Strong-armed QB Leonard Hopkins (1972-75) helped shape the future of Saluki Athletics

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois quarterback Leonard Hopkins (1972-75) could throw a football 75 yards in the air. He could sling a baseball 93 miles per hour. Standing 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, the West Frankfort native was the prototype, pro-style quarterback Southern could have built it’s offense around in the early ‘70s.

Instead, his throwing ability was bottled-up in run-oriented systems — first the Veer, and then the Wishbone. He was the proverbial round peg in a square hole, buried on the depth chart. Hopkins adapted, won the starting job, and set the single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback.

Although he managed to set only one career passing mark — 15.4 yards per completion — a record that still holds to this day, his legacy is less about the records he broke than the future he helped shape at SIU.

Hopkins played a major role in determining the path forward for the football program and the department. After his senior year, the widely respected quarterback was chosen to serve on the search committees that hired coach Rey Dempsey and athletic director Gale Sayers.

After graduation, he went on to have a distinguished career in engineering, including an invitation to Washington DC to provide expert testimony before Congress.

StrongDawgs Conversation with Leonard Hopkins

SD: What was it like growing up in West Frankfort during the 1950s and '60s?

LH: West Frankfort was a mining town, and probably half of the population either worked in the mines or for mining industries. The town was growing at that time and had about 12-13,000 people. My father worked for Old Ben Coal for 39 years after World War II, and then retired and went back as a consultant.

It was a fun place to grow up. I started playing baseball when I was five. My older brother got on a team of eight-to-10 year olds. I threw a fit, so they put me on the team as well. I could ride my bike all over town, find a pick-up basketball game or a baseball game or sandlot football. I delivered papers and played ball.

SD: Is it accurate that you didn't start at quarterback until your senior year of high school?

LH: I did start a couple of games my junior year, but it was late in the season. When I got to high school, I was 5-foot-3 and 130 pounds. When I came out, I was 6-3 and 225, so it was a growing time for me.

SD: You also had the winningest team in West Frankfort history your senior year?

LH: Yes, there were no playoffs, so win 10 games, beat Benton in the annual Thanksgiving Day game. Eight days later, we started basketball season against Mount Vernon and Centralia. Of the 12 guys on the basketball team, 11 of us played football, so we had a good class of a lot of great athletes.

SD: How did you wind up on SIU’s radar to play quarterback?

LH: The Mount Vernon game was supposed to be the Battle of the Tailbacks — Larry James at Mount Vernon and Jack Warren at West Frankfort. SIU was there to watch the game. We were down, 12-0, at halftime, and so we needed to throw the ball in the second half. I think we went 16-for-19 (passing) and beat them, 32-12. I got a letter inviting me to come over to SIU to watch a football game. My older brother was playing baseball at Murray State, and my oldest brother was in law school, so getting a scholarship to SIU was a big deal for me and for our family.

SD: You arrived at SIU in 1972 at a time when a lot of Vietnam vets were returning to school. What was your experience like as a true freshman?

LH: It was rather eye-opening as a 17-year-old, coming from a small town and playing with 24, 25-year-olds, battle-hardened guys. I remember one fellow from Downer's Grove, I asked him, I said, “Hey, coach, what time's our meeting today?" He says, "I'm no coach.

I'm a player like you.”

SD: Dick Towers was your coach your first two years, and he ran the triple option, which was not designed for a drop-back quarterback like yourself?

LH: Yeah, I think I ran the ball twice in high school, and I got a hip pointer on one of them. The coaches said, "Don't run it anymore, just throw it."

It was a pretty grueling camp — four weeks of two and three-a-day practices. We lost a lot of our linemen that just quit, so we had a bit smaller line than what they'd hoped. So Dick Towers started out with the pro set, but ended up going to the Houston Veer, just so our linemen didn't have to hold their blocks for too long. I would have much rather handed it to guys Andre Herrera, George Loukas or Thomas Thompson.

SD: Things didn't work out for Towers, so Doug Weaver came in, but he ran the wishbone?

LH: Yeah, it was the wishbone triple-option. During spring ball, I think I was eighth on the depth chart. I went to Coach and said, “what's going on here?" He said, “Just stick with it, it'll work out.” So my junior year, Fred McAlley and I split games. Fred was really not a running quarterback, either. The sad thing was, it doesn't take a defensive expert to know that if you have an option of taking the quarterback or taking the tailback, Andre Herrera, who would you take? I would obviously let the quarterback run all he wants, and that's what they did, so I got a few yards running, but also got banged up for later in the game when we needed to throw the ball. It was an experience. Hopefully, I learned from it.

SD: You were also the holder on kicks and threw a game-winning touchdown at Northern Michigan off a fake field goal?

LH: Yes, Steve Mariucci was the quarterback at Northern Michigan, by the way. I remember the play. I told the center that day, “It's a little cold, a little rainy, take it easy on the snap.” Well, it was up high. By the time I got it down, the timing was all off for Kenny Seaman to kick it, so I decided to yell a fire call. I rolled out, somebody's open in the end zone, and there we go.

SD: Your senior year, you started every game. Were they still running the wishbone?

LH: Yes, and I was fifth on the depth chart during camp. They tried to convert a couple of defensive backs to quarterback. It didn't work out. One of them, Gary Mann, hurt his ankle rather badly. And the coach told me again, “Just hang in there, we really don't want you hurt in practice.” I was able to hang in there and outlast him, I guess. That's probably the way I would define my career. I just outlasted people, stayed healthy and stayed playing.

SD: Did you know you set the school’s single-season rushing record by a quarterback?

LH: That wouldn't have been my first choice, but you compete, you're trying to win a game, and so I think I did improve my running skills.

SD: You were also the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week at Illinois State. What do you remember about that game, other than it ending in a tie, 17-17?

LH: The coach of Illinois State was Gerry Hart, who was from West Frankfort, went to my church, played quarterback at SIU, and didn’t recruit me. We talked about that game several times over a beer or two at the local Moose Club in West Frankfort. He's a great guy.

I had no animosity, but you kind of want to do well, because he didn't recruit me.

We were moving the ball well, but fumbles and turnovers killed us, and we were down two scores late in the game. Ivy Moore was my split end, and we had basically put in the two-minute offense for most of the fourth quarter. I called a lot of out-patterns, out-and-up, and then suddenly a post pattern. We moved the ball pretty quickly down the field, scored a touchdown, made it 17-10. We got the ball back and didn't have much time, moved the ball down the field again. We were 4th-and-goal from about the four. He expected me to call a pass pattern, but I said, "No, I need to keep this one. We faked to Andre on an option and I was able to run it in.”

SD: Did you ever think, what would’ve happened if you played in a drop-back system that better suited your talents?

LH: It's a little bit like the poem, “The Road Not Taken.” I would have appreciated trying to throw the ball more, but who knows if it would have been better or worse?

SD: How close did you come to playing baseball at SIU?

LH: Coach Powers said I could play both for two years, and I talked to Itchy (Jones), but after I lettered in football as a freshman, Coach Powers said, "I'm sorry, we didn't expect you to play. You can't play baseball, you got to be here for spring ball.” He said I could play baseball in the summer, but don't throw too many curveballs, figure out another pitch so you don’t hurt your elbow. Personally, I thought I was a better baseball player than football player.

SD: After your playing career ended, you were on the committee that selected Rey Dempsey?

LH: Yes, I was the student representative on the committee for both the football coach and athletic director. We had three interviews set up for the football head coach. Rey Dempsey was first. After we talked to him, we got together and said, “We're canceling the other two interviews. Let's hire this guy." Rey was very impressive and he did a great job for SIU getting football back going again. He started winning with basically the recruits from Doug Weaver and Dick Towers, but he just put people where they needed to be and instilled in them pride. Nothing promotes winning like winning, and nothing promotes losing like losing, and that's what he changed.

And then interviewing Gale Sayers, he was a fairly quiet guy. He was maybe not geared toward being an athletic director, where he's always talking to people, but he was certainly geared toward recruiting players, which helped Rey bring some kids down from the Chicago area.

SD: How did you end up being on such a prestigious committee that helped shape the future of Saluki Athletics?

LH: I think I got on the committee because of Doug Weaver. He and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things about our offense, but he was a good man. The others on the committee were Donald Boydston, Delyte Morris and Charlotte West. It was a very good experience for me just getting out of college, to be on such a committee and see how the process works. One funny story, we got an application from a guy who had Ara Parseghian as his reference. We checked with Coach Parseghian, who told us the guy’s a drunk and a lush, I wouldn't hire him to be janitor at Notre Dame. It taught me something about applying for jobs, you know, make sure I know my references and talk to them beforehand.

SD: How did your experiences with Saluki Football help prepare you for your business career?

LH: I think football prepares you to stay the course and do the work. If you expect to be better, you got to practice. And if you expect to do well in the business field, you have to stick with it and do the hard things.

Hopkins testified before Congress in 2011 on the topic of environmental regulations on coal products.

SD: Tell me about your engineering career and working with the Southern Illinois Power Cooperative for 25 years.

LH: When I first got out of school, I worked in the mining industry, designing underground mine cars. I went to another mining industry manufacturer called Bucyrus, over in Evansville. I came back home to West Frankfort and worked for the Illinois EPA, worked for a mining company, Kerr-McGee, as a maintenance manager. That diverse experience helped me at Southern Illinois Power, because I had mining and environmental experience, and helped our company stay in compliance. I was able to testify before Congress on a couple of environmental issues.

SD: What was the topic of your testimony?

LH: The subject matter was on the sale of byproducts from coal. I had worked with a local engineering company, and we had a market for our products. We were able to actually sell some rather than just landfill them. Some of them went into cement, concrete blocks, things of that nature. Congress was going to give the EPA the authority to enact new ash rules. We had concerns that they would make coal ash a hazardous material. My point was, it's not really hazardous, it's a product, if you use it properly. I had written an article for a local newspaper about the topic, and Congressman John Shimkus read the article and said, “I’d like you to tell Congress about this."

SD: Did the legislation turn out the way you wanted it to?

LH: Not totally, but they did not make it hazardous, so we were able to work with it and make it work for Southern Illinois Power.

SD: One of your teammates, Andre Herrera, said you always remained positive during the losing seasons and were someone the team looked up to. Do you remember having that impact on your teammates?

LH: I didn't know if I had the impact or not, but I was always wanting to win. It's not a fun game if you don't win. It's a lot of work and you want to see that reward as a win. That's nice of Andre to say that, and he was the same way. We both wanted to win and do it the right way.

SD: He also described you as a pure gentleman. How would you describe your personality?

LH: Well, I'm sure there's probably a few people that would not agree that I was a true gentleman all the time, but I would say my parents raised all five children well. We went to Mass every Sunday, learned what we were supposed to do and shouldn't do, so I would credit them for any good things about my personality. You can be a gentleman and still compete. You know, a fastball under the nose, you can still be a gentleman and move him off the plate.

SD: Tell me about your family, how you met your wife.

LH: I knew her sister, who was the president’s secretary when I went to SIU. We met at a local establishment in Ziegler and started dating when I was 25 and she was 22. We've been married 46 years in December. We’re blessed with two sons, both of them work for the same company, a privately held company, the largest hearing aid manufacturer in the United States. The CEO used to babysit them. One son lives in Minnesota and is expecting our first grandson in just a few days. My other son lives in St. Louis, and he has two daughters, our granddaughters. We’re blessed to have two, fine daughters-in-law.

SD: Talk about the pride you’ve maintained in Saluki Football over the years.

LH: My oldest son guarded Nick (Hill) in basketball in high school, probably gave up a few points, but I think we beat Du Quoin that year. I mean, the four years that I spent there were great years and many memories were made. Bill Patrick was assistant coach at the time and was avid about SIU football. He started the chili cook-off during Homecoming of the year that Andre broke all the records on that rainy day against Northern Illinois. After Bill passed, we've kept that going, so October 25th we'll be right behind the stadium, just beside the practice field. Even though we didn't have the greatest record, I made friends that have lasted my whole life. I'd like to see SIU succeed. I'd like to see us get back to 24,000 students like when I was there. I feel I owe them my support, and I'm gonna do my part. Go Dawgs.