Former IC football coach Cozzi dies
Bob Cozzi, who in his first season as a varsity football coach led Immaculate Conception to a state football championship, died Tuesday.
Cozzi, 57, apparently died of a heart attack Tuesday morning, according to his fiancee, Diane Krausfeldt.
At the house of a friend with whom he'd worked odd jobs since being laid off by Neumann Homes in 2007, Cozzi stayed at the home while his friend took his children to school.
Upon the man's return 15 to 20 minutes later, according to Krausfeldt, Cozzi was found unresponsive.
On Nov. 29, 2002, Cozzi led the Knights to their first state championship in any sport in 18 years when the football team beat DuQuoin 21-14 for the Class 3A title in 2002.
Earlier that fall, late one night the boisterous, mustachioed coach dragged Krausfeldt to Lewis Stadium in Elmhurst to ostensibly help him find a set of keys he said he'd lost on the football field during practice.
Searching by flashlight, the couple moved to midfield where Cozzi suddenly found something. Instead of keys, he produced an engagement ring, took a knee and proposed.
At the time of his passing, the North Aurora couple's marriage had yet to transpire. But the feeling was there.
"He's a great guy," said a shocked Krausfeldt, whose son, Jason, was one of Cozzi's assistants along with current Knights coach Bill Schmidt.
"He could be a thorn in the side sometimes, but he'd give you the shirt off his back."
Cozzi also coached softball at IC for 12 seasons ending in 2005, earning a 193-155 record with three regional titles and a sectional title in 2003.
It was football where he caught lightning in a bottle.
Bleeding IC blue and white though he graduated from York, and driven to beat what he called the Suburban Catholic Conference's "big three" of Driscoll, Montini and Marian Central, in 2002 Cozzi became Knights head coach after seven seasons leading the junior varsity.
"For a guy walking into this, this is not a bad situation," he said at the time, though IC had gone 1-8 five seasons prior.
Starting the season with 28 players, Cozzi's Knights went 6-1 in the SCC, their only loss to eventual Class 4A state champion Driscoll.
Led by all-state picks Anthony Schreiber at quarterback and Joe Mastrino at receiver and back, IC finished with a winning record and reached the playoffs each for the first time in a decade.
Maintaining his value was more as motivator than tactician, in the Class 3A title game Cozzi delivered 13-1 IC's first state championship since 1984 girls volleyball.
Yet after two 4-5 seasons to follow he resigned with a 21-11 career record.
Moments after the Knights title win, Cozzi said, "They bought into what the coaching staff had stressed. I'm not an easy person to play for -- I demand a lot."
He gave much more.
"You talk about what epitomizes an IC person," athletic director Darren Howard said, "and for us it's a person who puts the school and the kids ahead of himself. He did that."
Along with Diane Krausfeldt, Cozzi leaves three brothers (another died in childhood), a daughter and two grandchildren.
Plus the many athletes better off because of him.
"The kids meant everything to Bob," said John Kowieski, whose four children all played for Cozzi.
"And he meant a lot to them."