Jim Weinman, first football coach at Nassau Community College, dies at 88

When Nassau Community College started its football program in 1968, it was looking for a dynamic leader who could build a winning culture.

Jim Weinman was the perfect choice. A knowledgeable strategist with a gregarious personality, Weinman was an almost instant success.

“I don't think there was ever a better college football coach on Long Island,” said Mike Candel, a former Newsday sportswriter who was a colleague of Weinman’s at Nassau Community College. “He was a magnetic person. That's the best way I can put it. There were people who were suggesting that he should run for office.”

Weinman, a father of three who coached football at Nassau Community College for 19 seasons, died on Nov. 21 at his home in West Palm Beach, Florida, his family said. He was 88.

He is in the SUNY Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame and the National Junior College Athletic Association Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

“He could walk into a room with 100 people, and people would think he was there to talk to them,” said John Anselmo, 73, of Florida, Weinman’s defensive coordinator at Nassau Community College. “He just commanded the room when he walked into it.”

After coaching football at three upstate high schools, Weinman was named Nassau Community College's first coach and earned the team a bid in the Sterling Silver Bowl in Sterling, Kansas, in 1969. In 1970, the team played in the El Toro Bowl in Arizona.

“He was always studying the game,” said his son Gregg Weinman, 66, of LeRoy, New York. “I remember when I was a little kid, the film projector was always running in our dining room. Wherever we lived, he was constantly getting film and breaking it down. He was very analytical and methodical.”

Jim Weinman’s Nassau Community College teams went 136-38-1, according to Newsday records. They went to three national bowl games, had three undefeated seasons and were ranked among the top 10 junior college teams in the country at the end of 10 different seasons, according to his bio on SUNY Cortland’s athletic website.

“He put junior college football on the map in New York,” Anselmo said.

Weinman’s 1985 team lost to Mississippi’s Copiah-Lincoln Junior College, 18-17, in the East Bowl — that year’s national championship.

“He could coach anything,” said former offensive coordinator Rich Speckmann, 77, of Florida. “He was very knowledgeable. He had a great way of doing it and the kids loved him.”

Born April 11, 1934, in upstate Wellsville, Weinman spent the first part of his professional life nurturing connections in the northern part of the state. After serving in the Army during the Korean War (he was stationed in Washington state and did not see combat), Weinman went to Cortland State, where he played football and baseball and majored in physical education. He then moved on to Penn State, where he earned a master’s degree in physical education and worked as a graduate assistant under football coach Joe Paterno.

Weinman began his professional career as a physical education teacher and eight-man football coach at Richfield Springs Central High School near Utica, eventually moving to oversee larger programs at Lyons High School and Binghamton North High School.

Weinman’s high school teams went a combined 54-3-3, according to Cortland’s athletic website.

“He had a reputation,” Speckmann said. “Coming from upstate helped us get kids from up there, and so many coaches on Long Island were Cortland graduates. He knew a lot of people [upstate] and that certainly helped. Those guys had confidence that Jim would do a good job.”

Weinman, who lived in South Huntington for nearly 50 years, taught physical education at Nassau Community College into his 80s. He coached the Nassau Community College women’s volleyball team to three national tournament bids between 1988-95, according to Cortland’s athletic website.

Weinman was an avid sailor who went to night school at the Merchant Marine Academy to earn his captain’s license, volunteered at the WaterFront Center in Oyster Bay, and was the owner and president of the Long Island Sailing School. He also taught sailing at Nassau Community College.

“He would go out of his way to talk to you for as long as you wanted to talk,” Gregg Weinman said. “He was an extrovert.”

In addition to Gregg Weinman, Jim Weinman is survived by sons Dean Weinman of Virginia and Bradley Weinman of Blue Point; brother Donald Weinman of Wellsville; sister Janet Jinske of upstate Liverpool; and 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife, Barbara Weinman.

Jim Weinman was cremated. A private family ceremony will be held in the spring, Gregg Weinman said.