After Christmas, Kittner will focus on home games
Kurt Kittner will be home for the first Christmas Day with his 6-month-old son Carter.
Kittner just wishes he did not have to leave before it was over and head to the airport.
Make no mistake, the former Schaumburg High School and University of Illinois star quarterback is glad to see his college alma mater back in a postseason game. But Kittner would be even happier if his duty of calling a game for the final time on the Illini Sports Network did not require leaving the family Christmas early because of the noon kickoff in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Dec. 26.
"It's not ideal, but you have to do what you have to do," Kittner said. "Not that he (Carter) will remember, but I will."
That just reinforces the decision Kittner made a month ago to end an eight-year run as the color analyst for Illinois football. There is no audible coming from Kittner because of the program's late-season run to finish .500 and get a shot at playing Louisiana Tech.
A lot has changed since Kittner stepped into the booth back in 2007. He got married and with his wife Leila, a former Illini tennis player, they also have 3½-year-old daughter Maya. His job as a vice president with commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle requires some traveling.
So being away from home an additional 12 weekends every fall became less appealing. Trying to go to a few games as a family in Champaign wasn't easy on Leila once Kurt had to leave and head up to the Memorial Stadium broadcast booth.
"In the big picture, I had the last couple of weekends to be home and hang out with my family and schedule my weekends around them," Kittner said. "I had a blast doing it and I wasn't running to and from Champaign.
"I just didn't want to wake up one day and find my kids getting ready for college and I had missed a whole bunch of Saturdays in the fall."
But Kittner's eight years on the radio gave him a great opportunity to stay connected to a game he loves.
The 1998 Schaumburg grad was one of the best pure passing quarterbacks in state history. That included a 456-yard performance in a memorable offensive shootout against Barrington and standout running back Dan Pohlman.
Kittner was swayed to Illinois because of then-head coach Ron Turner and the opportunity to play right away. He moved into the starting lineup as a true freshman and set the school's career record for touchdown passes with 70 and threw for 8,722 yards - just 3 yards shy of the mark by Jack Trudeau - while leading the Illini to a Big Ten title and Sugar Bowl appearance as a senior.
Like Trudeau, Kittner went on to play in the NFL and made four starts with the Falcons in 2003. He was MVP of the NFL World Bowl with Amsterdam in 2005 and spent the majority of the 2005 NFL season as the Bears' No. 3 quarterback.
A pair of legendary Illini running backs opened the door for Kittner to become the analyst in 2007. Jim Grabowski ended his three-decade tenure in the booth after the 2006 season and his original replacement, Howard Griffith, took a job with the new Big Ten Network before the 2007 season began.
"When I first got started I thought, 'What a great opportunity to stay connected to the game of football,' and obviously it was a big part of my life up until then," Kittner said. "Once I figured out I didn't want to be in the coaching world, a big piece of that would be missing. Over the last eight years radio filled that for me."
The first year couldn't have been better as the Illini went to the Rose Bowl.
"Part of it helped me transition to the real world because I still had my football fix doing radio," Kittner said of starting his real estate career six months before jumping into broadcasting. "The first year they went to the Rose Bowl so it was an exciting year to do it. It helped me be able to be OK with taking the helmet off for the last time, because that's a tough adjustment for anyone."
There would be some tough times ahead as the Illini continued their long tradition of ups and downs on the field. The good news for Kittner was he had two true pros to help him grow in his role as an analyst in play-by-play man Brian Barnhart and veteran Champaign sportscaster and pregame, postgame and halftime radio host Steve Kelly.
"Brian is obviously a pro. I listen to a lot of games to or from our game in the car and he does a great job," Kittner said. "He was helpful to me starting out with a lot of constructive criticism of what I was doing well and what I wasn't.
"Hopefully it's been an enjoyable listen to Illini fans out there. And Steve, it's been a lot of fun working with him as well."
Kittner brings his even-tempered personality to his current view on the state of Illinois football.
"When you think about it, in eight years they've been to four bowl games, and for Illinois football that's pretty darn good," Kittner said.
He's happy the current team gets the benefit of extra practice and a nice recruiting chip from a bowl trip. But he's also realistic that there is a long way to go to recapture sagging fan interest and bring some stability to a program that hasn't had a head coach with a tenure of double-figure seasons since Ray Eliot (1942-59).
"As you get older and you look back, you realize Illinois has struggled to be consistent," Kittner said. "They haven't been as consistent as most other teams in the Big Ten.
"It's hard to put a finger on it (this year), but they won some games I didn't think they would win and there were other games they didn't play well. At the end of the day they're 6-6 and there is still a lot of improvement to be made."
Kittner hopes to see it soon - even though it will be from the distance of his home in Glen Ellyn or in the Memorial Stadium stands with his family instead of the broadcast booth. He plans to make sure his kids will see life with an orange and blue view.
"I didn't go to an Illinois game until I was being recruited," Kittner said, "so hopefully I can get them brainwashed early."
• Marty Maciaszek is a freelance columnist for the Daily Herald. You can reach him at marty.maciaszek@gmail.com.