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John Cooper
Sport	College football
Born	July 2, 1937 (1937-07-02) (age 72)
Place of birth	Knoxville, Tennessee
Career highlights
Overall	192–84–6 (68.1%)
Coaching stats
College Football DataWarehouse
Playing career
1959 – 1962	Iowa State
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1988-2000 1985-1987 1977-1984	Ohio State University Arizona State University University of Tulsa
College Football Hall of Fame, 2008 (Bio)

John Cooper (born July 2, 1937 in Knoxville, Tennessee) was the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes college football team from 1988 to 2000.

Cooper grew up in the Knoxville suburb of Powell, Tennessee and joined the United States Army after high school. After serving for two years, he enrolled at Iowa State University where he played football for four years eventually becoming team captain and MVP.

Cooper spent time as an assistant coach at Iowa State, Oregon State, UCLA, Kansas, and Kentucky. In 1977, he was named the head football coach at the University of Tulsa.^[1] At Tulsa, he compiled a 57-31 record with five Missouri Valley Conference titles. He became the head coach at Arizona State in 1985 where his teams played in three consecutive bowl games, including the 1987 Rose Bowl, during his three-year tenure. Notably, he was just 0-2-1 against arch-rival Arizona. He accepted the job as head coach at Ohio State on December 31, 1987. It is rumored that he became the front-runner for the head coaching position at Ohio State because of his 1987 Rose Bowl victory over Michigan.

During his time in Columbus, he never won an outright Big Ten championship, but shared Big Ten titles in 1993, 1996, and 1998. In his 13 seasons at Ohio State Cooper compiled a 111-43-4 won-loss record, second in Ohio State history behind only Woody Hayes.

Overall, Cooper will be remembered for his many victories at Ohio State but also for his 3-8 bowl record and his 2-10-1 record against rival Michigan. His most crippling losses to the Wolverines came in 1993, 1995, and 1996. In 1993, Ohio State entered the game undefeated, ranked #5, and heavily favored, only to be shut out by the Wolverines and denied their first trip to Pasadena in almost 10 years. In 1995, Ohio State lost a #2 ranking, the Big Ten title, and another shot at the Rose Bowl by losing to the Wolverines, 31-23, in Ann Arbor.

In 1996, the Buckeyes smelled revenge in Columbus and were ranked #2, but failed to achieve payback. The gut-wrenching 1996 loss, which came by a 13-9 score, prevented a #2 vs. #3 matchup in the Rose Bowl against Cooper's former team, Arizona State. That team did win the Rose Bowl and finished with a #2 ranking. In 1998, Ohio State again achieved a #2 ranking, winning the Sugar Bowl and again sharing the Big Title.

His dismal record against the school's arch-rival, coupled with a lackluster 3-8 bowl record, a bowl-less 6-6 season in 1999, and pervasive academic and discipline problems amongst his players, led to Cooper's firing after the 2000 season.

He currently works for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL as a scouting consultant and also works as a college football analyst for ESPN.

Cooper recruited and coached a great deal of talent that would go on to play in the National Football League, including 1995 Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George, 1995 Fred Biletnikoff Award winner Terry Glenn, 1996 Outland Trophy winner Orlando Pace, 1998 Jim Thorpe Award winners Antoine Winfield, Alonzo Spellman, Robert Smith, Dan Wilkinson, Joey Galloway, Rickey Dudley, Mike Vrabel, Korey Stringer, David Boston, Shawn Springs, Ahmed Plummer, Na'il Diggs, Nate Clements, and Ryan Pickett.

On May 1, 2008, Cooper was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.^[2]

[edit] Head coaching record

[edit] See also

• List of presidents of the American Football Coaches Association
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legends_Poll

[edit] References

1. ^ John Klein, "Cooper gave TU football a huge boost", Tulsa World, July 14, 2009.
2. ^ "Aikman, Cannon, Holtz head for College Football Hall of Fame". 2008-05-01. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/ncaa/05/01/cfb.hall.ap/index.html.