Bret Bielema, a Buick Skylark and a steak dinner: 8 coaches discuss their ... - ABC News
College coaches, they're just like us. Before the million-dollar contracts, the most famous names in the game were low-paid assistants, often working side jobs to make ends meet. Bill Snyder as high school Spanish teacher "Well, my first position as an assistant coach was in Gallatin, Missouri. I was an assistant football coach and assistant basketball coach and assistant women's basketball coach, assistant track coach, drove the school bus, taught four units of Spanish -- which I knew nothing about -- and I made $6,000 a year. Bret Bielema, a Buick Skylark and a steak at Lone Star "That was my first semester. My second semester, then I became a full-time GA (graduate assistant), made $6,000 a year, and did that for two years before I became -- I was very fortunate, I was only a GA for two years before I became the linebackers coach at the University of... "I remember [Iowa coach Hayden Fry] came in and said 'I got some good news and bad news. ' He goes, 'Well, the only car we can give you is a Buick Skylark. ' So I got a brand-new Buick Skylark. The good news, he goes, 'I can give you $60,000. ' I was making $6,000. I thought like I was a millionaire. Then my first paying job, when Don James left and went to Washington [after the 1974 season], I got hired to coach linebackers at Kent. Source: abcnews.go.com
