About Me
I was born on June 11, 1913. I was raised in the Sheepshead Bay area of southern Brooklyn, and attended its public schools through the eighth grade.In 1928, at age 15, I entered a preparatory seminary, a six year secondary program to become a Catholic priest. After four years, I decided not to pursue this path, and transferred to the St. Francis Preparatory High School, where I was a standout on the football team (an activity that was discouraged at the seminary). I remained a devout Catholic throughout my lifetime.In 1933 I accepted a football scholarship to Fordham University in the Bronx, to play for new head coach Sleepy Jim Crowley, one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in the 1920s. I was an undersized guard (5'8" 185 lb.) on Fordham's imposing front line, which became known as the Seven Blocks of Granite. It held Fordham's opponents scoreless several times during a string of 25 consecutive victories. Frank Leahy, future head coach at Notre Dame, was my position coach. In the classroom I was, at best, a slightly above average student. I was awarded my bachelor's degree from Fordham in June 1937, five days after my 24th birthday.In 1939, after two years of unfulfilling jobs, semi-professional football with the Brooklyn Eagles (bulking up to 205 lb.) and Wilmington Clippers, and a semester of Fordham's law school at night, I gladly accepted an assistant coaching job at St. Cecilia, a Catholic high school in Englewood, New Jersey. I was hired by its new head coach, a Fordham teammate, former quarterback "Handy" Andy Palau. Palau had also struggled for two years, failing to make it in baseball as a catcher in the Yankee farm system. Palau had just taken over the head coaching position from another Fordham teammate, Nat Pierce (left guard), who had accepted an assistant coach's job back at Fordham. In addition to coaching, at age 26, I also taught Latin, chemistry, and physics for an annual salary of under $1800 at the high school. Myself and Palau shared a boarding house room across the street for $1.50 each per week. In 1940, I married Marie Planitz, a cousin of another Fordham teammate, Jim Lawlor. Andy Palau left for Fordham in 1942 and I became the head coach at St. Cecilia. I stayed a total of eight years (five as head coach), leaving for Fordham in 1947 to coach the freshman teams in football and basketball. The following year I served as an assistant coach for Fordham's varsity football team.Following the 1948 football season, I accepted another assistant's job, at the United States Military Academy, a position that would greatly influence my future coaching style. As offensive line coach under legendary head coach Colonel Red Blaik, I worked long hours and refined my leadership skills. Blaik's emphasis on execution would become a hallmark of my NFL teams. I coached at West Point for five seasons, with varying results. The 1949, 1950, & 1953 seasons were successful, but the 1951 and 1952 seasons were poor and mediocre, respectively, due to the aftermath the cadet cribbing scandal in the spring of 1951, which severely depleted the talent on the football team. Following these five seasons at Army, I accepted an assistant coaching position with the NFL's New York Giants.At age 41, I began my career as a professional football coach in 1954. I accepted what would later become known as the Offensive Coordinator position for the NFL's New York Giants, under new head coach Jim Lee Howell. The Giants had finished the previous season, under 23-year coach Steve Owen, with a woeful 3-9 record. Myself and Defensive Coordinator Tom Landry needed only three seasons to turn the team into a championship team, defeating the Chicago Bears for the title in 1956. I relied on the talents of Frank Gifford, whom I switched from defense to offense as a pass-option player.I was not content as an assistant coach, and in January 1959, at the age of 45, I accepted the position of head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers. The Packers were dismal, having won only a single game (with one tie) in the 1958 season, but I felt that my coaching skills were up to the challenge. I immediately began building my reputation as an extraordinarily demanding coach, creating punishing training regimens and expecting absolute dedication and effort from his players. The 1959 Packers were an immediate improvement, finishing at 7-5.In my second year, I led the Packers to the 1960 NFL championship game, but suffered one of my only two post-season losses when Packer fullback Jim Taylor was stopped nine yards from the end zone by Chuck Bednarik as time ran out. In the weeks following this game, I had an opportunity to become head coach of the New York Giants, at one time my dream job. After some anxious internal deliberation, I graciously declined, and the Giants hired Allie Sherman instead. The Packers would defeat the Giants for the NFL title in 1961 (37-0) and 1962 (16-7 at Yankee Stadium), marking the first two of our five titles in my nine years. my only other post-season loss occurred to the St. Louis Cardinals in the Playoff Bowl (3rd place game) after the 1964 season.My unrelenting coaching philosophy paid off with a remarkable 105-35-6 record as a head coach, never suffering a losing season, (my 1959 team was 7-5, after taking over a 1-10-1 team from 1958, and my 1969 Redskin team was 7-5-2, coming off of a 5-9 season in 1968. I lead the Packers to a still-unmatched three consecutive NFL championships in 1965, 1966, and 1967, and also helped the Packers handily win each of the first two Super Bowls. My popularity was so great at the time that Richard Nixon considered me as a running mate for the 1968 election, only to be reminded by an advisor that I was a Kennedy Democrat (although my father and brother were Republicans).As coach of the Packers, I converted Notre Dame quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Paul Hornung to a full time halfback, running a play for him in which offensive linemen swept to the outside and blocked downfield (pulling guards). This was a play that I had originally developed for Gifford that would become known as the Packer power sweep.I stepped down as head coach of the Packers following the 1967 NFL season, staying on as the team's general manager in 1968 and handing off the head coaching position to Phil Bengtson, a longtime loyal assistant. My restlessness & competitive drive led me to return to coaching in 1969, this time with the Washington Redskins, where I broke a string of 14 losing seasons.
