At home with family: Cooper realized what mattered after being fired, and it wasn't his win total
Friday, May 2, 2008 3:27 AM
By Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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John Cooper said that after Ohio State fired him eight years ago with 193 career wins, he obsessed about finding a way to gain seven more.
He was already the second-winningest football coach at Ohio State behind Woody Hayes, but Cooper thought 200 victories would have been a nice ribbon to tie around his coaching career. He consulted his younger brother, Frank, on the matter.
"And he made a comment to me that was loud and clear, 'Big … deal,' " Cooper said. "He said, 'On your tombstone, all they'll have is, 'Here lies John Cooper -- 200 victories.' That put a stop to that. I decided to spend a little more time with my wife, my children and my grandbabies. Life is good right now."
Yesterday, life couldn't have been much better when the National Football Foundation announced that Cooper has been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Cooper is one of two coaches in the class of 2008, along with Lou Holtz, who won the 1988 national championship at Notre Dame. Among the 15 players elected are UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman, LSU tailback Billy Cannon and Oklahoma State running back Thurman Thomas.
Cooper said he had known since Saturday, when a box containing a football from the National Football Foundation with his name on it was delivered to his Upper Arlington home. Yesterday, he finally could rejoice publicly. It was recognition that, with a 193-83-6 record in 24 seasons that included eight at Tulsa and three at Arizona State, he had done enough.
"Getting elected to the hall of fame, it's the greatest thing you can have happen to you in terms of your profession," Cooper said.
He became the 27th member who either coached and/or played at Ohio State. The OSU coaches who preceded him were Howard Jones (1951), John Wilce (1954), Francis Schmidt (1971), Hayes (1983) and Earle Bruce (2002).
"Jim is going to be in there some day, count on it," Cooper said of his successor, Jim Tressel.
But Tressel said the day belonged to Cooper.
"Coach Cooper has been a tremendous part of our program," Tressel said. "He was one of the first ones when our staff got here to reach a hand out and say, 'What is it we can do to help? We're making Columbus our home. We're Buckeyes forever.' What a warm feeling that was for us."
Cooper went 111-43-4 in 13 seasons at Ohio State. It included shares of three Big Ten titles, a Rose Bowl win over Arizona State after the 1996 season, wins over Holtz's Notre Dame teams in 1995 and '96 and second-place finishes in the major polls in 1996 and '98.
"My philosophy was if you help enough people get what they want, they're going to help you get what you want," Cooper said.
His critics say that if he had won just a little more than half of his games against Michigan (2-10-1) and half of his bowls (3-8), he would have reached 200 wins. And losses to Michigan in '96 and Michigan State in '98 spoiled unbeaten seasons that could have been national championships.
But making the hall of fame is about looking at the forest, not the trees. Yesterday, with his wife of 51 years, Helen, at his side; his son John and daughter Cindy in the room, and his two grandchildren (with another on the way) in his thoughts, Cooper basked in his family. And vice versa, Helen Cooper said.
"After 51 years, he can still walk in a room and make my heart stop," she said.
From Powell, Tenn., the two married and took off to Iowa State in 1959, where Cooper became a hard-hitting safety on the Cyclones' "Dirty 30" teams before graduating in 1962. But becoming a coach was his quest, he said, ever since a high school coach told him he thought he had a knack for it.
"All the time you're just hoping you can win enough games," Cooper said. "That's what we were able to do."
It seems 193 were more than enough for the hall of fame.
"What it says when you're voted into the hall of fame is that you've had good players, and that you had good coaches working for you," Cooper said. "That's what happened to me. I have been blessed. It's a long, long way from rural east Tennessee to the hall of fame."