Who is Jimbo Fisher?
American college football coach and former American Football player John James ‘Jimbo’ Fisher Jr. was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia USA, on 9 October 1965, making Libra his zodiac sign. He’s perhaps known best for the years which he’s spent coaching the Texas A&M Aggies, while he’d previously coached the Florida State Seminoles, leading them to win the 2014 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game.
Education and early life
Jimbo was raised alongside his brother Bryan in Clarksburg, by their father John James Fisher and mother Gloria; Jimbo’s kept other details about his family to himself, because he respects their privacy.
He became interested in football while attending North View Junior High School; Jimbo eventually progressed to and played for Liberty High School, and became one of the best players there. A couple of other activities in which Jimbo enjoyed taking part included acting, dancing and playing baseball.
He matriculated in 1984, and then enrolled at Clemson University on a baseball scholarship; he transferred to Salem College, and then eventually to Samford University, where he played football for the Samford Bulldogs, and was named Division III National Player of the Year. Jimbo graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 1988.
Jimbo’s career
Jimbo spent the year 1988 playing for the Chicago Bruisers of the Arena Football League (AFL), and from 1988 through 1990 worked at Samford as a quarterbacks assistant coach. After showing great coaching skills, Jimbo was hired as a full-time quarterbacks coach and offensive co-ordinator.
From 1990 through 1992, he worked at Auburn University as their quarterbacks coach under head coach Terry Bowden, and only left Auburn after Terry resigned and was replaced by Tommy Tuberville in 1998. He then spent a year serving as the offensive co-ordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Cincinnati, while the year 2000 saw him join the Louisiana State University (LSU); Jimbo helped develop several quarterbacks during his time at LSU, including JaMarcus Russell, Matt Mauck and Rohan Davey.
Jimbo chose to try and become a head coach in the mid-2000s, and was interviewed for the position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2006; the university’s Board of Trustees vetoed his contract offer for unknown reasons. He was then invited to join the University of Alabama’s coaching staff, but instead joined Florida State University as their quarterbacks coach and offensive co-ordinator, replacing coach Jeff Bowden. Jimbo was named ‘head coach in waiting’ after his first year at Florida State, and then signed a $600,000 per year contract; Florida State also promised to pay Jimbo $5 million if he wasn’t promoted to head coach by the end of 2010. After the late American college football coach Robert Cleckler ‘Bobby’ Bowden retired from being the head coach at the university, Jimbo took over the position on 5 January 2010; at a press conference two days later, he revealed that his goal was to make big changes in the team, and announced his coaching staff.
During his first year with the Seminoles, Jimbo led the team to win 10 games in the season, the first time since 2003 and second since 2000; they defeated their in-state rivals the Florida Gators and the Miami Hurricanes, and reached the 2010 Chick-fil-A Bowl game, defeating South Carolina.
The Seminoles finished their 2011 season with nine wins and four defeats, and once again defeated both the Gators and the Hurricanes; they also won the Champs Sports Bowl by defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The year 2012 saw them win their first conference title in seven years, when they reached the Orange Bowl and defeated the Northern Illinois Huskies; they were undefeated in the 2013 season, and then had two undefeated seasons in a row.
The Seminoles lost in the Rose Bowl to the Oregon Ducks 59-20, and had the record 10-3 in both of the two following seasons. The team’s performance declined in the years following their 2014 BCS National Championship win, and Jimbo resigned as the Seminoles’ head coach on 1 December 2017.
He accepted the same position at Texas A&M University, and signed a $75 million 10-year contract with the A&M Aggies. They recorded 9-4 in their first season under Jimbo, and won against the NC State Wolfpack at the 2018 Gator Bowl; they then won against the Oklahoma State Athletics at the 2019 Texas Bowl, and finished their 2020 season with the 9-1 record.
Jimbo signed a new contract with the Aggies in December 2021, earning $9 million a year; his 2022 season was the worst that he had with the Aggies, as they won only three of their first nine games.
Love life and wife
Jimbo’s married twice, but rarely speaks about his love life in public. His first wife was Candi Fisher; the two married in 1989 and divorced in 2015, having two sons together, Trey and Ethan; Ethan was diagnosed with the rare genetic disease Fanconi anemia in 2011, and this led to Jimbo and Candi to found the charity organization Kidz1stFund. Trey followed in his father’s footsteps and played football at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
Jimbo married his second wife, American non-celebrity Courtney Harrison Fisher in 2020, and they’re today living in College Station, Texas; he’s the stepfather of Courtney’s son Keller from a previous marriage/relationship.
Congrats to Jimbo and Courtney Fisher, married this summer. Dynamic couple: pic.twitter.com/eSGBkO3MKv
— Brent Zwerneman (@BrentZwerneman) August 25, 2020
Interesting facts and hobbies
Jimbo’s active on Twitter; he launched his account in November 2017 and has since tweeted over 16,000 times, while he’s today followed by more than 3,000 people. Most of his tweets are about football.
Jimbo’s passionate about travelling and has been to all of the US states, while he’s also vacationed in a couple of European countries.
He enjoys listening to rock ‘n’ roll music, and his favorite band’s AC/DC.
Jimbo’s a philanthropist, and has donated money to several charity organizations.
His favorite actor is Matt Damon, and some of his favorite movies include “The Monuments Men”, “Deadpool 2” and “Ocean’s Thirteen”.
Height, eyes and wealth
Jimbo’s age is 57. He has blue eyes and grey hair, is 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall and weighs around 195lbs (88kgs).
Jimbo’s net worth’s been estimated at over $13 million, as of May 2023.