Mike Timmermans (2007) - Hall of Fame

Mike Timmermans

Induction:
2007
Class:
1976

As head coach, Stan Sheriff spent 23 seasons working to build a football tradition at the University of Northern Iowa. In Mike Timmermans, Sheriff found not only one of the greatest offensive lineman to don the Purple and Gold, but a solid foundation on which to construct the Panthers’ championship culture.

Everything came together for the George, Iowa, native and his Panther teammates in Timmermans’ senior season of 1975, as he helped the Panthers provide Sheriff with one of the best years of his run as UNI’s head coach. The team went 9-3 overall, winning its final six regular-season games before falling to Western Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs. That game, the last to be played at O.R. Latham Stadium, has since been dubbed the “Mud Bowl” and saw the Panthers fall, 14-12, in a hard-fought contest that would also be Timmermans’ final game in a UNI uniform.

Although scoring 300 points in a season is now routine for the Panthers, the 1975 squad was the first in school history to surpass the 300-point barrier, and it did so largely by running the football behind the impressive offensive line Timmermans anchored. UNI racked up a then-record 2,366 rushing yards in 12 games that season, running the ball an average of 51 times per game and scoring 25 rushing touchdowns -- still the sixth-highest total in school history. The offensive line also paved the way for all-conference seasons by quarterback Bill Salmon and wide receiver Dave Schooley.

Timmermans’ contributions to UNI’s powerful offense did not go unnoticed, as he also earned All-North Central Conference honors to go along with an honorable mention nod to the NCC All-Academic team. The Associated Press named him first-team All-America and the Green Bay Packers were impressed enough to select Timmermans in the 1976 NFL Draft.

Timmermans remained close to football following his graduation from UNI with a bachelor’s degree in history, spending two years as a teacher and coach in Ottumwa, Iowa, and then two years in Spencer, Iowa, before settling in Vinton, Iowa, in 1980. He has remained in Vinton ever since, serving as Vinton-Shellsburg High School’s head football coach for 10 years before taking a position as high school athletics director and associate principal.