North Central Hall of Famer, Naperville resident Jeff Thorne dies after bout with cancer
Jeff Thorne created his own legacy.
Raised and developed by one of Illinois’ greatest, most respected football coaches, and gentlemen, John Thorne, Jeff Thorne expanded upon his father’s success with the football program at North Central College in Naperville.
Jeff Thorne led the Cardinals to the 2019 NCAA Division III national championship, North Central’s first national title, which cemented the program as a national power.
Diagnosed on Feb. 4 with Stage 4 gastric cancer, Thorne, 53, of Naperville, died Tuesday.
“Jeff was my mentor and friend,” said current North Central head football coach Brad Spencer in a statement sent by the college Wednesday. The former Cardinals receiver served as offensive coordinator during Thorne’s tenure as head coach from 2015-21.
“He was a leader on the field, a builder of character, and a source of inspiration for everyone who wore the Cardinal uniform and the coaches who worked by his side,” Spencer said.
“His passion for the game and his commitment to developing All-American teammates, husbands and fathers will endure as part of his remarkable legacy at North Central.”
Steeped in faith by his parents, John and Kathie, Jeff Thorne leaves his wife, Joanna, daughters Lauren and Noelle, and son, Payton, a high school and college star quarterback like his father.
“You keep fighting, that’s what you do,” Jeff Thorne told the Daily Herald in July as he sought alternate treatments to the cancer that doctors at the Mayo Clinic had deemed inoperable due to its spread.
Thorne, who retired as Western Michigan University’s offensive coordinator following the 2022 season then went into sales for the GoRout sports communications company, graduated from Wheaton Central High School in 1990.
He earned induction into the Wheaton Warrenville South Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011, a three-sport athlete who started three seasons as Tigers quarterback under his father as head coach.
As a junior in 1988, Jeff Thorne took Wheaton Central to the Illinois High School Association playoffs for the first time, on their way to becoming a state power.
Thorne went on to play at Eastern Illinois University, where he follows only Jimmy Garoppolo, Sean Payton and Tony Romo in both passing yardage and total offense.
Coaching alongside his father at North Central College from 2002-14, as the Cardinals’ six-year head coach Jeff Thorne’s teams went 65-10, culminating in a national runner-up finish in 2021. He was inducted this year into the North Central College Hall of Fame.
“Whether working alongside his father, or leading as head coach, Jeff always won the right way — by putting the student-athlete first, and using the football field as a place where his athletes learned valuable life lessons and formed bonds that would serve them long after their football careers ended,” North Central President Abiodun Goke-Pariola said in the college’s statement.
“Jeff will be missed, but his Hall of Fame legacy will live on here at North Central College for generations to come.”