Jim Wacker (April 28, 1937 – August 26, 2003) was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Texas Lutheran University (1971–1975), North Dakota State University (1976–1978), Southwest Texas State University—now Texas State University–San Marcos (1979–1982), Texas Christian University (1983–1991), and the University of Minnesota (1992–1996), compiling a career college football record of 159–131–3. Wacker won two NAIA Division II National Championships with Texas Lutheran in 1974 and 1975, and two NCAA Division II National Championships with Southwest Texas State in 1981 and 1982.
Early life and education
The son of a Lutheran minister, Wacker was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Valparaiso University in 1960 and went on to further studies at Wayne State University.
Coaching career
In the early phase of his coaching career, Wacker coached at Texas Lutheran University (1971–1975), North Dakota State University (1976–1978), and Southwest Texas State University (1979–1982). He won four national championships, two at Texas Lutheran and two at Southwest Texas State.
TCU
Wacker became head football coach of Texas Christian University after the 1982 season. He had early success at TCU. In 1984, his team was ranked as high as #12, the TCU Frogs' highest ranking since 1960, and was invited to the Bluebonnet Bowl after an 8–3 record in the regular season. The #12-ranked Frogs lost a showdown for the Southwest Conference title with the #10-ranked Texas Longhorns on November 10 in what remains the third best-attended game in the history of Amon G. Carter Stadium. After the season, Wacker was named as National Coach of the Year by ESPN, the UPI, and The Sporting News. He was awarded the 1984 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award.
There was much hype surrounding the Frogs going into the 1985 season, and Wacker appeared on the cover of Dave Campbell's Texas Football alongside his All-American running back, Kenneth Davis, a finalist for the Heisman Trophy in 1984 and a leading candidate for the award in 1985. After the first game of the season, Wacker discovered that several players, including Davis, had been benefiting from a payment plan in violation of NCAA rules. He dismissed the players from the team and voluntarily reported the infractions to the NCAA, which issued stiff recruiting penalties on his team. These actions led to Wacker's reputation as a man of integrity. Fans of TCU remain bitter that the penalty heaped on TCU for the violations were severe given that the violations were voluntarily reported.[1]
After several years of struggling due to the NCAA penalties, Wacker brought the team back to success in 1990, when the 5–1 Frogs returned to the top 25 for the first time since 1984, before slumping after a season-ending injury to their starting quarterback. In 1991, TCU finished 7–4 for their first winning season since 1984.
Minnesota
Wacker served as head coach at the University of Minnesota from 1992 to 1996. Although he had a disappointing won-lost record (16–39) at Minnesota, for three years his teams led the conference with academic all-conference honors.
Later life, death, and honors
Wacker was an announcer on CBS Radio for two years and then returned to Southwest Texas State University in 1998 to serve as athletic director until 2001. He died after a long battle with cancer in San Marcos, Texas on August 26, 2003. In November 2003, Southwest Texas State named its football field at Bobcat Stadium "Jim Wacker Field" in his honor.[2]
Head coaching record
References
External links
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- James Harley (1912–1913)
- Emil Sitz (1914)
- James Harley (1915–1917)
- No team (1918–1920)
- Edgar Hennig (1921)
- No team (1922)
- A. J. Briesemeister (1923–1925)
- Jack Doerfler (1926–1929)
- Fred Weston (1930–1931)
- Jack Doerfler (1932)
- No team (1933–1936)
- George Kieffer (1937–1940)
- No team (1941–1945)
- Fritz Lehnhoff (1946–1949)
- George Kieffer (1950–1952)
- John J. Kramer (1953–1958)
- Jim Malmquist (1959–1961)
- Verl Westergard (1962–1963)
- Fred Hightower (1964–1968)
- Carman Bonner (1969–1970)
- Jim Wacker (1971–1975)
- Dan Knight (1976–1980)
- Vernon Fewell (1981–1987)
- No team (1988–1997)
- Bryan Marmion (1998–2001)
- Tom Mueller (2002–2006)
- Dennis Parker (2007–2009)
- Danny Padron (2010– )
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Pound sign (#) denotes interim head coach.
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