Posted on 07/01/2010 10:30:14 PM PDT by South40
Don Coryell, who twice reversed the fortunes of San Diego football franchises and revolutionized the passing game in the National Football League, has died at the age of 85.
Coryell died at 3:15 p.m. today at Grossmont Hospital, surrounded by family. He had been been battling a lengthy illness.
Coryell is the only coach to have more than 100 wins at both the collegiate and professional levels and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. He was a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
“We are terribly saddened by the passing of Coach Coryell,” said Chargers President Dean Spanos in a statement. “He revolutionized the game of football, not only in San Diego, but throughout the entire NFL. Don Coryell was a legend not only with the Chargers but throughout San Diego. Though unfortunately he did not live long enough to see it, hopefully one day his bust will find its proper place in Pro Football’s Hall of Fame. He will be missed.”
The Chargers became known as “Air Coryell” during his nine seasons as head coach, with Dan Fouts leading the way at quarterback.
“A guy like that, you can’t imagine a world without him,” said Fouts last night. “He captured a city from two different levels. People like that are rare. We just lost John Wooden, now Don Coryell — two incredible men who touched so many players’ lives and fans’ lives.”
Earlier, Coryell took San Diego State from being a losing small college program to being recognized nationally, going 104-19-2 over 12 seasons from 1961-72.
Said Mayor Jerry Sanders: "Don Coryell was a legendary figure who, more than any other, is responsible for one of the most electrifying eras in San Diego sports history. A fierce competitor, he was all class, win or lose, on or off the field."
Coryell also coached the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL from 1973-77.
Under Coryell, the Chargers won three straight AFC West championships from 1979-81 and lost in the AFC championship games of 1980 (to Oakland) and 1981 (to Cincinnati).
“We had three, possibly four good chances at going to the Super Bowl,” Coryell said in 1995. “It just didn’t work out.
“If we had gotten there, we would have won at least one of them.”
Although Coryell never coached a team to the Super Bowl, he had a 111-83-1 regular season record as a NFL head coach, including a 69-56 record with the Chargers.
“I had the privilege of playing for him in college and pros," said cornerback Willie Buchanon, who played for Coryell at SDSU and with the Chargers. "He never changed. Same intensity. Surrounded himself with smart, intelligent coaches who had the same philosophy he had. He brought out the best in everybody around him.”
Beyond wins and losses, Coryell was respected throughout football as an innovator and the creator of the “vertical offense” that stretched defenses.
“Don is the father of the modern passing game,” said Joe Gibbs , who assisted Coryell before becoming a Hall of Fame coach with the Washington Redskins.
“He was extremely creative and fostered things that are still in today’s game because he was so creative. You look around the NFL now and many teams are still running a version of the Coryell offense.”
What many people don’t realize is that Coryell was also instrumental in the development of the I-formation running game that John McKay popularized at Southern California in the 1960s.
Coryell ran a version of the I while a high school head coach in Hawaii and as the head coach at Whittier College in 1957-1959. He was an assistant coach to McKay at USC in 1960 before succeeding Paul Governali as the head coach at San Diego State in 1961.
At San Diego State, Coryell inherited a program that was close to folding, quickly turned it into a small college power and developed it into a Division I program before leaving for the NFL.
Coryell’s Aztecs had three undefeated seasons — 1966, 1968 and 1969.
“He hired me (as defensive backs coach) in 1967," said Ernie Zampese. "He’s the finest head football coach I’ve ever been with, really something, a tremendous guy to work with. He hired you to do a job and he expected you to do it."
It was while at San Diego State that Coryell changed his emphasis from the running game to the passing game.
“There were a number of reasons why we developed the passing game with the Aztecs,” Coryell said several years after leaving San Diego State.
“We could only recruit a limited number of runners and linemen against schools like USC and UCLA. And there were a lot of kids in Southern California passing and catching the ball.
“There seemed to be a deeper supply of quarterbacks and receivers. And the passing game was also open to some new ideas.”
From the fifth game of the 1965 season to the penultimate game of the 1970 season, Coryell’s Aztecs compiled a 55-1-1 record that included a 25-game winning streak from 1965-67 that ranks as the 19th longest in NCAA history.
The run was capped with a 29-game undefeated streak.
Under Coryell, San Diego State became known as Quarterback U. — sending a series of quarterbacks to the NFL, including Don Horn, Rod Dowhower, Dennis Shaw, Brian Sipe and Jesse Freitas.
Coryell also helped develop such wide receivers as Isaac Curtis, Gary Garrison, Haven Moses, Tommy Reynolds, Neal Petties and Tommy Nettles.
Coryell’s staffs at San Diego State included Gibbs, John Madden, Claude Gilbert, Zampese, Tom Bass, Dowhower and Jim Hanifan.
“I learned a lot from Don -- keep it simple, get good players and coach 'em," Gilbert said. "Just don’t overcoach 'em. I’ve lost a good friend. Don was a very, very special man, a rare individual. He really cared about people, his coaches and players. He cared about good stuff.”
Said Bass: “He was unique. I don’t think a lot of today’s coaches get as close to players as Don did. Players really loved him, and I think that’s something a lot of coaches miss. I’m going to miss him.”
Coryell’s list of great Aztec players included defensive end Fred Dryer, Buchanon and running backs Jim Allison, Don Shy and Kern Carson.
However, it was after he departed San Diego State that Coryell rose to national prominence — first as the head coach of the St. Louis Cardinals then with the Chargers.
Coryell departed San Diego State shortly after the 1972 season to become the head coach of the Cardinals, who hadn’t reached the NFL playoffs in a quarter of a century.
With Jim Hart as his quarterback, Mel Gray as his favorite target and Terry Metcalf as a multiple threat at running back, Coryell led the Cardinals to back-to-back division titles in 1974-75.
Coryell returned to San Diego five games into the 1978 season, taking over a 1-4 team from Tommy Prothro. Under Coryell, the Chargers finished the season with an 8-3 run then won the first of their three straight AFC West titles the following season.
With Fouts at quarterback, the Chargers led the NFL in passing yards for an NFL record six straight seasons starting in 1978. They also led the league in passing in 1985 and in total offense for four straight seasons (1980-83) and five times in a six-season span.
Fouts, wide receiver Charlie Joiner and tight end Kellen Winslow all were voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame off their accomplishments as Chargers during the era of Air Coryell.
In Coryell’s scheme, wide receiver John Jefferson caught passes worth more than 1,000 yards in each of his first pro seasons — but never again attained the total after being traded away to Green Bay in a 1981 contract dispute.
A year later, the Chargers acquired Wes Chandler to fill Jefferson’s slot and he set a then NFL record by averaging 129 yards receiving per game.
Coryell’s Chargers also featured three of the top multi-threat running backs in the franchise’s history — Chuck Muncie, James Brooks and Lionel James.
“Today is a terribly sad day for anyone who has ever been involved in football," Chargers head coach Norv Turner said. "Coach Coryell’s passing is a great loss for the game. I have the highest regard for him and his impact on the sport. Even though I didn’t get a chance to personally work for him, you almost feel as though you did because of the influence he had on the guys who I learned from, guys like Ernie Zampese. He will most definitely be missed.”
Said Joiner, still the Chargers receivers coach: “I am saddened upon hearing the passing of one of football’s greatest legends. He was a giant. Don Coryell was a great offensive coordinator, a great head coach, and above all, he was a great person. Thanks to Coach Coryell’s offense and his revolutionary passing game, he prolonged my career, from the day I got to the Chargers until the day I retired. I will forever be grateful to him and what he did for the game of football.”
Another of Coryell's former players, current Chargers broadcaster Hank Bauer, said he felt "like I lost a member of my family and the unique thing about that is that there are probably two million people in this city who feel the same way. That’s the kind of impact that Don Coryell had here. For anyone who ever played or coached for Coach Coryell, and I had the honor of doing both, it’s an unbelievable loss. Football-wise, Coach Coryell changed the way the game was played and still is played today. In terms of his legacy as a teacher, a coach and a mentor, his lineage speaks for itself, especially when you look at the guys he brought into the game and their accomplishments. Pro football lost a great man today.”
Although Coryell’s Charger teams were criticized for their lack of defense, the 1979 Chargers allowed a NFL-low 246 points while the 1980 edition led the league with 60 sacks led by the line of Fred Dean, Gary “Big Hands” Johnson and Louie Kelcher.
Born in Seattle on Oct. 17, 1924, Coryell was a defensive back at the University of Washington from 1949-51 before turning to coaching. He is survived by son Mike of Los Gatos, daughter Mindy Lewis of San Diego, and two granddaughters (Loni and Kelly) and a grandson (Cutter). His wife of 51 years, Aliisa, died in December 2008.
“When he passed away, he was in his town, that’s for sure," Zampese said. "His daughter Mindy was great, with him every day up to the end."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
I will never forget watching the 81 AFC Playoff game between my Dolphins and the Chargers. It was called “The Game of the 80s” and certainly one of the all time greatest NFL games ever played.
I will never forget Air Coryell, I love the NFL passing game.
Sad that his entry into the HOF will be posthumous. He was a genius whose fingerprints are on the passing game of every team in the NFL today.
Coryell a big part of football history.
The link below has several comments.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2545513/posts
Coryell reinvented the game. His was the original “West Coast Offense”, which was, of course, radically different from the Paul Brown/Bill Walsh offense we know as the West Coast Offense today.
Football owes a lot of its current popularity to Coryell.
Correction, THE best game I ever watched. The only one close to it for the drama was the Giant Pat Super Bowl.
The NFL passing game of today sucks...IMO, Coryell and his teams excelled even with the ability of D backs to maul receivers from the snap to the moment of release of the pass. Now, you can bump them for the first 2 seconds, then it is hands off. I liked the combination of tough play, grind it out, then hit em deep, that the Dan Fouts years represented. I know that the Chargers were not much for the grind it out game, but more styles were successful during that era simultaneously. Now, you have to be able to throw the ball, or you are going to be a loser. There is no place for a running game and defensive powerhouse, if you want to win rings. The league has written the rule book to drastically favor one style......
Ah, one of the great offensive coaches of all time - I remember his teams from my childhood - those Charger offenses with Fouts, Joyner, Jefferson and the great Kellen Winslow - and later Wes Chandler. That defensive line with Louie Kelcher, Gary Johnson and Fred Dean weren’t bad at all either - and all three ended up getting Super Bowl rings with my beloved 49ers.
He also coached the hapless St. Louis Cardinals football team in the 70s. He was a good coach with a bad team.
RIP coach.
He was a superb coach, and his offense was always fun to watch. He is also known for never having smiled (at least, the rumor is that there is no photograph in existence of the man ever smiling).
I am shocked his isn’t already in the NFL hall of fame.
RIP
As a neutral observer of the Air Coryell teams I wondered how this bunch could get so wired up to play for such a taciturn man but that was long before I understood the dynamics of a team, the practice and preparation and what goes on behind the scene. Dan Fouts is no fool and Fouts reveres Coryell.
I do recall him sneaking a cigarette (!) during the Freezer Bowl game against the Bengals. My parents (who both smoked at the time) were incredulous that he did so in such cold temperatures.
Especially given the number of relatively less-deserving candidates.
The NFL’s HOF minimum-number-of-inductees rule is silly. The TV/NFL Films era means that we are all familiar with even the most marginal players but the hot dogs get the air time and somehow become HOF material. Ridiculous. As an example, I bow to nobody as a Steeler fan but Lynn Swann is simply not a HOFer.
Defense, now that’s another story.
Did you ever see the 1972 AFC Championship game between Miami & Kansas City? Now, that was some game!...
Air Coryell takes its final flight. Godspeed.
I don’t recall that game, so I must have been busy with unimportant things, partying, chasing girls, and figuring out how to nearly kill myself without actually dying. If it was a great game, I missed it. Then again, I don’t remember the 4 years following graduation from HS. No I did not get a degree, at least on paper.
Are you talking of the longest game? I wasnt around for it, but have seen highlights and interviews.
For those that dont know, Kansas City’s RB Ed Podolack ran for 85 yds/1 TD, caught 110 yds/1 TD, returned 3 KOs for 153 yds and 2 PR for 2 yds. His 350 combined yds were an NFL record.
In the 2nd overtime, you could tell he was running on something extra because he had no energy left. The field was muddy. The Dolphins eventually won.
An interview I saw from Podolack was very sombering. That game, where he played his heart out, was the closest he ever got to the Super Bowl. The Chiefs did not make th playoffs the rest of his career. In all his effort, he came up just short. This was only his 3rd season, and he figured he would have another chance, but never did.
Sometimes, you can do everything possible, and it still isnt enough. That is why the game (football) is special.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.