Category Archives: Coaches

He Wanted to Trade Jim Hart. Then He Was Fired for Not Benching Him!

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Bud Wilkinson was so upset that he wasn’t thinking clearly. The Cardinals head coach was talking about trading Jim Hart, the Big Red’s four-time Pro Bowl quarterback, to the New York Giants for Randy Dean, a third-year, backup QB.

This was September 30, 1979, in Los Angeles. The Cardinals had lost, 21-0, to the Rams, their fourth defeat in five games to start the season. The year before, Wilkinson’s first as head coach, the Cardinals had lost their first eight games before winning six of their final eight. But the optimism engendered by that finish was long gone.

Now, as Wilkinson and several other team members ate dinner together before their red-eye flight back to St. Louis (Ozark Airlines, the team’s regular carrier, wasn’t operating because of a flight attendants’ strike), the bewildered coach vented and talked about making changes. First, he threatened to cut a couple of players the next day (that didn’t happen).

“Then he voices frustration with Jim Hart, specifically a lack of mobility,” recalled a senior member of the Cardinals administration who was at the dinner. “He said you can’t win without a quarterback who can move, as in run. He said he would like to trade Hart in order to get a mobile QB.

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The Legacy of Emmitt Thomas with the Cardinals

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On February 19, 1981, the St. Louis Cardinals hired Emmitt Thomas as the team’s wide receiver coach.

The NFL Hall of Famer played cornerback for 13 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs (1966-78). He finished his career with a franchise-record 58 interceptions.

At the time, Thomas was the youngest member of the Big Red coaching staff and just the second black coach in the team’s history.

“We’ve been trying to encourage the situation (hiring black coaches) for years,” team owner Bill Bidwill told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We’ve made some offers to people over the years. If we can find qualified people to coach, people who are good teachers, we’re going to hire them.”

“If the individual is a damn good coach,” said Jim Hanifan, who recommended Thomas to Bidwill, “I don’t care if he’s orange or green, or black or white, I want him.”

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Flashback: Big Red Hire Don Coryell

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On January 18, 1973, Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill surprised everyone by announcing the hiring of Don Coryell as the new head coach of the St. Louis Football Cardinals.

The Cardinals were coming off consecutive 4-9-1 seasons under Bob Hollway, who had been fired after the last regular season game. Hollway was let go, in part due to his drab play calling and his inability to choose a starting quarterback. Bidwill admitted that he hired Coryell “to put the offense back in the Cardinals.”

The 48-year old had spent the last 12 seasons directing San Diego State University to a 104-19-2 record. The Aztecs averaged 45 points per game in 1969.

“I like to throw the ball,” Coryell said after the hire. “I’ve gone from ball-control philosophy to a wide-open style. I believe in attacking the defense. I don’t believe in waiting for other people to make mistakes.”

“I believe in the passing game. I’m not a coach who builds on defense. If you’re playing a team with more talent, the only way to win is by throwing the ball well. And I desperately want to win.”

Coryell claimed to have only seen the Cardinals play a few games, but that didn’t prevent him from commenting on former number-one quarterback Jim Hart.

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Big Red Flashback: Cardinals Dismiss Wally Lemm

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After a disappointing 5-9 record and citing the need for him to reside in St. Louis year-round, the Cardinals dismissed head coach Wally Lemm on January 10, 1966.

The Chicago native spent his offseason in Lake Bluff, IL, and declined to move to St. Louis until his children graduated from high school. His son Mike was in college, but his daughter Debbie was only in her junior year.

Wally Lemm coached the Cardinals from 1962-1965.

“We knew when we hired him that Wally wanted to be head coach on a six-month basis and that was fine,” club president Stormy Bidwill told the St. Louis Post Dispatch after Lemm’s dismissal. “But we felt more and more strongly that we wanted a head coach who would be with us all the time.”

“When the issue came up again, there was no compromise available, and by mutual consent, he is leaving the Cardinals.”

“We’re sorry that Wally is leaving because he did a good job with the Cardinals in the past seasons. Wally’s record speaks for itself and he had a good record.”

Lemm didn’t feel it was necessary to live in St. Louis during the offseason.

“I know the job can be done without being present in the offseason,” Lemm said. “We never went into training camp unprepared.”

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Former Cardinals Head Coach Charley Winner, dead at 99

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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.

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Don Coryell Inducted Into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

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At long last, Don Coryell is a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

The former Big Red head coach was part of the 2023 Hall of Fame Class who were enshrined this afternoon in Canton, Ohio. Coryell, one of the greatest head coaches in franchise history, compiled a 42-27-1 record during his five seasons in St. Louis (1973-1977).

In 1974, Coryell was named NFL Coach of the Year after leading the Cardinals to the postseason for the first time since 1948 and winning their first of two consecutive NFC East titles.

A falling out with owner Bill Bidwill led to him leaving the Cardinals after the 1977 season and he was soon hired by the San Diego Chargers where his “Air Coryell” offense became one of the most prolific in NFL history.

“We are all so happy for his family,” Pro Football Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorf told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. “The family gets to celebrate, as do his former players and his former assistant coaches who are still around. I know ‘better late than never’ is a phrase that some people might want to apply here. But it’s bittersweet. I’m sorry, Don Coryell got elected to the Hall of Fame and you’re euphoric for three or four seconds before it hits you that—God, wouldn’t it have been something if he had still been alive to appreciate it.”

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Cardinals removed the welcome mat for Don Coryell

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Mark Tomasik at RetroSimba revisits Hall of Famer Don Coryell’s last visit to St. Louis when he brought his San Diego Chargers to town in 1983.

retrosimba's avatarRetroSimba

After Don Coryell left the NFL Cardinals, he appeared in St. Louis one time as an opposing head coach. It was an experience he could have done without.

On Nov. 20, 1983, Coryell brought the San Diego Chargers to Busch Stadium to play the Cardinals.

This was no tender homecoming. Too much weird mojo, and too many factors Coryell couldn’t control, not the least of which was an injured quarterback.

Air Coryell

In five seasons with Coryell as their head coach, the Cardinals were 42-27-1 and reached the playoffs twice. “We weren’t the best football team when Don was here,” his quarterback, Jim Hart, said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “but we were the most exciting. We did the unexpected.”

Coryell departed following the 1977 season after a falling out with club owner Bill Bidwill. Subsequently, the Cardinals had four consecutive losing seasons before going 5-4 in strike-shortened 1982.

The…

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Dynamic debut: Don Coryell’s first game with Cardinals

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Mark Tomasik at RetroSimba takes a look at Hall of Famer Don Coryell’s first game as head coach of the St. Louis Football Cardinals.

retrosimba's avatarRetroSimba

From his first regular-season game as a head coach in the NFL with the St. Louis Cardinals, Don Coryell showed signs of being special. He got the Cardinals to play with confidence and collective pride.

When he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Feb. 9, 2023, Coryell correctly was hailed as an innovator whose offenses with the Cardinals, and later the San Diego Chargers, were thrilling to watch and nerve-wracking to defend.

Those progressive schemes were just part of his skillset. Coryell also was an effective leader who got players to buy into his philosophies and to execute consistently within a framework of selfless collaboration.

Meet the new boss

The season opener between the Cardinals and Eagles on Sept. 16, 1973, at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia marked the NFL head coaching debuts of Coryell and Mike McCormack.

Coryell came to the Cardinals from the college coaching…

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Jim Hart: The Coryell Years

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This is the third in a five-part series of stories remembering Jim Hart, the Cardinals’ all-time passing leader.

Jim Hart was scared. He thought his football career was over.

On Dec. 2, 1973, in the third-to-last game of the season, Detroit Lions second-year defensive lineman Herb Orvis broke through the Cardinals’ pass protection and hit Hart’s right arm just as the quarterback released a pass. Hart’s arm bent backward and hyperextended. He then heard a “whoomph” as the arm snapped back into place. 

Jim Hart’s career took off under Don Coryell in 1973

Hart suffered an elbow injury that caused him to miss the final two games of Don Coryell’s first season as coach of the Big Red. Even though the Cardinals finished with a 4-9-1 record for the third consecutive year, Hart and his teammates were encouraged. Coryell had brought with him from San Diego State University a state-of-the-art, pass-oriented offense that was both easy and exciting to execute. And he chose Hart, who had been forced to share the starting quarterback job with multiple players in the previous two seasons under coach Bob Hollway, as his engineer.

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SI VAULT: HE DON’T GET NO RESPECT FROM HIS CARDINALS

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(Excerpt from February 20, 1978 Edition of Sports Illustrated)

HIS PLAYERS HAVE LITTLE USE FOR ST. LOUIS OWNER BILL BIDWILL, AND THE TEAM IS DISINTEGRATING. COACH DON CORYELL AND ALL-PRO GUARD CONRAD DOBLER ARE GONE. TERRY METCALF MAY BE THE NEXT DEFECTOR.

Written by Joe Marshall

Above the hallway leading to the offices of the St. Louis Cardinals’ coaches in Busch Memorial Stadium there is a new ceiling. A leak caused the old ceiling to collapse back on Dec. 10. For St. Louis, more than the roof fell in that day. The Cardinals were springing leaks all over the place. On the heels of a 26-20 loss to Washington that ended his team’s playoff hopes, St. Louis Coach Don Coryell leveled a verbal blast at local fans and the Cardinal management. “I’m not staying in a place I’m not wanted,” Coryell raged. “I’d like to be fired. Let me have a high school job.”

Last Friday, two months to the day from Coryell’s outburst, the Cardinals patched up one of their leaks by announcing that through a “mutual agreement” between Coryell and and team owner Bill Bidwill, Coryell would no longer be the coach. Unfortunately, Bidwill’s patchwork wasn’t as neat as the handiwork on the ceiling. For the last two months the Cardinals, who under Coryell had been one of the NFL’s most successful and exciting teams, have been in turmoil, and the once dazzling Cardiac Cards were being called the Chaotic Cards.

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