Road to 1991 Perfection: Organizational Skills Ran Deep in James Family

Don James' organizational skills for his University of Washington football teams were off the charts. No minute detail was too small for the Husky coach in getting the best performance out of his players.

Apparently it was a family thing.

James huddled with his daughter, a UW cheerleader prior to the national championship season, after some of his players continually struggled to maintain a proper weight.

Jeni James-Simmons had a solution. She suggested the Huskies in question use personal journals to chronicle their daily activities at meal time and with their workouts.

Don James was all on board with her idea. He put it into action. She got an assist on this goal.

"They would have to chart what they ate and chart their exercise and journal everything," James-Simmons said. "And report back to my dad."

This is another in series of vignettes about the UW 1991 national championship football team, supplementing the conversation for the pandemic-delayed season that begins soon. We're in week 9, which brought a showdown with USC in Los Angeles.

Naturally, James-Simmons heard some player grumbling about the journaling. These guys already had strength and fitness coaches, plus their position coaches, to keep them in line with their football responsibilities. This was an added layer to the process.

in particular, one highly decorated Husky football player still kids Jeni, now an Alaska Airlines flight attendant, about having write everything down whenever he sees her.

"We still joke back and forth about weight gain and weight loss and he says, 'I still can't believe you came up with that thing for your dad to chart my food and chart my exercise,' "James-Simmons said. "But it worked."

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.