College football fans -- especially fans of Alabama's Crimson Tide -- owe a lot to a coach they may have never heard of.
Don James was part of a coaching tree that extends from Bear Bryant and Paul Brown all the way to Nick Saban and Kirby Smart. Now, a new film explains why and how college football fans owe so much to a guy from small-town Ohio, explained by the football legends he coached.
When James took over the head coaching job at the University of Washington in 1975, he had some pretty big shoes to fill. Outgoing coach Jim Owens led the Huskies to two Rose Bowl wins and was the conference's third-winningest coach of all time. James would not only surpass that record, but bring home his own national championship, lead the Huskies to six Rose Bowl appearances (winning four) and go down in history as one of the most successful college football coaches of all time.
" The Dawgfather: The Legacy of Don James " is a documentary from actor and filmmaker Kent Loomer ("Keys to Life") that seeks to tell the story of "a man from a small town in Ohio whose impact as a coach and mentor not only changed the landscape of college football but also created lasting change through the men he coached."
Those he coached include Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Moon, iconic college football coach Saban and even the new documentary's narrator, actor Joel McHale ("Community"), who was on the Huskies during the 1993 Rose Bowl but did not play in the game.
James seemed destined for a historic football career from his earliest days. He was born just outside of Massillon, Ohio, in 1932, a time when the city was giving a football to every newborn baby. That same year, the legendary Paul Brown started coaching the local Massillon Washington High School football team (whose stadium still bears Brown's name). Indeed, three of James' four brothers would go on to become football players.
James started his football life at Massillon Washington High School, where he was the starting quarterback between 1948 and 1950. Though Brown had moved on to coaching the Ohio State Buckeyes and Cleveland Browns by the time James became quarterback, he still picked up his " ultimate football role models " in his high school coaches, Bud Houghton and the future Chicago Bears championship assistant coach Chuck Mather. He was good enough to attend the University of Miami, where he broke-single season records as quarterback for the Hurricanes. He then spent two years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army .
After separating from the military in 1956, James pursued coaching as a career and went to the University of Kansas, coaching the Jayhawks' freshman class while he earned a master's degree in education. James went back to Miami, where he became the head coach at Southwest Miami High School for two seasons. He rose in the ranks as assistant coach at Florida State for seven years, then went to Michigan between 1966 and 1967 and Colorado from 1968 to 1970.
James finally got his shot at being a college-level head coach when Kent State hired him in 1971. It was there that he led the Golden Flashes to their first conference title, their first bowl game and their best record to date in 1973. It was there he coached the future Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Lambert, seven-time national champion coach Nick Saban and College Football Hall of Fame coach Gary Pinkel.
In 1975, James signed a contract with the University of Washington for four years. He would eventually spend 18 years there. Over the course of his career, he would boast a win-loss record of 178-76-3, lead the Huskies to a national championship in 1991 (an undefeated season) and win 10 of their 14 bowl-game appearances. He also earned Coach of the Year honors in 1977, 1984 and 1991.
James' career ended in controversy after it was revealed that some of his championship players had received " improper benefits " from boosters. The revelations led to team sanctions from both the NCAA and the Pac-10 Conference, and though he was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing, his name was " dragged through the mud ." The Huskies were slapped with a two-year probation, two years of bowl-game bans and a loss of $1.4 million in television revenues confiscated by the NCAA. James resigned in protest.
It would take another decade for the Huskies' football program to recover from the loss and scandal. Washington went to the Rose Bowl in 1993 but wouldn't see another until its 2001 win over Purdue. In the meantime, James was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in a 1997 ceremony. He died of pancreatic cancer on Oct. 20, 2013, at the age of 80 but despite the sour ending to an otherwise illustrious career, James was remembered fondly by UW athletics and fans as a man of character and a caring coach . In 2017, the university erected an 8-foot, 6-inch bronze statue of the coach they called "The Dawgfather" outside of Husky Stadium.
" The Dawgfather: The Legacy of Don James " from Rocket Soul Studios and Hand Crank Films will premiere at the Gig Harbor Film Festival in Washington state on Sept. 27, 2024.
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