Jim Walden - Jim Waldens Tales From the Washington State Cougars Sideline

Chapter One
HELLO, PULLMAN

Chapter Two
STICKING AROUND

Chapter Three
SELLING WASHINGTON STATE

Chapter Four
COMING HOME

Chapter Five
LIFE IN PULLMAN

Chapter Six
COUGARS TAKE A HOLIDAY

Chapter Seven
MAKING BETTER COUGARS

Chapter Eight
IN THE DOGHOUSE AGAIN

Chapter Nine
OVERWHELMING UPSETS

Chapter Ten
OPPOSING COACHES

Chapter Eleven
ON THE WAY UP

Chapter Twelve
COUGAR COACHES

Chapter Thirteen
RECORDS AND HEARTBREAK

Chapter Fourteen
NOISE AND APOLOGIES

Chapter Fifteen
RIVALS TO THE CORE

Chapter Sixteen
STRATEGY AND PHILOSOPHIES

Chapter Seventeen
CHARACTERS, HEROES, AND QUOTABLES

Chapter Eighteen
MO-PEDS AND MOPING AROUND

Chapter Nineteen
ON AIR

Chapter Twenty
OTHER COUGARS

Chapter Twenty-One
A TIME TO GO

N o coach ever has any measure of success without the help of others. I will always be indebted to the wonderful assistant coaches, secretaries, support staff, and administrators I had. Just as important are my close and trusted friends who, win or lose, are always there. Those good friends in Pullman are still with us today. The major acknowledgment for this project goes to Dave Boling, who organized my ramblings and stories into this book, which I hope will bring some enjoyment to those who read it.

JIM WALDEN

M any thanks are due to my family (for all the patient support), to Sports Publishing L.L.C, (for the opportunity), to the Washington State sports information department (for gracious assistance), and to the voluble and hilarious Jim Walden (for all the stories).

DAVE BOLING

I wish I could provide more insights into my first impressions of Pullman and Washington State University, and the unique landscapes that surround them. But I cant elaborate because I was a Cougar coach for more than a week before I ever saw the town by the light of day.

Warren Powers and I had previously coached together as assistants on some great Nebraska teams. When he got the Washington State head coaching job, he invited me to leave the University of Miami and come up to run the offense and assist with the Cougar quarterbacks. I spent a long day flying a diagonal across the country on January 3, 1977, dragged in at about 8 p.m., and was taken straight to Bohler Gym and tossed into a staff meeting.

So many of the other assistants had ties to Nebraska, too, that it felt like a homecoming for me. That first meeting went until well after midnight before they shuttled me over to a little two-bedroom place they rented for some of us over at the Steptoe Apartments. Real luxury all the way, I can tell you. There were four of us crammed in there for that entire semester. Dick Beechner and I were the older married guys, and they put us in with a couple of young, single guys, Richie Glover and Dave Redding. Richie was an All-American and Outland Trophy-winning defensive lineman, and Dave was another former Nebraska lineman. Dick and I, apparently, were their unofficial chaperones.

Beechner and I bunked in one room and let the young guys stay together in the other. It didnt take a genius to realize that those guys, who were in their 20s, werent interested in just studying playbooks if they had some free time. Beechner and I werent always sure what we were going to find when we opened that apartment door. Lets just say that sometimes wed hear voices in there that were quite a bit higher than youd expect from Richie Glover.

That first night, I got to bed at maybe 1 a.m. and had to be up for a 5:30 a.m. flight to northern California for an extended recruiting trip. People sometimes talk about having to hit the ground running, but I barely had time to hit the ground at all. Warren had given me the whole East Bay area to recruit, and I dont think he realized there were about a million schools there. Well, I was off for a week selling Washington State University and Pullman to a bunch of kids and I hadnt even seen the town in the daylight.