(EDITOR'S NOTE: While the Coronavirus has brought athletic events at Augustana to a standstill, we are still going to populate our website with stories about people, events and circumstances that helped give our department the identity it enjoys today. We will not run these every day and the subjects will vary. Today our subject is Jay Penney, the quarterback on the Vikings' first NCAA Division III national championship football team.)
 

"I never walked onto a football field thinking I was going to lose."
 
Jay Penney wasn't boasting, he wasn't bragging and he wasn't exaggerating. What he was doing was what he always did. He was shooting straight and he was doing it in his own way, modest and humble but at the same time supremely confident in himself and his surroundings.
 
If you knew Jay Penney at all. If you followed his career. If you understood his background. If you were aware of his pedigree. If you were privileged to watch him work under center as the starting quarterback for Augustana's NCAA Division III national champion Vikings in 1983 then that statement makes perfect sense.
 
Penney wasn't big (he was listed at 6-0, 175 in the roster), he didn't have the strongest arm and he was certainly not the fleetest of foot. What he did have, however, couldn't be measured by a clock, a tape measure or a scale. He had the innate ability to lead people and it was a trait that was born from years of being around a system that was a proven success.
 
"I ran our offense since I was in the fifth grade," he said about his upbringing in the tradition-rich football town of Geneseo, Illinois. "I watched my two older brothers Steve and Rick win games and enjoy great success at Geneseo. I learned from them and I understood what it took to win."
 
Jay also understood that the guy on the sidelines was head coach Bob Reade and he built the tradition that paved the way for the winning ways at Geneseo. In the spring of 1979, Reade was named the head coach at Augustana and one year later Penney joined him as part of a recruiting class for the Vikings that would eventually be the foundation for the 1983 national champions.
 
"If a game was close I never got worried and I never got nervous," said the guy who completed winning touchdown passes to his former Geneseo High School teammate Norm Singbush three times in the closing moments of games in that 1983 season. "I always knew we would figure out a way to get the job done."
 
For a person who was never once listed on an all-conference team during his time at Augustana, his value was unquestioned. In the moments just prior to taking the field for the 1983 Stagg Bowl (NCAA Division III National Championship Game) in Kings Island, Ohio, assistant coach Tom Schmulbach pulled Penney to the side and said "Just keep fooling 'em Cowboy. You only have to do it one more time."
 
Penney laughs at that now but he knows that there was some truth in the statement.
 
"Sports is a microcosm of life," he said. "There are always people on the bus and the challenge of the leader is make sure that the people are on the right seats on the bus. That is where Coach Reade was so far ahead of other coaches. He knew what we had and he knew who had to have the ball in his hands when the game was on the line."
 
Penney was certainly one of those guys who Reade trusted and with good reason. He played for Reade at Geneseo and as a junior, he stepped in as the starting quarterback when senior Lance Hofer was injured. Penney kept the Maple Leafs going while Hofer was out. Hofer came back near the end of the year and Geneseo won a third straight Class 3A state championship. In 1979, Reade had moved on to Augustana and Penney quarterbacked the Leafs to a semi-final berth where they lost to Morris in a close contest.
 
He became the starter as a freshman at Augustana midway through the 1980 season. The Vikings were 2-3 at the time and Reade tabbed him to start a non-conference game against St. Ambrose in late October. He led the Vikings to a 25-0 win that day and they finished the year with four straight victories and a 6-3 overall record. Augustana would not lose another regular season game until the fourth game of the 1988 season, a streak of 70 straight contests.
 
In 1981, Hofer transferred to Augustana after spending two years as a scholarship player at the University of Illinois. In the beginning of the season, the two split time at quarterback before Hofer got the majority of the snaps as the season wore on. The Vikings went 9-0 and qualified for the NCAA Division III playoffs with Hofer sidelined due to an NCAA ruling involving his transfer. Penney stepped in as the starting quarterback against Dayton and Augustana fell 19-7 to the defending national champions on an ice-covered Welcome Stadium in Dayton, Ohio.
 
During his junior year, Penney moved to wide receiver, and was a starter there as Hofer took over at quarterback and earned CCIW MVP honors as the Vikings went 11-1, and played in the Stagg Bowl in Phenix City, Alabama. In a hard-fought game, they fell 14-0 to West Georgia.
 
That set the stage for 1983 and Penney knew his battle-tested team had a chance to be extremely successful.
 
"I think back and as freshmen in 1980 there were 11 of us in the starting lineup when we won those last four games," he said. "We had a bunch of guys who knew how to win and we had a few special athletes – you always need those – who could make plays. When I stepped in the huddle that year I knew who I could trust and that is important."
 
Just as important, was the fact that his teammates knew that they could trust him. He had been a starter as a freshman, then lost the job to his former high school teammate Hofer for two years and then took over as a senior. Through it all, he never once complained. He did what he had to do to help his team win games and he gained the admiration of those in the locker room on a daily basis.
 
Greg Bednar, the team captain as an offensive guard on the 1981 team and an Academic All-American, had this to say about Penney's approach. "I think the way he handled everything was a key to that 1983 team winning the national championship. He was the leader, a position he earned – it wasn't just given to him – and the players in that huddle knew that they would (and could) go to battle for him."
 
"We were very close, especially on the offensive side of the ball," said Penney. "We had a good group of guys and we were all focused on one goal."
 
Penney thinks the stage was set for success as early as his freshman year. He credits players who were seniors in the fall of 1980 with helping set the table.
 
"Guys like Jim Innis and Mark Viehweg were seniors and they welcomed us with open arms," said Penney. "They treated us like we were somebody and helped build the fraternity that was Augustana football in those days. I don't think they ever got the credit they deserved but they were huge in helping lay the foundation. There were a lot of freshmen on the field that year and we never felt any resentment from the leaders on that team."
 
Penney transferred his success at Augustana easily into real life. After graduating, he worked for Amana refrigerators, then Frigidaire and eventually Electrolux. He retired from Electrolux in 2010 before he was 50 years old because he didn't want to uproot his family from the Augusta, Georgia area.
 
In 2015, he was lured back into the workforce by a company known as Sub Air Systems, (https://subairsystems.com/who-we-are/what-we-do/) which at the time was involved primarily in the golf course business. In layman's term, the company sells a product that pushes fresh oxygen into the sub-surface of a playing field and pulls moisture out. It helps preserve the playing surface and extends the life of the natural grass turf.
 
"We were basically doing golf business when I started and then we moved into other sports and it has just taken off," said Penney who is now the President and C.E.O. of Sub Air Systems. "One thing that we have found is that professional sports teams generally don't own the stadiums they play in but they do own their own practice venues. They are not shy about pouring money into practice facilities in order to maintain a safe playing surface for their players. We haven't abandoned the golf business but we have definitely expanded."
 
Under Penney's leadership, the company has done facilities at historic Wembley Stadium in England and this past February the surface at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami where the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl was a Sub Air product. The company has also done work for the New York Mets, New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Miami Dolphins, Chicago Cubs, Alabama and Auburn, to name a few.
 
"It's actually been sort of fun," said Penney who admitted that he didn't bring any technical expertise in the subject to the boardroom. "I probably know more than I should about the product now."
 
When asked about the secret to his success, he goes back to his days as an athlete.

"I have been fortunate throughout my life to have been able to watch good people succeed," he said. "I watched my two brothers have tremendous success and I watched Coach Reade mold a group of young men into a cohesive unit. I learned from my father, a person named Bob Cook during my early business years and Coach Reade. Even though they were in different walks of life, they were alike in that they knew how to pull triggers to get people to do what was best."
 
Penney knows that it is all about working together for a common goal.
 
"The bottom line is you still have to produce," he said. "Just like when I played at Augustana and everyone knew his role. There was never any animosity. We had to trust each other. It is the same way in business and that is what I have always tried to do. I learned from Coach Reade that you have to put people in places where they have the best chance to succeed."