Thanks to a reshuffling of his high school team’s game, former Illinois State offensive lineman Cameron Lee will attend a reunion of the 2014 national runner-up Redbirds. (Photo by Tim and Dawn Lee)
By Dan Verdun
Illinois State University is holding a 10-year reunion for its 2014 FCS national runner-up Redbirds this weekend in Normal.
As of Thursday, 42 players and staff from that team had registered for the event, according to ISU associate athletic director Mike Williams. That list includes well-known players such as Cam Meredith, Marshaun Coprich, Chris Highland, Pat Meehan, Dontae McCoy and Jermaine Barton.
However, it nearly didn’t include a role player who later blossomed into a solid starter and briefly played for the Chicago Bears.
Cameron Lee — a sophomore reserve ISU offensive lineman in 2014 – is now the head football coach at Oakwood High School, which just happens to be his hometown.
Like many of his former Redbird teammates, Lee was excited when he first heard about the reunion. After all, Oakwood lies just 77 miles east of Normal along I-74.
But Lee also knew that he most likely wouldn’t be in attendance for the Friday welcome event and dinner as high schools traditionally play games on that night.
Things looked even more grim when Oakwood’s game with Clifton Central was pushed to Saturday due to the shortage of prep officiating crews.
“So I was going to miss the reunion altogether,” Lee told Prairie State Pigskin.
His disappointment was short-lived.
“I got a call a day later that there was a conflict with the coaching staff at the other school,” Lee said, “so it was moved to Thursday (Sept. 19).
“We were all over the map with this thing.”
The good news was that the map could now include a trip to Normal for the reunion.
(Editor’s note: Down 22-6 at halftime, Oakwood rallied for a 42-34 win Thursday).
Humble collegiate beginnings
Lee, the middle child in a family of three boys, was a three-sport star in high school. He holds the school records for career home runs and RBIs and is only the seventh basketball player in Oakwood history to score more than 1,000 points.
Yet, like many smaller high schools standouts, there were few offers to play on the collegiate level.
Thus, Lee came to Illinois State as a walk-on in the fall of 2013. After spending time on the ISU practice squad as a freshman, Lee found himself seeing the field as a sophomore.
“I got to be the extra offensive lineman for our heavy personnel package (in short yardage and goal-line situations), and I was on the field goal team too,” he said.
Redbird run
Lee spent most of the regular season watching from the sidelines as Illinois State rolled to a 10-1 record and a share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference crown.
Next came the FCS playoffs where the Redbirds won three straight games, including road wins at higher seeds Eastern Washington and New Hampshire. Those victories put ISU in the national championship game at Frisco, Texas.
Though Illinois State lost in the waning seconds to perennial power North Dakota State, 29-27, Lee looks back fondly on those days a decade ago.
Moreover, he also reflects through the lens of being a mature adult.
“I look back on it as a very fun time, but back then I didn’t realize that we were in the middle of something that was so significant, that we were going to be a team that was competing for a national championship,” he said.
Lee also views the Redbird run from multiple perspectives.
“It’s just really exciting to think about how special it was and what a big deal it was to so many people,” he said. “Not just the players and the coaches, but the entire campus and the town. It felt like there was something really happening at Illinois State. It put Bloomington-Normal on the map for a little bit. It was something to be a part of it.”
Fondest memory
Asked his favorite memory of that 13-2 season, the most successful in ISU history, Lee thought for a moment and then chose the national semifinal game against the No. 1 overall seed New Hampshire Wildcats.
“I remember coming out onto the field,” Lee said. “I don’t think that many thought we would have been there. Of course, we were confident, but on the national stage not many had us picked to win.”
Then his memory moved to a key play near the end of fifth-seeded Illinois State’s comeback 21-18 victory.
“I remember going out there for a third- or fourth-and-short (yardage down) needing one more conversion to put the game away,” he recalled. “It was cool to be part of the unit sent out there to get the job done.
“It was one small play that probably seemed insignificant in a lot of people’s minds, but that’s one of my favorite things about football. You get to do your job. It may seem small or minute, (but) I was asked to be part of the game. And we got it done.”
Standout status
By the following season, Lee’s junior year, he had broken into the starting lineup for the Redbirds. He proved to be both durable and effective at right guard, helping Coprich run for nearly 2,000 yards as well as become ISU’s all-time leading rusher.
Lee’s senior year brought 12 more starts, a late-season move to right tackle and All-MVFC honorable mention recognition.
Head coach Brock Spack foreshadowed Lee’s future, telling the player’s parents that the lineman just might have a shot at professional football.
Spack’s prediction came true as Lee, who was listed at 6-foot-5, 312 pounds at the NFL Combine, soon found himself in pro training camps.
Lee wound up giving the pro game three years, including a late-season promotion to the active Chicago Bears roster in 2017. He is officially listed as playing two games in the NFL.
Collegiate camaraderie
Yet for Lee, nothing beats his time at Illinois State.
“I really cherish the moments when you’re part of the team,” he said. “Even at the professional ranks or the high school level, I haven’t felt that sort of camaraderie like I did with that group of people for such a long time.
“We really got to know one another. I think of some of those days as some of my favorite days ever. I got to grow so much with people, not just as teammates, but as friends. You kind of become a man in college.”
Lee keeps in touch with the offensive linemen he enrolled with at Illinois State. They have a group text and see each other at weddings.
Former ISU offensive linemate Marc Spellman is married to Lee’s wife Matte’s best friend from their ISU days.
In addition to his coaching duties, Lee works with a sales and acquisitions team in the real estate industry.
“I wish I kept in touch with more people, but life gets busy,” said Lee, a father of three boys all under the age of four. “There were five of us (linemen from the same recruiting class) by the end of it. We came in together and got to play together and see it all the way through.
“I’m anxious to see a lot of people and how much we’ve grown (in the last 10 years). I’m excited to relive that.”
Dan Verdun is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin. He has written four books: NIU Huskies Football, EIU Panthers Football, ISU Redbirds Football and SIU Salukis Football.
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