By Chuck Johnson
This article orginally appeared in the Nov. 2, 2002 football program.
Jim Hester came to the University of North Dakota from Davenport, Iowa, in 1963 to play basketball. He did that very well as a teammate of Phil Jackson on Sioux teams that finished third in Division II national tournaments in Evansville, Ind., two years in a row.
Hester graduated from UND four years later, in 1967, as a football player, drafted as a tight end by the New Orleans Saints in their first season in the National Football League after only one fall on the Fighting Sioux football team.
He made a great impression in college football, helping the 1966 Sioux to victory in the Pecan Bowl.
The football coach at the time, Marvin "Whitey" Helling, recalled at a reunion of that team at Homecoming two weeks ago, that Hester had wanted to try football all along.
"He spent a lot of time in the football office," Helling said. "We had a coffee pot, and he would stop in for a cup and talk football. Bill Fitch had recruited him for basketball and did not want him to play football.
"But, finally, his senior year, Hester decided to play football, no matter what."
Hester made an immediate impact.
"I have always contended," Helling said, "that if I were building a football team from scratch, I would want a basketball point guard at quarterback and a couple of forwards as pass receivers. The point guard would know where to pass the ball, and the forwards would know how to get open."
So the Sioux prospered, with Corey Colehour at quarterback finding the open man, often Jim Hester as a rookie tight end. Hester caught 31 passes for 385 yards and three touchdowns in his only season with the Sioux football team.
Hester also did well with the fledgling Saints. The coach was Tom Fears, a great end at UCLA and with the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL and then an assistant coach with the Green Bay Packers under Vince Lombardi. Hester played three years with the Saints, and then a year with the Chicago Bears before a knee injury ended his career.
Back home in Davenport, Hester had a special Iowa automobile license plate, "NFL 4", in honor of his time in the pros.
Hester worked in nearby Moline, Ill., for the John Deere Co., holding many executive positions, one as manager of the combine division, before his recent retirement.
He also was active in community service, as president of the Davenport School Board and a speaker to youth groups on the importance of education.
"When Coach Fitch recruited me, he emphasized to my mother that UND would not only educate me, it would make me a good citizen. She liked that."
Freshmen could not play varsity sports then, and Hester came close to flunking. He called home from Fitch's office to tell his parents his problem. Had his father answered the call, Jim may well have gone home, but his mother answered.
"She told me not to come home, to stay and get an education, whether I played basketball or not," Hester said. "I got a summer job in the sugar beet factory, and I took classes and regained my eligibility.
"I learned early about the importance of an education and taking advantage of my opportunities."
Jim Hester, a member of the Fighting Sioux Athletic Hall of Fame and recipient of a Sioux Award, would have attended Homecoming and the reunion of the 1966 Sioux football team, at which 44 players were on hand, but he is suffering from the effects of diabetes.
He told Colehour, the leader of the team, "I'm going to be there, even if it kills me." Doctors in Davenport ruled otherwise.
