Jim Wacker, 66; College Football Coach Won Consecutive U.S. Titles

Jim Wacker, 66, a former football coach at Texas Christian University and the University of Minnesota who won consecutive national championships in the NAIA and NCAA Division II, died Tuesday in San Marcos, Texas, after a long battle with cancer.

Wacker won a National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics title with Texas Lutheran in 1974-75 and a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division II crown with Southwest Texas University, now known as Texas State, in 1981-82. In 1982, he was named College Division Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Assn.

Wacker went to Texas Christian University the following year. In 1984, under his leadership, a team that had gone 17-90-3 from 1973 to 1982 achieved an 8-3 record and received an invitation to the Bluebonnet Bowl. In his nine years at TCU, Wacker and his staff also doubled the team members’ rate of graduation.

He coached at Minnesota from 1992 to 1996, then left the profession with an overall record of 160-130-3.

He was a commentator for CBS radio on college football before becoming athletic director at Southwest Texas in 1998, a post he held until 2001.

A native of Detroit, Wacker was the son of a Lutheran minister. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Valparaiso University in Indiana, a master’s degree from Wayne State University in Detroit and a doctorate from the University of Nebraska.