Matt McCulloch knew he was hooked the first time he ran onto the football field as a junior on the successful Janesville Parker High School football team in 2005.
“Once I got my first taste of that, it was ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do,’” the three-sport athlete remembers. “This feeling I get from playing football, the mindset, the energy it brings out, it’s electric.
“It’s different from baseball and basketball,” McCulloch said. “That drove me. I loved the feeling of playing football.”
McCulloch, who graduated from Parker High in 2007, finished with eight letters. He then went on to UW-Whitewater and was part of three NCAA Division III championship football teams in four years.
He eventually returned to Janesville and has been the athletic director and a physical education teacher at Franklin Middle School for the past eight years.
On Saturday, May 18, McCulloch will be inducted into the Janesville Sports Hall of Fame. Joining him in the 2024 induction class will be Jack Hoag, Pat Miller, Jane Dooley and Jeff Kluge. The induction ceremony will be at the Janesville Country Club with UW-Whitewater women’s basketball coach Keri Carollo the guest speaker.
Love of all sports
McCulloch grew up playing all sports. His dad, Tim, coached the Parker High girls basketball team during summers. His mother, Kathy, also was into sports.
McCulloch’s two older sisters—Kallie and Amanda—both were members of WIAA state championship basketball teams at Parker.
“They were three-sport athletes, as well,” McCulloch said of his sisters. “The first thing we did as kids was play sports.”
The love of competition continued at Parker High. He was a three-time letter winner at guard in basketball under coach Jim LeMire and matched those letters in baseball as a shortstop under coach Brian Martin. He was a captain on the Vikings basketball team.
But he did not experience a lot of team success in those sports, although the baseball team did win its regional in McCulloch’s junior season.
Football was a different story.
Under Joe Dye, the Vikings went 8-3 when McCulloch was a sophomore.
Dye had talented upperclassmen that prevented McCulloch from varsity playing time his sophomore season. But Dye knew what McCulloch could do. McCulloch, who lived near Parker High, loved attending Vikings football practices as a youngster.
“Matt was by my side as a 7-year-old on up,” Dye said. “He was on the practice field all the time.”
In his first season on varsity as a junior, the Vikings went 5-4. McCulloch earned second-team All-Big Eight Conference honors at safety.
Dye also used him as a wide receiver.
“He was one of the few kids that had the ability to play on both sides of the ball,” Dye said.
As a senior, McCulloch started at both safety and quarterback. He showed off his arm in one memorable play as a junior when Parker trailed Middleton 14-9 inside the final minute of the last regular-season game.
Dye called for a gadget play when McCulloch received a handoff sweeping around from his slot receiver post.
“It was fourth and long,” Dye said. “He threw a touchdown pass to Joey Bachmeyer. We won it on the last play of the game, and that was a precursor of things to come.
“It was one of the most impressive comeback wins in our program’s history.”
Busy senior season
The next season McCulloch was the starting quarterback, being one of the few Parker players to start both on offense and defense.
“He absolutely took it to a new level,” Dye said of McCulloch’s ability to play both ways. “Also, as a return specialist, especially kickoff returns.
“He had an incredibly successful senior year,” Dye said.
“Anything I could do to stay on the field,” McCulloch said.
The Parker offense emphasized the run with quality linemen and running back Taylor Edwards. Edwards finished the season with 2,382 yards rushing and 34 touchdowns.
While McCulloch did not put up gaudy numbers throwing the ball, Dye knew he was the best man for the job.
“Matt was prolific as a leader,” Dye said. “He played in a program where we wanted to manage the game, play great defense and not beat ourselves.
“Matt had such a high knowledge of knowing what we were trying to do,” Dye said.
For McCulloch, those Friday nights are etched into his memory.
“At that time (2006), Parker football was kind of the king of the town,” McCulloch said. “That’s what all the kids wanted to do.”
McCulloch, who earned eight letters at Parker High, became a standout in football. He developed into a first-team all-state defensive back his senior year. He was a second-team All-Big Eight Conference selection at quarterback his senior year as well as a second-team returner.
Staying close to home
From there, he went to play football at UW-Whitewater, which was turning into a NCAA Division III powerhouse. McCulloch was part of three national championship teams.
McCulloch had offers to play at the NCAA Division II level at Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota State-Mankato, but the distance away from Janesville convinced him to look closer to home.
“Family was, and still is, so important to me,” McCulloch said.
In 2007, UW-Whitewater was coming off a season that the Warhawks lost in the NCAA Division III championship game to Mount Union (Ohio). Lance Leipold was the new head coach, taking over for Bob Berezowitz.
Leipold wanted area players, and the 6-foot-2 McCulloch was an ideal defensive back for him.
“He called, and we had a good conversation,” McCulloch said of his first encounter with Leipold. “I took a visit, and pretty much after that visit, I was sold on going to Whitewater.”
Leipold was delighted.
“His length as a DB in the WIAC was special,” Leipold said. “He was a very intelligent and instinctive player with a lot of confidence.
“I felt it was a major get for us to get an athlete like him from the Janesville schools/area,” the now University of Kansas head football coach said. “Many times, UWW was viewed as too close or too small.”
Titles roll in
McCulloch was a scout team player as a freshman, which turned out to be a special season. The Warhawks went 14-1 and won the NCAA Division III title with a 31-21 victory over Mount Union.
“I played in two or three games that year on special teams,” McCulloch said. “It was a great experience.”
He saw more game action as a sophomore on a rotating basis at safety. The Warhawks went 6-1 in the WIAC and had a 12-1 record going into the NCAA Division III national semifinal game against Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas).
“They had a receiver that was 6-4 or 6-5, and we didn’t have any corners at that time that were that big,” McCulloch said. “So that week, I made the transition to corner. That was the first game I ever played corner.”
The Warhawks won 39-13, and McCulloch had his position.
UW-Whitewater lost the championship game to Mount Union. That was the final time McCulloch lost in his college career.
The Warhawks went 15-0 in each of his final two seasons, winning the NCAA Division III championships. McCulloch had three interceptions his junior year and eight his senior season.
He returned two of those for touchdowns. He earned all-WIAC first-team honors as a senior and finished his college career with a 58-3 record.
“Nothing ever had to be said,” McCulloch said of the expectations of winning. “It was amazing. In high school, we lost our first playoff game to Mukwonago as a senior.
“I hadn’t won a whole lot,” McCulloch said. “In football, we had success as a senior group, but in baseball and basketball, it wasn’t like we were winning conference championships or anything like that. So (UW-Whitewater) was my first taste of winning consistently.”
McCulloch returned to Whitewater in 2011 to graduate in education. He served as a student assistant defensive coach under Warhawks defensive coordinator Brian Borland. The Warhawks again went 15-0 and won another NCAA championship — the fourth in the five years McCulloch was in the program.
“It was almost more work than playing,” McCulloch said of his first foray into coaching.
Back home after Arizona
After graduation, McCulloch followed a former Warhawks teammate — Milton’s Derek Underwood — to Surprise, Arizona where he taught and coached football for two years.
After those two years, McCulloch said he had to make a decision whether to set up roots in Arizona or return to his hometown.
He decided to return. He got a job as a physical education at Franklin Middle School. He spent eight years there, also serving as athletic director.
He also served as a Parker assistant football coach under Clayton Kreger, who resigned from that post in April to become the school’s activities director.
McCulloch has decided to take a job at Milton Middle School this coming fall and will be on the staff of new Red Hawks varsity football coach Dan Prahl, who was assistant coach with him under Kreger for many seasons.
McCulloch looks forward to the new challenge.
“It’s kind of ironic how this all worked out,” he said. “If I wanted to coach football over there, I wanted to be all in.”
He and his girlfriend, Brittany, have a son, Callum, who was born in October.
McCulloch has had plenty of successes, both in sports and in life. Joining the Janesville Sports Hall of Fame adds to that list.
“It’s a well-deserved honor for Matt,” Leipold said. “I’m very happy and proud of him.”
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