Turning back time with ...

When Jim Zorn was frustrating opposing defenses and delighting fans of the expansion Seattle Seahawks in the late 1970s and early ’80s, an aspiring quarterback in North Idaho was taking notice.

“I grew up watching him, so I had that immediate respect for him,” said John Friesz, who went on to star at Coeur d’Alene High and the University of Idaho, and played 10 seasons in the NFL.

Later, for two years, Zorn and Friesz were on opposite sides of the Boise State-Idaho football rivalry — Zorn as an offensive assistant at BSU, Friesz in his final two seasons as QB for the Vandals. Idaho won both meetings, part of a run of 12 straight victories over the Broncos.

“I just remember him being great in college,” Zorn recalled of Friesz.

In 1997, they were together with the Seahawks — Friesz in his third season in Seattle, Zorn as an offensive assistant in his first job as an NFL coach.

“I was trying to learn everything that he could teach me about the game,” Friesz said.

“In Seattle, he was even more mature,” Zorn said. “Quiet leader, really understood what the offense was about, and understood what they were trying to accomplish each week. He did a great job just being involved with the team, and was an example of a guy that understood what it was to be a QB of an NFL team, not just another player, not just another teammate.”

Fast-forward to the current era of the Seahawks.

“The Seahawks are very good at taking care of the alumni, and keeping them included in the organization,” Friesz said.

Friesz gets over to Seattle to see a game every now and then, where he occasionally runs into Zorn.

“The last time, I went over there with my second son, Jake, and we were invited into the alumni suite,” Friesz said.

Zorn and Steve Largent were in there, along with some other former Seahawks including Lofa Tatupu, Shaun Alexander and Dave Krieg.

“Jim Zorn and Steve Largent are the two nicest guys you’ll ever meet,” Friesz said. “So sincere. For the success they’ve had, they’re so down to earth.”

So when Friesz asked if Zorn was interested in speaking at Coeur d’Alene’s annual banquet to honor North Idaho’s best high school and college teams and athletes, and recognize the region’s legendary individuals, Zorn gladly accepted.

Zorn will be the guest speaker at the 56th North Idaho Sports Awards Banquet, scheduled for Saturday at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn.

“Gosh, just a genuine person, just excited to spend a few minutes with,” Friesz said of Zorn. “Just a guy you’re better off for it if you’re able to be around him for a little bit.”

IN A phone interview earlier this week Zorn, 64, who resides in Mercer Island, Wash., and spends his time making speeches and providing individual instruction to quarterbacks, touched on a number of topics past and present, including:

His four seasons at Boise State (1988-91), when the Broncos were still in Division I-AA, years before they would move up to Division I, more than a decade before they would land on the national map with their Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma. Did Zorn see this coming?

“I did, and it’s because of Gene Bleymaier (the athletic director at the time),” he said. “He was outstanding, and he had tremendous support from the administration, and he did a really good job of hiring people who really wanted to be there and actually had the same vision he did. They had plans, and what was great, the community did such a great job of supporting Boise State to drive it to become a bigger program. I saw that in the time I was there.”

On his playing career with the Seahawks (1976-84). He came to the Seahawks as a free agent after being released by the Dallas Cowboys in 1975, and credited his time in Dallas, as an undrafted free agent playing for legendary coach Tom Landry, for helping him prepare for what was to come in Seattle.

“I was in the beginning of my career, so I just wanted to get on the field and play,” Zorn recalled. “There was no thinking about, ‘well, I should sit back and learn from a veteran.’ I learned the offense. Jerry Rhome, QB and receiver coach, taught me a lot about the game. And we set an offense into motion that most teams had never seen. It wasn’t even the drop-back stuff, or the play-action, it was the sprint-out series, because I could run. I could scramble, and I could run, and I could throw on the run, both ways.

“As an expansion team and franchise, it was so exciting for not only the players, because we got to establish Seahawk tradition, but the fans were awesome. In our first season, we were 2-14, and you’d have thought, based on the fans, that we had almost got to the playoffs. It was so enthusiatic, and continued to be throughout my whole career there.”

Zorn was an assistant under Mike Holmgren when the Seahawks went to their first Super Bowl in 2006, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was there when the current batch of Seahawks played in back-to-back Super Bowls.

“Wow, what an experience this football team has had over the years,” he said. “The similarity (over the years) is there’s a high degree of purpose to win championships, and with that, there’s a lot of responsibility. From the beginning, when the Nordstroms owned the team, to now when it’s owned by Paul Allen, there was no difference what the goal is, with both groups.”

On those zany Seahawk highlight-reel plays during the early years, which usually started with Zorn seemingly running for his life, and ended with a long strike to Largent.

“We had designed scramble plays, we had designed sprint-out runs, sprint draws, and then I would fake that sprint draw and keep running with the ball,” Zorn said. “We had plays where Steve could run ... who’s ever heard of a 23-yard comeback? Nobody. But because I dropped back first, and scrambled to my right or left, we were able to extend the patterns down the field. And then, we had quarterback draws in for me ... and then just pure scrambling when the protection broke down.”

And then there were all those trick plays in the early days.

“(Coach) Jack Patera, every single week, designed a fake field goal,” Zorn recalled. “And we used many fake field goals. And I was the holder. Even when we would lined up for a field goal, the defense would be saying ‘watch the fake,’ and then we’d fake it, and get the first down, or even score.”

Perhaps the most memorable one was at Atlanta, on Monday Night Football, when Zorn, the holder, completed a pass to Efren Herrera, the kicker.

“That was kind of the beginning of them,” Zorn said. “The ball was snapped, Atlanta played a zone coverage that allowed the middle of the field to be open. Efren came through on the kick, I stood up, and I looked to one side, and then the other, and nobody was around Efren in the middle. I want to say I threw a strike, but I sort of tried to lob him the ball. He caught it, and we got the first down.”

That wasn’t the end of the trickery.

“And even in that game I ran a really long QB draw,” Zorn said. “And I think Jack, in that game, was really excited. I think we had a fake punt, and a surprise onside kick; we had all kinds of things going. I don’t know if he was trying to impress Howard Cosell or not, but he impressed him.”

Zorn passed for 20,122 yards and 107 touchdowns in nine seasons with the Seahawks. After leaving Seattle, he played one season in Green Bay, another in Winnipeg of the Canadian Football League, and one season with Tampa Bay, seeing action in one game with the Bucs.

If Zorn came into the league today, with his scrambling ability, how would he have been viewed by teams?

“Today, my skill set is right there, because if you can create something out of a broken-down play ... now you have a chance to create something out of nothing,” Zorn said. “The Seahawks are still doing that with Russell Wilson today.”

But back in Zorn’s day ...

“In the beginning, it was great that I moved around,” he said. “But what happened was, the teams that were getting to the playoffs, and winning championships, had drop-back guys, or guys that could run play-action, but were not scrambling around. So, the idea was, we (teams) need a guy that can just stay in the pocket. And so I became ... I remember being encouraged, ‘stand strong in the pocket.’ I could, but it kinda made me feel like I was wrong, even when I scrambled. And that’s tough, because you can’t have a guy that’s comfortable at scrambling all the time just forgetting about that and just trying to stay there, especially when there are protection breakdowns. I think that made it difficult for me.

“There was a time when the teams that were winning, the (quarterbacks like) Dan Fouts, they’re being protected in dropping back. Those were the players where, you (coaches) could control the situation a little bit. The scramblers, as a coach, you have to trust a little bit more, and that’s a difficult task. That’s why I tip my hat to Pete (Carroll), because he and John Schneider have done a nice job trusting Russell to be able to make a play, not only with his feet, and then throwing it down the field.”

On the wear and tear on his body following his NFL career:

“I’m unscathed, except for my left ankle (which he broke late in the 1981 season),” Zorn said. “It’s in bad shape. I’ve not had a surgery on it in a while, but I’ve had several.”

Concussions?

“I never really had a concussion,” he said. “I never missed a play because of getting dinged — I think probably because I was able to move around. I missed a lot of (head-on) shots.

“I had a couple, but maybe I just have a dense head,” he said with a laugh.

Most of his post-playing days were spent as an assistant coach — in college at Boise State, at Utah State (1992-94) and at the University of Minnesota (1995-96), then in the pros with Seattle (1997), the Detroit Lions (1998-2000), the Seahawks again (2001-07), the Baltimore Ravens (2010) and the Kansas City Chiefs (2011-12).

He was head coach for two seasons with the Washington Redskins (2008-09), where he went 12-20 before getting fired.

“I feel like I was in my element,” Zorn said of his head coaching days. “I feel like I could still be there, and be the head coach.”

In addition to playing football at Cal Poly Pomona, Zorn was also a speed skater, and played on the school’s intercollegiate badminton team (yes, Cal Poly had an intercollegiate badminton team). He also threw the javelin, and surfed.

“I felt like each one of those (sports) supplemented football,” he said.

When Zorn played for the Seahawks, they conducted training camp at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, helping build up a nice following of Eastern Washington and North Idaho fans. Memories of those days?

“They were hot, longer, a lot longer than they are today,” he said. “And you had to pull together, because it was not fun a lot of the time.

“When you add up all the years I spent on campus, over a year of my life has been spent living in a dorm on campus at Eastern Washington State College.”

There was a little time for fun while in Cheney — maybe for some of the players, but not for Zorn.

“We had curfews,” he recalled. “It was disciplined, and it wasn’t too wild ... for me. The biggest deal was Savage House pizza. But I hunkered down and studied. As the quarterback, I didn’t run wild, I just hunkered down in Cheney.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.

Coming up

The 56th North Idaho Sports Awards Banquet is scheduled for Saturday, April 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn. Jim Zorn, former Seattle Seahawks quarterback, will be the guest speaker. Former University of Idaho football greats Sam Merriman and Sherriden May, along with former Silver Valley high school stars from the 1960s, Denny Almquist and John Shelt, will be inducted into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame. North Idaho high school and college athletes, coaches and teams will also be up for honors.

Tickets for the banquet can be purchased online at https://idahoathletichalloffame.org/banquet/ or at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for children age 12 and under.

For more information on the event or the Idaho Hall of Fame, contact board chair Rick Rasmussen at rrasmussen@nshinc.com or (208) 699-7495.