After 12 years at the helm of the NIU football program, head coach Joe Novak announced his retirement Monday afternoon at the Yordon Center.

“People have always said, ‘You’ll know when it’s time,’ and I promise you, I know it’s time,” Novak said. “It’s been a great, great ride, but it’s time.”

The Mentor, Ohio, native took over as the NIU head coach in 1996 and took the Huskies from one of the worst teams in college football to a perennial power in the MAC.

From the middle of the 1999 season through 2006, Novak led NIU to a 64.4 winning percentage and won or shared the MAC West crown four times while making two bowl appearances in 2004 and 2006.

Novak also led the Huskies to the MAC Championship game in 2005. Under Novak’s leadership, the Huskies had seven straight winning seasons from 2000-2007, the only non-BCS program to do so.

“That’s the one thing I’m most proud of: Seven straight winning seasons,” Novak said. “Winning is fragile. You’ve got to enjoy it when you’re doing it.

“Every coach says, everybody says it: This program is better now than when I came,” Novak said. “And I think I can say it. This program is better now than when I came.”

Two of Novak’s fondest memories came in 2003 when the Huskies’ hosted and beat 15th-ranked Maryland and two weeks later, went on the road and beat Alabama.

“Winning at Alabama was something,” Novak said. “The Maryland game – a sell-out, at our place on national television and we get the win – was amazing, a dream come true. About two hours before the game, someone came into my office and said coach ‘You’ll never believe it, they’re scalping tickets on Annie Glidden.’ I said ‘It’s a sell-out?’ And that was just great.”

Novak was involved in all three of the NIU bowl appearances. He helped the Huskies to a California Bowl win in 1983 as an assistant and led the Huskies to a win in the Silicon Valley Classic bowl-game in 2004 as head coach.

Despite the Huskies’ 2-10 record this year, Novak says he isn’t retiring because of the disappointing season.

“This season has nothing to do with this decision,” Novak said. “In fact, it’s made it a lot tougher because I’d sure like to go out on a higher note. If it went one more year, it would be hard to convince someone to come here because of the uncertainty of me staying.”

For many who know Novak personally, the way he conducted himself and his team on and off the field is what will be remembered the most.

“He is as good a coach as I have ever been around, and it has very little to do with football strategy, even though I think he’s terrific when it comes to that,” said Athletics Director Jim Phillips. “My admiration for him is about his character, the qualities he develops in the student-athletes, and all of the elements that define the word coach.”