On October 15th, North Central College head football coach Brad Spencer was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, thanks to an impressive track record of over 50 wins and two Division III National Championships. He is the second NCC coach to receive this honor, behind Al Carius, the late legendary Men’s Cross Country and Track coach, who was inducted in 2013.
“I feel like I’m accepting the award on behalf of so many former players and coaches who were here before me that, you know, now I get to build upon what they built,” said North Central football coach Brad Spencer.
A North Central College legend with a helmet and a headset
Like so many who have coached at North Central, Spencer credits a lot of his coaching ideology to Al Carius, as he sat in his Philosophy of Coaching class as a sophomore in the early 2000’s.
“He was a coach I was around at that time that showed what it was to have compassion, to care for your student athletes, and to really feel like coaching them holistically was the best way to get the most results out of them and prepare them for life,” said Spencer.
This is only Spencer’s fourth season as head coach for the Cardinals, but he’s been around the program since 2000, first as a player, then as an assistant coach starting in 2004.. He coached the tight ends and wide receivers before serving as an assistant and offensive coordinator from 2015 to 2021. After the previous coach, Jeff Thorne, took a Division I assistant job, it was Brad’s turn to steer the ship. With his two national titles and a head coaching record of 52-1, Spencer was awarded the 2025 Ray Meyer Coach of the Year award, named after the longtime DePaul Men’s Basketball coach, joining coaching luminaries like Mike Krzyzewski, Geno Auriemma, Billy Donovan, and fellow Naperville native Porter Moser.
“I feel honored. It was great to be there, and I was so impressed by the group of men and women who were going to the hall at the same time I was. I thought it was a great representation of how important sports are in America and in life right now,” said Spencer.
Spencer joins elite Chicagoland company
At the awards ceremony last month, Spencer joined a wide variety of other inductees in the 2025 class, which includes former Chicago White Sox greats Shoeless Joe Jackson and the late Bobby Jenks. Former Chicago Bears defensive back Charles Peanut Tillman, along with former NBA player Sonny Parker from the Golden State Warriors, were also selected.
“Those aren’t things you, you know, ten, 15 years ago, when I was watching them, you don’t really think about that happening. I think you just realize, hey, we’re all humans, we all love sports and competing to win. That’s fundamental, I would say, a characteristic that is within everybody there, and it really doesn’t matter where you’re winning or what you’re winning. You’re all there because you’re champions in some way,” said Spencer.
A chance to add to the NCC trophy case
With the Division III playoffs just around the corner, Coach Spencer and his undefeated Cardinals have their sights set on National Championship number three this January.
North Central finished the 2025 regular season a perfect 10-0, winning the CCIW championship for a fifth straight year. In four seasons under Spencer, NCC has never lost a regular season game. The Cardinals will open the postseason against the winner of Hanover and Grove City on November 29th.
