RIP Coach Jim Walden

[1SEIACLONE]

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.

Look at his records, and the teams they were playing lots of Montana's, UNLV and San Jose States, then just like teams do now. During his 9 years at WSU he went 5 and 18 verses ranked teams. His last two years he was 4-7 and 3-7-1, the years before he came to ISU. He made one bowl game and lost in it.

Nothing about his record suggests he could come to ISU and have any more success than what he did.

 

[deadeyededric]

Look at his records, and the teams they were playing lots of Montana's, UNLV and San Jose States, then just like teams do now. During his 9 years at WSU he went 5 and 18 verses ranked teams. His last two years he was 4-7 and 3-7-1, the years before he came to ISU. He made one bowl game and lost in it.

Nothing about his record suggests he could come to ISU and have any more success than what he did.

Had ISU spent some money of football those 4-6 wins seasons at WSU would have been 7-8 win seasons at ISU. Glen Mason was 12-10 before he took the KU job and made them respectable. Find me a coach that was winning 70-80% of his games before they took the job they made hall of fame careers out of. They generally won 50-60% of their games and took the big job.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Had ISU spent some money of football those 4-6 wins seasons at WSU would have been 7-8 win seasons at ISU.

You can coach at that level or your can't, what did you see from Walden that said with more resources he would have ISU or WSU winning 3 or 4 more games that what they did? No one is saying that ISU was putting money into the program, but his last two years he won 7 games combined at WSU and we gave him the job. That says more about ISU than anything else.

At ISU he went 2-23 verses ranked teams and was beaten by UNI twice, W. Michigan, Rice twice. This was also an era where both Kansas and KSU sucked.

 

[deadeyededric]

Thats the dumbest ******* thing I've ever heard. Ara Parsigian was 36-36-1 at Northwestern before he took the Notre Dame job. He was 10 games under .500 in the big 10 alone. Look at Nick Saban prior to LSU. He had 1 decent season at Michigan State. You cant make chicken salad out of chicken **** dude. If you dont have resources your record isn't going to be that great. I dont care if youre Vince Lombardi. Hayden Fry didn't even sniff close to the success he had in Iowa City prior to being there.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Thats the dumbest ******* thing I've ever heard. Ara Parsigian was 36-36-1 at Northwestern before he took the Notre Dame job. He was 10 games under .500 in the big 10 alone. Look at Nick Saban prior to LSU. He had 1 decent season at Michigan State. You cant make chicken salad out of chicken **** dude.

Look at the Northwestern records before and after Ara was there, he took a total horrible program and took them to a .500 record at his time at the school. Saban got to MSU when they were under probation and went 34-24-1 and never had a losing season at MSU. Comparing either of those two to Walden is a reach and half.

 

[deadeyededric]

Was Washington State a perennial Pac power before he got there? Here's another one for you. Johnny Majors had one win i g season at ISU and it wasnt his last. In fact he had 2 straight losing season before taking the Pitt job and winning 2 national championships.

 

[Kettes]

That was Criner. I know, I was a student then. Hell, we even punted on third down against KSU in a blizzard.

Trust me, as a student from the late 80s, it was still in use from the stands then.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

You can coach at that level or your can't, what did you see from Walden that said with more resources he would have ISU or WSU winning 3 or 4 more games that what they did? No one is saying that ISU was putting money into the program, but his last two years he won 7 games combined at WSU and we gave him the job. That says more about ISU than anything else.

At ISU he went 2-23 verses ranked teams and was beaten by UNI twice, W. Michigan, Rice twice. This was also an era where both Kansas and KSU sucked.

Fun Fact: UNI had more scholarship players and 90% of Iowa State's budget for the '92 game.

He never had a chance. If he'd have gotten what they ended up giving McCarney, he'd have had at least equal results.

 

[BCClone]

Bring this logo back on the helmets this season in a tribute to CJW!
View attachment 171775

He was script cyclones when I was in school. Believe criner brought this logo in.

 

[cyclones500]

He was script cyclones when I was in school. Believe criner brought this logo in.

You are correct. Tornado helmet logo was Criner, script Cyclones was Walden. There might have been overlap in '87 for jw first season, I can't remember.

 

[2speedy1]

He was script cyclones when I was in school. Believe criner brought this logo in.

I hear people say this all the time. But its not really correct.

It was the logo used during Criner. But he did not, create it, implement it, or even demand its use. The University brought this logo in, for the coaches across all sports to utilize.

Logos are created and implemented by the University and Athletic department, with the help of designers etc. The head coach during that time has little to do with the logo, maybe on how and where it is used on uniforms etc. and they probably have some discretion on what logo to be used ie, the cyclone script vs the IState, but in the end the AD has to authorize that use and/or make the logo available for use.

We did not used the cyclone script for decades not because the coaches didnt want it, but because it was not an option put forth by the AD.

I do believe coaches may have some say as in requesting using legacy logos and throw backs etc, but only limited say in whether those are actually used. But it was the AD that was so strict and rigid with the only logo being IState for so long.

Edit: It appears I was wrong on this, Criner actually did create it, in this case.

 

[LindenCy]

You can coach at that level or your can't, what did you see from Walden that said with more resources he would have ISU or WSU winning 3 or 4 more games that what they did? No one is saying that ISU was putting money into the program, but his last two years he won 7 games combined at WSU and we gave him the job. That says more about ISU than anything else.

At ISU he went 2-23 verses ranked teams and was beaten by UNI twice, W. Michigan, Rice twice. This was also an era where both Kansas and KSU sucked.

This didn't seem right to me, but you were close. He won against 3 ranked teams, OU, NU, and KSU in separate years.

 

[4cy16]

If nothing else, Walden and Johnny were comic gold at the Cyclone outings.
My favorite joke Jim told went something like this,
Walden's wife went to the doctor for her annual checkup, when Jim came home he heard her singing in the kitchen while making supper. Walden says, you must have had a good checkup. I did Jim, doc said I'm in great shape and that I have the breasts of an 18 year old. Walden replied, what did he say about your 50 year old ass, your name never came up ,Jim.

 

[BoxsterCy]

If nothing else, Walden and Johnny were comic gold at the Cyclone outings.
My favorite joke Jim told went something like this,
Walden's wife went to the doctor for her annual checkup, when Jim came home he heard her singing in the kitchen while making supper. Walden says, you must have had a good checkup. I did Jim, doc said I'm in great shape and that I have the breasts of an 18 year old. Walden replied, what did he say about your 50 year old ass, your name never came up ,Jim.

That's what I remember. He's the only ISU coach I've met outside of Paul Rhoads that would actually chat casually with fans at a function that were not big donors. I was 30-something with no money and we had a fun chat at an outing here in Mpls. Johnny was busy drinking at the bar and didn't really get to talk him (LOL). Still remember somehow the conversation got to the 23-23 tie game with Nebraska in 1972 when he was an assistant for Nebraska. Odd how you sometimes remember obscure tidbits of conversations from long ago.

 

[4CY4EVR]

I went to ISU 90-94 for Jim’s 2nd half of his ISU tenure. Was also hoping he’d get in turned around but obviously it didn’t happen. Met him a few times & thought he was a nice guy. When Coach Mac refers to how bad the facilities were, that’s what Walden had to work with obviously. I think he has a good relationship with AD Max Urich. Max left for Kstate & in came Gene Smith. Gene nor the university supported football nor Walden which was evident. Over time, I think Walden saw the writing on the wall. You could sense him testy with the media especially his last season which ended 0-10-1. This , along with the constant injuries killed any momentum from the 6-5 Season in 89. All the players I knew liked him and played hard for him. One thing I never understood what why he didn’t play Troy Davis more? RIP Coach

 

[Kinch]

You are correct. Tornado helmet logo was Criner, script Cyclones was Walden. There might have been overlap in '87 for jw first season, I can't remember.

You’re right. The Tornado helmet I think was in 1983, Criner’s first season.

 

[madguy30]

I was a kid when he was the coach and he's the first ISU football coach I remember.

It was too bad he wasn't more successful because he seemed to be a good fit for the school.

Pulled off a few notable wins which was fun occasionally.

 

[Kinch]

One of Walden’s biggest excuses was weather. That’s why he experimented with the wishbone. Walden seemed like a nice guy who was a great story teller, but Walden and criner were back to back mistakes by Max Urick that really set Iowa State behind the 8 ball.

 

[theshadow]

I hear people say this all the time. But its not really correct.

It was the logo used during Criner. But he did not, create it, implement it, or even demand its use. The University brought this logo in, for the coaches across all sports to utilize.

Logos are created and implemented by the University and Athletic department, with the help of designers etc. The head coach during that time has little to do with the logo, maybe on how and where it is used on uniforms etc. and they probably have some discretion on what logo to be used ie, the cyclone script vs the IState, but in the end the AD has to authorize that use and/or make the logo available for use.

 

[2speedy1]

View attachment 171782

Wow, that actually is news to me. I stand corrected. I thought he just made the decision to put it on the helmet, not actually designing it. I have to admit I was wrong on this.

But in most cases this is not how it works, at least not anymore.