By Dylan Butler
There was a sense of familiarity for Joe Walton from the moment he woke up Saturday morning. Now the head coach of the Division I-AA Robert Morris football team, Walton and the Colonials stayed at the LaGuardia Marriott — a hotel in the shadows of Shea Stadium — where Walton once coached the New York Jets before the club moved across the Hudson River.
But that was 12 years ago. So much has changed for Walton during that time. Out of professional football for 10 years, Walton has raised the football program at Robert Morris from its inception in 1993 into one of the nation’s elite Division I-AA non-scholarship programs. Now Walton was back in Queens to prepare his Colonials for their Northeast Conference game at St. John’s.
“It’s been a great run, a lot of fun,” Walton said. “I love the kids; the college is only 20 minutes from my home. This is probably the most fun I’ve had in football.”
The results Walton has been able to produce in such a short time is absolutely staggering. Robert Morris has amassed a 54-21-1 mark in eight years. The Colonials have either shared or won five straight Northeast Conference titles from 1996-2000. The squad also finished first in the nation among NCAA Division I-AA Mid-Majors, according to “Don Hansen’s Football Gazette.”
Gaudy numbers for a program that came from nothing in 1993.
“I thought it was a heck of a challenge to build a program from scratch,” said Walton, a three-time NEC Coach of the Year. “We didn’t even have a chinstrap. We had to get a practice field, build locker rooms, find the football offices and order equipment. It turned out to be a heck of a challenge, but it was kind of fun.”
For Walton, being able to work close to his Beaver Falls, Pa. home was one of the main reasons he took the job at Robert Morris.
“I’ve been in pro football for 25 years, as a player, a scout and coach,” he said. “At that point in my life, I felt to move to another city again….I had some chances, but during my time with the Steelers, I really enjoyed being back home. Maybe if I didn’t start this job, maybe I’d be doing something else [in the NFL]. But I didn’t want to move.”
Walton’s offensive system hasn’t changed. The same plays he taught Joe Theismann, Fran Tarkenton, Norm Snead, Ken O’Brien and Richard Todd, he is running for Robert Morris quarterback Tim Levcik.
“It’s the same system since I was with the Giants in the early ‘70s. It’s all the same plays, same passes. I continue to use it and teach it,” Walton said. “One thing I wanted to find out is if I could coach kids that are just out of high school.”
Walton said some of his best memories in football came as the head coach of the New York Jets. A year after being the offensive coordinator on a team that fell one game shy of the Super Bowl, Walton took over the reigns from Walt Michaels. After a pair of 7-9 seasons in 1983 and 84, Walton’s high-flying Jets, led by O’Brien, Freeman McNeil and Wesley Walker, went 11-5 in 1985 and 10-6 in 1986, making the playoffs each year.
But for Walton, those two years were the peak of the good times. Three straight losing seasons, capped by a 4-12 year in 1989, when the Jets crowd turned on Walton with chants of “Joe Must Go,” was enough for then-owner Leon Hess. Walton resurfaced as an offensive coordinator for Chuck Noll’s Steelers in 1990-91, but when Noll retired, Walton felt he had enough of the professional game.
“I had some great years with the Jets and we had some bad years,” said Walton, who specifically pointed out several of those memorable barnburners against the rival Miami Dolphins as some of his greatest highlights. “If you stay around long enough, you’ll have good and bad ones. But I have a lot of great memories.”
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
