After 40 years, Jimerson is ready to retire ... again

Published: June 25, 2007

After a career of service spanning five decades at Oklahoma, it's time to relax.

"I'm prepared for it,” says Jimerson, 72, who retired from the university before, leaving an assistant athletic director post, only to be retained as the executive director of the O Club, now known as the Varsity O Association.

For those who know and adore Jimerson, it's also time to reflect on the man's impact on the school, the Sooners and so many others during tenures as coach and administrator and as a charter member of a marching cause that would become today's Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Steve Davis, the former OU quarterback great, will serve as keynote speaker to a sold-out luncheon audience Thursday when Jimerson will be saluted at an event sponsored by OKC PrayerMetro and the Jim Thorpe Association.

For those who know little of Jimerson, he's been a steady and strong, although quiet, influence on OU athletics since the late '60s.

He arrived in Norman in 1967 when Jim Mackenzie remembered the Lawton High coach who picked his brain about I-formation offense and added him to his Sooner staff to coach the freshmen.

Jimerson worked under Chuck Fairbanks and Barry Switzer, too, coaching running backs and tight ends and receivers. But he also served in administration as an assistant athletic director, producing some of his greatest crimson-colored memories, like national championships in gymnastics and golf, when those sports fell under his watch.

"I've been through a lot,” Jimerson said. "So many wonderful memories.”

Then there's Jimerson's work with FCA, as a high school coach and at OU.

"When Don first started coaching, I was a high school coach carrying the FCA thing,” said Chuck Bowman, another of the men who propelled FCA through its infancy. "Don came and walked by my side. We were in our 20s.

"Fourteen years later, I was involved in FCA full time. And Don was still right by my side.”

Jimerson stood by OU's side, too, for 40 years.

Now, fittingly, he's handing the Varsity O job off — to former Sooner star runner Joe Washington.

"I officially retired years ago,” Jimerson said. "This hasn't been a busy job, but it's been nice.

"It's time.”

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