Jane Hoeppner honors late husband by giving back to community

After two long years, two short years, happy times and sad ones, Jane Hoeppner is the self-described “poster child for doing everything I never thought I would be doing or have to do or want to do.”

Only two years after her husband Terry Hoeppner accepted the IU football coaching job, Jane Hoeppner’s relatively peaceful life took a tumultuous turn when he succumbed to brain cancer in June 2007.

Even though the Hoeppners spent almost 20 years at Miami University (Ohio), she remained in Bloomington after her husband’s death. Leaving, she said, never crossed her mind.

“Quite honestly, I’m here for the long haul because my name is on that tombstone out in Valhalla as well as his,” said Jane, 61. “It’s a done deal.”

Finding football

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Jane Hoeppner had absolutely no idea what she was getting into when she saw a young Terry Hoeppner drawing up X’s and O’s in their French class at Franklin College. Never an adamant follower of football, Jane Hoeppner was taken aback by his passion for the game.

“I could remember seeing him writing up plays and thinking to myself, ‘What is this person doing?’” Jane Hoeppner said. “And I found out I was looking at those diagrams for the rest of my life.”

Those initial diagrams and an incredible passion for the game led Terry Hoeppner in his quest to become a college football coach. Jane Hoeppner followed him to Franklin for six years, after which he accepted a position as an assistant at Miami.

The Hoeppners built a home in Oxford, Ohio, helped establish a program and taught more than just football to the team’s players.

The couple created a family environment and scheduled meetings so coaches could spend time at home. While Terry Hoeppner coached the RedHawks, Jane Hoeppner taught third grade for 15 years, all the while taking care of their three children.

Eventually, Miami named Terry Hoeppner the coach after Randy Walker accepted the head coaching job at Northwestern. Since Jane knew there was only one job for which Terry Hoeppner would leave Miami, she became resigned to the fact that Oxford was where she would stay.

In six years at Miami, Terry Hoeppner turned the RedHawks into a bowl contender and produced NFL big men, most notably Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben
Roethlisberger. But as soon as his dream job opened up, the Hoeppners moved to Bloomington.

Jane Hoeppner said it was the importance of both athletics and academics that drew the family here.

As soon as he got on campus, Terry Hoeppner opened a blitzkrieg advertising campaign on the student population of IU. Asking students to enlist as IU football fans, “Coach Hoeppner Wants You” posters smothered the campus, and the program experienced a jump start.

For the first time in years, excitement surrounded IU football, and the Hoeppners were at its epicenter. Falling one game short of qualifying for a bowl game in 2006, they both believed that they came to a program that was a small step away from “Playing 13.”
 
Fighting through the pain

Two years later, Jane Hoeppner is still emotional.

Tears swell in her eyes as she remembers her husband’s bout with cancer. She readily admits most people will associate her family with Terry Hoeppner’s illness though she really wants it to be associated with the North End Zone Project.

“Had it not been for our faith, I’m not sure if we would have been able to go through it the way that we did,” Jane Hoeppner said. “And by that, I mean that 2006 was the best year of our married life.”

Following the 2005 season, Terry Hoeppner was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He underwent surgery in the off-season, but another tumor reemerged at the start of the 2006 campaign, causing him to miss two games.

Only a few months earlier, Walker, still a close friend of the Hoeppner family, had suddenly died from a heart attack, and now Jane Hoeppner found herself reaching out to his widow, Tammy Walker. A short while later, it was the other way around.

“As weird as it is, we went through the same thing with our husbands,” Tammy Walker said. “We’ve stayed very close through that. ... It’s a unique situation. It’s easier for us to relate to each other than other widows because of our husbands’ positions and careers.”

Even though her husband fought his way through 2006 and into the beginning of 2007, the cancer won, taking Jane Hoeppner’s partner of 39 years.

Having lived in Bloomington for only two years, conventional wisdom suggested she move back to Oxford or return to teaching.

She did neither.

“The thought never entered my mind,” she said. “I think people that ask about that didn’t realize the welcome that we got when we came here and what it was like when we got here, because these people really get it.”
 
Bliss

At the 2007 season opener, a significant Memorial Stadium crowd paid its respects to the Hoeppner family and applauded Jane Hoeppner prior to kickoff. From then on, that team played almost exclusively on emotion, and she made it a habit to always stay close.

“She’s part of our football family and always will be,” said IU coach Bill Lynch, who at the time was the interim coach. “Coach Hep and Jane are a big reason why we’re all here.”

While Jane Hoeppner watched from the press box most of the year, Lynch guided the team to a 5-1 start that culminated with a dramatic 27-24 win against Purdue the last week of the season to guarantee a bowl game.

For Jane, the realization of her late husband’s dream makes her emotional to this day.
“When you look back on all that happened that year, it was just the perfect ending to a storybook time in some ways,” Jane Hoeppner said. “Incredibly sad, but incredibly satisfying. Those kids reached down deep.”

Giving back

Shortly after Terry Hoeppner passed away, Rick Schilling, a local physician who lost a family member to cancer, approached Jane Hoeppner with the intent on starting an organization to raise money for cancer. Together they started the Coach Hep Cancer Challenge.

Jane Hoeppner oversaw the project while Schilling acted as the vice president. Consisting of a 2k walk, 5k run and three bike rides, the Cancer Challenge drew 600 to 700 people and raised about $60,000 in its inaugural year last summer, Schilling said.

“It’s a time of healing for a lot of folks,” Schilling said. “(It helps) those who are cancer survivors or have a loved one who is battling cancer, and of course, somebody who may have passed away from cancer. Everyone’s touched that way.”

The Cancer Challenge donates its proceeds to the IU Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis and the Olcott Center for Cancer Education in Bloomington. This year, Jane Hoeppner and Schilling hope for 2,000 people to attend the event on May 16.

Aside from philanthropy, Jane Hoeppner still believes in working for the community that supported her so much. While at a fundraiser, she became involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Central Indiana. The organization, which helps arrange mentoring relationships for kids, was a perfect fit for her.

“What impressed me with Big Brothers and Big Sisters was the commitment wasn’t over the top, but as a teacher, I knew what a consistent little bit would do to help,” Jane Hoeppner said.

Already close with the current juniors and seniors on the IU football team (her husband’s two main recruiting classes), Jane Hoeppner coaxed Kirlew into joining the organization – an experience he already highly values.

“Everybody always needs that extra role model in life to help them through with things,” Kirlew said.
 
Life after football

Tammy Walker understands why Jane Hoeppner is still in Bloomington. Both communities embraced the two widows graciously, and that is not quickly forgotten, she said.

This is Jane Hoeppner’s home. She has established a life here. And when she sees the North End Zone Project – scheduled for completion in July – she can’t help but smile.

Shortly after her husband passed away, she received a letter from a father who wrote that his son was sobbing after learning of Terry Hoeppner’s death. The father did not know what to tell his son and wrote Jane Hoeppner asking for advice.

“So I thought about that legacy,” she said. “When I sat down to write him down, what do I say? But I told him, ‘When you remember Coach, I want you to remember what a difference only one person can make when you believe in something strongly. There may be a time in your life when you may be the only one standing up for what you know is the right thing to do, and it’s a lonely place sometimes. But I want you to remember that Coach, all of what he accomplished, started off being the only one that really believed it.’

“It’s a good way to be remembered.”