A ‘special relationship’, ‘warm embrace’ awaits Curt Mallory as Indiana State takes on Indiana football

The Mallory name holds a lot of weight in and around the Indiana football program — and the entire state of Indiana. You can’t talk about Indiana football and its history without Bill Mallory coming up in the conversation.

Because of that, Friday night’s matchup between Indiana and Indiana State will be emotional — more than most. Not only for those on the Indiana side, but even more on the Indiana State side of things.

Curt Mallory brings his Sycamores to Bloomington for a showdown between the two in-state programs. As the head coach, your emotions and thoughts are typically around the game, not the emotion pregame.

For this matchup, however, that will be rather difficult. Curt is the son of Bill Mallory, the late and great former Indiana football head coach. Bill Mallory coached the Hoosiers for 13 years, leading the program to six bowl appearances and two bowl wins. He is also the all-time wins leader in Indiana football program history. But, his impact on the program goes way beyond wins and losses.

The way he impacted Indiana was felt much more in the locker room and off of the field. It’s something that when Tom Allen took the program over in 2017, wanted to live by.

And, that relationship with Bill and Curt blossomed. On Friday, it will come full circle.

“A special relationship with Curt Mallory and obviously his entire family,” Allen said this week. “Just a lot of respect for him and I think we’ll have some former players from Coach Mallory’s era be here for reunion and Ellie will be back. Jokingly saying didn’t know what colors to wear, and obviously she needs to wear blue to support her son; blood is thicker than water.”

As Allen mentioned, in addition to Curt and Curt’s mother, Ellie, numerous former players should be expected in attendance for the homecoming of sorts.

While there is a game to be played, the moment and moments before the kick will be the headline.

“It will be a very warm embrace, not your typical (hand shake). It will be more than your typical just pregame bro hug that coaches give, kind of thing,” Allen said. “But just so much respect … He and I have talked a lot. Just highly respect him. When I was a high school coach, he was a college coach way back then. He and I are the same age. So just obviously close with his dad before we lost him, and then just Ellie’s relationship with this whole town and so many people here and our program.”

As you would expect, Curt echoes that sentiment.

“My son plays for ISU, wouldn’t want it any other way,” Mallory said. “One compliment you can give another coach. If he wasn’t playing for me, I want him to play for Tom Allen.”

So no matter what the final score is on Friday night, it’ll be a win for everyone involved.

“Appreciate that family. Obviously very important to our program and just a lot of respect for them,” Allen added. “The Mallory family, pretty special to this program, no question.”