June 7, 2005
Normal, Ill. -
Illinois State head football coach Denver Johnson is looking for the Redbirds to carry over their success in the classroom this spring to the field in the fall. The Redbirds closed the spring semester with 27 players on the AFNI Honor Roll - a new team record.
The 27 honor roll members are the most by the Redbird football team since spring 1993, when ISU had 24 players honored. The `Birds also finished the spring semester with a 2.50 team grade point average - the highest in over a decade and just .07 behind the team record, also set in 1993.
"Obviously, I'm very pleased with the effort our young men put into reaching our goals," Johnson said. "In addition to reaching our team goals, we had some individuals do extremely well with 27 making the honor roll. That is quite a turnaround from years past.
"The world of college athletics is a changing arena not only with academic reforms being enacted by the NCAA, but also the advancement of academic standards here at ISU. We, as a coaching staff, have embraced that and have tried to re-enforce it as well."
Not only did the Redbirds excel in the classroom, but they also spent the spring semester giving back to the Bloomington-Normal community. Every year the athletic department sets a goal of 1,000 community service hours for the entire department. During the spring, the football team contributed 1,000 hours of community service by itself working with the likes of Habitat for Humanity, the "Just Read" program, Red Cross blood drives, etc.
"(Community service) has always been important to me, because my philosophy, one that I don't state publicly very often, is that the institution is in the business of turning out better accountants, teachers, managers and computer programmers. But for myself and my staff, in a lot of ways, we are in the business of turning out better husbands, fathers and citizens."
The Redbirds have followed the lead of their head coach, who has actively been a part of the St. Jude Affiliates.
"It means a lot to us for our kids to be involved in activities outside of athletics and also academics," Johnson added. "There is certainly more to college than athletics, but there is also more to life than academics. We encourage our kids to get involved in our community to get a well-rounded experience with our program.
"Our kids have really bought into that and embraced that. Originally it was difficult trying to recruit kids from our program to be a part of these activities. Now it is not difficult at all, in fact, it is difficult for us to find enough activities because our kids are anxious to get involved."
