Purple Mafia Profile - Brian Kardos

It's Friday already? Yes! That means it is time for yet another edition of Purple Mafia Profiles. This week's guest is former Wildcat offensive lineman, Brian Kardos. Kardos, (NU '92-'96) has a unique perspective as he saw the entire Barnett transformation from GB's first season through the back-to-back Big Ten Championship seasons. Today, Kardos leads another team - KPMG - but we'll get to that in a second. Brian was kind enough to take some time to spread some Purple Kool-Aid.

LTP: Tell us what you're up to these days.

BK: When I’m not up in Evanston cheering for the cats, I’m working for KPMG in the IT Advisory service line. Work takes me all over the globe, but mostly London and Houston. I lead an international team which can be challenging, but it is certainly fun and rewarding.

I live in downtown Chicago in the Streeterville neighborhood, I’m single and I’m attempting to train for another triathlon in August.

LTP: While you're leading an international business team, I understand your former teammate and current Cats leader, Fitz, had you back on campus to speak the week leading into the Spring Game. Share with us what you said and your overall impressions of this team.

BK: I was very honored to have the chance to address the team after practice – all I wanted to tell them was to trust each other and trust their coaches, and if they did, they would go far in both football and in their careers off the field. I really liked and appreciated that Coach Fitz emphasized life after football and the importance of their hard work off the field. When you are in the middle of spring practice and classes and everything else, it’s very easy to think only of the obstacles right in front of you – but the lessons learned will serve you throughout your life and career far beyond football.

I was really impressed with the team. I saw them practice several times this spring and they’ve looked really solid especially closer to the end of spring when they were hitting on all cylinders. I look for the team to have a very solid year and win a bowl game.

LTP: Glad to see we're on the same page! You certainly think highly of Fitz as do most of his teammates. Tell us about his speech at the NGN auction (the night of the Spring Game) and why it impacted you so.

BK: I have so much respect for Pat, as a former player, and watching him listening to him as a coach. It is very obvious that he has so much passion for what he is doing, and that comes out every time he speaks. Every time Pat gives a speech it is clear that he believes very strongly in what he is saying, and that in itself is enough to energize crowds. When he spoke at the NGN auction, he was communicating his excitement about facing the upcoming season in the wake of completing spring ball – and to the supporters some of the team needs that the NGN meets, and some of the challenges the team is facing.

LTP: Turn back the clock to your stint at NU (1992-1996). You are one of the few guys who actually got to see the entire transformation of the program. Looking back, what specific memories and learnings stay with you.

BK: Well there is enough to fill a book… Honestly, I use the lessons learned during my time at NU every day in my life and career now. Going through all the demands of football as well as a chemical engineering curriculum taught me how to manage my time, prioritize my work, and also how to enjoy my time off! Being surrounded by some of the most talented and brilliant people in the world was an amazing influence. The influence of my coaches and teammates played a large role in shaping my experiences.

We learned how to overcome adversity of all kinds, hard work, discipline, dedication, sacrifice, true teamwork, and the rewards of all the things I just listed. Finally, the true appreciation of friends, fans, and family that had been with us the entire way – there was something special about seeing the joy in the fans faces when the bus pulled in from our victory at Michigan, knowing those same fans were cheering us on when we got killed 51-3 at Ohio State (ed note: I was there calling the game on WNUR in 1993 and I'm not sure which was more painful - to play that game or to call it!).

LTP: I've asked this to most of your teammates, but most of them won't get specific. Tell me the indellible moment - as specifically as possible - that resonates in your memory banks when someone mentions 1995 - and Rose Bowl doesn't count. It can be a play, an image, a sound...give us something that we didn't have the perspective to experience.

BK: Well, I’m going to be just as guilty as my teammates and not get specific – but when Rob Johnson addressed the team at a players-only meeting in January of 1995, that is when we took all the frustrations and adversity and hard times of the last 3 years and decided collectively as a team that we were going to overcome it all and succeed. That philosophy grew in strength and passion over the year, through winter workouts – there was a new found zeal as each guy pushed everyone else to break personal records each week and continue to drive forward. The enthusiasm that permeated the team was contagious – even the normally calm Larry Lilja was tearing phone books in half (and not the white pages, the big suburban yellow pages!) As we entered spring ball, we naturally had questions, in each other – and in ourselves, but we really worked hard each practice and trusted in each other – in an untested quarterback, an underclassman running back, members of the offensive and defensive line who were starting for the first time. Coming out of spring we really started to gel and come together as a unit.



The trust really started to develop over the long and grueling summer workouts. During the summer of 1995, some 900+ people died in Chicago because of the massive heat wave – and yet every day we got to the stadium and the team never took a day off or backed down in the heat. I still remember the night after we ran mount trashmore (ed note: an infamous hill in Evanston that is on top of a garbage dump), all I could do was lay in my bed and let the pathetic A/C in my old college apartment wash over me. I was still exhausted hours after we finished that workout!



As we entered in Kenosha, you could tell that something special was taking shape. I remember that pre-season in Kenosha as the hardest and yet the most fun I’ve ever had – the camaraderie that we built, from the o-lineman’s cannonball contests to chatting with teammates as you cooled down in an icetub post practice. The success of the 1995 season was not magically built in September, but painstakingly and gruelingly constructed in the months beforehand, and when someone mentions the 1995 season or asks me to recount something, it’s very difficult, the whole experience was the sum of many parts, and the synergies of those experiences coming together is difficult to express or boil down to an individual incident.

LTP: Wow. That's great stuff - I've never heard about the Lilja phonebooks or better yet the Rob Johnson speech. We'll have to dive into that more, but first, fess up, your favorite game from the 1995 season and why...

BK: Penn State – I played possibly the best game of my career against the Nittany Lions, and my parents are both from western Pennsylvania, and even today my dad is a fan of “Joe-Pa” so being such a highly-touted game, the lights at Dyche, the stadium sold out in all purple, Keith Jackson calling the game on the national ABC premiere game made it all the more special. On a particular timeout, the whole o-line was coming off the field and as Coach Brattan grabbed the white board to make adjustments with us, we all said, almost in unison, “we got it, we’ll just block our rules…” and for the ONLY time that I ever saw, Coach Brattan put his marker and board down and said back to us “men, go win this game..!” I knew right then and there that we’d run the table and win the Big 10.


LTP: Ummmm. I've got goosebumps. Let's double-down - favorite game from the 1996 season and why....

BK: Iowa - @ Iowa City. After suffering years of beatdowns at the hands of the Hawkeyes, and especially on our own home field, it felt so good to go into their home stadium and run up some 250 yards (or whatever) and then completely back off in the 4th quarter. There was no better feeling than running the same play over and over again (32 away) and getting huge chunks of yards at a crack, knowing that they couldn’t stop us. After the last touchdown I dove into the end zone crowd (well sort of – a 300 pound lineman doesn’t get much air on a jump) and surrounded by our fans, finally returned the favor of years of humiliation on their home turf. It doesn’t get much better than that.

LTP: Agreed. That may have been Darnell/o-line's best game of the two seasons. I'll never forget the 4th quarter embrace between Gary Barnett and Darnell after his 4th touchdown. Fast forward - how involved with you with the program these days and to what lengths do you go to follow the Cats?

BK: I am an active member of the NGN and when Pat was named the head coach I picked up another 2 season tickets. I make every game that I can (only when I’m traveling overseas do I miss an NU game). I try to make all the events that I can – again work travel permitting – and I guarantee I’ll make the bowl game this year.

LTP:Thoughts on the upcoming season? Concerns? Prognostications?

BK: I really think we are lined up for a nice run this year. I avoid making predictions, but I think they should make a bowl game and finish in the top teams of the Big 10. I’m a big fan of Eric Peterman not only because we went to the same high school(ed note: Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin) from the same home town (ed: Sherman, IL), but also because I think he’s got the big play ability as well as the leadership qualities to be an excellent example of a Northwestern student-athlete.

LTP: What are your thoughts on how Fitz & Phillips can do to turn the attendance around aside from the obvious on-field performance?

BK: I think the on-field performance is the best way to generate excitement about the team, but I look at Phillips track record - NIU is in a mid-major conference that plays in a relatively desolate stadium – and he generated lots of excitement and fanfare about the Huskies. I look for similar ideas that will resonate with the NU alumns and get folks back in the seats and wearing purple. As for Fitz, he’s gone miles and miles to get people involved in the program and get people back on campus – I’m beyond impressed and I think we’ll see some returns and dividends this year. He reminds all of us with every e-mail that he sends that this is OUR program, and I really feel that to be true.

LTP: I've yet to meet anyone in NU circles who wouldn't run through a wall for Fitz. It is great to hear insights like this that he's created a buzz among former players. Anything else you'd like to add?

BK: I appreciate all that you do, sometimes I get a little flak for being such a huge Northwestern fan, but it’s good to see blogs like this that promote the purple and let people like myself keep involved in the program.



LTP: You think YOU get flak....seriously, thanks for the very kind words. Getting to know ambassadors of the school and the sport (along with the juicy insights from the gloroius games!) is one of the true perks. Don't be a stranger and we'll see you in Evanston.