Charley Winner, who played college football at Washington University and was the head football coach of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1966-1970, passed away on July 18, 2023, at the age of 99.

Winner spent 37 years in the NFL as a coach or executive. However, there were no press releases about his death. Over the weekend, an anonymous user on X, formerly known as Twitter, informed me of the former Big Red coach’s passing. I found a short obituary here.

Charley Winner lived a remarkable life and his passing shouldn’t go unnoticed.

WWII Hero

Charles Height Winner was born in Somerville, NJ, and starred as a two-way player for the Somerset High School football team. Winner stood only 5-feet, 6-inches tall but had great speed. As a running back, he scored 11 touchdowns his senior year and was named first-team All-County.

Winner played one year of college ball at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau. It was his first visit to Missouri, but it would not be his last.

In 1942, the nineteen-year-old enlisted in the Army and served as a radio operator and gunner in during World War II. He flew on a B-17 Flying Fortress, and his crew was based in England. When they weren’t dropping bombs over Germany, he and his buddies played touch football on a runway.

“When you got to Germany, you’d be on edge, because you’d get shot from the ground with flak — bombs that would explode in the air and the shrapnel could destroy a plane,‘’ he said in a 2020 interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Our pilot, a great guy, saved us a lot of times. We’d get hit and come back on two or three engines. I never worried about coming back, though.”

He laughed. “I was young.”

Winner and his crew flew 16 successful missions over Germany, but their luck ran out in the spring of 1945 when their plane was hit over Hamburg. The pilot was killed and the rest of the crew jumped out the back of the spinning aircraft.

“We had parachutes on, and I always said if I ever had to bail out I’d keep the rip cord as a souvenir. I don’t even remember pulling the thing, I was so frightened. The one thing I remember is our airplane making a big semi-circle as it headed to the ground.”

Charley spent six weeks in a German POW camp, living on bread and water.

“One morning, we got up, and there wasn’t a German in sight,‘’ Winner said in the 2020 interview. “The Russians had come through. The Germans took off. We walked into town. We found a big sheep, and butchered it. We hadn’t had any meat for a long time. It tasted like candy.”

Post War

After the war, Winner attended Washington University in St. Louis on the GI Bill and helped lead the Bears to a 9-1 record his senior year. He played football for Weeb Ewbank from 1946-1948.

The future Hall of Fame head coach told his players that he had just married off his eldest daughter to a Brown University football player and that “one football-playing son-in-law is enough.” He warned the team to stay away from his daughter Nancy.

That warning fell on deaf ears because one year later, Nancy and Charley were engaged, and two years after they were married.

“My wife tells me that Weeb used to talk about me at their home all the time, saying that if he ever had a son, he would wish one to be like me,” Winner told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. “But after I started going with Nancy, he never mentioned me at home again.”

Winner must have eventually won over his future father-in-law because he coached under Ewbank for nine seasons with the Baltimore Colts. He was the defensive coordinator when the Colts won the 1958 NFL Championship over the New York Giants. Some call it the greatest game ever played.

“There is nothing in sports that compares with winning a world championship. Nothing,” Winner told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. “And to me, there is nothing greater than having been a part of a world championship team, even though I was only an assistant coach.”

The Colts won another championship in 1959. In 1963, Ewbank was hired as the head coach of the American Football League’s New York Jets.

His son-in-law decided to stay in Baltimore and led the defense under new head coach Don Shula until 1965. “I had to find out if I deserved the job on my own merits,” he said.

Winner Named Big Red Head Coach

On February 10, 1966 Charley Winner was announced as the new head coach for the St. Louis Cardinals.

“Yes, sir. I like St. Louis and want to be a part of it,” he said after getting the new gig. “My wife likes it, too, and is looking forward to moving just as quickly as we can find a place to stay.”

Winner’s time with the Cardinals had its ups and downs.

The Big Red won eight games in 1966, nine in 1968, and eight in 1970, but failed to make the playoffs. A late season collapse in 1970 cost Winner his job.

Bill and Stormy Bidwill fired Charley Winner on January 6, 1971.

“Last year at this time I felt it could have happened, but not this year,” said Winner referring to the 1969 team that finished with a 4-9-1 record. “I was so surprised I haven’t had time to think what I’ll do.”

“I was an assistant with the Baltimore Colts,” he recalled. “We won only three games one season and the coaching staff almost got fired. They said we were a bunch of bums.”

“Then, all of a sudden, we got a quarterback named Johnny Unitas and started to win. You know what? They said we were a bunch of geniuses.”

Moving On

It didn’t take long for Winner to find another job. He caught on with the Washington Redskins in 1971 as a defensive coach for George Allen and helped lead the team to a Super Bowl appearance in 1972.

In 1973, he became the New York Jets’ defensive coordinator and then, after his father-in-law Weeb Ewbank stepped down, took over as head coach the next season. The team went 7-7 in 1974, but Winner was dismissed in 1975 after a poor start.

He later coached the defensive backs in Cincinnati and was then reunited with Don Shula in 1981 when he was hired as the pro scouting director and administrative assistant to the head coach.

“Charley and I go back a long time,” Shula said. “He is loyal and hard working.”

Winner was part of the Dolphins last two Super Bowl appearances and he enjoyed his time in Miami calling Shula “a true football man” and admired owner Joe Robbie for building his stadium without taxpayer funding.

Winner later became the Dolphins’ director of player personnel before retiring from the game in 1992 at the age of 66.

“Nancy wanted me to retire for a couple of years now,” said Winner, who once went three years without a vacation, “but it’s hard to break from something you like to do. I feel very fortunate. I never wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer or an Indian chief. I just wanted to be in football.”

After football, Winner remained in Florida with his wife, who passed away in 2022. He was extremely active in retirement, enjoying deep-sea fishing and playing tennis several days a week well into his 90s.

As we remember Charley Winner, we honor the dedication and passion he brought to the game of football. Though his tenure with the St. Louis Football Cardinals was filled with challenges, his leadership and commitment to the sport left an enduring mark on his players and those who knew him.

May his memory serve as a reminder of the perseverance and love for the game that defined his life, and may his family and friends find comfort in the legacy he leaves behind.