(Based
on info found on the Internet, the text below is accurate or semi-accurate.)
Former Washington State (1987-1988) and Idaho (1982–1985,
2006) football coach Dennis Erickson, who led Miami to national championships
in 1989 and 1991, has been selected for induction into the College Football
Hall of Fame, according to “Hall” officials on 1/7/2019.
Erickson (born March 24, 1947) was WSU head football coach
when he hired as Miami’s head football coach by Sam Jankovich, Miami athletic
director who previously was WSU athletic director
As WSU athletic director, Jankovich instituted what apparently
was college football’s first buyout coaching contact clause. That happened
after Jackie Sherrill left WSU as its head football following coaching just
Cougars in just the 1976 season to become Pitt’s head coach. Warren Powers
succeeded Jackie Sherrill as WSU head football coach, but left after the 1977
season to become Missouri’s head football coach.
As a result of Sherrill’s one year coach and dash, the
contract of Sherrill, WSU successor, Powers, had a buyout clause. (Apparently
it was a promissory note which, for future coaching contracts, segued into a
clause.)
When Missouri sought to hire Warren Powers, Powers had to
buy out of his contract at Washington State before he was allowed to leave.
(Pay off his promissory note.)
Following Powers; departure at WSU, he was succeeded by Jim
Walden, a Powers’ WSU assistant. Walden was WSU head football coach 1978-1986,
before he left to become Iowa State head football coach.
Erickson was hired from Wyoming as Walden’s WSU head football
coach successor , where Erickson served only the 1986 season as Wyoming’s head
football coach.
Erickson was head football coach at WSU in the 1987 (3-7-1
win-loss tie record) and 1988 (9-2 and an Aloha Bowl win) seasons before
Jankovich hired him at Miami. To leave WSU for Miami, the buyout clause at WSU
came into effect for Erickson.
Jankovich came to WSU from Montana State in 1968 as an
assistant football coach along with Jim Sweeney hired by WSU as head football
coach from Montana State. Jankovich served as WSU assistant AD 1971-1976 before
serving as WSU athletic director 1976-1983 before becoming athletic director at
Miami where he served 1983-1991.
WASHINGTON
STATE COACH'S LEAVE-TAKING NOTE-WORTHY
By Ron
Rosen, Washington Post, Dec 14, 1977 (with minor editing)
Forrest Gregg is gone as coach of the Cleveland Browns; no
surprise. Warren Powers has forsaken Washington State to take over the Missouri
football helm; no surprise there - except:
While, in conventional style, Gregg's NFL former employer
will pay off the remainder of his contract (through 1978), Washington State
officials are making Powers pay them for release from the two years left on his
contract - $55,000 plus 9 per cent interest over a three-year period.
Sam Jankovich, Washington State athletic director, called
the action, in which Powers will be required to sign a promissory note,
"precedent-setting . . . we believe this is the first (such) instance . .
."
WSU was exasperated at having to initiate its second
football-coach hunt in a year - and in the wake of its first winning season
(6-5) since 1972. Jackie Sherrill left in 1976 after a one-year stand to
succeed Johnny Majors at Pitt, where he had been an assistant.
"This is going to make the students very cynical,"
said WSU student-body president Mark Ufkes. “The school is losing a lot of
alumni support. I say make him live up to his contract. Take away his coaching
job and bury him in intramurals or something. Don't let him out."
But out Powers is, out of a $32,000-a-year pact and into a
$35,000-per-annum, three-year contract at Mizzou, where Al Onofrio was ousted
four days after a season-ending loss to Kansas. Powers, 36, a Kansas City, Mo.,
lad who played at Nebraska, was an assistant coach of the Cornhuskers and made
his mark by beating them in the 1977 season opener, and is married to a
Missouri alumna, says coaching the home state in the Big Eight is a dream come
true. He's made an initial $5,000 installment on his contract buy-out and, as
for the rest, "It's something me and my wife will have to work out."
Missouri will not be involved in the contract settlement,
according to Jankovich and U of M chancellor Herbert W. Schooling. But if
Powers makes the Tigers an instant winner - well, there are a lot of moneyed
boosters out there.
P.S. The Powers-Missouri contract is nonbinding . . .
P.P.S. Jim Sweeney, Washington State's coach the eight years
pre-Sherrill and Powers, has been named Pacific Coast Athletic Association
coach of the year for leading Fresno State to a 9-2 season and its first PCAA
title.
::::::::::::::
ERICKSON
IN AT WSU
Provo,
Utah, Daily Herald Jan 7, 1987
PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) - Dennis Erickson has the one job he
said he always wanted head football coach at Washington State University.
Erickson confirmed Tuesday night that he will sign a five-year contract to become
the next coach of the Pacific-10 Conference team, replacing Jim Walden.
School officials scheduled a campus news conference today to
formally introduce Erickson, the 39-year-old who turned around programs at
Idaho located just eight miles away and Wyoming.
When Walden announced Dec. 15 that he was leaving to take
the Iowa State job, Erickson, who had just completed his first season at
Wyoming, said he wasn't interested in the job. He was still singing that tune a
few days ago, until WSU Athletic Director Dick Young offered him the job Monday
night while the two were in San Diego for the NCAA and American Football
Coaches Association conventions.
"They contacted me, but never visited with me until two
days ago," Erickson said Tuesday night after arriving with Young at
Spokane International Airport. "They (WSU) were interested, and I talked
to them. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that's where I should
be."
Young said that despite appearances, Erickson was not a
last-minute candidate. "He was always in the picture in our mind. The
question was whether he could justify .in his mind leaving Wyoming."
"There were a number of reasons" for jumping from
Wyoming, Erickson said. "No. 1, to get back to the state of Washington,
where I was born and raised. No. 2, to get back to Washington State where I
kind of wanted to coach all my life."
Erickson is an Everett native whose father, Pinky Erickson,
was an assistant coach at WSU from 1968 to 1973 under former Coach Jim Sweeney.
Dennis Erickson was a star quarterback at Montana State and was a graduate
assistant under Sweeney in the spring of 1970. Erickson said his contract will
be similar to the one that paid Walden a base salary of $75,000 plus an
undisclosed amount for radio, TV and public appearances. Young declined to
discuss specifics until the news conference, but said the contract had a
"Warren Powers clause" that calls for a settlement if Erickson leaves
before a certain time period. Powers coached WSU in 1977, then took the
Missouri job. WSU's administration, however, forced him to pay $55,000 to
release him from the final two years of his unfulfilled contract.
Erickson said he had an escape clause in his four-year-pact
with Wyoming. At Wyoming, Erickson had a base salary of $60,000 plus another
$20,000 from radio and television shows and free use of a house. He went to
Wyoming in December 1985 after four successful seasons at Idaho.
Wyoming is on WSU's schedule for the 1987 season.
Erickson offered to bring his entire staff from Wyoming if
they wanted to come. Many of his assistant coaches were also with him when he
coached at Idaho. He said assistant head coach John L. Smith and defensive
coordinator Del Wight were the only Wyoming assistants to apply for his job.
Smith was with Erickson at Idaho. Wight played linebacker at
Wyoming from 1959-62 and was an assistant coach at WSU before joining Erickson
at Wyoming.
Erickson has had success turning around run-oriented teams
at Idaho and Wyoming by using a passing game, dubbed "Erickson's Air
Express." The Cowboys, using a wishbone, were 3-8 the year before' he
came, and 6-6 last year using the passing attack.
:::::::::::::::
Former
Washington State, Idaho coach Dennis Erickson calls Palouse ‘my first love’ on day
of Hall of Fame induction
By Theo
Lawson Spokane S-R Jan. 7, 2019
Dennis Erickson’s career as college football coach spanned
39 years and included 10 different stops, from the wide open ranges of Montana
to the sandy shores of South Beach.
But the most recent College Football Hall of Fame Inductee
still speaks with the ultimate affection when he talks about his time on the
Palouse. Erickson’s first job as a head coach came in 1982 at Idaho, and five
years later he’d take the same position at Washington State, leading a short
but sweet tenure with the Cougars that culminated with a trip to the Aloha Bowl
in 1988.
“It was my first love,” Erickson said Monday of his time in
Moscow/Pullman. “When I had the opportunity to be the coach at Idaho, when Bill
Belknap hired me that was awesome. And then when I was hired at Washington
State, it’s where I wanted to be. So I really enjoyed my time on the Palouse
and has a great place in my heart, without question.”
Erickson, who posted a 179-96-1 records in his 23 years as a
college head coach, was one of 15 members inducted Monday to the 2019 College
Football Hall of Fame Class by the National Football Foundation.
The 2019 class includes two coaches – Erickson and Joe
Taylor – and 13 All-American players. Among them, two Heisman Trophy
runner-ups: Texas quarterback Vince Young and Notre Dame wide receiver Raghib
“Rocket” Ismail.
The full list of players to be recognized at the National
Football Foundation’s award banquet in December includes Arkansas running back
Darren McFadden, Oklahoma defensive back Rickey Dixon, John Carroll linebacker
London Fletcher, Texas A&M defensive lineman Jacob Green, North Carolina
State receiver Torry Holt, Arizona State quarterback Jake Plummer, USC
defensive back Troy Polamalu, Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas, Michigan
State running back Lorenzo White and Mississippi linebacker Patrick Willis.
Erickson retired from coaching football in 2016 after 47
years, but couldn’t fully remove himself from the game and assisted his son
Bryce, formerly the coach at Lake City High. He returned to the profession on a
full-time basis when he accepted a head coaching job with the Salt Lake
Stallions of the Alliance of American Football, which will hold its inaugural
season in 2019.
From Stallions training camp in San Antonio, Erickson said
Saturday he was deeply humbled by the HOF induction.
“Well first of all, it’s maybe the highest (honor) you can
have in the profession I’m in,” Erickson said. “… Not just me, it’s an honor
for my family, kids, wife that have been going through this for all these
years. If it wasn’t for them, heck, I wouldn’t have got it done. But all the
guys and players who’ve played for me, coaches who’ve coached for me, obviously
it wouldn’t have happened.”
On a national scale, Erickson is most recognized for his
time at the University of Miami. After a brief stint in Pullman, he went on to
coach the Hurricanes for six seasons and won a pair of national championships
while going 63-9. Erickson then led a successful four-year regime in Corvallis,
Oregon, winning 31 games in four seasons at Oregon State, including an 11-1 record
in 2000 that saw the Beavers go to the Fiesta Bowl.
Erickson’s winning percentages at Miami (87) and Oregon
State (64) are the best all-time at both schools.
Palouse locals have good memories of his time at Idaho
(1982-85, 2006) and WSU (1987-88).
Erickson’s UI teams posted winning records each of his four
seasons in charge and made the NCAA Division I-AA (FCS) quarterfinals in 1982
and ’85. The Vandals combined to go 18-7 in those seasons. A leading
practitioner of the one-back offense, Erickson led UI to nine wins in ’82 after
the Vandals posted zero wins in Big Sky Conference play the year before.
“Growing up in Seattle over in the Everett area where I was
born and raised, Washington State and Idaho, I used to come over and watch the
Cougs play all the time and had relatives that went to school there,” Erickson
said. “So that was always a pleasure for me.”
The Cougars brought Erickson on board in 1987. The
turnaround at WSU didn’t come immediately, but after a 3-7-1 record in ’87, the
Cougars went on to go 9-3 in 1988 behind the play of quarterback Timm
Rosenbach. Erickson left the program in a good place for the next coach, Mike
Price, who’d utilize many of the same one-back schemes while leading one of the
most successful eras in Cougar history.
In addition to the ones listed above, Erickson, a Montana
State alum, also had head coaching stints at Wyoming (1986) and Arizona State
(2007-11).
Erickson will attend the 62nd NFF Annual Awards Dinner on
Dec. 10 in New York City.
“You reflect back on a different years, a lot of different
coaches, a lot of different teams,” he said. “Particularly in my career and a
lot of different places I’ve had the opportunity to coach.”
::::::
Erickson
says he’ll stay put
By
Steve Bergum Spokane Spokesman-Review Mon Feb 27 1989
PULLMAN — Dennis Erickson announced Sunday that he is not
interested in coaching football at the University of Miami, “to fulfill what I
came to do.”
Erickson, in his second year of a five-year contract he
signed in 1987, had been rumored to be a leading candidate to replace Jimmy
Johnson, who resigned as Miami’s head coach Saturday to replace Tom Landry as
head coach of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys.
Erickson, However, said he has not talked with Miami
officials about the job.
“And I’m not going to,” he added. “I made a commitment to
Washington State University, to (president) Sam Smith, to (athletic director) Jim Livengood and,
more importantly, to our players to fulfill what I came to do, so I’m not
interested in the (Miami) job.
“I’m staying at Washington State. That’s what I wanted to
do, and I feel very, very much obligated to do that.”
Erickson, who was in Denver Saturday to speak at a coach
clinic, said his wife, Marilyn, was “barraged” by phone calls while he was gone.
“Sam (Jankovich, Miami’s athletic director) and I are very
good friends and that’s how rumors get started. But if you have talked to him,
I’d tell you. The statement I made is how I feel. And that’s how it’s going to
be.”
It was reported Saturday by the Miami Herald that Jankovich,
the athletic director at WSU from 1975 to 1983 and an assistant football coach
at Montana State when Erickson was a player there, had already talked to
Erickson about replacing Johnson.
But Jankovich denied that report Sunday. And, after hearing
about Erickson’s decision to stay at WSU, Jankovich flatly told The Spokesman
Review that the Cougar coach is no longer a candidate for the job.
“Denny is an outstanding coach and an outstanding person,”
Jankovich said. “But I’m surely not going to visit with anybody that’s
committed to where they are.
“If Denny has showed a real interest in us, then we would
have shown a real interest in Denny. But
it would have had to come the other way.”
Sources close to the Miami football program estimated
Johnson’s annual earnings at Miami, including endorsements, speaking engagements and radio and television
revenues, at between $250,000 to $300,000. Those sources says Johnson also has
three residences in the Miami area and does television endorsements for
“everything from lawn mowers to condos to new cars.”
The deal that brought Erickson to Washington State two years
ago called for an annual base salary of $70,000, with another $25,000 to
$30,000 to come from radio and television considerations and speaking
engagements.
But the Cougar coach spent much of last week with Livengood
trying to negotiate a new contract. Erickson said, however, nothing has been
finalized.
“He (Livengood) has been gone and I’ve been gone,” he
explained, “so we haven’t really gotten together on the thing. There are a couple of things we’ve got
together on the thing. There are a couple of things we’ve got to continue
discussing. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get something together here pretty
soon.”
Erickson said neither to contract nor the lucrative nature
of the Miami job played a role in his decision to stay at WSU.
“My decision is based strictly on my commitment to this
place and my staff. That’s the bottom line,” he said. “We ask our players all
the times to make commitments (to our program) ... and I feel that if I ask
them to do that, then I’ve got to do the same thing.”
:::::
When indications were that Powers would leave Wazzu for
Mizzou, “Washington State officials ... said they would fight his departure and
made good on the threat on a settlement of $55,000 from Powers for the release
of the final two years of his contract.
“ ‘We believe that this is the first instance when a
football coach has been required to compensate a university to satisfy the
teaming years of a contract,’ Washington State University Athletic Director Sam
Jankovich said at a news conference in Pullman, Wash.”
—AP
story in Missoulian, Missoula, Mont., Dec 14, 1977
