Former Russellville Head Football Coach Jim Gladden is the coach/administrator being named to the Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame.
Gladden coached the Panthers for two seasons in 1970-71. His first team won the regional championship before losing to Bardstown on a trick play in the state semifinals. Many long-time RHS fans believe it was the best RHS team in the playoff era not to make it to the state championship game.
Five years after leaving Russellville, he joined the Seminoles staff, coached there 27 years, and still resides in the Tallahassee area.
This is the university’s biography of him when the 2018 Hall of Fame class was announced:
JIM GLADDEN
Coaches & Administration (1976-2001)
For 27 years (1975-2001), Jim Gladden coached football at Florida State where he was on coaching staff’s that elevated Florida State’s program into the most consistently successful in college football history.
Gladden joined then-head coach Darrell Mudra’s coaching staff in 1975 as a graduate assistant and was elevated to a full-time position in 1976 when the legendary Bobby Bowden took over the program. He coached outside linebackers for Bowden from 1976 through 1995 and switched to defensive ends coach from 1996 until his retirement in 2001
Gladden coached and recruited some of the greatest names in Seminole history including NFL Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks, and FSU Hall of Famers Peter Boulware, Reinard Wilson, Andre Wadsworth and Jamal Reynolds.
A personable and highly successful recruiter Gladden was also highly regarded for his ability to judge talent. Additionally, he coached FSU’s legendary punt block unit that blocked 80 over his tenure.
The Seminoles won National Championships in 1993 and 1999 during Gladden’s tenure and played for titles three more times. While the fact that FSU earned a bowl berth in each of the last 23 years of his career is stunning, even more impressive is Florida State’s record 14 straight Top 5 finishes from 1987-2000, which has never been matched in the history of the game.
Other Hall of Famers:
Florida State University’s Athletics Hall of Fame will induct a class of nine new members on Friday, September 7, that includes a National League Most Valuable Player, a two-time Olympic medalist and one of the Seminoles’ all-time great defensive linemen.
Buster Posey won every award he was eligible for in college baseball during his junior season at FSU, and has become one of Major League Baseball’s brightest stars as a catcher with the San Francisco Giants. Sprinter Walter Dix won a pair of bronze medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Odell Haggins was an All-American at noseguard for the Seminoles and has been a member of the coaching staff for the last 22 years.
2002 NCAA outdoor triple jump champion Teresa Bundy is a member of the 2018 HOF class as is former NBA player Al Thornton, three-time softball All-American Veronica Wootson, 2007 soccer college Player of the Year Mami Yamaguchi and Moore-Stone Award winner Bob Perrone.
The 2018 class will be inducted at the annual ceremony beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Florida State’s University Center Club the night before the Seminole’s second home football game against Samford. A limited number of tickets to the event are available to the public for $75 via email at fsuhalloffame@gmail.com or by calling the FSU Varsity Club at 850-644-1123.