FORTVILLE – For two members of the 2024 Indiana Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame class, their connection was unique and one that started all the way back in the 1980s.
Mt. Vernon ties were also there.
The school’s current offensive coordinator, Toby Jacobs, and former head coach, Mike Kirschner, were both inducted into the IFCA Hall of Fame at the same time.
“Coach Kirschner is just an unbelievable man. The coaching part is easy for him because that’s just the type of guy he is as a human being. He inspires you to be a better person all the time, and that has nothing to do with coaching, that’s just who he is. There’s not much difference in how he carries himself on and off the field,” Jacobs said. “Playing for him and then getting to coach with him and then going into the Hall of Fame with him was just such an honor. He not only makes better football players, he makes better people.”
The two met back when Jacobs was in sixth grade and a member of a travel team coached by Kirschner. While both went their separate ways over the years, Kirschner followed Jacobs’ career throughout high school and college, and in 2018 the pair came together as members of the Mt. Vernon coaching staff.
“We’ve stayed close over the years. I followed him throughout high school and then I got into coaching and we just stayed in touch over the years. The Jacobs family is awesome, his parents are great people,” Kirschner said. “When I got to Mt. Vernon, the first thing I did was call him up and told him if he wasn’t busy to come work for me, and he did. I turned him loose and he ran with it. He’s a great person, a great coach and a great family man. It’s been fun for me and pretty unique to get inducted at the same time as somebody I coached. It’s been awesome to see how successful his career has been.”
While neither entered the hall of fame as a Marauder, both played a key part in the resurgence of the school’s football program.
Kirschner took over the head coaching job in 2018 and flipped the Marauders record from 4-7 in 2017 to 7-4 a year later. In Year 2, the team went 11-3 and won the school’s first regional title, and in 2020 the team went 12-1 and defeated New Palestine for the first time since 2012. Jacobs coached the offense for all those seasons.
“When I came to coach with him, it was great to hear him tell me that we were going to run whatever I wanted on offense. To get that from a legend like him gave me so much more confidence and really helped me become a more analytical and prepared coach,” Jacobs said. “When you have a guy like him, you want to make sure that he’s happy because it’s like having a second dad. My dad was a huge influence on me, but as a coach, Kirschner was the guy I didn’t want to disappoint.”
Although Kirschner’s stint at Mt. Vernon was short-lived after he accepted the head coaching job at his alma mater, Warren Central, following the 2020 season, the groundwork that he laid was prevalent right away and can still be seen today.
“I have some very fond memories of those years. We built a weight program from not many kids to over 300 a semester. I got to see the transformation of a school that had some success, really take it to the next level,” Kirschner said. “The best part was that when I got there, all the kids bought into what I was selling. Our numbers grew from 50 to over 100 on the roster. The players and the community just accepted me and bought into what we wanted to do.”
The year after his departure, Jacobs and the Marauders continued what Kirschner had started and went 14-1 and won the school’s first state title.
“The imprint that he left on the people at Mt. Vernon, it was easy to carry on after he left,” Jacobs said. “He helped empower us to take more responsibility by giving coach [Vince] Lidy the defense and me the offense. When people started to believe in what we were doing, that’s when you started to see change. That all goes back to Coach Kirschner.”
While Kirschner had a good three years at Mt. Vernon and Jacobs is continuing to make those memories as part of the program, each was inducted into the Hall of Fame for their accomplishments earlier in their careers.
Jacobs was inducted for his playing days at Indianapolis Scecina in the early 1990s. Playing all over the field, he helped lead the Crusaders to 2A state titles in both 1990 and 1991.
“I’m honored that I was selected. A lot of my teammates are the ones responsible for me getting in. To me, it’s more of a team award thing. They were the biggest part of helping me get to that point. Those guys were always there and gave me the confidence to make plays. The guys that protected for me, who passed me the ball, they’re all every bit as important as anything I’ve ever had in life athletically,” Jacobs said.
“I’m just a huge fan of the people of Scecina High School, my classmates and the people that I played with. We all played little league baseball, basketball and football together. That’s more of the focus for me. My son asked me ‘Did you ever want to be in the Hall of Fame’, and I told him ‘No, it was never really a goal, but I’m honored that they felt I was good enough to be in there with the cast of guys that I went in with.”
Jacobs played running back, quarterback, wide receiver, linebacker, defensive back, and returned both punts and kicks for the Crusaders. A three-sport athlete playing basketball, baseball and football, in 1992 he was selected as the Indianapolis City Athlete of the Year. In 1991, he was selected All-State for football.
The Crusaders went 9-5 in the 1990 state championship season and followed that up by going 11-3 and winning another title in 1991.
“I have a lot of good feelings about playing at Scecina. One of my goals in life was to play there. The secondary goal was to win a championship and I was able to do that twice with my buddies and the people I grew up with,” Jacobs said. “We were able to make Scecina a known name around the state. All of that, to me, is more valuable than getting the honor of being in the Hall of Fame.”
His coach for all of those seasons was legendary Scecina coach Ott Hurrle, whose final season was in 2023 after 46 years in the program and 32 years as head coach. He played a big role in Jacobs being the player that he was.
“Coach Hurrle had a big imprint on me and the program. Those years are probably the high points, but his legacy on the program is huge,” Jacobs said. “He was the guy that got us to believe over that two-year run.”
The impact Hurrle left on Jacobs extended into his coaching days and can be seen in how he now runs the Mt. Vernon offense. Jacobs took what he learned playing for Hurrle and has used that in every stop along his coaching journey. Jacobs was a graduate assistant for two seasons at Butler University after his time playing for the Bulldogs, he followed that with a 19-year stint coaching at Hamilton Southeastern and has been at Mt. Vernon since joining Kirschner’s staff in 2018.
“My junior year, Coach Hurrle put in the run-and-shoot offense. We had been a two-tight end, wishbone team, but that year we had the personnel to switch things up. He had us read stuff and make plays, and that’s how I think the game has changed,” Jacobs said. “The offense that we run at Mt. Vernon, I took a lot of those principles from when I played. I let the quarterbacks and wide receivers make decisions on some of the routes that they want to run. I want them to buy in and know that when they watch film, they can see things and choose what routes they want to run. That all comes from coach Hurrle when I was in my junior and senior years. He allowed me to make calls and make plays.”
Kirschner was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his time at Ben Davis where he led the Giants to a pair of Class 6A state titles in both 2014 and 2017. In 2011, 2016 and 2017 he was voted the Marion County Coach of the Year and in 2014 and 2017 he was the IFCA Coach of the Year. He was honored by the Indianapolis Colts in 2014 and 2017 for the same honor, and was named the 2014 MaxPreps Coach of the Year. In 2017 he was the head coach of the Army All-American game and in 2015 was an assistant defensive line coach in the game.
“It’s a really high honor,” Kirschner said of joining the Hall. “There’s been a lot of years of coaching, but really this was the culmination of a whole lot of people that have been a part of that journey. All the staff, but most importantly all of the players.”
Kirschner was 95-36 over 11 seasons at Ben Davis, compiled a 30-8 record at Mt. Vernon, and has had a 16-17 record over his first three years at Warren Central. Overall, he has a 155-87 record over 22 years as a head coach.
“The biggest thing that I learned about 15 years ago is that you have to take care of the relationships with the kids before you ever worry about playing football. There’s an old saying that I was told ‘They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,’” Kirschner said. “That holds so true with today’s generation. Building relationships comes first and football comes second.”
