{{Short description|American football player, coach, and administrator (1923–2013)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox college coach | name = Wade Walker | image = Wade Walker.png | alt = | caption = Walker pictured in ''Reveille 1956'', Mississippi State yearbook | birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|11|29}} | birth_place = Mocksville, North Carolina, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|12|18|1923|11|29}} | death_place = California, U.S. | alma_mater = | player_years1 = 1946–1949 | player_team1 = Oklahoma | player_positions = Tackle | coach_years1 = 1950 | coach_team1 = NC State (assistant) | coach_years2 = 1951–1953 | coach_team2 = Texas Tech (assistant) | coach_years3 = 1954–1955 | coach_team3 = Mississippi State (line) | coach_years4 = 1956–1961 | coach_team4 = Mississippi State | admin_years1 = 1959–1966 | admin_team1 = Mississippi State | admin_years2 = 1971–1986 | admin_team2 = Oklahoma | overall_record = 22–32–2 | bowl_record = | tournament_record = | championships = | awards = * First-team All-American (1949) * 3× First-team All-Big Seven (1946, 1947, 1949) * Second-team All-Big Seven (1948) | coaching_records = }} '''Wade Hampton Walker''' (November 29, 1923 – December 18, 2013) was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He played football as a tackle at the University of Oklahoma under head coaches Jim Tatum and Bud Wilkinson. Walker was named an all-conference player all four years and a first-team All-American in 1949. He served as the head football coach at Mississippi State for six seasons, from 1956 to 1961, and compiled a 22–32–2 record. He also served as the athletic director at Mississippi State and Oklahoma.
==College career== Walker was born in Mocksville, North Carolina,<ref name=four>Harold Keith, [https://books.google.com/books?id=h5Oo09wtdqoC ''47 Straight: The Wilkinson Era at Oklahoma''], p. 22, University of Oklahoma Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-8061-3569-7}}.</ref> and attended college at the University of Oklahoma. He played for the Oklahoma Sooners football team as a tackle from 1946 to 1949,<ref name=ou/> and he served as the team captain for two seasons.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jpehWR53e7AC Football Feuds: The Greatest College Football Rivalries]'', p. 70, Globe Pequot, 2007, {{ISBN|1-59921-014-2}}.</ref> Walker was part of the 1946 recruiting class—brought to Norman by one-year head coach Jim Tatum—that included nine future All-Americans.<ref>[http://www.oufoundation.org/sm/spring08/story.asp?ID=284 The Forgotten Man of Oklahoma Football: Jim Tatum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090222224249/http://www.oufoundation.org/sm/spring08/story.asp?ID=284 |date=2009-02-22 }}, ''Sooner Magazine'', University of Oklahoma Foundation, Spring 2008.</ref> In 1947, Tatum's former assistant Bud Wilkinson had taken over as head coach but by midseason the team was struggling with a 2–2 record. In an effort to evoke player leadership, he told the team to elect two co-captains to serve the remainder of the season, and they chose Walker and the previous season's honor captain, Jim Tyree.<ref>Keith, p. 29.</ref> In 1948, the International News Service named Walker as the right tackle on its All-Midlands team.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19481127&id=ErgKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EU4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4819,3472563 Oklahoma Places Six on All-Midlands Team], ''St. Petersburg Times'', November 27, 1948.</ref>
In 1949, Walker was named a first-team All-American by the Associated Press, American Football Coaches Association (as a guard), Football Writers Association of America, and Newspaper Enterprise Association.<ref>''ESPN College Football Encyclopedia'', p. 1214, Hyperion: ESPN Books, 2005, {{ISBN|1-4013-3703-1}}.</ref> He is one of just three Sooners to have been named an all-conference player each of his four years.<ref name=ou>[http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-footbl/archive/aa-wade-walker-1949.html All-American: Wade Walker], Oklahoma University, retrieved June 17, 2009.</ref> In ''47 Straight: The Wilkinson Era at Oklahoma'', author Harold Keith describes Walker as a "finesse player" who eschewed hip pads and wore low-top backfield shoes to reduce the weight of his equipment. Teammate and fellow All-American Stan West said of Walker:<ref name=four/><blockquote>"I had the reputation of being the laziest man of all in our calisthenics drills, but I was chain lightning compared to him. 'Lord,' Wade used to say, 'you get warm enough out here anyhow.'"</blockquote>
In the 1947 NFL draft, Walker was selected in the 22nd round as the 201st overall pick by the Chicago Cardinals.<ref>[https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/crd/1947_draft.htm 1947 Chicago Cardinals Draftees], Pro Football Reference, retrieved June 17, 2009.</ref>
==Coaching and administrative career== In 1950, Walker worked as an assistant football coach at NC State.<ref>[http://images.lib.ncsu.edu:8180/luna/servlet/detail/NCSULIB~102~3~100389213~233825:NC-State-football-coach-Wade-Walker?qvq=w4s:/what/Football.+Players,+Q-Z/where/United+States+--+North+Carolina+--+Wake+County+--+Raleigh/;lc:NCSULIB~102~3,NCSULIB~1~1,NCSULIB~2~2,SCDRLUNA-VC~102~3&mi=23&trs=43 NC State football coach Wade Walker], Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries, North Carolina State University, retrieved June 17, 2009.</ref> The following year, Walker served as an assistant football coach with the Texas Tech Red Raiders from 1951 to 1953 prior to his arrival at Mississippi State.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/text/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2010FBmediasupplement.pdf |title=2010 Texas Tech Red Raiders Football Media Guide |publisher=Texas Tech University |page=68 |location=Lubbock, Texas |access-date=2011-07-06 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001008/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/text/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2010FBmediasupplement.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Walker was an assistant coach with the Bulldogs from 1954 to 1955 before serving as Mississippi State's head football coach and athletic director from 1956 to 1961. Walker compiled a 22–32–2 record over his 6-season tenure.<ref>[http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv07/CFHSNv07n4a.pdf Charles "Bud" Wilkinson] (PDF), College Football Historical Society Newsletter, Vol. VII, No. II, August 1994.</ref><ref>[http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/coaching/alltime_coach_year_by_year.php?coachid=2421 Wade Walker Records by Year] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100215042124/http://cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/coaching/alltime_coach_year_by_year.php?coachid=2421 |date=2010-02-15 }}, College Football Data Warehouse, retrieved June 17, 2009.</ref> The Mississippi State Maroons (now known as the Bulldogs) posted a lackluster 2–7–1 record in 1959. The following year, Walker's team improved to 5–5, but students and alumni demanded his ouster. University president Dean W. Colvard relented and fired Walker as football coach, but kept him on as athletic director.<ref name=maroon>Michael B. Ballard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=65J5gDduWJ4C ''Maroon and White: Mississippi State University, 1878-2003''], p. 144, University Press of Mississippi, 2008, {{ISBN|1-57806-999-8}}.</ref>
In 1963, the Mississippi State basketball team won the Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. They were set to face Loyola of Chicago, an integrated school, but Mississippi state schools had an unwritten prohibition against playing teams with black players. In violation of a court injunction that prohibited the team from leaving the state, Colvard ordered the athletic department staff, including Walker and head basketball coach Babe McCarthy, across state lines to Nashville, Tennessee. An assistant coach smuggled the team out of the state from a private airfield, and they met Walker and the rest of the staff before flying to Michigan to play Loyola. Mississippi State lost, 61–51, but returned home without further incident. Walker said, "There I was, acting like a fugitive and running from the law because I was doing something I believed was right."<ref name=si>[https://archive.today/20130102135041/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066745/index.htm Another Blow To Jim Crow], ''Sports Illustrated'', November 18, 1987.</ref>
Mississippi State football fared poorly again in 1966, and Walker and his replacement as head football coach, Paul E. Davis, both resigned.<ref name=maroon/> Walker returned to Oklahoma in 1971 to become the school's athletic director, and he served in that position until 1986.<ref name=ou/>
==Later life and death== In 1987, Walker moved to La Quinta, California and worked for the Landmark Land Company.<ref name=si/> Walker died at his home in California on December 18, 2013.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hailstate.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=16800&ATCLID=209350987 |title=Services For Former MSU Coach/Athletic Director Wade Walker Saturday |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=December 27, 2013 |publisher=Mississippi State University Athletics |access-date=February 27, 2014}} </ref>
==Head coaching record== {{CFB Yearly Record Start | type = coach | team = | conf = | bowl = | poll = both }} {{CFB Yearly Record Subhead | name = Mississippi State Maroons/Bulldogs | conf = Southeastern Conference | startyear = 1956 | endyear = 1961 }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | year = 1956 | name = Mississippi State | overall = 4–6 | conference = 2–5 | confstanding = T–8th | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = | ranking2 = }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | year = 1957 | name = Mississippi State | overall = 6–2–1 | conference = 4–2–1 | confstanding = T–3rd | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = | ranking2 = 14 }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | year = 1958 | name = Mississippi State | overall = 3–6 | conference = 2–5 | confstanding = 9th | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = | ranking2 = }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | year = 1959 | name = Mississippi State | overall = 2–7 | conference = 0–7 | confstanding = 12th | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = | ranking2 = }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | year = 1960 | name = Mississippi State | overall = 2–6–1 | conference = 0–5–1 | confstanding = 11th | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = | ranking2 = }} {{CFB Yearly Record Entry | year = 1961 | name = Mississippi State | overall = 5–5 | conference = 1–5 | confstanding = T–10th | bowlname = | bowloutcome = | bcsbowl = | ranking = | ranking2 = }} {{CFB Yearly Record Subtotal | name = Mississippi State | overall = 22–32–2 | confrecord = 8–30–2 }} {{CFB Yearly Record End | overall = 22–32–2 | bowls = no | poll = two | polltype = | legend = no }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Find a Grave}}
{{Mississippi State Bulldogs football coach navbox}} {{Mississippi State Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs athletic director navbox}} {{Oklahoma Sooners athletic director navbox}} {{Chicago Cardinals 1947 draft navbox}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Wade}} Category:1923 births Category:2013 deaths Category:American football tackles Category:Mississippi State Bulldogs athletic directors Category:Mississippi State Bulldogs football coaches Category:NC State Wolfpack football coaches Category:Oklahoma Sooners athletic directors Category:Oklahoma Sooners football players Category:Texas Tech Red Raiders football coaches Category:Sportspeople from La Quinta, California Category:People from Mocksville, North Carolina Category:Players of American football from North Carolina