Jim Walden

Jim "Jimmy" Walden (born April 10, 1938) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University from 1978 to 1986 and at Iowa State University from 1987 to 1994, compiling a career college football record of 72–109–7.

Playing career

Walden played quarterback at the University of Wyoming under coach Bob Devaney in the late 1950s, and was one of 33 players selected by the Denver Broncos in the first AFL Draft in 1960. He played in the Canadian Football League before starting his coaching career at the high school level in his native Mississippi.

Coaching career

Washington State

Walden began his college coaching career at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln on Devaney's staff, where he assisted on back-to-back national championship teams in 1970 and 1971. He then coached for four seasons at the University of Miami under Pete Elliott and fellow Devaney assistant, Carl Selmer. Walden followed Warren Powers, another Devaney assistant, to Washington State University as offensive backfield coach in 1977 and succeeded Powers as head coach the following season. Walden served as the head coach at Washington State from 1978 to 1986, compiling a 44–52–4 record (.460) and coached some of the greatest players in school history, including Jack Thompson, Rueben Mayes, Kerry Porter, Ricky Reynolds, Paul Sorensen, Pat Beach, Brian Forde, Lee Blakeney, Mark Rypien, Dan Lynch, Keith Millard, and Erik Howard. In his fourth season, Walden coached the 1981 Cougars to the Holiday Bowl, the school's first bowl appearance in 51 years, where they lost a donnybrook to a BYU team quarterbacked by Jim McMahon. That season Walden was selected as the Pac-10 Coach of the Year. In 1985, his WSU team won their third Apple Cup in four seasons, a feat they have accomplished only two other times (in 1954 and 2007).