Profile · Beloit, Wisconsin
James Caldwell
Born Beloit, January 16, 1955
$15 million+
James "Jim" Caldwell is the Beloit-born football coach who became the first Black head coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference and later led the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl. He was born in Beloit on January 16, 1955, and came through Beloit Memorial High School as a nine-letter athlete: undefeated Big Eight football as a senior, a starter on the 1972–73 state-championship basketball team, and a member of a 4×400 relay that took second in the state. Class of 1973, he entered Memorial's hall of fame in 2011. Iowa gave him a scholarship. He started four years in the defensive backfield, blocked kicks as a freshman, captained the 1976 Hawkeyes, and stayed on to coach. Wake Forest hired him in 1993 as the ACC's first Black head coach. Tony Dungy took him to Tampa Bay and then Indianapolis; Caldwell was on the staff that won Super Bowl XLI, then got the Colts job himself. As a rookie NFL head coach in 2009 he started 14–0 before resting starters, finished 14–2, and lost Super Bowl XLIV to the Saints. He later called plays for the Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl XLVII title and coached the Detroit Lions from 2014 to 2017. The NFL is the résumé. Beloit Memorial is the hometown.