Guy Chamberlin Gets New Home Town Recognition with Monument in His Honor

Pillars of the NFL Includes Coverage of Guy Chamberlin's Career

Guy Chamberlin won his NFL championships in the 1920s and he also was a player-coach for championship teams that no longer exist: The Canton Bulldogs, the Cleveland Bulldogs, and the Frankford Yellow Jackets.  He has a fan base in Nebraska where the University of Nebraska Chamberlin Award has been given out each year since his death, but his NFL reputation has grown somewhat dim over the years because he had no NFL base like coaches whose teams have carried on to this day.  He is one of the ten coaches whose football lives we examine in our new book, Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships. 

Recent efforts to recognize or at least renew his recognition as one of the NFL's greatest coaches have been building.  The University of Nebraska has been recognizing great players with the annual Chamberlin Award since the great man's death. The award is presented to the senior player who has shown by the play and contributions to the team that he has the qualities and dedication of Guy Chamberlin to the Cornhusker tradition.  Folks back home at the Gage County Historical Society, the Wymore Library,  and now his home town, Blue Springs have worked to see Chamberlin recognized and remembered.  A monument in Chamberlin's honor was recently constructed and placed on ground near where the High School that Chamberlin attended once existed.

Book Model Applied to Pillars of the NFL

Pillars of the NFL Offers a Great Sports Book Model

Being in publishing for almost 40 years now, when we began work on Pillars of the NFL, I put to use some ideas that I had in book models over the years.  The one that Patrick McCaskey, the author, and I settled on was one that would be bring the most value to the product.  Of course, it might seem almost laughable to people who hear book model approaches to a sports book, but I can't let go of things that I have learned over the years. 

Chicago Bears Senior Director Patrick McCaskey is outstanding on sports history, especially when it comes to history of the early NFL and the Bears.  When he speaks at events, he recalls dates and championship games and other events chapter and verse.  This was an extraordinary leg up on the project and we put it to good use.  In fact, it helped settle the biggest issue of the book composition: who are the Pillars of the NFL.  Patrick's answer was simply that the greatest coaches in the NFL are those who have won the most championships.  I like this very much.  

Patrick had put together a series of tables that we can use an appendix that looks at championships by teams and coaches.  

Next in terms of the book model, we wanted to grab the reader's attention very quickly and get him or her into the book.  We knew that we wanted to provide a certain level of detail on the coaches and teams, so we wanted to get readers involved emotionally early on.  What we came up with a brief kind of "your are there" section that starts off each chapter.  We place the reader on the field, in the locker room, or up the stands witnessing the coach in action or with others in a way that gives the reader at least some sense of who each man was as a person.  I suspect this kind of things is not new, but I think in a book on as many subjects as we were covering, it is a great challenge, but one worth doing.  

The next part of our model was the coach's early life.  In some cases, this was very brief and in others this part represented a good amount of research.  Patrick's focus is always on the football lives of his subjects as opposed to anything even close to some kind of judgement about their morals, foibles, and faults.  Again, like the championship decision on the selection of coaches, Patrick's approach streamlined the coverage of the coaches.  So this part of the book gave readers more insight into the coaches without going into odd twists and turns that lose readers in the weeds.  I love biographies, but in many there is just too much information.  I think for example that when a writer comes up some obscure fact on a subject's personal eating habits, they often feel compelled to put it into their work.  We were not compelled in that way--Pillars would focus on the football lives of the subjects.

Coaching Careers

The coaching careers of course would be the focus of any book on the greatest coaches in NFL history.  High school and college coaching was insignificant to the story of the top NFL coaches so that part of the story was very brief.  In some cases, the information was also so obscure, Patrick could not cover it anyway.  For example, there might be several sources of information on a coach's high school coaching career, but each one may only have one sentence.  If the school no longer exists and the coach had not written a biography, there may be nothing to report.  

Once Patrick got into the Pro career portion, the road to the championships, the seasons, and the coaches and players associated with the teams also became more important.  If you have read much on football books that describe coaches or players, you find that they normally focus on a couple incidents and more or less highlight events.  Some books on a 20 or 30 year coach may seem complete, but often you really only hear about a few games.  For Pillars we had ten coaches, but we also had some coaches who coached multiple teams to championships.  Weeb Ewbank coaches both the Colts and the Jets to championships.  Guy Chamberlin coached the Canton Bulldogs, the Cleveland Bulldogs, and the Frankford Yellow Jackets to championships.  Our ten coaches also were assistants of championship teams as well. Worried that we would write about championship season and still miss even mentioning most of the top players that fans would remember, we added another feature that we used fairly liberally, a list of top players with short descriptions.  In this way, when Patrick wrote about Lombardi for example, we knew there was a way to at least mention most of his HOF players even if their play did not make the book in a game or championship description.  We thought this was a way to honor both the great coaches as well as the players who were responsible for carrying out the coaches program.  

To round things out we also added a "Life After Football" section and a "Contributions to the Game" feature.  Following that we had a "Timeline" and "Highlights"right at the end of the chapter.  All these things helped Patrick's presentation offer a more complete history of our coaches and teams.  Granted, Pillars of the NFL was a kind of project that might have led both Patrick and I spend the remainder of our lives on.  Both of us are too busy for that and I am trying to make a living in this business, so we enforced a schedule on the project.  

There were a few other elements to the model.  We introduced each chapter with a Bill Potter drawing of each Pillar.  Bill is an illustrator whose old school style really appealed to me.  I love those old biographical montages that you used to see in the newspaper--one big spread with several drawings that provide a concise history.  For example an image of  Ernie Banks with an armful of books in high school in Dallas is followed by Ernie is in a military uniform giving a salute--then he's in a Kansas City Monarch's cap up to the plate--the next image shows him as a Cubs shortstop with his early home run stats written underneath and then in as a first baseman saying let's play two and finally he stands in a suit being inducted into the Hall of Fame.  We couldn't do those montages and fit them into a book, but Bill worked in a feature that helped us present the coaches visually in more than one situation.  

We also added an index, which in sports books is generally skimpy at best.  A good index can a take over a week and cost several thousand dollars.  Pillars has a good one. 

Perhaps one of the most difficult parts of our model was the inclusion of extensive endnotes.  Most sports books don't use endnotes or footnotes.  Some authors just list their book collection as a kind of bibliography.  In most books you have no idea of where the author got his or her informaton. Using endnotes/footnotes is not fun and it takes a tremendous amount of time.  There are also a lot of judgments that need to made.  We did the best we could and we hope it helps readers understand how a book like this is built off the work of hundreds of other people--writers-researches and reporters. 

We hope Pillars catches on with sports fans and we have an opportunity to create other books like it.  Our model was created to provide the best book for our readers to whom we are deeply in debt.  We also wanted to provide a kind of book for readers to put in their bookshelves and save for a long time--something that might outlive an ebook file.

Curly Lambeau Outline Against the Sky of Notre Dame Football

Pillars of the NFL, Sporting Chance  Press Publisher

Chicago Bears Senior Director Patrick McCaskey's Pillars of the NFL, examines the football lives of the 10 greatest coaches in NFL history--those who won three or more championships.  One of the most interesting "Pillar" is Curly Lambeau.  Many football fans do not realize that Lambeau had interesting connections to some of the Notre Dame legends although he only attended the school for one year. 

In 1918, Lambeau shared the backfield with George “Gipper” Gipp, the storied back who would lead the team in both rushing and passing from 1918-1920.  Lambeau played under new head coach, Knute Rockne.  Like Lambeau, Rockne was a fan of the pass and in South Bend, Lambeau learned the Notre Dame box, a formation based on the commonly used single wing.

During Lambeau’s stay in South Bend, World War I was raging, but it was a flu epidemic that shortened the football season.  Notre Dame posted a 3–1–2 record.  In one tough game against the Great Lakes Naval Station, Lambeau faced future rival and Chicago Bears founder, George Halas, who played end.  The teams tied.  

As a freshman, Lambeau had a supporting role in the Notre Dame backfield.  He was no threat to superstar Gipp who among other astonishing feats, held the ND rushing career mark of 2,341 yards for more than 50 years.  Tragically, after his senior season, Gipp developed a strep infection and died.  On his deathbed, Gipp’s last conversation to Rockne was quoted as:

I've got to go, Rock.  It's all right.  I'm not afraid.  Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper.  I don't know where I'll be then, Rock.  But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy.

Rockne would famously use the deathbed story to motivate his underdog Notre Dame team against Army in 1928.  The quote would also make its way into movies and politics. 

 

The Fighting Irish player roster described Lambeau as flamboyant, an excellent blocker, and a good short-yardage runner. After the football season, Lambeau had a bout of tonsillitis.  Recuperating at home, he decided not to return to South Bend, and subsequently quit school for good.  Although Lambeau had a brief career at Notre Dame, he would be called an “ex Notre Dame Football star.”  He was proud of the connection.  Lambeau did not forget Rockne.  The two corresponded and Lambeau occasionally recommended a high school player to the Notre Dame coach and he encouraged the student to head to South Bend.  

Lambeau’s practice of recommending Green Bay players to his old coach created yet another Notre Dame legend.  One player who would go to Notre Dame on Lambeau’s recommendations was Jim Crowley.  Crowley would become one of the fabled Four Horsemen of Notre Dame—christened and made famous by Grantland Rice, a poetic sportswriter for the New York Herald-Tribune in an era when such craft was appreciated.   

Four Horsemen of Football, Library of Congress Photo

After Notre Dame's 13–7 victory over Army on October 18, 1924, Rice penned one of sports journalism’s favorite passages:

Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. 

In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death.  These are only aliases.  Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden.  They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.

Notre Dame student-publicity aid, George Strickler, who would become the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, had a photo shot of the four ND players on horseback, which was picked up by newspapers across the country.  The photo memorialized the passage, the players, and the team.  

Crowley “recovered” from the notoriety and later coached at Fordham University.  At Fordham, Lambeau’s work would come full circle.  One of Crowley’s players by the name of Vince Lombardi would go on to coach the Packers in one remarkable decade.  

Copyright 2014, Sporting Chance Press

Comparing Chuck Noll and Vince Lombardi

Chuck Noll Hall of Fame

On the surface, Chuck Noll and Vince Lombardi were very different coaches.  Lombardi was hard as nails on his players and he motivated his team with emotional talks and take your breath away rants and raves on the practice field.  Noll was direct and a man of few words.  When Noll did elaborate, sometimes he lost the thread of his message and his players lost the meaning.  Mostly, he kept it simple.

But both coaches spent endless amounts of time to reach the same two objectives: 1. Creating the toughest team in  the NFL.  2. Creating the most fundamentally sound team in the NFL. 

Who could argue that Noll's Steelers and Lombardi's Packers were not both tough and fundamentally sound.  

Vince Lombardi Hall of Fame

Lombardi's catch phrase, "winning is everything,"  has often been misunderstood to mean that
winning by any means is acceptable.  But his players would likely tell us that the "any means" had more to do with their training than things they would do to opposing teams.  By sacrificing their bodies and routinely using every ounce of energy in practice, they became a formidable team on the field.  Lombardi sought to have his players better prepared than any other team.

Noll's catchphrase was "whatever it takes." Again, it's easily misunderstood.  Noll expanded on the notion to say that "whatever it takes"  to become the best team  was his meaning.  For Noll, like Lombardi, it was all about sacrifice for the team, work for the team, playing your role for the team.  

For both Lombardi and Noll, their objectives of toughness and fundamentals was demonstrated and forever remembered in two of pro football's greatest highlights.  

Packers' 1967 NFL Championship Game

Ice Bowl Program

The Packers played the Dallas Cowboys for the NFL Championship on the last day of the year in 1967.  The Packers had a secret weapon—Mother Nature.  Few NFL games have been so well celebrated and memorialized.  The Packers had seen plenty of cold weather before this game, but the so-called “Ice Bowl” was the start of much of the lore and legend surrounding Lambeau Field.  From this game forward, Green Bay fans would not just tolerate the cold at Lambeau, they would relish their “frozen tundra.”

The Cowboys were leading, 17–14, on the Packers’ frigid home field in the fourth quarter.  With only 4:50 on the clock, Lombardi’s offense looked 68 yards downfield to the goal and began a 12-play drive for the win.  They would need almost every second.   

A determined Starr completed a pass out in the flat to Donny Anderson for a 6-yard gain.  Chuck Mercein found enough running room outside for a first down.  Starr tossed one down the middle to Dowler over the 50-yard line and Cornell Green who was struggling with his footing was able to grab and throw Dowler down hard on the tackle to the frozen ground.  It was nip and tuck all the way.  Anderson received a handoff from Starr, but was tackled in the backfield.  It was second down and 19 yards to go for a first on a field that was quickly becoming an ice skating rink.  Starr looked around and tossed Anderson an outlet pass that the halfback turned into another 12-yard gain.  Starr followed with another short pass to Anderson who gained the first down.  Chuck Mercein was targeted next and after the catch he ran the ball down to the Dallas 11-yard line.  Mercein had the hot hand and took a handoff from Starr and ran it up the middle to the 2-yard line.  Anderson rushed to within inches of the goal and a first down.  The tough, determined Cowboys’ defense stuffed two Donny Anderson drives.  Starr went to the sideline and told Lombardi since the backs were slipping, he would take the ball himself on a wedge play, which normally goes to the fullback.  Lombardi famously responded, “Then do it and let’s get the hell out of here.”  As Starr jogged back on the field, the tension in the stands was almost unbearable.

Starr stood behind center with 13 seconds remaining at the 1-yard line with no time outs.  He raised his hands to quiet the crowd and the ball was snapped on a quick count.  Jerry Kramer jumped out at Jethro Pugh, hitting him low, followed by Packer center Ken Bowman hitting Pugh high.  Cleats scratched on ice and Pugh was driven backwards.  Starr shadowed Kramer and plunged into the end zone for the score.  Mercein, who thought Starr was going to hand off to him, trailed the play and raised his arms in the air so the officials knew he was not pushing Starr into the end zone—an infraction that might have caused the Packers the game.  Millions watching thought Mercein was signaling a score! The fans realized that Starr had scored and in the midst of an arctic field of dreams came the deafening roar of the crowd.  Chandler kicked the extra point. 

Defining Moment for Noll’s Steelers

Immaculate Reception Commemorative Football

The defining moment that ended the string of frustration and put the Steelers into a new winning way came at the very end of the divisional playoff game on December 23, 1972.  Pittsburgh had the ball on its own 20-yard line with just 1 minute 20 seconds to go trailing the Oakland Raiders 7–6.  Bradshaw was no miracle worker in those days and five plays later, the Steelers were still 60 yards from pay dirt with only 22 seconds remaining.  Bradshaw threw over the middle to “Frenchy” Fuqua, but Raiders’ defensive back Jack Tatum crashed into Fuqua and the ball with such force that the ball flew backward like it had been redirected by some unknown hand.  Franco Harris grabbed the ball off his shoelaces in stride and eluded tacklers on his way to the end zone for the score and the win.  The play was called the “Immaculate Reception.”  Although the Steelers went on to lose the AFC Championship to the Dolphins, they made an impression with football fans, their competitors, and most importantly, themselves.  They had arrived.  Noll’s Steelers were winners and now with the Immaculate Reception, it seemed like they had fans in high places.

Harris personified what it meant to play fundamentally sound and give it everything he had.  Although he was apparently out of the play, he kept his head in it and when the ball bounced off Tatum  he was able to pick it up and run for the score.  The extra point gave the Steelers a 13–7 victory.

In the waning moments of both games, the players took stock of themselves and played solid fundamental football as a team.

Chuck Noll, the great Steelers' coach and one of the greatest coaches in NFL history died this past week. 

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Copyright 2014, Sporting Chance Press

Sporting Chance Press is the publisher of Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships that is available at select bookstores, Amazon, and the publisher's web site.

Quiz on the Greatest NFL Coaches

Here's a quiz based on materials from out Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships. 

1. Who was the only coach and owner who was present at the beginning of the NFL and helped bring it into the modern TV age?  The only man who could rightfully be called: Father of the NFL.

2. Who brought football coaching into the modern age.  Didn't care about skin color, but cared about most every detail of running a football team.  Ran his organization like a business.  Successful at every level of football coaching from high school to college to professional.  Learned about timeliness and discipline from his father who was a railroad man.

3.  Very tough man for a very tough city.  Never thought the press needed to know everything about a man's personal life.  Thought players and coaches needed a life outside of football--he had many interests himself.    Grew up in Cleveland.  Who was this coach who led many Hall of Famers to a dynasty in the 1970s.

4. Little man who managed two superstar quarterbacks in two different cities to NFL championships.  His people were Quakers.  He worked towards results, not notoriety. Who was this cradle of coaches favorite who lived until age 91?

5. Very tough coach who was influenced by his tight knit family and the Jesuits at Fordham.  Another coach who embraced diversity and mandated respect for everyone in the locker room.  In fact, he mandated a lot of things.  His team practiced fundamentals until they knew them in their sleep.  He was so tough some players said they hated him while playing for him, but all seemed to love him for what he helped them become.  Who was this coach who created a small city dynasty in the 1960s?

6. A master at coaching quarterbacks. This man was very good with his fists as a  young man, but he looked like he walked off the country club on the sideline of a football game.  Who was this man who many came to call the Genius?

7. Nebraska farm boy who was himself one of the top professional players when he coached and played to four championships in the 1920s for three different teams. He did not see a long term  future in professional football  so he went back to his family farm outside of Lincoln.

8. His daddy was in law enforcement in North Carolina.  The family moved out west to California where he went to school and began his coaching career.  He was a master at adaptation and although he had learned Don Coryell's wide open offensive schemes, he based his game plan on the talent at hand.  When he and his coaches prepared for games, they worked incredibly long hours developing master plans for victories. He was also a master at making adjustments during a game and was always willing to toss out things that weren't working and incorporate the new.  This coach was super competitive in everything he did.  Who was this man who is also a member of the professional auto racing community?

9. His father was an exceptional football thinker who settled into a life time of scouting at the Naval Academy.  This coach has always displayed a military mindset that mandates that each player focuses on doing his job and the team is always more important than any player.  Although his coaching approach is somewhat old fashioned in our Super Star age, he is the most successful NFL coach of the 21st Century.  Who is he?

10. A superb athlete and demanding coach,  he competed against George Halas in the early days of professional football through World War II.  He had a great eye for talent and brought some of the greatest football players of the era to his small city club.  Newspapers from all over the world covered his David and Goliath sports story that featured a small city team winning championships against the big city teams.  Who was this man?

Answers  Below

1. Papa Bear George Halas is the father of the NFL.

2. Paul Brown saw the importance of discipline in most every aspect of running a football team.  He could have run General Motors.

3.  Chuck Noll was the Pied Piper of Hall of Fame players at Pittsburgh and the perfect coach for the Steel City.

4. Weeb Ewbank lived a joyful life and was always prepared to let his players take the top billing in the papers.  But he was vastly underestimated as a tremendous coaching talent and manager of men who built teams from the ground up. 

5. Lombardi wanted his men to become the best they could be and he drove them to it.  Like the Jesuits, he believed each person's talent should be developed for maximum use. 

6. Bill Walsh was a dashing figure on the side lines and he knew how to develop quarterbacks.  He focused on what his players could do and coached them to become consistent.  Despite his outward appearance, Walsh was  boxer all his life and he took every loss personally. 

7. Guy Chamberlin stepped off a Nebraska farm to become one of the best athletes and coaches in professional football.  He played end on offense and defense.  He was extremely fast and although the early football's bloated rugby ball shape made it difficult to develop a passing game, the end around was used liberally--he excelled at it.  On defense he was known as a disruptor of the first order.  He was tall, lean, and mean on the field.

8. Joe Gibbs just seemed to be smarter, more hardworking, and more adaptable than most other coaches.  If there was a plan that could spring victory from defeat, Gibbs was generally the man who could come  up with it.

9. Belichick has a military no-nonsense coaching persona that has made old fashion management schemes seem new again. Everyone in Belichick's Patriot's organization is responsible for their piece of  the pie--no excuses. 

10.  Lambeau's name is well known because the Packers named their stadium after him, but not much is understood about him now.  He learned coaching on the job and he managed and willed his team to greatness.  He was a scrapper and his fight was needed to keep the Green Bay franchise alive.  He is credited with managing the only surviving small city professional football team in the game. Few men were his coaching equal.

Copyright 2014, Sporting Chance Press 

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Sporting Chance Press's Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships by Chicago Bears Senior Director Patrick McCaskey now available--published March 2014!  Pillars examines the football lives of the top ten coaches in NFL history.  Available from select bookstores, Amazon or  here  for immediate shipment. Ask your local bookstore and library to carry this great book!

Weeb Ewbank is a Pillar of the NFL

Weeb Ewbank is one of the coaches who is often overlooked in discussions about the greatest coaches in NFL history.  He was not overlooked in Sporting Chance Press's book, Pillars of the NFL, by Patrick McCaskey, Senior Director of the Chicago Bears. 

I believe there are 2 reasons why Weeb Ewbank is often overlooked in discussions about the greatest coaches in nfl history.

1. When Ewbank won his Championships he had two superstar quarterbacks in Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath.

 2. His overall NFL record was 134-130-7. 

The criteria used in our book  Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Won Three or More Championships to rate the top coaches was pure and simple--who won the most championships.  Ewbank won two championships with the Colts--1958 and 1959, and he won with the Jets in 1969 (for the 1968 season). There are only ten coaches to win three or more championships and Weeb Ewbank is one of the them.

Oddly enough, in ESPN's Greatest Coaches in NFL History, Ewbank is not even in the top 20! 

Ewbank signed Johnny Unitas to play in 1956 after the Steelers let him go.  The Steelers are often blamed mercilessly for this, but Unitas was a tall skinny kid who had been overlooked by many other football teams.

Ewbank had just taken over the reigns of the Colts in 1954 -- they were essentially a new team.  The 1953 Colts had replaced the Dallas Texans expansion team that folded after one season. Of the 39 players on the 1953 Colts, Ewbank kept only 19 for 1954.  He had to build from the ground-up. Building an expansion team takes time and it also adds many losses to a coach's career record. 

Once he had Unitas, at least a big part of Ewbank's offense was in good hands.  Working with Unitas must have been a joy in some ways.  He was not only committed to becoming the best, but he was one of those players who had high expectations for his teammates and would work hard with them to help them achieve.  But by the same token, Unitas would not have been an easy man to manage if you were a coach who had a large ego.  But to his credit, Ewbank was results driven and patient.  He didn't seem to mind that Unitas would be the  larger than life figure for the Colts.  Johnny U. was the archetype quarterback, the hardest working man on the field with tremendous leadership qualities. 

Ewbank had to build up what was essentially an expansion team and it took three miserable years for his team to become respectable. In Ewbank's fourth year, the Colts notched a 7-5 season.  In 1958 and 1959, the Colts were the best of the best--the NFL Champions.  Three decent seasons (6-6, 8-6, and 7-7) followed in part because Unitas's interceptions jumped way up, but it also had something to do with the Colts defense that was in need of rebuilding.  Ewbank was fired, but he was welcomed in New York where another new team needed to built from the ground up.

The American League New York Titans football team that began in 1960 was a financial flop and a syndicate of five men purchased the team, changed the name, and hired Weeb Ewbank as coach and general manager. Ewbank was able to pick up some players he knew from his days with the Colts, but he relied mostly on the draft to build a winning team in New York.  His first Jets' season was 1963.  The Jets building process would take a little longer than the Colts although the Jets managed a respectable record before Ewbank's arrival. In Ewbank's third season, Jets President Sonny Werblin signed Joe Namath in New York fashion--Namath received big money and a big car to boot--a Lincoln Continental.  In 1968, the Jets won the Super Bowl and thus the championship.

And although Namath certainly  had much to do with the success of the team, he could be inconsistent.  But it was a tough defense and a ball control conservative offense that would win the day for the Jets in Super Bowl III.  The Jets had a good 10-4 season in 1969, but a tight budget and aging stars helped make the next four seasons half mediocre and half bad.  Namath had more than his share of injuries, but not enough to cause the team to replace him.

When Ewbank retired from Coaching after the 1973 season, the Jets limped along until their next winning season in 1981.  Competing in New York was not easy for the franchise then and is not easy for the Jets now.

Weeb Ewbank had worked for two organizations who were struggling right from the start.  He was able to develop a championship program at each one.  He won three championships and he was an exceptional team-builder.  Weeb Ewbank was one of the greatest coaches in NFL history and he was inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 1978.

Copyright 2014, Sporting Chance Press 

Sporting Chance Press publishes fine books on sports that easily accessible for all readers and entertaining to read.  Take a look. 

Four Reviews of Pillars of the NFL

4 Reviews!

Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships by Chicago Bears Senior Director, Patrick McCaskey, was reviewed by four sources to date:

 

  1. Thomas Loarie's Review on Amazon

2. Phil Angelo's Review in the Daily Journal

3. Dolores Madlener's Review in the Catholic New World 

4. The Guy Who Reviews Sports Books

Greatest Coaches in NFL History Had Different Approaches

Patrick McCaskey, Author of Pillars of the NFL

One thing that many people want to know about the top NFL coaches is just how are they alike and how they differ.  In an recent radio interview, Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships author Patrick McCaskey talked about how all the great coaches were dedicated  and they worked very  hard to recruit good players and apply themselves to preparation.  In this way, McCaskey suggested that the great coaches who practiced their craft in the early days of professional football would likely be successful today.

Yet, the differences in the great coaches are many.

For example, Paul Brown was a man who had great confidence in his ability to organize and run an organization.  He believed very strongly that players needed intelligence to play at a high level and they needed to focus on learning--whether it was developing skills, learning his play book (he was an early proponent of such books at every level of play), or operating with precision on a highly disciplined team.  He also wanted men of character and he famously said:

“If you are a bum, a boozer or a chaser, I have no interest in you making our team.” 

Brown accomplished these things in his own style.  He laid out his program in a long lecture at the beginning of each year. Much of his approach, he used when coaching at every level: high school, college, military, and the pros.  He stayed away from attempting to motivate players so much with emotional talks.  Few of the greatest NFL coaches were good at it.  He kept to tight schedules and respected everyone's time in the organization.  He demanded excellent behavior on and off the field.  He maintained an emotional distance from his players.  Essentially, his program was highly organized and disciplined to an extend that had not been seen in professional football before his entry into it.  

When the great Doug Atkins rebelled against Brown's authoritarian ways and parted company with the great disciplinarian, he was signed by George Halas, another of the greatest coaches in NFL history.  Halas was able to essentially manage the big man very well and they worked together for many years.

Weeb Ewbank was an assistant under Brown who learned a great deal about organization and coaching from Brown.  But, Ewbank, another one of the greatest coaches in NFL history,  was an extremely patient man and his management of two very different quarterbacks, Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath, demonstrated his desire to coach and manage under a very flexible approach.  

Chuck Noll who played for Paul Brown was exposed to his methods and he certainly applied many of them albeit in his own way.  Yet, Noll's approach was very different. When Noll began his work with the Steelers, he insisted that they draft Joe Greene first.  Greene had a temper, he could get frustrated with teammates early on, and he did not bring a calming influence to the Steelers.  But Noll knew that Greene was a player who would make everyone better--he would insist on it.  Noll was willing to have  Greene act as a catalyst for change--as a coaching assistant in some ways. Noll was also a lineman and linebacker--more of a physical presence to the team, where Brown had played quarterback in college and was small.  Brown could intimidate, but it was in what he said. 

Joe Gibbs was another great coach, but he was very different from Paul Brown.  Gibbs's assistants would say that when they went to work for Gibbs, their nights were like nights in LasVegas--no clocks because the time didn't matter.  Gibbs was so intense that his staff needed to dedicate themselves entirely for months at a time.  Brown and his staff were in bed and fast asleep about the time Gibb's staff was just warming up.

Bill Walsh was cerebral like Brown and his military background along with certain hardships in his early life helped make him a very tough coach.  However, he was also prone to doubts about his own abilities, certainly early in his professional head coaching career.  Walsh had worked with Brown in Cincinnati when Brown had started up the Bengals.  Walsh had earned a reputation there as a good coach with quarterbacks. Temperamentally, the men were so different in fact that according to some sources, Brown would not recommend Walsh as a head coach.  

Vince Lombardi is an excellent coach to compare with Brown.  Lombardi motivated his men with emotion.  Lombardi, like Brown, was a successful coach at the high school and college levels before entering he pros.  And like Brown, he insisted on a high level of discipline.  Lombardi believed he could take players with the right attitude and character and mold them into a high-achieving team.  This seems common enough for great coaches, but in Lombardi's case, talent was secondary.  You have to wonder whether anyone other than Lombardi would have had the patience and confidence in Bart Starr to keep him leading the team in the early days. 

Similarly, Curly Lambeau approached the game as more of an athletic exercise of will at times.  He was hard driving and made frequent changes to his roster, but he did not appear to view it so much as a mental exercise.  But like Brown, Lambeau was in control of his team--at least for most of his tenure in Green Bay.

Perhaps most similar to Brown is Bill Belichick who was raised in a kind of military environment at the Naval Academy at Annapolis where his dad taught PE while coaching and scouting for the football team.  Belichick is in some ways a throwback to Brown in his super disciplined "just do your job" organization.  Yet in some ways, Belichick calls for a kind of 360 degrees constant evaluation of team and organization that would probably seem odd to Brown.   

And perhaps least like Brown was Guy Chamberlin who won four championships in the first decade of the NFL.  Chamberlin was more of a purest in his athletic interests.  Chamberlin was tall and tough--the kind of player who loved playing hard on both defense and offense.  He was a player coach for almost his entire career and each win had stains, bruises, and blood that recorded his efforts.  Within a year of when  Chamberlin could no longer play football any longer, he ended his football career.  He did not see professional football as a viable career choice.  Brown on the other hand was at  home with coaching as a long term career choice.  Most all of Ohio paid homage to Paul Brown as the greatest of coaches in what was the capital of football. Chamberlin returned to his family farm in Nebraska and for the most part, lived out his life in relative obscurity.

You can look at any one of the top ten coaches in Pillars of the NFL and compare their coaching approach to the other nine and you would see certain basic shared fundamentals, but there are very many working variations on just how the job got done.  Perhaps that's one of those things that makes sports very interesting and engaging. In the end, each coach took his own approach and was true to his own personal beliefs in what it takes to win.  

Copyright 2014, Sporting Chance Press

Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships by Patrick McCaskey, grandson of Papa Bear George Halas. More information.

 

News for Pillars of the NFL and Patrick McCaskey

Pillars of the NFL

Pillars on Catholic TV

Chicago Bears Senior Director and Author, Patrick McCaskey speaks on Catholic Television about his work and his new book Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships. Listen Here. 

Article on Pillars of the NFL

Sporting Chance Press author and Chicago Bears Senior Director, Patrick McCaskey was interviewed by Deana Carpenter for an article in the Almanac.net called "Chuck Noll Included in the Pillars of the NFL."  The article discusses McCaskey's new book that we published at Sporting Chance Press. The Almanac serves the South Hills area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  

Vineyard Books and Gifts Signing, August 23, 2014

Senior Director of the Chicago Bears Patrick McCaskey will sign copies of his new book, Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships along with another popular book Sports and Faith: Stories of the Devoted and the Devout on Saturday, August 23, 2014, at Vineyard Books and Gifts at 1638 N. Alpine Road in Rockford, Illinois (815-398-4030).  The event run from 12:00 Noon-2 p.m.

Love Christian Center Signing on September 6. 2014

Love Christian Center in Kankakee, Illinois carries Chicago Bears Senior Director Patrick McCaskey's new book, Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships and Sports and Faith: Stories of the Devoted and the Devout also by Patrick McCaskey. Love Christian Center is located at 49 S. Schuyler in downtown Kankakee. Some signed copies of Pillars of the NFL are available now at the shop and Mr. McCaskey is scheduled for a book signing meet and greet on September 6, 2014 from 10 am to Noon.  You can reach the store at 815-933-2822. 

Pillars Reviewed

Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships by Chicago Bears Senior Director, Patrick McCaskey, was reviewed by four sources to date:

 1. Thomas Loarie's Review on Amazon

2. Phil Angelo's Review in the Daily Journal

3. Dolores Madlener's Review in the Catholic New World 

4. The Guy Who Reviews Sports Books

Notre Dame University Signing on September 4, 2014

Senior Director of the Chicago Bears Patrick McCaskey will speak and sign copies of his new book, Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships at Notre Dame University's Hammes Bookstore.

Arlington Heights Memorial Library Presentation on September 16, 2014

Senior Director of the Chicago Bears Patrick McCaskey will speak at Arlington Heights Memorial Library at 7-8:30 p.m. The program is called Sports Authorities: Patrick McCaskey of the Chicago Bears

Carthage College Presentation on September 21, 2014

Senior Director of the Chicago Bears Patrick McCaskey will speak to students in the ministry group at Carthage College.

Gage County Historical Society Presentation on Pillars of the NFL on December 7, 2014

Senior Director of the Chicago Bears Patrick McCaskey will sign copies of his new book, Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships, at the  Gage County Historical Society in Beatrice, Nebraska.  McCaskey will speak at a Gage County Historical Society dinner that evening.  One of the Pillars covered in the book is Guy Chamberlin, one of the greatest coaches in NFL history and someone who lived in Gage County for much of his life.  

Recent Past Events

Knights of Columbus Presentation, April 26, 2014

Spoke at Knights of Columbus Council 1911 Jim Baurenfeind Catholic Athlete of the Year Award Dinner honoring Jordan Lynch of NIU and Mount Carmel High School.  

SALT Leadership Presentation, April 28, 2014 at Warren Township High School

Spoke at Student Athletic Leadership Team (SALT) at WarrenTownship High School on April 28, 2014 in Gurnee, Illinois. The mission of the SALT program is to help student athletes develop leadership skills needed to serve as effective leaders of their teams.  The program aims at team captains who are recommended by their respective coaching staff.  The host for the presentation is Mark Pos, Athletic Director at Warren Township High School.

Son Rise Morning Interview, April 30, 2014

Radio Interview: Matt Swaim Son Rise Morning Show at 740 AM Sacred Heart Radio in Cincinnati, and  EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network.The Show link is below--scroll to the very end of the three hour program for the interview.

 http://www.sonrisemorningshow.com/podcastgen/?name=2014-04-30_sonrise_04_30.mp3

Cardinal Stritch University Athletics Presentation, May 5, 2014

Spoke to Cardinal Stritch University Athletics on May 5, 2014.  The host for the presentation was Patrick Clemens, Athletic Director.  

Piccolo Award Ceremony at Halas Halls, May 6, 2014

2014 Piccolo Award ceremony at Halas Hall.  Brian Piccolo played for four short seasons, but he left a legacy of courage with the Bears and the NFL.  Awards are presented to Bears players voted deserving of such an honor by their peers. 

 

WSNS Steve Bowers Drive Time Interview, May 27, 2014

Radio Interview: Steve Bowers Drive Time Show on WSNS 105.1 FM Jackson, Tennessee. Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships was discussed.

Theology on Tap Presentation in Bourbonnais, July 30, 2014

Senior Director of the Chicago Bears Patrick McCaskey spoke to the Theology on Tap group of the Joliet Diocese Young Adult Ministry in Bourbonnais on Wednesday, July 30, 2014.  His subject is "Sports and Faith" not just a topic for McCaskey, but a family mantra. The event was held from 7-9 pm at the Brickstone Brewery at 557 William Latham Drive in Bourbonnais.  

Patrick McCaskey's Pillars of the NFL Covers the Greatest Coaches in NFL History

Pillars of the NFL

Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships is an ambitious book that examines the football lives of the ten greatest coaches in NFL history.  It looks at each coach's early life, their careers, and the teams they coached.  A final contribution to the game feature and a highlights feature closes each coach's coverage out.  Championship lists provide an appendix and a generous table of contents makes the book easier to use.  Bill Potter illustrations of each coach give readers a visual at the beginning of each chapter. 

Certainly some people will want to read the book from cover to cover, but most will likely start at least with their favorite coaches and teams and move around quite a bit.  Eventually, the author and publisher sincerely hope our book will reside on good spot on reader's favorite book shelf.  We hope commuters will bring the book with them on airplanes and trains--you can't do work every minute and Pillars can give you something fun to help break the time.  These day, a "great airplane ride" book is one of the highest of compliments. 

McCaskey's Pillars coaches were not selected by himself or a special task force, rather they are the ten coaches who have won the most NFL championships.  NFL championships in the pre Super Bowl days were decided in various ways. Initially, the records of the teams were reviewed and a champion selected in the annual league meeting. Rules were created to help make that decision more objective and eventually the league was broken up into two divisions and a championship game was created.  Today's Super Bowl Champion holds the NFL championship today.  

Perhaps what will make Pillars most interesting is reading about the different approaches the coaches' took to the top of the NFL peak.  Readers will see such a variety of approaches from the extremely well-organized Paul Brown to the ferocious perfection-seeker and motivator, Vince Lombardi.  They can read about Joe Gibbs who learned under one of the most innovative passing coach in history, Don Coryell, but quickly adjusted to a power running game based on his team's talent. 

Man's man and exemplary leader Chuck Noll builds one of the finest toughest football teams of the 20th Century and the superbly patient and practical Weeb Ewbank, works with two superstar quarterbacks who could not have been more different.  George Halas who lived like a Spartan warrior and was every bit the equal of men half his age carried on for six decades leading both the Bears and the NFL to unimaginable success.  Belichick, the son of a great football man, was brought up from the crib to become one of the best football minds in the history of the game.  No one in his camp has been spared criticism and every small defect is addressed in a program where responsibility is faced by everyone, every minute of the day.  

Lambeau was an exceptional athlete and a larger-than-life personality in the  small city of Green Bay.  He was able to not only will the survival of Packers, but turn them into champions and top challengers most every year of his long career. Perhaps the most difficult coach to understand was Bill Walsh--the one they called genius. Walsh was able to outplan and prepare most any coach of his era, but doubted his own powers when criticized.  Perhaps it was those doubts that led him to such heights.  

And then there was Guy Chamberlin, a man from the earliest days of the NFL who won his championships in the first decade of the league in the 1920s.  Chamberlin returned to the farm after his playing-coaching career because he did not believe pro football coaching could provide a long-term job.  In fact he did not believe pro football would last at all.  Chamberlin has become an obscure figure, but he had one of the greatest weapons in the early days--himself.  Chamberlin played offensive and defensive end and was as tough as the guns he taught his soldiers how to fire in his duty in World War I.  As a defensive end, Chamberlin was known to bring chaos into the opposing team's backfield.  When his team had the ball, he was frequently called to run an end around and if his speed wasn't too much for the opposition, his legs that moved like pistons were nearly impossible to stop.  

Pillars of the NFL was written to give football fans a birds-eye view of the NFL and the greatest coaches in the game.