James Joseph Valek (January 25, 1928 – September 4, 2005) was an
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
player, coach, and executive. He served as the head football coach at the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
from 1967 to 1970, compiling a record of 8–32.
Valek also coached the
New York Knights, of the
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...
, to a 2–10 record in 1988.
Head coaching record
College
References
1928 births
2005 deaths
American football ends
Arena Football League coaches
Army Black Knights football coaches
Dallas Cowboys scouts
Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches
Illinois Fighting Illini football players
New England Patriots coaches
New England Patriots executives
South Carolina Gamecocks football coaches
Wichita State Shockers football coaches
High school football coaches in Illinois
Sportspeople from Joliet, Illinois
Players of American football from Illinois
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