Hall of Fame
As North Central College’s all-time coaching victories leader in both men’s soccer and softball, in addition to his position as associate professor in the College’s health and physical education department, Jim Kulawiak has proven himself as an artful juggler of multiple hats since joining the Cardinals’ coaching staff in 1989.
He initially took over the softball program on a part-time basis his first year and promptly led the Cardinals to College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin regular-season and tournament titles. His early success led to a rather unusual job offer.
“(North Central) offered me a full-time position to teach with the provision that I would coach the (men’s) soccer team,” Kulawiak recalls. “It was kind of an expected thing to do. Just about every coach here was coaching two sports. I was very apprehensive about it because I had an extremely limited soccer background, so the agreement was that I would do it the first year on an interim basis.”
His first season in charge of a soccer team resulted in a 10-5-2 overall finish, including a 4-1 effort in CCIW play and a school single-season record for the fewest goals allowed (19). Kulawiak would go on to post a record of 111-75-11 in 11 seasons, winning CCIW titles in 1991 and 1994 – North Central’s only conference championships to date.
While his soccer program flourished, Kulawiak’s softball teams also continued to excel, winning a total of five CCIW Championships and making four NCAA Division III Tournament appearances during the time he was coaching both sports.
“There are certain things you can carry from one sport to another,” he says. “Whether it’s discipline, training, organization, there are certain traits that carry over. That was my whole intent, to take things I had done in other sports and apply them. The real difficulty was that we had fall softball during the soccer season and spring soccer during softball season. I was so lucky to have Steve Kaczmar take fall softball and Sal Vaccaro and, later, Franz Mathieu to take spring soccer, and basically do it for free. When you stop and look at it, we did a pretty good job because we were always able to stay competitive, and that was not an easy thing to do.”
Kulawiak continues to coach the Cardinals’ softball team and has won a total of eight CCIW titles while compiling an overall record of 655-289-3, making him one of 10 active NCAA Division III coaches with at least 600 wins. His teams have won at least 20 games 23 times in his 24-year tenure, including a 45-11 finish in 2001, which concluded with a fifth-place finish at the Division III Women’s College World Series.
He becomes the sixth coach to enter North Central’s Athletic Hall of Fame, and joins Cleo Tanner to become just the second to be inducted due to success in a women’s sport.
“It really is a culmination of the involvement of a lot of people,” Kulawiak says of the honor. “If I’m the recipient of anything, it’s because of the performances and contributions of so many others. I think the whole celebration is about the time that’s gone by and all the great moments we’ve had and all the people who have been a part of it.”
