RIP, Jim Wacker

In all the excitement yesterday, I failed to post about the death of former TCU football coach Jim Wacker, who succumbed to cancer at the age of 66. He was a breath of fresh air in the old Southwest Conference after taking the reins for the Horned Frogs, and when he discovered, in the year following the school’s most successful season in decades, that seven players had been accepting payments from a booster, he unhesitatingly did the right thing and took his medicine from the NCAA. (Naturally, being the hypocritical organization that it is, the NCAA slapped the Frogs a lot harder than they would have a big state school, even though the Frogs turned themselves in. But that’s a rant for another day.) It’s clear from reading what his former players and colleagues have had to say about him that he was a man of integrity. Rest in peace, Coach Wacker.

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3 Responses to RIP, Jim Wacker

  1. Greg Wythe says:

    I was living in the Mid-Cities when Wacker came on board and led the “Egypt Allen” era to greatness. This man was the only reason I ever became interested in the Horned Frogs football team, who up till then had merely been fodder for my beloved Coogs. He’s also the only reason I know that Southwest Texas State has a football team only because of this man.

    Definitely a born entertainer, but also a great football coach and a great man to the extent that I followed him in the news.

  2. paul harris says:

    Jim Wacker had an excitement around him that was contigous. I caught it around 1982 while attending SWTSU in San Marcos. Everyone in the room knew where Wacker was – you could feel him. And when he spoke everyone listened. His Veer offense – outstanding. He had TCU to # 14 in the nation before he did the right thing and turned the program in due to infraction before he arrived. He had the top ranked rushing offense in the country. I used to tape his TCU Football Jim Wacker Show and watch it over and over. As a Wacker Backer for over 20 years, he always had me wondering, “is he going to get back into coaching?” So I could continue to follow him. Thank you coach Jim Wacker!

  3. Walt Timm says:

    I attended college at Concordia University, Seward, NE where Coach Wacker served as a stellar football and wrestling coach. I don’t believe God placed before, or since, a greater sports inspirationalist.

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