By: JOHN KLEIN (TulsaWorld.com) — JOHN COOPER made a lot of Ohio State fans angry during his first week as head coach of the Buckeyes.

“Someone asked me about the talent we had,” Cooper said. “I told them we had better players at Tulsa.”

Cooper, who raised the level of TU football during a successful eight years in the 1970s and 1980s, went on to coach in four Rose Bowls and one Orange Bowl as head coach at Arizona State and later Ohio State.

He arguably coached the most successful collegiate teams of the 1990s while at Ohio State. “We probably should have won a couple of national championships with the players we had,” Cooper said.

But, it all started in Tulsa.

“I owe everything to the University of Tulsa,” Cooper said. “They took a chance on a country boy who was an assistant at Kentucky. No one had ever heard of me.

“Even now, I look back at my time at Tulsa as the most enjoyable years as a coach. I loved coaching there. I loved the people. Most places, they only like you when you are winning. I feel like the folks at Tulsa liked me the whole time, even when we didn’t win.”

Cooper, one of TU’s most successful football coaches, will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in South Bend, Ind.

He may be better known for his head coaching stops at Arizona
State and Ohio State.

However, it could be argued that the best coaching of his career was done in Tulsa.

He turned the Golden Hurricane into a legitimate collegiate football stronghold. No one, especially teams from power conferences, wanted to play TU during that era.

During his eight years at Tulsa, the Golden Hurricane went on the road and knocked off a number of teams from power conferences. Tulsa won road games at Florida, Virginia Tech, Kansas State, Kansas, Texas Tech, Louisville, Cincinnati, Air Force and TCU. In fact, the 59-21 victory in Lubbock in 1983 was the worst nonconference home loss ever for Texas Tech.

By contrast, Tulsa has currently gone 11 years without a victory, home or away, over a team from a power conference. The last victory over a team from a BCS league came in 1998 (35-20 over Oklahoma State at home).

“There was no secret why we won games at Tulsa,” Cooper said. “We had really good players. Seriously, we had a lot of players at Tulsa that could have started for any team I ever coached at Arizona State or Ohio State. They were that good.

“A lot of people like to talk about how good of a coach this guy or that guy is. But, the bottom line, the coach is only as good as the players and coaching staff he puts together. I felt like we had a great coaching staff at Tulsa. And, we had big-time players, guys that could have played just about anywhere. That’s why we were successful.”

Cooper was hired in 1977 and was somewhat a surprise pick for the Golden Hurricane. Many, at the time, figured it would be Oklahoma assistant Larry Lacewell.

But Cooper made quite an impression with the committee that was recommending the next coach to the university president.

“I came out there and looked around and met with some wonderful people,” Cooper said. “That’s what I remember most about that whole process. I was just so impressed with the folks I met with from Tulsa. These were people that loved football but they loved the University of Tulsa even more.

“That really impressed me. I really wanted the job, not just because I wanted to be a head coach. But, I felt we could win football at Tulsa and I really wanted to be the head coach after I met so many of the people there.”

Win they did. Tulsa was the team no one wanted to play by the early 1980s. In 1982, TU went 10-1. These days, they would be under consideration for a BCS bowl. Back then, with so few bowls and no one interested in teams outside of power conferences like the Big Eight, Tulsa didn’t even get a bowl.

That 1982 team beat Air Force, Oklahoma State, Kansas and swept through the Missouri Valley Conference untouched. The only loss came at No. 13 Arkansas.

“I think some people who don’t know, might underestimate how good we were,” Cooper said. “But, if you played us or saw us, you knew we had good players.

“In addition, we had so many great coaches on our staff. A lot of those guys went on to great coaching careers.”

One of those guys, Larry Coker, went on to a coach a national championship team (at Miami).

Cooper, who has attended a game at TU in each of the last two seasons, is delighted by the revival of football at Tulsa. He loves the stadium renovations and is impressed with the current coaching staff.

“I don’t think I can say enough good things about Todd Graham,” Cooper said. “If I was named the head coach of some school tomorrow, I would send my entire coaching staff down to Tulsa to learn a few things. I really believe TU’s football staff is on the cutting edge of what is going on in college football these days.

“I see what they are doing with their offense and I’m amazed. They’ve changed coaches. They have changed quarterbacks. Yet, every year, you see them right up there at the top in the nation in offense. I think Todd is doing a terrific job.”

Cooper turned down a number of opportunities to leave TU during his eight years including Texas Tech, North Carolina State and Memphis. He interviewed and showed brief interest in coaching jobs at Kansas, Iowa State and Missouri.

Finally, when Arizona State came calling in 1985, he jumped to the Pac-10.

“It really wasn’t that tough of a decision at that point,” Cooper said. “I felt like we had done about all we could do at Tulsa. It was time for me to leave and it was time for Tulsa to move on.

“But, Tulsa has always had a special place in my heart. That has never changed.”