Akron football remembers coach Jim Dennison and the bonds he helped create

When University of Akron football players took a knee and gathered around Jim Dennison, they would often hear him speak about the powerful lifelong bonds teammates share with one another.

"He'd say, 'Look around. These are the guys in 50 years you're going to be friends with,'" former Zips halfback Dave Axner said. "We're like, 'There is no way, right?' And then you know what? We'd be at one of these luncheons where he would come back, and he'd go, 'Look around.'"

Dennison had a knack for giving his players goosebumps with his wisdom and ability to inspire.

The feeling permeated the sections of InfoCision Stadium filled with Dennison's family and 1976 team on Saturday, Sept. 26, as Akron honored the late coaching legend and hosted a reunion for players and staff members who helped UA become the NCAA Division II national runner-up nearly 50 years ago.

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The winningest football coach in Akron and Walsh University history, Dennison died in January at the age of 87. He led Akron for 13 years and Walsh for the first 18 seasons of the program's existence, compiling a collegiate record of 199-139-2.

The 1976 Zips went 10-3 and still hold the single-season program record for most wins. On Nov. 27, 1976, Akron dominated UNLV 27-6 in a quarterfinal of the Division II playoffs. On Dec. 4, 1976, Akron edged Northern Michigan 29-26 in overtime of a semifinal. After playing those two games at the Rubber Bowl, Akron traveled to Wichita Falls, Texas, where UA fell 24-13 to Montana State in the national title game on Dec. 11, 1976.

When the Zips reunite, their memories come flooding back. Many involve the man who guided them.

"Coach Dennison preached family and togetherness. … He showed that he truly cared about you, not just as a football player, but also as a person, as a student," former Zips defensive back Charles Parnell said.

Modern-day Akron lost 38-10 to UNLV on Sept. 26, yet the result didn't spoil the deeper meaning of the day for the roughly 35 players from the 1976 Zips who assembled and were recognized on the field during the first half. They were joined by Dennison coaching disciples, including Tom Flaherty (UA's offensive coordinator in 1976), Wally Neel (UA's defensive coordinator in 1976) and Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel (UA's offensive backs coach in 1976). Yes, Tressel, the Ohio State Buckeyes icon, cut his coaching teeth as a young assistant under Dennison.

For Dennison, coaching evolved into a family business. Dennison's sons Greg and Matt are longtime Northeast Ohio high school football coaches who are the helms of Buckeye and GlenOak, respectively. Along with several other relatives, Greg and Matt attended the Akron-UNLV clash UA advertised as "The Jim Dennison PMA Game." The crux of Dennison's coaching philosophy was "positive mental attitude," otherwise known as "PMA." His sons use it to this day.

"That was real. That wasn't just letters. It wasn't just a logo or a symbol," Greg Dennison said. "Everything we did was all about that, about responding to bad situations. Bad things are going to happen. You've got to respond, helping each other out, working together. And all the parts of that, they all go way beyond football. I mean, they all made him successful within a football program, but what the players take away from that, you can take into your everyday life."

Shortly before the playing of the national anthem, Akron displayed a video tribute on its scoreboard to honor Dennison. Highlights from Akron's triumph over Northern Michigan were showcased during a timeout in the first quarter. Greg spotted himself in the video serving as an 11-year-old ball boy. When his younger brother, Matt, turned 10, he also became a Zips ball boy.

"We grew up around it," Matt Dennison said. "The Rubber Bowl was our playground, and that's the honest-to-God truth. I went to two-a-days every day."

A couple of years ago, Matt and his father visited the Zips during a spring practice. Akron coach Joe Moorhead asked the elder Dennison to address UA's players.

"The way a person lived their life in some ways there's somewhat of a correlation to how well attended his funeral is, and when we went by to pay our respects to Coach, I mean, he influenced a ton of people in an incredibly positive way, not just as a football coach, but as a person," Moorhead said. "Success isn't an accident, right? It's a result of a lot of tangible and intangible traits, and, obviously, honoring coach was the right thing to do. In all of my interactions with him, you could see why so many people loved him."

A 1956 Wadsworth High School graduate, Dennison remains a beloved Northeast Ohio sports figure.

"He was way ahead of his time as far as his attitude towards motivation," former Zips defensive lineman Jim Meyer said. "He always tried to get the best out of all of us, even when the situations were tough. He wasn't nice to us when we had poor performances. In fact, he was pretty [hard on us]. But his ability to organize, his ability to adjust to situations was phenomenal."

Akron's controversial decision to replace Dennison as Zips coach with the late Gerry Faust in December 1985 continues to qualify as sore subject for many UA fans and alumni.

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Akron had just gone 8-3 when university officials picked Faust, on his way out of Notre Dame, to lead the Zips' transition from Division I-AA to Division I-A, a move made in 1987. Dennison became UA's assistant athletic director in 1985 and its AD in 1987. He joined Walsh as its AD in 1993 and became its coach a year later as the school in North Canton adopted football as a varsity sport.

"The way he left Akron, we were all hurt from that because he didn't deserve it," Axner said. "It's politics, and we get it and so forth. But even that, how he handled that, there was another lesson for us.

"He would go talk about his situation. I heard him in some of those venues, and he would say, 'I've been preaching this. I've been telling everybody to be positive.' So, when you face adversity is when you most have to do it, and he would say, 'I need to model that. I need to do it.'"

There is evidence of the lessons Dennison taught, the example he set and the chemistry he fostered whenever his old players gather.

"When you look back on it now, there's absolutely no question he was putting a family together," Axner said. "That's what he was doing. If you were a jerk, if you did things out of the box in a negative way, you would just never be considered.

"I think about conversations with my father that Coach Dennison had in our living room, and you just wanted to play for this guy. Then you got there, and he was true to that. It just continued. We had fun, and, I mean, it's 50 years later, and we're still all buddies. It's amazing."

Nate Ulrich is the sports columnist of the Akron Beacon Journal and a sports features writer. Nate can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron football remembers coach Jim Dennison and the bonds he helped create