Athletes - John Cooper

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	Athletes - John Cooper

John Cooper (born July 2, 1937 in Knoxville, Tennessee) was the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes college football team from 1988 to 2000.

Cooper grew up in the Knoxville suburb of Powell, Tennessee and joined the United States Army after high school. After serving for two years, he enrolled at Iowa State University where he played football for four years eventually becoming team captain and MVP.

Cooper spent time as an assistant coach at Iowa State, Oregon State, UCLA, Kansas, and Kentucky. In 1977, he was named the head football coach at the University of Tulsa, where he compiled a 57-31 record with five Missouri Valley Conference titles. He became the head coach at Arizona State in 1985 where his teams won three consecutive bowl games during his three season tenure. He accepted the job as head coach at Ohio State on December 31, 1987.

During his time in Columbus he won a Big Ten championship in 1996 and shared another Big Ten title in 1998, but was plagued by a 2-10-1 record against archrival Michigan, with his most crippling losses being in 1995, when Ohio State lost a #2 ranking and a shot at the Rose Bowl by losing to the Wolverines in Ann Arbor, and in 1996, when the Buckeyes were ranked #1 and lost to Michigan in Columbus. The latter loss prevented a #1 vs. #2 matchup in the Rose Bowl against Cooper's former school Arizona State. His dismal record against Michigan coupled with pervasive academic and discipline problems amongst his players led to Cooper's firing after the 2000 season. In his 13 seasons, Cooper compiled an impressive 111-43 won-loss record. He is currently a college football analyst for ESPN.

Cooper coached a great deal of talent that would go on to play in the National Football League, including 1995 Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George, 1996 Outland Trophy winner Orlando Pace, Terry Glenn, David Boston, Shawn Springs, and Antoine Winfield.

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