Don Coryell Changed The Face Of Pro Football

Don Coryell died Thursday at the age of 85 according to a news release from the San Diego Chargers, the team with which he enjoyed his greatest coaching success.

Coryell died at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in suburban La Mesa. The Chargers revealed that he had been ill for some time but did not state a cause of death.

To say that Coryell changed the face of professional football involves not even the slightest exaggeration. His imaginative offensive attack led by future NFL Hall of Famer Dan Fouts was labeled “Air Coryell” and brought misery to opposing defensive coordinators.

After learning of Coryell’s death Fouts told the Associated Press:

“We’ve lost a man who has contributed to the game of pro football in a very lasting way with his innovations and with his style.  They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery -- look around, it’s there.”

The Chargers offense was so good that during one tough AFC championship game between the Chargers and their bitter rival, the Raiders, defensive end Ted Hendricks, one of the best ever at his position, walked over to his quarterback Jim Plunkett on the sidelines.

Hendricks minced no words in describing the urgency of the moment.

“You’ve got to score,” Hendricks said, “because we can’t stop them!”

The same theme of not being able to stop the highly flying Chargers of Don Coryell was repeated often in NFL circles. The offensive attack was designed by a mastermind so totally zeroed in on game day that the normally cordial and friendly Coryell would walk past people that he knew well without speaking.

It wasn't rudeness.

Just total concentration.

Coryell played college football at the University of Washington as a defensive back.

It was on the west coast that he began achieving attention as a coach when he revived a program at Whittier College in suburban Los Angeles that had not been so electrified since future Washington Redskins coaching great George Allen had been previously at the helm.

In 1961 Coryell assumed coaching reins at San Diego State University. He remained there until 1972, compiling an impressive 104-19-2 mark.

That was enough to attract the attention of the St. Louis Cardinals, who hired Coryell for the 1973 season. With Jim Hart at quarterback and stellar blockers Dan Dierdorf and Conrad Dobler giving him time to operate, Coryell’s Cardinal teams provided a preview of what it would be like to prepare a defensive game plan against his explosive aerial attack.

Under Coryell the Cardinals won division titles in 1974 and 1975.

Dierdorf, who went from a Hall of Fame career as a guard with the Cardinals to a later vocation in the press box as an NFL game analyst, has openly led a campaign to get his former coach into Canton.

The great lineman’s complaint is one shared by scores of others in the NFL community. The fact that Coryell never had a team play in the Super Bowl should not disqualify him from selection considering the huge impact that he had on professional football.

Fouts told the AP that he became friends with Coryell after the two of them had retired from football.

“It’s not just me,” Fouts said. “All his players, Aztecs, Cardinals, Chargers, to a man, would tell you that he was their friend.”

Coryell returned to San Diego. The announcement of his accepting the Charger job came inauspiciously on one of the most tragic days in the history of the city.

That same day of September 25, 1978 a Pacific Southwest Airlines jet crashed into a North Park neighborhood after colliding with a small plane. All 137 people on the two planes and seven people on the ground were killed.

Hank Bauer, a spark plug fullback and special team dynamo with a Pete Rose style enthusiasm, was a crowd favorite during the Coryell years.

Bauer vividly recalls the first team meeting with the new coach. Bauer called Coryell a “bundle of energy” and added that he said that they would be working hard but would “have fun.”

Under former Oregon University passing flash Dan Fouts the Chargers lit up the record books between 1978 and 1986.

With Fouts behind center the 300-yard per game passing statistic moved from staggering to common for San Diego and became a benchmark for other NFL signal callers to strive.

Due to the astounding success of Fouts as field general of Air Coryell opposing teams began using nickel and dime defenses regularly out of necessity.

A basic reason for the team’s astounding success was that the innovative Coryell saw a way to extend pass defenses to the maximum by using tight end Kellen Winslow with his gifted speed to split defenses and make receptions, including long distance aerials.

Winslow would eventually be selected to the Hall of Fame along with Fouts and wide receiver Charlie Joiner.

Coryell guided the Chargers to the AFC championship game in 1980 and 1981, but each time the team fell one win short of reaching the Super Bowl.

The gifted Winslow had the most memorable game of his career in one of the most exciting NFL games ever played in a nail biting 41-38 win over Don Shula’s Miami Dolphins in a playoff game on January 2, 1982.

Despite cramping up in excessive heat and humidity Winslow caught 13 passes for 166 yards and one touchdown while also blocking a potential game-winning field goal.

The scene of Winslow being helped off the field by two teammates at the epic contest’s close was one of the most memorable ever recorded on television in an NFL contest.

In 14 NFL seasons Coryell achieved a record of 111-83-1.

Coryell is the first coach to win 100 games in college and pro football and is a member of the college Hall of Fame.

A hopeful bright spot where NFL Hall of Fame inclusion is involved is that in the most recent balloting last winter Coryell became a finalist for the first time though not inducted.