Ohio State Tried Everything It Could to Hire Don James Away from Washington
After a dozen years on the job, Don James was happy as the University of Washington football coach. Comfortable. Successful.
Ohio State wanted to make him happier. More comfortable. Much more successful.
In 1987, the Buckeyes fired Earl Bruce before the season-ending game against arch-rival Michigan and went looking for a new coach. They immediately identified a suitable successor.
They set their sights on James, an Ohio native, someone who grew up in the shadows of OSU. The coach had made a big name for himself out west by turning the Huskies into a powerhouse. They Buckeyes had experienced this first-hand.
The season before, James' UW team hosted Ohio State at Husky Stadium in a nationally televised game on CBS and handed the Big Ten team a humiliating 40-7 defeat, beating it in every facet of the game. That might have been the beginning of the alumni unrest to oust Bruce.
The Buckeyes offered James the coaching job that made Woody Hayes famous, mostly for his winning ways though he ultimately was fired for punching an opposing player returning an interception at a bowl game.
The school from Columbus, Ohio, went on an all-out push to bring James home. An assistant athletic director called his house continuously. The school tried everything it could to lure him back to Ohio.
Ohio State even enlisted the greatest golfer in the world to try to seal the deal, someone who was one of the Buckeyes' most famous alums, a guy who a year and a half earlier had set the sporting world on its ear by becoming the oldest Masters winner at 46.
"Jack Nicklaus called on the phone to convince Don that he should come there and be the head football coach," James' wife Carol recalled.
This was hard for James. Growing up in Massillon, Ohio, one of the country's historic cradles of football, he 'd dreamed of coaching the Buckeyes. Here was that golden opportunity staring him in his headsets. He wasn't looking to leave the UW, but after all this was Ohio State.
While preparing his Huskies to face Tulane in the 1987 Independence Bowl in December in Shreveport, Louisiana, the coach spoke on the phone with the ousted Bruce, presumably about the job the other man had just lost. They were coaching friends.
Others previously had pursued James for football coaching jobs, such as the Seattle Seahawks as they prepared to fire Jack Patera, but he'd turned them all down.
Twelve days following that UW bowl game in the South, Ohio State announced its new football coach — John Cooper of Arizona State.
James had rejected the Buckeyes.
"Ohio State was the only tempting one for him," Carol James said. "He told them, 'I'm so honored, but I'm going to retire here.' "
Tomorrow: Don James convinced Nick Saban to get into coaching. See what Saban previously was planning to do.
Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven
Find Husky Maven on Facebook by searching: HuskyMaven/Sports Illustrated
Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Husky Maven. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page.