Sports

Meet the man who hired Curt Cignetti and others before they were coaching stars

January 23, 2026

Story byMeet the man who hired Curt Cignetti and others before they were coaching starsJerry BrewerFri, January 23, 2026 at 11:46 AM UTC·7 min readJeff Bourne, a man who doesn’t need a telescope to identify stars, watched history from his den. It was a quiet Monday night at his North Carolina home on the edge of Lake Norman, just the way he likes it now. As bedtime neared, his television screen showed a group of carefree players carrying a giant Gatorade cooler, coming for his old friend, Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti. After Cignetti pointed to the heavens, the icy blue liquid rained onto his back and shoulders.

Credit: Yahoo

Key Highlights

He mouthed, “That’s cold!” Then he unfurled the widest smile, in full defiance of his curmudgeon reputation, a joyous side that Bourne remembers fondly. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“What a cool thing to witness,” Bourne said during a phone interview. Seven years ago, Bourne hired Cignetti to lead the James Madison football program.
Now, the retired athletic director gazed upon Cignetti wearing a crimson Hoosiers pullover and completing a miraculous two-year turnaround at Indiana with a 16-0 record and a national title.
The author of perhaps the greatest coaching job in major college football history passed through Harrisonburg, Va., on his way to bliss to Bloomington.
If Bourne had done nothing else in his 25 years as the James Madison AD, the Cignetti hire would be a legacy-defining decision.
But Cignetti was just the ice in his Gatorade. For Bourne, Cignetti’s success wasn’t an outlier.

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Meet the man who hired Curt Cignetti and others before they were coaching stars

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