Herb Deromedi Tribute
11/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 7, 2005
By Fred Stabley Jr.
Retired Sports Information Director
A wise teacher in the early 1950s saw something special in a young lad he had in class.
The junior high students in Detroit were filling out paperwork prior to entering eighth grade the following year. In one place, they had to check manual trades or college prep.
"I just checked manual trades because all of my friends had," the student recalled.
The teacher said "no" ... this student who had already skipped two grades would be better suited in college prep.
That was a turning point in Herb Deromedi's life.
"I'd grown up in a bonafide blue-collar neighborhood in Detroit and very few people considered going to college," said Deromedi. "But, we moved to Royal Oak during my eighth grade year and things changed.
"My parents (Herb and Marie) had always stressed the importance of academics. They also encouraged me to be as good as possible in anything I did."
His folks proved to be smart people on both accounts.
From that meager beginning, Deromedi went on to become the winningest coach in Mid-American Conference history and a highly successful director of athletics - all at Central Michigan University.
Deromedi became a Chippewa in 1967 and he'll be retiring from CMU in January of 2006 after nearly 39 years of service. He's left a Maroon and Gold legacy each step of his career and his predecessor will have incredibly big shoes to fill.
Deromedi made his first mark as a football coach ... a profession he knew he wanted to pursue from an early age.
"I think it was sometime in junior high when we had to write a paper about what we wanted to do for a career," he said. "I wrote that I was going to be a football coach."
 |
|
After lettering in football and baseball at Royal Oak High, Deromedi went to the University of Michigan.
"It was kind of a package deal," Deromedi remembered. "Michigan was heavily recruiting a running back from our school named Darrell Harper and we were good friends.
"He ended up going there on a scholarship and became a starter. I went on my own and was a student. We roomed together the first year."
It was during his stay in Ann Arbor that Deromedi got his first taste of coaching. As a senior, he worked as a volunteer on Jack Stovall's staff at University High.
Deromedi became the first member of his family to graduate from college in 1960 and then picked up a master's in 1961. While working on his postgraduate degree, he served as the seventh and eighth grade football and basketball coach at University High.
Deromedi landed his first full-time job at the precocious age of 22 years old when Byron High offered him the varsity football job.
"I was in Coach Stovall's office a couple of weeks after accepting the job when Byron High called again and offered me the head basketball job as well," Deromedi said. "I covered the phone and told Jack that they wanted me to coach basketball, too.
"He said `Take it ... it's $50 more."
Deromedi showed his coaching mettle immediately.
Byron lost just one game in football (to eventual state champion New Lothrop) and he was named the league's "Coach of the Year" in basketball.
|
|
|
Deromedi had the opportunity to return to University High as the head football coach the following year and spent two seasons there. On a trip to Grand Rapids for the annual state coaching convention, Deromedi met someone who would change his life forever - Roy Kramer.
"We stopped in East Lansing to pick up Roy," Deromedi said. "I had no money so I ended up sleeping on the floor and talking football all night."
After his stint at University High, Deromedi returned to his hometown of Royal Oak to serve as an assistant at Kimball High for two seasons.
"I'd spent most of my young career as a head coach," he said. "I needed to get out and learn what others were doing."
Meanwhile, Kramer came to CMU in 1966 and became the Chippewa head coach in 1967. One of his first calls was to offer Deromedi a position on his staff.
"I often kid Roy that I was the one guy he could afford," Deromedi said. "I did take a 33 percent cut in pay but it was an opportunity to learn more football and position myself to become a head high school football coach.
"Luckily, I had a wife (Marilyn) who was supportive and understood what I was trying to do."
Deromedi never dreamed that he would finish his career in Mount Pleasant.
"CMU went through a lot of growth in those early years," he said. "We weren't even close to offering full scholarships but in the next couple of years we did.
|
|
|
"Also, we were going to join the MAC and become a Division I school. That was significant movement in the football program and I wanted to remain a part of it. I can't tell you how big it was for us to be playing the likes of Ohio and Bowling Green."
Before joining the MAC in football for the 1975 season, Deromedi was the defensive coordinator on the '74 team that won the Division II national championship.
"That was monumental for CMU and for CMU football," Deromedi said.
While Deromedi had opportunities to go other places throughout his stay in Mount Pleasant, his loyalty was rewarded in 1978 when Kramer went to Vanderbilt as its athletics director and Herb was named the interim head coach.
Deromedi remembers a funny story leading up to the events of 1978.
"Roy and I were playing golf in the spring and there was a hold up," he said. "I asked Roy what kind of team he thought we would have that fall. He told me that we'd be lucky to win three games. I told him I thought the defense would be good enough to win five games but he didn't agree.
"Well, at a going away party for him, Roy said that the Italian Stallion (Herb) would bring the first MAC title to CMU. I think my head bounced off the table when he said that."
|
|
|
"The three championships were great but we had a couple of others that were so close and that was frustrating because championships are for the players," Deromedi said. "Those close calls sit with you a long time."
Deromedi closed his 16-year career as CMU's head coach with a record of 110-55-10 for a winning percentage of .657. The 110 wins are the most ever for a conference coach and his 90 wins against MAC competition are also the most in league annals.
Despite all of the success in the MAC, Deromedi may be best known for leading the Chippewas to back-to-back wins over Michigan State in 1991 and '92.
"The MSU wins were great and they're still the only losses it has had to a MAC school," he said. "I never want to take away anything from the efforts and importance of those wins but I was equally proud of our efforts against the other state schools."
|
|
|
After 27 years on the CMU campus coaching football, Deromedi was presented with a new opportunity in 1994 when he became the athletics director.
Taking the new position, however, was a difficult decision.
"I had hoped to be the AD and football coach initially but that didn't work out," he said. "But, I felt there were things that needed to be done that I couldn't do as a football coach."
So, on June 1, 1994, Deromedi shed the whistle for a coat and tie as the new leader of Chippewa athletics.
The fabulous upgrade to CMU's facilities under Deromedi's direction likely will be his lasting legacy as AD.
But, Deromedi also takes pride in two other developments in the past 11-plus years - identifying one single letterwinner jacket for all sports and playing a role in the aesthetics of the entire university.
|
|
|
"I long felt that we should have one letter jacket and everyone should take pride in the block C," he said. "We had different sports identifying themselves on the back and now we just have one block C representing CMU athletics.
"All of our new facilities on the south end of campus have a maroon and gold theme to them. They show continuity. And, now some of the new buildings on the north campus like the library and health professions building have the same look. It wasn't always the case in the past."
All of the new athletic facilities on the south end of campus have had the Deromedi touch ... from the improvements at the softball field and the 10,000-seat addition and new press box in football to the new baseball stadium, track, and field hockey field.
The crowning achievement of them all is the Indoor Athletic Complex that opened in March of 1999.
"It was a building that serves multi-purposes and is the best of its kind in the MAC," Deromedi said. "It's an area all of the athletes can use and it's in a convenient location for everyone."
Located in the IAC are a state-of-the art weight room, a turf bay, an indoor track, and the academic center.
Deromedi also was active on the national front, serving on numerous committees including chairing the NCAA Football Rules Committee one year.
|
|
|
"We made some significant rule changes that year like eliminating the halo rule, permitting the Big Ten to experiment with video replay and allowing colleges to use the skycam."
Throughout his stay in Mount Pleasant that has spanned five decades, Deromedi has only operated at full speed, trying to fulfill his parents' guidelines of being the best he possibly could be.
That will all change in January when Herb and Marilyn will push the "pause" button and slow things down for awhile.
"Marilyn and I will go to Florida for a couple of weeks," he said. "And, then we'll do some traveling in the spring. After that, I'll see what comes up. I've had some people contact me but initially we'll just take a break."
While the Deromedis have no plans of living anywhere other than Mount Pleasant, they do plan on spending additional time with their grandson, Noah, and traveling.
It's also a good bet, too, that since he's seen every CMU football game since 1967, Deromedi will keep a close eye on his beloved Chippewas in 2006 and in the future.