Date posted: 11-28-01

Editors: You are encouraged to use this story in your publication. Please credit the author and DeKalb News Service as shown. And, please send two tearsheets to: Jim Killam, Department of Communication, Watson Hall, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115.

Korcek burns midnight oil to do the job right

By Andy Tavegia

DeKalb News Service

DeKALB, Ill. -- Welcome to Mike Korcek's world.

Mid-November 1983 was a busy time for NIU athletics. The football team was preparing for its first Division I bowl appearance in the California Bowl, the basketball team was looking for a victory over the Big Ten's Wisconsin Badgers before defending its Mid-American Conference championship and the fall sports season was just winding up. Korcek worked past 2 a.m. on numerous occasions.

On this particular night, the clock approached 1 a.m., and Chick Evans Field House already had been vacant for hours. The only sounds were the consistent creaking, banging or popping from the pipes in the 25-year-old red, black and white walls, and the muffled noise from the large, indoor fans. The dome lights hanging from the ceiling had been off for a few hours, leaving little light to be seen.

On his normal late-night security of check, a campus police officer noticed a stream of light coming from near the wrestling room. He investigated, moving closer to the side door of Room 112 - from where the light seemed to appearing. Not only could he see the door slightly propped open, but he could hear the constant shifting and shuffling of paper. With his gun drawn, the police officer busted open the door, screamed "freeze!" and forced a wide-eyed Korcek into a half-sitting, half-standing position with his hands up.

"He scared the hell out of me," Korcek said.

After Korcek explained his business, the officer left him to finish updating basketball stats within the next hour … just five hours before the next work day began.

And that's how Korcek takes it. There is no set 9-to-5 schedule. It's whatever it takes to get the job done, and done well -- something Korcek is used to hearing.

"I'm a procrastinator," he said. "But I've got to get it done, and I want to do it right. I've seen other people's stuff and some of it is done very poorly and haphazardly."

His efforts have led him to a page-long list of honors, including being voted No. 1 nationally in 1995-96 and No. 2 in 1996-97 for basketball service by College Hoops Insider, and the "Best in the Nation" writing citation as one of 27 awards from College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

"From the minute he got into our program, Mike came in and took some of the heavy load in," said retired NIU SID Bud Nangle. "I honestly don't think there is a better sports information director in the NCAA or the NAIA."

No one should know better than Nangle. As a CoSIDA hall of famer and NIU SID for 19 years, Nangle tutored a younger Korcek straight out of his military service in 1973. The two previously had worked together while Korcek was an NIU senior, through a program that allowed those who were editors for the Northern Star as juniors to pledge under him as a senior.

"Mike's success is because of the way he learned under Bud Nangle," said former partner Steve Nemeth, now the sports editor at the DeKalb Daily Chronicle. "He viewed Bud as his mentor. That's a pretty good mentor to have. A CoSIDA hall of famer? Mike belongs in the hall of fame, and he will eventually get there."

But Nangle did have to work around some of Korcek's little kinks. With his hard working approach and love for alma mater, Korcek refused to let up for even a second.

"I used to have to follow him around in there," Nangle said. "He tried to do it all. I remember one time he had a vacation coming up in 30 days. When that time was up, Mike tried to come into work. I said 'Mike, get out of here. Get out of here, or you're fired."

Korcek, of course, found his way back into work, just like he found his way into the business. As a student at Prospect High School in the mid-1960s, he walked the halls with eventual Major League Baseball players Dave Kingman and Tom Lundstedt. Korcek hung around with them, witnessing the barrage of scouts from the Los Angeles Dodgers and other teams. All of a sudden, Korcek opened his eyes to journalism as a career.

"You're at this game and there are all these scouts looking at Dave Kingman, and all of a sudden, my horizons grew," Korcek said.

Korcek turned to Bob Frisk, who had been a well-known prep writer at the Daily Herald. Frisk showed him the need for a journalism degree and the education of a student newspaper. Korcek already had been writing sports for the Prospecter, the student newspaper at Prospect High, and the Mount Prospect News, a small weekly in the area, but needed the next step - and a journalism degree.

The University of Illinois, Frisk's alma mater, was a bit too far away, and Korcek believed Illinois-Chicago was too close to home. So he settled on NIU, beginning a tight bond between himself and the Huskies that now stretches 34 years.

It started as the junior sports editor at the Northern Star and has continued through this day. He has dealt with sports figures the likes of Kenny Battle, Jim Bradley, LeShon Johnson and even Jack Brickhouse, which brings up one of his favorite stories.

Growing up in Chicago, Korcek witnessed disappointment often. He suffered repeated broken hearts with the 1959 "Go Go White Sox" and the 1969 Chicago Cubs, which brought upon a column for the Northern Star. The play of centerfielder Adolpho Phillips for those Cubs led to comical masterpiece titled "Adolpho Says."

One day at Chick Evans, Nangle presented Korcek with a letter, addressed to Korcek in care of the Sports Information Department. It was from WGN, but more importantly, Brickhouse himself.

One of the most famous broadcasters in Chicago sports history had read Korcek's column. In the letter, which still resides on a wall in Korcek's home, Brickhouse characterized Korcek's work as very funny, claiming he had talent and a bright future in the business.

But that future took a slightly different direction, from a newspaper sports department to university sports promotion. After Korcek's stint in military service working for Stars and Stripes, he began his tutelage under Nangle.

In his current run as sports information director, Korcek has promoted a long string of successful athletes including Battle, Johnson, Stacey Robinson and Bradley.

And for those who don't believe a sports information director can make the athlete, look no further than Johnson. "The Cowboy," as he was affectionately called on campus, was the nation's leading returning rusher in 1993 for a 4-7 team that never graced television airways. There were no highlights on the nine o' clock news of him breaking an 85-yard touchdown run, completely switching directions in the process against Southern Mississippi, and his one-time Kinnick Stadium record 306 yards rushing against Iowa his senior season was just a blip on the stat screen.

Johnson not only became NIU's highest ever NFL draft pick, taken in the third round by the Packers, but he also finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting.

"You have to be aggressive at Northern Illinois," Korcek said. "At Notre Dame people are flying over themselves, jumping everywhere saying 'It's Notre Dame, it's Notre Dame.' For Northern it's 'Well, OK.' So we have to work a little harder."

No one will argue that Korcek doesn't work harder than most.

"Mike takes his job to the extreme," Nemeth said. "He loves NIU, and especially NIU athletics. For him, the job means research, research, research. He feels a real obligation to make things accurate. He views himself as a publicist. He's that type of person."

Maybe now he'll take that vacation.

Source contact info available on request.