Jim Owens, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Jim Owens

American football player and coach, college athletics administrator

Date of Birth: 06-Mar-1927

Place of Birth: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States

Date of Death: 06-Jun-2009

Profession: head coach, American football player

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Pisces


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About Jim Owens

  • James Donald Owens (March 6, 1927 – June 6, 2009) was an American football player and coach.
  • He was the head coach at the University of Washington from 1957 to 1974, compiling a record of 99–82–6 (.545) in eighteen seasons. Owens played college football at the University of Oklahoma from 1946 to 1949, under head coach Bud Wilkinson, where he was a teammate of Darrell Royal, who, coincidentally, was the Huskies' head coach in 1956, then took the same post at Texas, allowing Owens to come to Seattle.
  • He played a year of pro football in 1950 and then was a college assistant coach for six years under Bear Bryant at the University of Kentucky and at Texas A&M University.
  • According to legend, after the 1956 season, when the Washington Huskies were looking for a head coach, Bryant indicated to reporters that Owens "will make a great coach for somebody some day."In 1959 and 1960, he led Washington to back-to-back ten-win seasons and consecutive Rose Bowl wins, as well as a national championship in 1960.
  • He also coached the Huskies to the 1964 Rose Bowl.
  • Owens concurrently served as the athletic director at Washington from 1960 to 1969.
  • He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1982. Owens resigned as head coach of the Huskies following the 1974 season at the end of his last contract, a three-year deal at $33,000 per year.
  • His later years at Washington were marred by accusations of racism and the backlash that resulted from his actions and attitudes towards black players.
  • He was succeeded as head coach by Don James, the head coach at Kent State, who also led the Huskies for eighteen seasons.
  • Owens later apologized for his actions as part of his acknowledgements as a statue of him was erected at Washington in 2003.Owens died at age 82 in 2009 at his home in Bigfork, Montana.

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