Don James, Kent State football were no overnight sensations on way to memorable run
Some names from 1971 still resonate with almost everyone of a certain age.
Archie Bunker introduced himself on television.
"The Jesus Revolution" made the cover of Time magazine.
Led Zeppelin introduced Stairway to Heaven to its concert playlist.
Smokin' Joe Frazier fought Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden.
Don James never got THAT big, but he certainly found his day in the sun.
James wasted little time in assembling the greatest football team in Kent State University history. Later, at Washington, he beat the big shots out of a national championship.
In 1971, though, Donald Earl James, pushing 40, was a nobody in a bad situation.
He was a first-time head coach, 22 years removed from quarterbacking the Massillon Tigers, arriving at Kent State in the murky wake of a national tragedy.
Don James starred for Chuck Mather's powerful Massillon football teams
The backstory ...
James grew up in Perry Township when there was no Perry High School, when enduring the Great Depression and then World War II were things everyone had in common.
The big event of his young life was chancing to meet Carol Hoobler when they were 14-year-olds attending a Fireman's Festival.
They became a star couple, quarterback and cheerleader, at Massillon Washington High School when Massillon's favorite son, Paul Brown, got a dynasty going with the Cleveland Browns.
James' high school coach was Chuck Mather, whose 57-3 record jumped him straight into a head coaching job at the University of Kansas.
In the 1949 Massillon team picture, James, wearing No. 56, sports a buzz cut and ornery snarl, standing behind Walt Houston, whose brothers Lin and Jim became main men on Paul Brown's Cleveland teams.
The 5-foot-9 James looked tiny next to the lanky Mather.
It was the heyday of the McKinley-Massillon rivalry, and James' last high school game was for the 1949 state championship. Bup Rearick's Bulldogs came in having outscored nine victims 383-51.
James played quarterback in a game witnessed by 23,000 in Fawcett Stadium that came down to two big plays.
On the first, McKinley's Lou Mariano seemed headed for a touchdown before Massillon's Ace Crable dropped him in the open field. On the second, on fourth-and-3, Mather allowed James to call the play, on which he handed off to Crable, who ran 35 yards for a touchdown.
Don James played quarterback for Miami Hurricanes before becoming a college football coach
Mariano stayed in Ohio and played his way into Kent State's Hall of Fame. James got way out of town, starting at quarterback for two years on Miami Hurricanes teams that went 9-12. His time in Miami, Florida, nominally foreshadowed events agaist Miami (Ohio).
Mather brought James to Kansas as a graduate assistant. The Jayhawks went 8-10-2 in his two seasons.
James then worked for six years at Florida State (25-31-7 record), two years at Michigan (10-10), and three years at Colorado (18-14).
"Wow, Kent State just hired Don James," said … no one.
He was somebody back home.
Don and Carol went to the University of Miami together, again becoming quarterback and cheerleader, but also husband and wife.
Don's older brother Tommy was one of Paul Brown's better players in the Browns' dynasty years of the 1940s and '50s.
'Class personified'
As Don honed a Kent State recruiting network, he scheduled a practice game at Canton Central Catholic High School, right between the Massillon and McKinley talent bases.
He built a friendship with Massillon head coach Bob Commings, a kindred spirit. Commings was born on Christmas Eve, 1932. James was born on New Year's Eve, 1932.
James was influenced by Paul Brown, Tommy's coach at Massillon, Ohio State and Cleveland. Over time, Don could be, like Brown, as cold as needed to expedite football business. He was more naturally gregarious than the great "PB."
James made friends in the media without coming across as pandering. This helped generate good publicity.
Ray Yanucci, who wrote for the Akron Beacon Journal then, recently said, "Don James and his wife both were class personified."
Dave Udelf, now a Cleveland psychologist, was a student writer from Miami (Ohio) University when he interviewed James after a big game featured later in this series.
"I was surprised at the level of respect he showed to a young person he had never met," Udelf said. "He listened to questions and answered them thoughtfully."
The 1971 season wasn't going well when James steered a student reporter to an interview with prized freshman Larry Poole, from Akron Garfield.
Poole explained to The Daily Kent Stater why he turned down offers from bigger schools:
"First of all, Don James really impressed me as a coach and as a wonderful man.
"Secondly, I had a funny feeling things were going to change at Kent State."
Success for Kent State football did not happen overnight with Don James
Freshmen weren't allowed to play for varsities under NCAA rules of 1971. In contrast to the instant overhauls of the transfer portal era, James operated his first season almost entirely with his predecessor's recruits.
A few notes on the 1971 roster:
Quarterbacks Larry Hayes and Steve Broderick combined to throw three touchdown passes and 14 interceptions.
Gary Pinkel, a sophomore from Akron Kenmore High School, became a longtime head coach at Toledo and Missouri.
Twin brothers Renard and Bernard Harmon turned into key players for the long haul.
Fullback John Matsko, from Cleveland, went on to a 20-year career as an NFL line coach.
Nick Saban, a sophomore safety in 1971, said James brought one of the most boring words in sports, "process," to life.
"People who were at Kent State before Coach James wanted to win, but were they committed to doing all the things they needed to do to be able to win?" Saban said in a recent interview. "It wasn't nearly what it needed to be. That happened after Coach James came."
It didn't happen overnight, not even with future Pro Football Hall of Famer Jack Lambert taking over at middle linebacker after a year on the freshman team.
In Game 2, a 42-20 loss at Cincinnati, the Golden Flashes fumbled the opening kickoff and allowed 399 rushing yards.
The next week at Ohio, they trailed 24-0 at halftime.
In mid-November, via a 30-10 home loss to Miami (Ohio), the team set a Kent State record for points allowed in a season.
In the finale, with a chance to upset MAC champ Toledo, which was without star quarterback Chuck Ealey, the Rockets rolled anyway, 41-6.
Frequently it was a frustration-fest. During one home game, when a fan screamed to James to change quarterbacks, James turned and screamed an invitation to the heckler to c'mon down and put on a helmet. The coach gave a public apology after the game.
There were bright spots, starting with James' Kent State debut, a 23-21 win at North Carolina State.
The record was 1-3 after a 17-14 loss to Iowa State in the first home game, but Cyclones head coach Johnny Majors threw the Golden Flashes a big compliment:
"I admired the hell out of the way they played."
The other wins were over Xavier, which dropped football two years later, and Marshall, almost exactly one year after a plane crash that killed 75 people either on or attached to the team.
Fred Blosser was gone to graduation after the '71 season, but the experience left a mark. Decades later when James returned for an event at Kent State, Blosser worked through a crowd to say hello, supposing James wouldn't remember him.
Instead, James extended his hand with a melting warmth and said, "My first captain!"
"He was just a good human being," Blosser says now, 10 years after James' death.
The 1971 season ended on Nov. 20. One of the strangest stories of the year unfolded on Nov. 24.
During a flight from Portland, Oregon, a passenger told a flight attendant he had a bomb. He demanded $200,000 and a parachute when the plane landed in Seattle. Upon arrival, the money was brought on board, and everyone but pilots and a flight attendant were set free.
The plane took off again and was in the air for 23 minutes when the hijacker opened the back hatch and jumped. He was never apprehended.
A few years later, Don James flew to Seattle under different fascinating circumstances.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Don James arrives, begins shift in Kent State football's culture
