Criner’s career has gone full circle on his way to Outlaws

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Feb. 2, 2001 | 10:46 a.m.

A brief look at Outlaws head coach Jim Criner:

Age: 60

College: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona (1961). Played alongside John Madden in college.

Head coaching stops: Boise State (59-21-1, NCAA Division I-AA champions, 1980); Iowa State (17-25-2); Scottish Claymores, NFL Europe (26-34).

Family: Wife, Ann; son, Mark; daughter, Kelli. Mark Criner is the Outlaws defensive coordinator.

Interests: World-class fly fisherman.

At first glance, Jim Criner seems like the last person who would be a head football coach of a team in a new league run by pro wrestling czar Vince McMahon.

During his 30-year professional and college coaching career, Criner has been a successful college head coach at places such as Iowa State and Boise State, where he won a national title in 1980. He also has won championships in both the World League and its spinoff, NFL Europe.

But upon closer inspection, maybe Criner, whose Las Vegas Outlaws kick off the inaugural XFL season on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium against the New York/New Jersey Hitmen, is the perfect head coach for McMahon and company.

After all, it's fair to say Criner's career has taken some rather Xtreme twists and turns that make some of McMahon's wrestling plots look tame by comparison.

Start with his college playing days back at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Criner was a redshirt fullback-linebacker for Cal Poly in 1960 when the team plane crashed, killing 22 people, including 16 players.

"There were five fullback-linebackers in the program," Criner said. "The other four were seniors and I was a sophomore, so I was being redshirted and didn't make the trip. Three of those players died in the crash. It was a very traumatic thing."

Three of Criner's best friends, including San Diego State head coach Ted Tollner, survived the crash.

"Ted and those guys were sitting right in the row where the plane broke in half," Criner said. "Everybody in the front half died. I probably would have been sitting in that area with them if I had made the trip."

After getting fired at Iowa State despite finishing with a rare winning 6-5 season in 1985, Criner's career took another odd turn.

"I was one of two finalists for a head coaching job at Winnipeg in the CFL," Criner said. "I was on my way back when I decided to go through West Yellowstone (Park). We used to vacation there all the time."

While there, Criner, an avid fisherman, noticed his favorite fishing store, Bud Lilly's Trout Shop, had gone bankrupt.

"Just out of the clear blue sky I called my wife and asked her about going into buisness," Criner said. "Our son Mark was at Boise State so that would give us a chance to watch him play. She said, 'Are you crazy? We don't know anything about retail.' I told her I thought it would be just like running a football team. Besides, I knew how to fly fish. She said, 'If you want to do, do it.' "

Criner did. And with the helpful advice of Lilly, one of the world's top fishermen who had retired before the business had gone bankrupt, the fishing store began to prosper again.

"When we sold it (in 1994), we were doing $1 million a year in gross sales," Criner said.

Criner still owns a home in West Yellowstone but these days has not had time to do any fly fishing.

"Since I got here in August, it's been a 16-hour-a-day job," he said.

He left a job in NFL Europe as head coach of the Scottish Claymores to join the unproven XFL.

"The reason why I looked into this is that I was very impressed with the people (McMahon) hired to run it," Criner said. "The people at the top are all quality football people."

And Criner said he was also impressed by McMahon's desire to build a successful football league, not just some hokey spinoff of his wildly popular World Wrestling Federation shows.

"Before I first met Vince, the only thing I had ever seen of him was this wild rasslin' guy," Criner said. "But he's a very impressive person. He's a very good businessman, obviously. He knows what he wants. And I think he loves football much more than rasslin.' "

Criner said he wouldn't have taken the job if he thought the same scripted hijinx that is a major part of McMahon's WWF shows was going to spill over into the football arena.

"Not one time has a gimmick idea been brought in," Criner said. "I wouldn't have come here if it wasn't football."

Criner believes fans will be surprised by the caliber of play they will see in the XFL. He says the talent is better than that of NFL Europe.

"(NFL Europe) is definitely a development type of league," Criner said. "The XFL has older, more experienced players, guys who were pushed out of the NFL either because of an injury or the salary cap.

"I think fans will be impressed with the caliber of talent and the way the game is played. We're not the NFL. But other than the NFL, you won't find football played like this anywhere in the world."