John Cooper's head football coaching career spanned across more than three decades and three universities, landing him in the Iowa State Athletics, Rose Bowl and College Football Halls of Fame. His latest honor, though, could trump them all.
Cooper, the former Tulsa, Arizona State and Ohio State football coach, was named the recipient of the 2016 Amos Alonzo Stagg Award Wednesday by the American Football Coaches Association, per a press release from the organization. The honor is bestowed upon individuals or groups "whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests in football," as deemed by the AFCA.
“I’m very, very excited to receive such a distinguished award from the American Football Coaches Association,” Cooper said in the release. “I’ve been honored as a coach of the year and I’ve been inducted into several halls of fame, but it doesn’t get any better than this, to me."
Cooper compiled an overall career coaching record of 192-84-6 — including 111-43-4 in Columbus — before getting fired following the 2000 season. He won three different conference championships with three different schools and became the first coach ever to win the Rose Bowl as the head coach of a Pac-10 and Big Ten program.
The former Buckeye boss — who still hangs around the program today — joins a lengthy and impressive list of past Stagg Award recipients, including Paul "Bear" Bryant, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schembechler, Tom Osborne, Joe Paterno, Hayden Fry, Bill Walsh, Bobby Bowden and many others.
"I look at the past recipients who have received this award and I think, ‘Holy cow, what did I do to deserve this great honor?’" Cooper said in the release. "I’m very honored and thrilled and I’m looking forward to coming to the convention and accepting the award. I’d also like to thank everyone responsible for making this possible: my former players and certainly my coaches and my colleagues."
The award has typically been awarded annually since 1940 in honor of Stagg, whose 57-year college head coaching career at Chicago and the College of the Pacific was essential to the game of football's advancement. He developed and is credited for such innovations like the tackling dummy, the huddle, the reverse play, man in motion, knit pants, numbering plays and players, and the awarding of letters.
Cooper is set to receive the award at the AFCA Awards Luncheon Jan. 12 during the 2016 AFCA Convention in San Antonio.
