Jimmy Johnson

Jimmy Johnson is an American Hall of Fame former NFL and college football head coach whose three-decade career produced one NCAA Division I-A national championship (1987 at the University of Miami) and two consecutive Super Bowl championships (Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII in 1993 and 1994 with the Dallas Cowboys) — making him one of only three people in football history to win both an NCAA Division I-A national championship and a Super Bowl championship as a head coach. He was born James William Johnson on July 16, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas. His father C. W. Johnson was a Port Arthur-area dairy-farm-and-grocery-store-business operator, and his mother Allene Johnson was a homemaker.

His college football career at the University of Arkansas across 1961–1964 under coach Frank Broyles — alongside future Cowboys offensive lineman Jerry Jones (his future Cowboys business partner) — produced his 1964 first-team All-Southwest Conference honorable mention as a defensive lineman.

His 1965 first college-football coaching position as a graduate-assistant defensive line coach at Louisiana Tech under coach Joe Aillet launched his early-career college-football coaching career. His 1979 first college-football head-coaching position at Oklahoma State University (1979–1983) and his subsequent 1984 hiring as the head coach at the University of Miami launched his late-1980s college-football head-coaching public profile. His 1984–1988 Miami head-coaching tenure produced the 1987 NCAA Division I-A national championship (across which Miami defeated Oklahoma 20–14 in the 1988 Orange Bowl).

His February 25, 1989 hiring as the Dallas Cowboys head coach by his former Arkansas teammate Jerry Jones — at the same time as the February 25, 1989 Jerry Jones Cowboys-purchase from H. R. "Bum" Bright — launched his 1990s NFL head-coaching public profile. His 1989–1993 Cowboys head-coaching tenure produced the back-to-back Super Bowl championships in 1993 and 1994 (Super Bowl XXVII over the Buffalo Bills 52–17, and Super Bowl XXVIII over the Buffalo Bills 30–13). His subsequent 1996–1999 Miami Dolphins head-coaching tenure produced two AFC East division championships. His later 2002–present Fox NFL Sunday TV-broadcasting analyst position has produced his later American TV-broadcasting public profile. He married Linda Cooper in 1963 (divorced 1989); he married Rhonda Rookmaaker in 1999.

His name Jimmy is the English diminutive of James (from the Hebrew Ya'akov). Jimmy has been continuously among the most-popular American boys' names since 1880.