WSU Cougars to honor Bill Doba, Jim Walden on helmets

The WSU Cougars lost two of their most successful football coaches in program history this summer.

In July, Jim Walden died at age 88. And last week, Bill Doba passed away at age 85.

The Cougars will honor both coaches on the back of their helmets this fall, first-year WSU head coach Kirby Moore announced on the newest edition of Cougs Weekly that aired Tuesday on Seattle Sports.

Doba spent 19 seasons on WSU’s coaching staff, including five seasons as the head coach from 2003-07. He was the co-Pac-10 Coach of the Year with USC’s Pete Carroll in 2003, when he led the Cougars to a 10-3 season, a Holiday Bowl victory and a No. 9 final ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Walden spent nine seasons as WSU’s head coach from 1978-86 and was a two-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1983. He led the Cougs to an 8-3-1 record and a Holiday Bowl berth in 1981, which marked the program’s first bowl game in 51 seasons. He guided WSU to a 7-4 mark in 1983.

Moore, 35, hadn’t been born yet when Walden coaching at WSU. But Moore recalls meeting Doba as a kid while tagging along on trips to the Palouse with his father, who was a former longtime head football coach at Prosser High School in eastern Washington.

“I remember coming here as a kid,” Moore said. “My dad was a high school football coach at Prosser, so the Prosser staff came up here a lot when coach Doba was the defensive coordinator (and) the head coach. He he was just so gracious with his time and always had a smile on his face.”

Cougs Weekly airs Tuesdays at 12:30 p.m. during football season on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy. You can also catch it in podcast and video form.

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