Spartan Profiles: Jim Popp
LES ALOUETTES EN MONTREAL
The Montreal Alouettes are the reigning Grey Cup champions in the Canadian Football League. The keystone to their recent success has been general manager Jim Popp, ’86, who also serves as director of football operations and director of player personnel.
Considered one of the brightest minds in professional sports, Popp, in his ten years with the CFL, the last six years with Montreal, has taken his teams to the playoffs and the Divisional Championships every year, including four Grey Cups, two of which he has won. “It’s hard work,” explains Popp, who has coached college, NFL Europe and the CFL. “I truly believe that hard work creates luck. Anyone can say that Doug Flutie is lucky, that Michael Jordan is lucky, that Tiger Woods is lucky. It’s hard work that puts you in that position. I work hard, maybe too hard, but that comes from my upbringing.”
A native of Elkin, NC, son of a football coach, he visited MSU at age 9 with his family. “My uncle Bob took us to Spartan Stadium and we ran around the field,” he recalls. “Then when I was in high school MSU won the national championship in basketball.”
He promptly chose MSU as part of George Perles’ first recruiting class, but a severe knee injury shortened his playing career as a defensive back. “Being at MSU was a great enjoyment,” he recalls. “I became a much better student—rooming with (teammate) Dean Altobelli. In retrospect, I think my injury made me grow as a person." He touts Nick Saban, then his position coach, as “a tremendous coach, very tough, old-school, which I respected.” He also learned from Altobelli. “To this day I tell people about how that guy went through college in mechanical engineering,” he says. “His study habits were phenomenal.”
Jim has never attended Spartan Stadium since graduation but, he says, “I went to the Rose Bowl, the Gator Bowl, and some other bowls, and I have a granite-based Spartan Stadium on my desk.”