Quinn honored to head to Indiana Hall with former coach Young
Pete Quinn is an inductee in the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.
That alone has the former Purdue center — and current radio network analyst — excited, but the honor is made even more special because it comes at the same time as his former Purdue coach.
“The fact that I’m going in (the Hall) with Jim Young just enhances it greatly,” Quinn said, a few days before it was made official at the June 10 Joe Tiller Chapter National Football Foundation Honors Dinner. “I’m extremely close to Jim — he’s almost like a second dad to me — we see each other often. … Jim is a huge part of my life and the fact that I’m going in with him just makes it significantly better, and it was great already.”
During Young’s five-year tenure (1977-81) at Purdue, he amassed a record of 38-19-1, including four seasons with Quinn as the Boilermakers’ starting center. It was a good era. During a three-year span from ’78-‘80, the Boilermakers had a 28-7-1 record, with three straight bowl victories. Quinn, who has been a leader in getting members of those teams together as frequently as possible, remembers the time well.
“When I played for Jim, we were all — I want to say almost intimidated because he’s a bigger-than-life guy — and it was very much of a coach-player relationship,” said Quinn, a captain for two seasons. “I got close to him at our 25th reunion (of the 10-win ’79 team) and I reached out to him because I wanted to make sure that team had a lot of guys back. That’s really when I started to make an effort to keep our team together, and Jim came back for our 25th anniversary and the time melted away.
“Then the following February, Mark Herrmann, Bart Burrell and I went out to Tucson to play golf over a couple days with him and ever since then it’s been nonstop. I see him at least once a year and sometimes two or three times a year. We have a reunion every year for our team in Chicago and he came to that this year. We had about 45 guys back. We’re a very close group of guys, the coaches too.”
At the 12th-annual Honors Dinner for the Joe Tiller Chapter of the NFF, it was another event together, with Quinn and Young both inducted into the Hall.
Quinn has had his hand in Indiana football for decades, first at Scecina High School then at Purdue. And he’ll start his 25th season analyzing Boilermaker games on the radio this fall, hitting Game No. 300 against Indiana in late November.
“To this day, I’m not sure what made them think of me,” said Quinn, an executive vice president at Colliers International in Indianapolis. “I’ll never forget when I was first contacted by Learfield, I called (wife) Susan and said ‘I just got a call from the radio network,’ and she wanted to know if I was going to take it. And I said ‘Well, they’ll never offer it to me. I don’t have any experience. But if they do, I’ll do it for a year, just to say I was on the radio.’ And this fall will be my 25th year doing it. Never expected that one.”
Along with the Hall inductees, others honored include:
• Drew Brees Mental Toughness Award: Danny Anthrop
• Bernie Flowers Award for Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football: Larry Leverenz, Eric Nauman and Tom Talavage
• “He Played Football” Award: Doug DeVos
• Legends Award: Tom Spurgeon
• Patrick Mackey Courage Award: Josh Turanchick
• Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award: TBA (out of 14 finalists)
Quinn was excited for the night.
“About 30 of my teammates are coming in for it,” he said. “I’ve got guys coming in from all over the country and that’s kind of cool. I know the reason. I think they really do appreciate the effort I put in to keeping us all together. A lot of them are coming to show their appreciation for that and that’s great.”
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