from Du Quoin. He began as an assistant in football under Bob Karnes and basketball under Roger Craft, and was also the first manager of the town swimming pool.

"I coached the freshman team, coached the linebackers on the varsity team," said Martin. "I also later became the head baseball coach. I did a lot of coaching when I was young, I'm not sure how I did it all."

Martin had left Du Quoin to assist at Carbondale High School for a couple seasons when the varsity football head coaching job opened up at DHS. His predecessor, Karnes, had left quite the legacy with the Indians himself (136 wins, 59 losses, 4 ties), one that seemed unlikely at the time to be matched by anyone who followed in his footsteps. Martin says he did indeed feel pressure to succeed and win right away.

"I felt like I was ready," Martin said, "but there was pressure. I was just hoping I'd do good enough to get rehired. I hoped that if I could have a couple good years I might be able to get on tenure and settle in. I'd bounced around and I was wanting to settle in and have a good teaching and coaching job."

Mission accomplished. All those wins and championships continued the winning tradition Karnes had set in motion and solidified the program as one of the state's best. But even after all his success, Martin says game day still gives him butterflies in his stomach.

"It never went away," said Martin. "I had butterflies every football game I ever coached. With football, every game is such a big game. It never went away, it never got any easier. The excitement was always there."

Martin is stepping away from his head coaching duties, turning things over to one of his former quarterbacks, A.J. Hill, for the fall 2015 season. As he looked back over the course of his career, Martin pointed out a few of his favorite moments, which, naturally, included his first state championship season.

"The 1988 year was special," he said. "One ball game in particular, the Knoxville semifinal game here on our field. We punted, we hustled down, and they fumbled the ball on the two or three yard line. Because we were hustling, we recovered the fumble and won the ball game. That's something I tell kids every year - just because we're punting, it's not a play you can take off."

Martin singled out Althoff (and later Michigan State) running back Hickey Thompson, who is number four on the IHSA's all-time records for rushing yards in a single season, as one of the toughest players he's ever had to prepare for as a head coach. It was a 1990 second round playoff matchup which the Indians lost 50-14. Althoff went on to win the state championship.

"I thought maybe I could motivate the kids to pull an upset, but it didn't happen," Martin said. "They had him, and five or six other kids that went on to play Division 1 or Division 1AA football on that team."

Martin plans to stick around DHS and help Hill coaching the offensive lineman. He is also involved with the Indians track team and teaches shop class. He says although he is "retired," he's staying as busy as ever.

"I stay busy around my house," said Martin. "My friends, neighbors, family, it seems like there's always something for me to do. I've been busy, but I've enjoyed it. My wife and I enjoy going to ball games, I'm fortunate that she enjoys athletics."

He's also been doing a lot of traveling while trying to keep up with his three sons - Zeb, the oldest, a carpenter with two daughters that lives in Boulder, Colorado; Joel, the middle child, a Marine working in St. Louis and reenlisted in the Army National Guard; and Simon, the youngest, another Marine with a finance degree, living in Seattle, Washington where he works for Boeing.

While he may be officially stepping down from the position that made him a household name in southern Illinois, Martin's legacy will never go away. The memories he leaves behind will be easy to recall - all you have to do is take a stroll through the lobby at Du Quoin High School and catch a glimpse of the Indians' overflowing trophy case.