Tales from the Washington State Courgars Sideline

Jim Walden tells his story from the Washington State University sidelines as only a real Cougar could. His pull no punches and tell it how it is attitude translates beautiful to written form and this is really a must read for an Cougar or fan of college athletics. Most of the book's stories take place during his coaching years at WSU, when division one college athletics was still on the brink of becoming a major income generator for schools but had not quite made the push yet. Jim retells his dealings with the politics of upper collegiate management, players, fans, travel and more to give a true feeling of college football for a small town school in the middle of nowhere in the 70s and 80s. By the end of the book you'll be wishing Mr. Walden would publish an accompaniment full of just Waldenisms, his clever quotes and quips that you'll find to be stated in a way only Jim could. Truly a great read.

This book brings back many memories as Jim Walden built a program that had been the joke of almost all collegiate football and made it into what would eventually become a frequent Bowl participant and a conference championship contender. Walden was the third coach hired in the last three year, he made a promise to stay with the downtrodden program and even though he was not there when WSU made it's improbable apearance in the '97 Rose Bowl, He clearly planted to seeds that started the turnaround. Very similar to the Cindarella story of the Mariners.