Joe Novak, the former Miami University defensive end and longtime college football coach whose career placed him among the most decorated figures in Mid-American Conference history, died Tuesday. He was 81.

Novak's death resonates across southwest Ohio football circles. Miami University in Oxford, where Novak played under Bo Schembechler and later returned as an assistant coach, sits just 35 miles from West Chester Township.

The school inducted Novak into its Cradle of Coaches in 2012, placing him alongside Schembechler, Ara Parseghian, Paul Brown, Jim Tressel and Sean McVay in one of college football's most storied coaching lineages.

Born April 19, 1945, in Mentor, Ohio, Novak played defensive end for Miami's 1965 and 1966 MAC co-championship teams. He spent nearly four decades coaching at the high school and collegiate levels, beginning as an assistant at Warren Western Reserve High School in 1968. By 1972, he had led Warren Western Reserve to a 12-0 record and Ohio's large-school division state championship, earning Coach of the Year honors.

Novak returned to Miami as an assistant from 1974 to 1976, helping the RedHawks go undefeated in MAC play both years and win back-to-back Tangerine Bowls. He then served as an assistant at Illinois, Northern Illinois and Indiana over 22 combined seasons before taking the NIU head coaching job in 1996.

At Northern Illinois, Novak compiled a 63-76 overall record and 47-38 conference mark, ranking among the top 10 in MAC history in both categories. His 2003 squad beat No. 15 Maryland and No. 21 Alabama on the road, climbing to No. 10 in the BCS standings during a 10-2 season. In 2004, he guided NIU to its first bowl game in 21 years.

"He took a lot of scrap parts and a lot of used car parts and built a football team, in fact, a really elite football team, and what Northern Illinois stands on today," Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck said at Big Ten media days Wednesday, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Novak was inducted into the Miami University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007, the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013, and the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame in 2014. In January 2026, while staying at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, he was able to see the College Football Playoff National Championship trophy won by Indiana, where he had served as defensive coordinator for 12 seasons.