Randy Walker (American football coach)

Walker had a standout season his last year in high school for the Troy Trojans in Troy, Ohio. He received recruiting offers from Big Ten schools like Northwestern University and Ohio State University, but chose instead to follow his high school sweetheart, Tammy, to Miami University (Tammy was a year older and already there). He played three seasons at fullback for the Miami Redskins in Oxford under head coaches Bill Mallory and Dick Crum. His teammates included former Illinois coach Ron Zook and NFL standouts Rob Carpenter and Sherman Smith. In his three years the team went 32–1–1 and was ranked #15 in 1973, #10 in 1974 and #12 in 1975. Miami won the Mid-American Conference in all three years. Miami also went to the Tangerine Bowl (presently the Capital One Bowl) where they beat Florida in 1973, Georgia in 1974 and South Carolina in 1975. In his senior year Walker was named the team's most valuable player. For his career he ran for 1757 yards. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals (1976; 13th round), but chose to become an assistant coach instead. ==Coaching career==

Walker was an assistant coach for the Miami Redskins (1976–1977; running backs), then the University of North Carolina Tar Heels (running backs coach 1978–1981; quarterbacks coach 1982–1985; offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach 1985–1987), and finally the Northwestern Wildcats (1988–1989; running backs). In addition, he became the first Wildcat coach ever to guide three straight teams to four or more Big Ten wins. ==Death==

On June 29, 2006, Walker, who was only 52, died suddenly of an apparent heart attack, leaving the Northwestern community shocked and saddened. He had battled a viral heart infection in the fall of 2004. On July 7, 2006 Pat Fitzgerald was named to replace him as head coach of the Wildcats. ==Personal life==

Born to Jim Walker, an accountant with Hobart Corporation, he grew up in Troy, Ohio and graduated from Troy High School, where he played fullback and defensive back on the 1971 team that was picked by the Dayton Daily News as the area's best team over the past 50 years. As a student, he sang the lead in school musicals (including Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof), Walker gave up his first love, baseball, joined the track team for speed and stamina, and started lifting weights, gaining 30 pounds. Reporting to fall practice at 195 pounds, Walker's teams would not lose another game the remaining two seasons, going 20–0. ==Head coaching record==