LARAMIE – Jim Walden, a swashbuckling Wyoming quarterback who helped Bob Devaney build the Pokes into a powerhouse, died last Thursday in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He was 88.
 
Walden, nicknamed the "Mississippi Gambler," transferred to UW from Itawamba (Miss.) Junior College and led the Cowboys to back-to-back Skyline Conference championships in 1958-59.
 
UW finished 8-3 in 1958 with a victory over Hardin-Simmons in the Sun Bowl. Walden earned Skyline Conference player of the year and All-American honors in 1959 after the team finished 9-1.
 
The versatile Walden ranked 13th nationally and first in the conference in total offense (1,211 yards) as a senior. He also led the Cowboys in passing (882 yards), touchdowns (11), punting (37.0-yard average), punt returns (86 yards) and was second in rushing (329 yards).
 
"He was ahead of his time," said Del Wight, who played and coached with Walden and later won two WAC championships (1987-88) at UW as Paul Roach's defensive coordinator. "Jim could scramble around and find somebody open or he could run."
 
After his career with the Cowboys, Walden was drafted by both Cleveland in the NFL Draft and Denver in the first AFL Draft in 1960. He opted to sign with the BC Lions and played three seasons in the Canadian Football League before a successful coaching career that included successful runs as head coach at Washington State and Iowa State.
 
"The University of Wyoming was the greatest thing that happened in my young life. A lot of other stuff happened after that," Walden, a member of the UW Collegiate Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2011, said during his induction speech. "For more than 50 years since I left this place, I've always been a high-falootin', rootin', tootin' son of a gun and a Ragtime Cowboy Joe."
 
Walden, who gave back to his alma mater this year by joining the Cowboy Joe Club's "7220 Society," said when he arrived on campus for the first time on a cold January day in 1958, he was wearing moccasins and a light jacket.
 
Despite growing up in the deep South, the charismatic QB "loved the place from the day I got here."
 
Walden also reveled in the heated rivalry with Colorado State. He noted in "The Border War" book that following UW's 7-6 victory in 1958 in Fort Collins, a group of Cowboy redshirts who did not make the travel squad showed up as fans and were involved in a postgame brawl.
 
"About half a dozen of them got thrown in jail," Walden recalled. "Coach Devaney had to go back down there and get them out of there. … I always laugh and say, 'I don't know how the rivalry was on the field, but it was intense off the field.'"
 
Walden's 29-yard touchdown pass to Bob Sawyer in the third quarter delivered the comeback win for the Pokes after Mike McGill added the extra point. The 1959 meeting was less dramatic on and off the field with the Cowboys clobbering the Rams 29-0 in Laramie during an eight-game winning streak to end the season.
 
UW's 25-20 victory at New Mexico on Nov. 14, 1959, clinched the program's second consecutive Skyline Conference title. Walden's game-winning touchdown pass to Dick Hamilton was not scripted.
 
"My favorite memory was beating New Mexico in Albuquerque to win the conference championship," Wight said. "Devaney sends in the play, and Walden said (in the huddle), 'I'm not running that.' He called a bootleg and I pulled as a guard but there was no one to block because they were fooled. He threw a TD to Dicky Hamilton. Wide open.
 
"On the plane home Devaney told him, '(Expletive) good thing it worked.'"
 
Walden was named the Pac-10 coach of the year in 1981 and 1983. He led Washington State to its first bowl in 50 years and compiled a 44-52-4 overall record from 1978-86.
 
At Iowa State, Walden inherited extreme scholarship limits due to NCAA sanctions. He posted a 28-57-3 record over eight seasons (1987-1994), but he orchestrated perhaps the biggest upset in school history in 1992 when the Cyclones stunned No. 7 Nebraska, 19-10.
 
Devaney gave Walden his start in college coaching at Nebraska. The legendary head coach said the 1971 Cornhuskers, who won the national championship when Walden was a young assistant, were his favorite team.
 
The 1959 Cowboys also held a special place in Devaney's heart thanks to the Mississippi Gambler.
 
"He was one of one of a kind," Wight said of Walden. "And a gentleman."
 

Walden's family will announce a memorial service at a later date. 

Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.
 
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