Albert Reilly was one of the most successful head football coaches in Knox College history. He coached the 1976 football team to a Midwest Conference championship, a lopsided playoff victory, and a national ranking.
Coach Reilly served as an assistant coach from 1968 to 1970 before taking over as the head football coach at Knox in 1971, a position he held for six seasons. Coach Reilly had an overall record of 29-23-2 and a winning percentage of .556. His teams had winning seasons in four of his six years at the helm, a percentage of winning seasons of .667, and Knox achieved top division standing in the Midwest Conference in five of his six years.
Coach Reilly’s best season was in 1976 when the team (Hall of Fame class of 2012) went 7-1-1 to win the Midwest Conference, shut out Lake Forest 33-0 in the playoffs, and finished with the best record among all football teams from Illinois colleges. The ’76 team was also ranked #10 in the nation by United Press International and remains the last Knox football squad to win a conference championship.
Coach Reilly, who also had seasons of 6-2-1 and 6-3, has the best record of any football coach in Knox history who coached for more than three years. Coach Reilly’s record is the best of any coach serving two full years since Ira Carrithers compiled a record of 15-8-1 (.646) from 1910-1912, and, he has the best record of any Knox football coach with two full seasons or more in the last 100 years.
Coach Reilly’s record is the best of any Knox coach since John E. Anderson went 4-2-1 (.643) in 1917, the only year he coached. All coaches at Knox from 1955 through 2012 – other than coach Reilly – have a combined record of 141-315-8 for a winning percentage of .313. Coach Reilly’s winning percentage of .556 is 243 points higher than the coaches during that time frame.
Coach Reilly is tied for second among all Knox coaches in the number of winning seasons with four, and he’s also tied for second in the number of consecutive winning seasons with three. Coach Reilly has the highest percentage of winning seasons of any coach in the last century.
“In his first year at Knox as offensive coordinator in 1970, coach Reilly was primarily responsible for turning a team with a record of 1-8 and hadn’t won more than one game in a season in 10 years, into a team that went 6-3,” said Tom Crabtree ’72, who has maintained football records for Knox for over three decades.
Larry Kusch ’71, a former player, recalls the turnaround of the football program under coach Reilly. “He was the defensive coach when I came to Knox in 1969 as a junior college transfer. In one year we went from 1-8 to 6-3 thanks largely to ‘Alby’s’ commitment to excellence and his passion for innovative teaching techniques. He was the main reason for Knox’s Golden Era of football from 1970 to 1976.”
