Jim Walden, Washington State's Hall of Fame football coach, dies at 88

Jul. 4—Former Washington State football coach Jim Walden, who in 1981 led the Cougars to their first bowl appearance in 50 years, died Thursday in Coeur d’Alene, the school announced. He was 88.

“We are saddened to learn of the passing of Coach Walden,” WSU athletic director Jon Haarlow said in a release. “He will forever be remembered as a great Coug who deeply loved Washington State. Our heart is with coach Walden’s family, friends and all the former players whose lives he positively impacted.”

A memorial service will be announced at a later date.

Walden, who was inducted into WSU’s Hall of Fame in 2009, led the Cougars from 1978-86, compiling an overall record of 44-52-4 before moving on to the same job at Iowa State. He was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year in both 1981 and 1983, leading the Cougars to an 8-3-1 record and to the 1981 Holiday Bowl, which at the time was WSU’s first postseason bowl game since the 1931 Rose Bowl.

Walden, whose WSU team went 7-4 in 1983, left for Iowa State in 1987 and compiled a 28-57-3 record over eight seasons. Much of his time with the Cyclones was impacted by scholarship reductions, some because of infractions by ISU’s previous coach and others by overall reductions in Division I-A in 1988. In 1989, Walden had just 47 scholarship players when ISU traveled to Nebraska, which won 49-17.

Walden retired from coaching in 1994 and returned to the Palouse as Bob Robertson’s broadcast sidekick for 11 seasons. In that time, Walden became beloved by Cougar fans for his verbose commentary.

Walden, an All-American quarterback at Wyoming, was inducted into the Cowboys’ Hall of Fame in 2011. As a player, Walden was drafted by both Cleveland (of the NFL) and Denver in the first AFL draft in 1960. Walden opted to sign with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League, going on to play several seasons in Canada.

Walden started his coaching career in 1964, when he was named head football coach at Amory High School in Amory, Miss., not far from his hometown of Aberdeen. Five years later, Walden ascended to the college ranks, accepting a role at Nebraska, where he worked on back-to-back national championship teams in 1970 and 1971. Walden then spent the 1973-76 seasons at Miami, where he assisted in the offensive backfield and as defensive coordinator.

Walden’s first year at WSU was 1977, when he coached the Cougars’ backfield. A year later at age 39, he became WSU’s head coach, going on to coach some of the greatest players in program history: QBs Jack Thompson and Mark Rypien, OL Daniel Lynch, safety Paul Sorensen, RBs Rueben Mayes and Kerry Porter and others.

“There is no way to tell you how excited I am,” Walden said shortly after accepting WSU’s head coaching job, speaking to the Spokane Daily Chronicle. “I’ve waited 14 years for this.”

In 1985, WSU won its third Apple Cup in four seasons, which the Cougars have accomplished only two other times, in 1954 and in 2007. Before the 1985 Apple Cup, in which Washington was a heavy favorite, Huskies coach Don James quipped: “I’m a 2,000-word underdog,” a reference to the loquacious Walden. The Cougars went on to capture a 21-20 upset in Seattle, which was caked in snow and frigid temperatures at the time.

Still, Walden has said that his favorite Apple Cup victory came in 1982, when UW was favored by a 24-point margin. To earn a 24-20 win, the Cougars overcame a rash of injuries and got sterling performances from players like QB Clete Casper, RB Tim Harris and defenders Keith Millard and Mark Plies.

The next season, the Cougars earned another Apple Cup win, this one a 17-6 decision at Husky Stadium in Seattle over the No. 15 Huskies. With that win, Walden’s bunch knocked UW out of contention for the Rose Bowl behind an impressive defensive showing, holding the hosts without a touchdown all game.

Despite the Cougars’ 7-4 record in 1985, they were denied a bowl bid.

“I missed out on three,” Walden said in 2018, shortly before WSU played Iowa State in the Holiday Bowl, a matchup of his two former squads. “I had a 7-4 team and two 6-5s that didn’t go. Under today’s present style we should’ve been in four bowls. The one that hurt the most was (in 1983) when we went 7-4 in the Pac-10 Conference. To not get picked to go was pretty much a slap in the face. … It took away from the effort of the players, but it also gave fodder for the schools that would use that against you: ‘You can win seven games at Washington State and not make it to a bowl game.'”

Under Walden’s watch, the Cougars made that an exception to the rule, soaring to heights rarely reached in years prior.