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Tim Rucks - Carthage

07/14/2014, 1:45pm CDT
By WFCA

Tim Rucks enters the hall after 23 years as a head college coach. For the last 18 years he was the head football coach at Carthage College, his alma-mater, in Kenosha Wisconsin, where he left after the 2012 season as second on Carthage's list of career victories with 107 wins. 

Coach Rucks began his football career at age 13 playing with the Bank of Waukegan Bears in his hometown of Waukegan, Illinois. 

He was a three sport athlete at Waukegan High School playing football, baseball, and basketball. He is a member of the Waukegan Sports Hall of Fame. 

He played football all four years while at Carthage College where he was named All-Conference twice. Upon graduation he was drafted by the Denver Gold in the third round of their inaugural year in the United States Football League. Coach Rucks signed with the New York Jets in 1983. 

After his time with the New York Jets, he played two years in the Minor Professional Football League, first with the national champion Racine Gladiators and then with the Chicago Chargers. In Racine he was named All-Minor Pro. In 1992, Coach Rucks was inducted into the Minor Pro Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. 

Coach Rucks coached for three years at Niles North High School in Skokie, Illinois, continuing on to North Park University in Chicago, Illinois for one year as an assistant coach. He followed that for five years as head coach; at age 29, and in his first year as head coach, he was the youngest head football coach in all of the NCAA. His 1993 football team, at 4-4-1, holds the best record in the last 42 years of the university. 

Joining Carthage in 1993, he inherited a program without a winning season in 13 years. 

Coach Rucks compiled a winning season in three of his first four seasons. His 2004 football team went 11 - 2, winning the school's first conference title in 31 years and advancing to the semi-finals of the NCAA playoffs, the first appearance ever for Carthage. After that season, he was named CCIW Coach of The Year for 2004 as well as NCAA Dill Regional Coach of the Year. He had winning seasons in nine of his last ten years as head coach at Carthage. 

Tim was a member of the NCAA Football Committee from 1996 - 2005 and also a member of the eight-coach National Committee from 2000-200S. 

Tag(s): Hall of Fame