Coaching major college football for 28 years is considered an amazing feat by many.

But living with a major college football coach for 33 years, like Carole Novak has, that’s monumental.

“It’s an exciting life,” said Carole Novak, wife of NIU coach Joe Novak. “A lot of ups and downs, but we have short memories so we forget the downs. The ups are a lot more fun.”

There was no doubt Joe was born to be a coach. Growing up in rural Ohio, sports were the only thing on his mind. Even as a youngster, Joe’s mind was on coaching.

“I always knew I wanted to coach, even as a young kid,” Joe said. “I loved sports. I played everything there was to play. I was a real sports fanatic.”

While other kids in junior high were doing school work, Joe found himself drawing X’s and O’s on his paper instead of homework.

Just as Joe knew he wanted to coach, Carole had a feeling she would marry a coach.

Living in the same hometown as Joe, she too enjoyed sports and often took in sporting events.

“Growing up in Northeast Ohio, I went to football and basketball games with my dad,” Carole said. “Especially being a football fan, it was almost predestined that I would probably marry a coach.”

But Carole said that when she married Joe she really didn’t know what she was getting into. She thought it would be all fun and games, but it doesn’t always turn out that way.

With Joe working an average of 90 hours a week during the season, family time is something that wasn’t taken for granted, especially when their two boys, David and Jeremy, were growing up.

Joe looks back on that time of his life with regret for missing so much of his sons’ lives.

“I think they like the fact that I coached; the fact that they were on an inside part of coaching,” Joe said. “But I think they didn’t like it that I wasn’t around a lot; that I wasn’t at some of their games and a lot of those things that as I look back, I wish I had done a better job of. It’s hard but as a coach you miss some of those things.

“You can never make that up. That’s the hard part; the sacrifice that your kids have to make in order for you to do what you like.”

Novak recalls recruiting trips that all seemed to start the same way.

After getting in the car and turning on the radio, the first song that would play would be Harry Chapin’s Cats in the Cradle.

The song describes a son that looks up to his father throughout his young life and always wants his father to play with him. The father is always too busy and soon his son’s life has passed the father by.

The last verse of the song describes a conversation between the retired father and the son. The father asks to see the son but, just as the father had been in his younger days, the son is too busy to get away.

Suddenly the father realizes the son has grown up to be exactly like him.

“A lot of times it would bring tears to my eyes,” Joe said. “Because it was singing right to me. Your kids are growing up and wanting to play, and you’re always too busy. And all of a sudden you’re ready to play and they’re grown up and don’t have time. There is a lot to that song, but I used to hear it and it would drive me crazy.”

Despite the fact that Joe wasn’t always around, Carole believes he did a good job of being involved considering the circumstances.

Certain days, Joe would be out recruiting on Friday nights. Instead of heading back home after the recruits’ game was over, Joe would rush to where his sons were playing to possibly catch the fourth quarter of their game.

The positive side for the kids was obvious. Being able to go to the stadiums on Saturdays and visit dad at work throughout the week is something that can’t be done in most professions.

“That’s another one of the interesting aspects of the job,” Carole said. “What takes him away from the family is actually one of those things that can bring you closer.”

Regardless of who is home, coaches always struggle with keeping work and family separate.

“I try not to take things home,” Joe said. “I’m fortunate, and I think all of us that are in coaching, if we’re married we’re fortunate with our wives.”

Regardless of how involved wives are, there is still some down time.

Carole holds a full-time job in addition to her duties as a coach’s wife. Though being alone isn’t easy, it has come easier with time.

“I’m busy with my job, which is a good thing,” Carole said. “It would be a lot of lonely hours if I didn’t have that to keep me busy. You have to be an independent person to start with.”

Independence is no problem for Carole. Especially when it comes to speaking her mind about football.

“Sure I ask him about decisions,” Carole said. “I usually say it nicely. Usually I just say ‘in this particular situation … tell me why.’ Rather than the way it’s usually criticized possibly in the press. I’ve been around enough and seen enough football that I know what I’m looking at.”

Just five years removed from a winless season, Joe and Carole are on the verge of a possible MAC Championship. It appears both of the Novaks know what they’re looking at these days.