Jim Wood (American football)

Jim Wood
Biographical details
Born (1936-07-27) July 27, 1936 (age 88)
Tonkawa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Playing career
1956–1958Oklahoma State
1959Calgary Stampeders
1959BC Lions
Position(s)End
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1962–1963Hancock (assistant)
1964–1967New Mexico State (assistant)
1968–1972New Mexico State
1973Calgary Stampeders (assistant)
1973–1975Calgary Stampeders
Head coaching record
Overall21–30–1 (college)
10–19 (CFL)
Accomplishments and honors
Awards
First-team All-American (1958)

Jim Wood (born July 27, 1936) is an American former gridiron football player and coach. He played college football at the end position at Oklahoma State University from 1956 to 1958. He was selected by the American Football Coaches Association as a first-team end on its 1958 College Football All-America Team,[1] and as a third-team player by the Associated Press.[2][3] At the end of the 1958 season, an experiment was conducted in which data from 145 football coaches was input into a Univac computer to determine who was the best college football player in the country. The computer ranked Wood as the nation's second best player behind George Deiderich of Vanderbilt.[4] Wood capped his collegiate career by leading Oklahoma State to a 15–6 victory over Florida State in the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl.

Wood later coached at the collegiate and professional levels, including a five-year stint as the head coach at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico from 1968 to 1972.[5] He was the head coach for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1973 to 1975.

  1. ^ "Grid Coaches Select Team". Eugene Register-Guard. December 7, 1958.
  2. ^ "Iowa's Randy Duncan Heads AP's All-American Team". Salisbury Times. Salisbury, Maryland.
  3. ^ "Randy Hawkins Heads A.P. All-America Team". Reading Eagle. December 4, 1958. p. 34.
  4. ^ "Oklahoma State Says Wood Is Nation's "Best" Gridder". The Spokesman-Review (AP story). December 11, 1958. p. 18.
  5. ^ Gove, Chris (December 19, 1998). "Quanah's Wood ends distinguished coaching career". Amarillo Globe-News. Retrieved January 26, 2018.