RIP Coach Jim Walden
- Thread starter BigJCy
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He was a character indeed-a good match for Johnny Orr. He did takeover a bad situation with the lack of scholarships from the Criner fiasco among other challenges. Creative and fun-I have plenty of memories of games he coached. RIP coach.
The Jim Walden years are why I am such a die hard fan today. We had season tickets through all those bad teams because they were basically free and my Dad liked going to games. I remember the 6-5 team with Blaise Bryant as my favorite. The streaker game, the 0-10-1 season, tearing down the goal posts, beating Nebraska with Marv Seiler. And tailgating of course. A lot of good memories.
Bring this logo back on the helmets this season in a tribute to CJW!
Sad day, not our best coach, but another link to Cyclone history gone. Condolences to his family and friends.
Good guy. He wanted to turn ISU into a winner as much as we wanted him to it just didn't work. He probably would have had more success had the school been willing to invest more into football. He had some really talented players we just couldnt match the depth of the Big 8 powers. He had some upsets and a few 6-5 teams which would have gotten him into a Bowl game and a raise if he would have coached when Paul Rhoades did.
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We could probably ditch the Iowa State part but id love to have the Tornado logo forever.
I was ages 9-14 during walden years. Damn he made football exciting even when team was bad. RIP coach
He was in a no win situation the entire time he was in Ames. Took over a program that had massive sanctions against them and started his first season with like 25 scholarship players. Then add the fact that the AD didn't want to spend a dime on football. Im surprised he had the success he did. We were no worse in that era than KU, Kstate, Missouri, or OK state.
His defenses were not up to snuff overall, but he did have some good ones. Just no depth that allowed him to compete. Was embarrassed most years by Nub and OU. Made Iowa competitive, but couldn't beat Raisin Face.
His offenses were creative. But got desperate with the Triple option, imo.
Mostly, he was screwed by an administration that wouldn't support football.
It was comments like this that caused my dislike of him. I thought he was a good guy while he was at ISU, but after leaving his comments made him look terrible. He was in a tough situation, but he also refused to accept any responsibility as well. It is not like he was some spectacular world beating coach when he came to ISU. He left WSU as a sub .500 coach as well, and also blamed WSU and fans for their lack of support as the reason for his lackluster coaching performance. ISU did have very little support for Athletics at that time, especially football, but his hiring was also part of that, because he was the cheap, budget option, hire, because he was not a very good coach and had a poor record before ISU hired him as well. At some point you have to accept some responsibility as well, he was never able to do that, which unfortunately with comments like below, soured many fans against him.
After resigning at ISU:
Jim Walden stated, "If you stay [at Iowa State], you're going to lose and you're going to get fired."
He also made comments like "he was too dumb to leave, ISU" Blamed refs for his losses etc. Walden claimed that he was as good a coach or better than Erickson, Majors, and Bruce. The difference was, according to Walden, they left for better schools while he stayed at Iowa State
After resigning at WSU:
Walden, who coached the Cougars for nine seasons, said the move is partially related to what he said is Eastern Washington's poor support of athletics.
'You've gotta get it together,' Walden said of Washington State's supporters. 'You gotta lock arms and start forward. I haven't heard anyone back there (in Iowa) say it's such a long drive (for a football game). Aggressive commitment is the only way I can sum it up.'
I think if he had a little more humility and a little more self-awareness, he might have had a better legacy down the road at the places he left. But then again, that is something few coaches have.
After resigning at ISU:
Jim Walden stated, "If you stay [at Iowa State], you're going to lose and you're going to get fired."
He also made comments like "he was too dumb to leave, ISU" Blamed refs for his losses etc. Walden claimed that he was as good a coach or better than Erickson, Majors, and Bruce. The difference was, according to Walden, they left for better schools while he stayed at Iowa State
After resigning at WSU:
Walden, who coached the Cougars for nine seasons, said the move is partially related to what he said is Eastern Washington's poor support of athletics.
'You've gotta get it together,' Walden said of Washington State's supporters. 'You gotta lock arms and start forward. I haven't heard anyone back there (in Iowa) say it's such a long drive (for a football game). Aggressive commitment is the only way I can sum it up.'
I think if he had a little more humility and a little more self-awareness, he might have had a better legacy down the road at the places he left. But then again, that is something few coaches have.
In September 1987, Jim Walden’s first game was against Tulane in the New Orleans Superdome. Earlier that day though, Coach Walden said hi to me as he and the entire Cyclones team watched the Popemobile pass in front of them with Pope John Paul II.
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Seemed like a good guy, but with his record at WSU, would not even get a look these days to coach at ISU. The best things you could say about the guy was he made some funny TV commercials with Orr and he tried, instead of just mailing it in.
Would more money and buy in by the university have helped, maybe some, but Criner left a train wreck and Walden was just not the guy to bring them out of it.
Would more money and buy in by the university have helped, maybe some, but Criner left a train wreck and Walden was just not the guy to bring them out of it.
That was Criner. I know, I was a student then. Hell, we even punted on third down against KSU in a blizzard.
His record at WSU would have been way different had he been able to schedule 6-7 guaranteed wins a year like coaches can now. Lots of great head coaches from that era had less than stellar records while coming up. You were measured on what you did with the resources you had. I mean look at guys like Don James and Hayden Fry. Johnny Majors and Earl Bruce. Winning 7-8 games at some places was the equivalent of 11 or 12 in better situations.
My first piece of cyclone memorabilia, and I have it hidden. Don’t want it to disappear some time.
