Former University of Arizona football coach Jim Young during a game in November, 1976. Arizona Daily Star file photo taken by Jack W. Sheaffer. (MUST CREDIT)
A few days before the 1976 Territorial Cup, Arizona football coach Jim Young asked athletic director Dave Strack if any schools had contacted him about coaching vacancies. Such was the business of college football 40 years ago; there were no search committees and little back-door dealing. ADs customarily followed a code of transparency and honesty.
Young was still unhappy that a year earlier Strack had not told him in a timely fashion that Washington phoned about an opening that went to future Hall of Famer Don James.
This time, in November ’76, Strack told Young that Purdue had phoned. And why not? Young had gone 8-3, 9-2 and 9-2 in his first three Arizona seasons. He was The Hot Prospect in college football.
Not only were the Boilermakers in pursuit of Young, but so was Illinois. Purdue was about to fire Boilermaker legend Alex Agase, a 1940s All-American who was at the end of coaching five straight losing seasons.
People are also reading…
Boilermakers AD George King flew to Tucson and interviewed Young rather than today’s behind-the-scenes meetings at, say, an airport hotel in Dallas. King offered Young a raise of about 40 percent, to close to $60,000. It was big money for a football coach in 1977.
After going 38-19-1 at Purdue, Young went on to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He now lives in Tucson at Ventana Canyon.
