Jim Caldwell: From a player on an 0-11 Iowa team to head coach of a Super Bowl team

Jim Caldwell, the coach of the Indianapolis Colts, played in the BIGG years when he was an Iowa Hawkeye.

Before Iowa Got Good.

The Hawkeyes had 19 straight non-winning seasons, from 1962 through 1980. That doesn't mean there weren't some fine players on those teams. Caldwell was one.

He was four-year starter at cornerback from 1973 through 1976. In '73, Iowa went 0-11. What doesn't kill your spirit only makes it stronger or something like that.

“Jim was tough as nails,” said Jon Lazar.

Lazar is a Tama native who played running back for Iowa from 1975-1978. He now owns a printing-related business in North Carolina. Come Sunday, he'll watch his former teammate coach the Colts in the Super Bowl against the New Orleans Saints.

“What I remember about Jim is he was just a quiet leader,” Lazar said. “He was a great guy, one of the nicest people you'd ever meet.”

Just not on the field.

“He was a really, really big playmaker,” Lazar said.

Dave Becker was a sophomore starting safety in 1976. He said he hasn't seen Caldwell since their college days, but would like the chance.to visit with him again someday.

“Jimmy was a solid player,” said Becker, an Atlantic, Iowa native who works for a construction engineering company in Denver.

“He knew his position, the mental side of it. Besides always playing hard, he was a solid guy on and off the field. I always had a lot of respect for the guy. He's a top-shelf guy, a great individual. It was fun playing with him.

“We both played under Coach (Larry) Coyer, who was a great coach, inspirational and tough.”

Coyer is Caldwell's defensive coordinator with the Colts.

Lazar said he had a reunion with Caldwell in Raleigh several years ago when the Caldwell-coached Wake Forest team played at North Carolina State.

Caldwell was fired at Wake Forest in 2000 after his seventh losing season in eight years. He then joined Tony Dungy's Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaching staff in 2001, and followed Dungy to Indianapolis the next year.

“It's funny, Tony was my recruiting host when I took a visit to Minnesota,” Lazar said. “I got to know Tony real well.”

Caldwell is cut from the Dungy cloth of speaking softly but getting NFL players to hear him. His career mark as a pro head coach is a gaudy 14-2, with two playoff wins attached.

“Jim, I'm sure he's quietly progressed,” Lazar said. “He's not one to get real excited. He teaches everybody how to be cool. Probably the biggest thing about Jim Caldwell is he's a cool character.”

The day Lazar and Becker both recounted without prompting in phone interviews was a 1976 afternoon at Penn State. Bob Commings' Hawkeyes stunned Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions, 7-6.

 “Jimmy made a few key plays, as I recall,” Becker said. “He was knocking down passes, tackling Matt Suhey, a fullback who later got fame playing for the Chicago Bears.”

Caldwell's coaching career started as a graduate assistant for Commings in 1977. He was then an assistant at Southern Illinois, Northwestern, Colorado, Louisville, and finally, for seven seasons at Penn State before getting the Wake Forest job.

The former cornerback coached wide receivers at first for Paterno, then quarterbacks. He was the passing game coordinator for much of his time at Penn State. Over a decade earlier, he was helping make life difficult for Paterno's offense.

 “The sad thing about it is it seems like yesterday,” said Lazar. “Then I look at myself in the mirror and say ‘Oh, man.' I look more like my father every day.”

Maybe those old Hawkeyes of the mid-1970s will feel a little more spry if they see a 55-year-old former teammate holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday.