Dick Vermeil

There are many great people that have been associated with football over the past century and a half. A few stand out above the rest as having some speical impacts on the game and its people. Coach Dick Vermeil, is one of those as he poured so much of himself into the game and the human elements of heartfelt emotion and long lasting friendships.

October 30, 1936 - One of the trend-setters in modern professional football coaching, Dick Vermeil was born. Coach Vermeil was a head coach in the NFL for a total of fifteen seasons, with three different franchises, but is love and involvement with the game has lasted long beyond that. Vermeil maybe best known for his innovative coaching techniques that turned a down-trodden Philadelphia Eagles team of the 1970s into a Super Bowl contender.

Coach began his football coaching career starting at the bottom and working his way up. His forst job was as an assistant coach for Del Mar High School in San Jose in 1959. Then from 1960 to 1962, he was head coach at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo. His advancement continued when he made the jump to the junior college level, as the defensive backfield coach at the College of San Mateo in 1963. Next Vermeil took advantage of opportunity as was assigned his first head coaching position. Vermeil returned to Napa Junior College in 1964, leading the team to a a school record wins in football with a 7–2 record. He even had the chance to coach his younger brother Al while at the school. Dick advanced to the next level of college football when from 1965 to 1968, he was an assistant coach at Stanford under John Ralston.

The young and up and coming coach was getting noticed as he got a break to try his hand at the Pro levels when he was hired as one of the NFL's first special teams coaches with Hall of Fame Coach Marv Levy. Vermeil was hired by George Allen's Los Angeles Rams in 1969 the same year Levy was hired by Jerry Williams, then Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Except for 1970, when Vermeil was an assistant coach with UCLA, he would remain with the Rams until 1974 when he was named as head coach by UCLA.

Coach got his first big break in the coaching ranks was the field boss of the UCLA Bruins during the 1974 and 1975 seasons. While with the Bruins, the team compiled a record of 15-5-3, including a big win in the 1976 Rose Bowl Game over the top-ranked team in the Nation, the to that point unbeaten Ohio State Buckeyes. Accolades at the collegiate level included Vermeil being named as the 1975 Pac-8 Coach of the Year. Yes he truly received some national attention, so much so that the NFL came calling before the 1976 season.

The Philadelphia Eagles had floundered for the past 9 seasons, with their best effort in that time being a 7-7 record in 1974. It was going to be a long road to re-establish the Eagles as a good team, but Vermeil had a plan and the Philadelphia brass had the patience to let him orchestrate it. Vermeil established a culture early in his tenure in Philly. The results may not show progress as the Eagles managed a measly 4-10 record in 1976 and in 1977  a marginal improvement at 5-9 was shown. However in these early years, he laid the groundwork for success because in the third season the Eagles reached the postseason in 1978 as they finished with a 9-7 record.

Vermeil worked hard and put in many hours working with his players and understanding their strengths and weaknesses. He tried to learn as much about each of those on his team not just from a coaching aspect but from a point of view that he cared about them. This resonated well with the players and coaching staff and they responded on game days, and worked hard in practice, as Coach Vermeil led by example. Vermeil boosted confidence into a team that was complacent with losing, and replaced it with the expectation of victory over any opponent. Soon most of the franchise had bought into the Kool-Aid that Coach was handing out and their belief in the winning spirit translated out onto the field.

The 1978 season 14-13 playoff loss to the Atlanta Falcons was seen as a spark. The very next season the Eagles went 11-5 and reached the NFC Divisional Round, losing 24-17 to Tampa Bay. One barometer of improvement was a victory over the Dallas Cowboys, a divisional rival that had dominated the Eagles winiing 21 of the past 23 meetings between the two squads. The Eagles win that sort of broke the streak was somewhat unexpected. Starting Philly QB Ron Jaworski was injured and John Walton came in to make a spot start and played a strong game while Kicker Tony Franklin booted a 59-yard field goal. The whole team played well and the Eagles won the game 31-21. It was a sign to all that the Philadelphia team had arrived.

The transformation continied as the next season the Eagles went 12-4, won the NFC East, ran through the playoffs and earned the right to represent the NFC in Super Bowl XV. Their opponent in the NFC Championship game was the rival Dallas Cowboys and once again the Eagles dispatched thier foes 20-7 to play for the League Title. Philadelphia ran into a buzzsaw in the Oakland Raiders though in the big game losing this time by the score of 20-7. It may have been a post Super Bowl depression as the Eagles sunk in the standings posting a 10-6 record the following season and then slipping to 3-6 in the Strike shortened season of 1982. Dick Vermeil was admittedly spent and he retired from coaching the Eagles declaring burnout as the cause.

Vermeil didn't get far from the football field as he recharged his batteries, pursuing a broadcasting career as an NFL and college football analyst. After more than a decade away from the side lines of the NFL, Dick climbed back into the coaching arena taking over the St. Louis Rams in 1997. After posting 5-11 and 4-12 records in his first two seasons with the Rams, the Vermeil magic once again started to take hold in year 3 with the franchise, much like it did with the Eagles a few decades earlier. The 1999 season started almost as poorly and then seemed to get worse when starting QB Trent Green went down with a severe injury. Vermeil's eye for talent then paid off as rookie Kurt Warner, a late bloomer took over under center and guided the Rams to a 13-3 record. The offense was clicking on all cylinders and will forever be remembered as the "Greatest Show on Turf."

Vermeil led the Rams to their first Super Bowl victory in Super Bowl XXXIV with a 23–16 win over the Tennessee Titans. It was perhaps one of the most suspenseful endings to the NFL Championship game when the Titans had the ball on the half yardline when time expired. Vermiel was also named NFL Coach of the Year for the second time for the 1999 season. Coach V once again walked away from coaching after the Rams' Super Bowl victory.

The Kansas City Chiefs somewhat shocked the football world when they announced Dick Vermeil as their new head coach before the start of the 2001 season. True to form the rebuild started off slow as the Chiefs went 6-10 that season before he tweaked their roster getting them to 8-8 in 2002.  In 2003 the Chiefs started the season 9–0 and finished with a 13–3 record, made the playoffs when they took the crown of the AFC West. They also had the NFL's top ranked offense for the second straight year. Unfortunately thie defense was suspect and the wins backslid to mediocrity when the offense could not carry the team that had a defense that ranked 31st in the NFL. They rose again though in 2005 to a 10-6 record. On December 31 of that year, Vermeil announced that he would retire at the conclusion of the season, and the next day he led the Chiefs to a 37–3 rout over the Cincinnati Bengals. However, the Chiefs failed to make the playoffs, despite their winning record.

Vermeil coached with heart and emotion; laughing, crying and cheering his teams to victory. The people he worked with and the one that opposed him all respected and enjoyed their time spent on the gridiron and broadcast booth with him. His coaching legacy included great moments such as the Miracle at the Meadowlands, the forementioned Super Bowl XXXIV fantastic finish, and the Greatest Show on Turf.

Dick Vermeil posted an overall NFL record of 120-109 as a head coach, a Super Bowl Title, Multiple Coach of the Year honors, but perhaps he most lasting reward are the lasting friendships and great memories he had with players and coaches. Dick Vermeil will be honored with enshrinement at the 2022 Pro Football Hall of Fame celebrations.

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikipedia Commons photo collection of the Public Domain of a cropped installment of Dick Vermeil at the 2010 Otho Davis Scholarship Foundation Dinner in Philadelphia, contributed by hshark.

Special thanks to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Eagles.com, Wikipedia.com, UCLA and NFL.com.