John Cooper is elected to the College Football Hall of
Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame induction of the 2008
members and announcement of those that will be inducted in 2009 was almost
totally ignored by the traditional media.
That is not surprising but it is a real shame.
By Bill Smith
Down Times for the HOF
For years you couldn't find the
Hall with a map and a guide dog. It was
hidden in the woods behind the Kings
Island amusement
park. Out of sight and definitely out of
mind mainly because it was also out of money.
The building was rundown and few of the “interactive” exhibits
worked. Then the University of Notre
Dame traded a couple of helmet straps to the park for the CFHF and a player to
be named later.
HOF Turnaround
It is now
in a beautiful building with excellent exhibits and fresh and working
interactive exhibits but based on the press coverage no one in the sports media
has noticed. And that is too bad. The men selected are all very deserving. The 2008 induction class included Joe
Paterno. It is exciting to be named by
your peers as one of the best in the game.
But the ultimate accolade in any profession is to be recognized by your
peers as one of the best ever at what you did.
That is exactly what the CFHF did in electing Coach Cooper.
John Cooper’s Career
Cooper
played college football at Iowa
State where he was a
captain and team MVP. After several
years of working as an assistant coach at several schools, he was named the
head football coach at the University
of Tulsa in 1977, where
he compiled a 57-31 record with five Missouri Valley Conference titles. He
became the head coach at Arizona
State in 1985 where his
teams played in three consecutive bowl games, including the 1987 Rose Bowl,
during his three-year tenure. Notably, he was just 0-2-1 against arch-rival Arizona. He accepted the
job as head coach at Ohio
State on December 31,
1987. It is rumored that he became the front-runner for the head coaching
position at Ohio State
because of his 1987 Rose Bowl victory over Michigan.
John's
Buckeye team was 111-43-4 in his 13 years at OSU including shared Big 10 Titles
in 1993, 1996 and 1998.
2008 HOF Inductees
John Cooper
was among 15 elected to the Hall. The
list includes Billy Cannon, running back out of LSU; quarterback Troy Aikman of
UCLS; offensive tackle Jim Dombrowski of Virginia; Northwestern linebacker Pat
Fitzgerald; Florida linebacker Wilber Marshall; Washington State running back
Ruben Mayes; Arizona State guard Randall McDaniel; Syracuse quarterback Don
McPherson; Wyoming tight end Jay Novacek; Texas Tech split end Dave Parks;
Florida State nose guard Ron Simmons; Oklahoma State running back Thurman
Thomas; Army quarterback Arnold Tucker; former Arkansas, Notre Dame and South
Carolina coach Lou Holtz. The 2009 class
will be inducted in a dinner this December and formally enshrined next July.
We here at
BrutusReport.com congratulate Coach Cooper and thank him for his work for our
Buckeyes. We also congratulate all of
the 2008 and 2009 members of the Hall.
Bill Smith is a
former coach of several semi-pro teams and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for http://BrutusReport.com. He has
also published several novels on http://ebooks-library.com/index.cfm and
edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com