A look at Bret Bielema’s incredible journey from Iowa walk-on to Illinois head coach
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Bret Bielema’s last season playing for the Iowa football team in 1992 was also my first season covering the Hawkeyes.
Thirty years ago this fall, I got to experience Bielema for the first time, and to say that he stood out amongst his Iowa teammates would be an understatement.
Bielema wasn’t a great player, but he was a great leader, a great quote and just a great guy from what I remember way back then.
He played nose guard and he played with high energy and non-stop emotion; a former walk-on from tiny Prophetstown, Illinois who took advantage of the opportunity presented to him by Hayden Fry.
Bielema gained notoriety in the 1992 season when he lashed out at Iowa State head coach Jim Walden at mid-field after the game.
“You’re a big prick. It’s been a pleasure kicking your ass the last five years,” Bielema said after Iowa’s 21-7 victory at Kinnick Stadium.
It’s a moment, and a quote that will follow Bielema around forever.
But it also helps to explain how Bielema’s mind, and his mouth, work.
Bielema was fully invested in being a Hawkeye, and he wasn’t afraid to tell the world about it, especially the rival from Ames.
Walden also spoke his mind and was known for saying things that might upset those loyal to the intra-state rival from the Big Ten Conference, which by 1992 had defeated Iowa State 10 straight times in football.
Bielema was a Hawkeye through and through, so much so that he had a tiger hawk tatoo burned into his calf early in college.
Bielema didn’t care much for Walden, or for Iowa State, and he wasn’t afraid to say it out loud, or in front of a bunch media members on the field.
Iowa officials later reprimanded Bielema and sent letter of apology to Walden and Iowa State. Bielema also sent a telegram.
“He feels like he was out of line, but Bret is strung to a different wire,” Walden said to Fox Sports in 2015. “I had no reason to hold it against him. I was well known for saying what I thought. Maybe that’s why he thought he could say it to me.”
Turn the clock back to today and Bielema still has the spotlight as the head football coach at Illinois, which will host his alma mater on Saturday night in Champaign, Illinois.
Bielema met with the media earlier this week, and not surprisingly, he was asked about his tiger hawk tatoo.
“The famous tatoo,” Bielema said. “A hell of an idea when you’re 19.”
Bielema is now 52 years old and is running his third Power Five program after previous head coaching stints at Wisconsin from 2006 to 2012 and at Arkansas from 2013 to 2017.
He led the Badgers to three appearances in the Rose Bowl, to one Big Ten title and to one division title.
His time at Arkansas wasn’t nearly as successful as Bielema finished 29-34 overall and just 11-29 in Southeastern Conference play over five seasons.
Bielema then spent three years coaching in the NFL from 2018 to 2020, first with the New England Patriots for two years followed by one year with the New York Giants.
Some might say that Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman took a chance when he hired Bielema before the start of the 2021 season since Bielema had struggled at Arkansas.
But I remember thinking it was a brilliant move by Illinois because Bielema is meant to be a college head coach.
Bielema probably would’ve done just fine if he had stayed in the NFL, but college is wher he is at his best because he gets to shape and mold young men.
Bielema got his start in coaching in 1994 as a graduate assistant at Iowa under Hayden Fry, to whom Bielema credits for changing the course of his life.
“I’m so lucky that coach Fry was such a key figure in my life,” Bielema said in a previous interview. “He believed in me. He motivated me. And he showed me just how influential a college head coach can be in a young man’s life.
“I owe so much of my success in football, and in life, to coach Fry.”
Bielema has a knack for building relationships and for earning the trust of his players, and that has made him an effective recruiter.
He helped Kirk Ferentz lay the foundation at Iowa by recruiting some key players from the state of Florida, including All-Big Ten linebacker Abdul Hodge, who is now the Iowa tight ends coach.
Bielema spent three seasons on Kirk Ferentz’s staff at Iowa before leaving to become the co-defensive coordinator under Bill Snyder at Kansas State.
Bielema and Kirk Ferentz had a connection that dated back to when they spent two years together in 1988 and 1989 at Iowa.
Bielema’s first two years in the Iowa program coincided with Kirk Ferentz’s final two years as the Iowa offensive line coach, a job Ferentz held from 1981-89.
Kirk Ferentz was asked at his weekly press conference on Tuesday why he chose to keep Bielema from the previous coaching staff at Iowa.
“He had done a good job as a young coach,” Kirk Ferentz said. “It’s not surprising based on what I knew of him as a player, and I’m not surprised he’s done very well in his career since he’s left here. He was a good coach 20-some years ago, and obviously he’s done a great job each and everywhere he’s been. He’s done a really nice job.”
It seems Bielema was just born to be a leader.
He was a captain at Iowa despite having been a walk-on, and he had a gift for making people feel important, and he was an over-achiever as a player.
Bielema grew up on an 80-acre hog farm near Prophetstown with brothers Bart and Barry, and his sister Besty.
One of the defining moments in Bielema’s life came when his sister died in 1990 at the age of 27 while doing charity work with underprivileged children in the Seattle area. According to Bielema, a snake darted from under a rock and startled a horse, which threw Betsy, who landed on her head.
Bielema became emotional as he talked about his sister’s death during a guest appearance on KCJJ radio in 2016.
Bielema learned about her death just hours after Iowa had defeated Michigan 24-23 on Oct. 20, 1990 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a win that would help propel Iowa to the Rose Bowl.
He was on top of the world, only to have his world shattered all in the same day.
“How you respond to tragedy helps to define you as a person,” Bielema said, his voice cracking with emotion on the radio. “The best way I could honor my sister was to live my life to the fullest and work as hard as I can to achieve my goals.
“That’s what she would have wanted and what she would have expected from me.”
Bielema was used to hard work from having been raised on a farm.
He would often wake up before sunrise to start working and wouldn’t stop until it was dark.
Bielema still had time to play sports in high school, and football is where he showed the most potential. He played tight end and linebacker in high school before switching to nose guard at Iowa.
It hardly came as a surprise when Bielema decided to get into coaching because he just had a knack for rallying those around him.
He also held Hayden Fry in the highest regard, and he saw how Fry impacted the lives of so many young men, and Bielema wanted to have the same impact.
Bielema will forever be grateful to the University of Iowa for changing the course of his life.
He takes tremendous pride in being part of Hayden Fry’s vast coaching tree, and Bielema will always be a Hawkeye.
Right now, however, Bielema is the head coach at Illinois, and that’s probably hard for some Iowa fans to accept, especially with Illinois on the rise with a 4-1 record.
But this is right where Bielema belongs as a college head coach.
His Midwestern roots and values are perfect for the Big Ten, and for Illinois.
Barry Alvarez basically hand-picked Bielema to succeed him as the Wisconsin head coach in 2006, and it’s easy to see why because some people just have a knack for coaching.
Bielema used his sister’s death as inspiration to make the most out of his life.
She would be so proud of her younger brother.