Otterbein has a room full of awards and trophies from his time playing and coaching. Courtesy | Keith Otterbein
Every year, as a different group of Hillsdale football players file into head coach Keith Otterbein’s home for the annual senior dinner, Otterbein’s wife Amy makes the same remark: “You all need to make sure to check out coach’s shrine before you leave!”
Otterbein always laughs and says, “She calls it my ‘shrine,’ but really it’s my perfect man cave.”
When the Otterbeins purchased their property on Lake Wilson in Hillsdale 18 years ago, Otterbein immediately claimed the free-standing garage as his own.
“I think it’s pretty cool, and the guys are always amazed when they see it,” said Brad Otterbein, one of Keith’s sons.
The walls are covered with trophies, helmets, and jerseys from Keith’s 48 years of coaching and playing.
“I was a linebacker for Hillsdale in the ’70s,” he said. “Then they gave me a job as an assistant coach almost right out of school.” Otterbein’s coaching career has also included pit stops at Central Michigan University and Ball State University in Indiana. When he took over the Ferris State University football program at 28 years old, he was the youngest head coach in the country according to the Toledo Blade. He said these experiences showed him a side of college sports that he hadn’t seen before at Hillsdale.
“It was during my time at Ball State that I began to realize the philosophy of college football was pulling away from its true purpose,” Otterbein said. “The infusion of broadcasting money into the sport made the wins column more important than developing boys into men.”
Soon after this realization, Otterbein returned to Hillsdale and took over the head coaching job for Charger football in 2001.
“It’s been a dream ever since then,” Otterbein said. “I have developed personally because of what Hillsdale is, and it really had been special to see how the school has grown under President Arnn’s tenure.”
The amount of memorabilia adoring the walls of his “shrine” has also grown over the years, with three conference championships and three Division II tournament appearances already in his 18 years coaching Hillsdale.
“It was all really cool to see,” said senior and offensive lineman Ben Geno.
A display case full of rings adorns one wall, while shelves stacked with helmets fill out another. Other items include a picture of Otterbein running a marathon, and his hole-in-one ball from a lucky golf outing years ago.
“I definitely prefer driving my pontoon boat to swinging a golf club now,” Otterbein said.
On the mantle is a picture of Otterbein hugging his son Brad after his first start as a redshirt freshman.
“It was homecoming weekend, and Brad was called into action after our starter suffered an injury,” Otterbein said. “Brad was dealing with a shoulder injury himself, and probably popped it out of place about five times during the game, but he kept popping it back in and eventually led the team on a game-winning drive for the victory.”
Both Brad and Otterbein’s other son, Steve, played football for their father at Hillsdale, and now both serve as assistant coaches for Charger football.
“I am so thankful that my kids have all settled down near Hillsdale,” Otterbein said, “and how loving and supportive they have been along this journey.”
