Sid Gillman

Sidney Gillman (October 26, 1911 – January 3, 2003) was an American football player, coach and executive. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wide receivers at the sides of the line of scrimmage, was instrumental in making football into the modern game that it is today.

For the neurologist, see Sid Gilman.

Sid Gillman
Gillman as coach of the Rams in 1959
Position:End
Personal information
Born:(1911-10-26)October 26, 1911
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Died:January 3, 2003(2003-01-03) (aged 91)
Carlsbad, California
Career information
High school:Minneapolis (MN) North
College:Ohio State
Career history
As player:
  • Cleveland Rams (1936)
As coach:
Career highlights and awards
Head coaching record
Regular season:AFL/NFL: 122–99–7 (.550)
Postseason:AFL/NFL: 1–5 (.167)
Career:AFL/NFL: 123–104–7 (.541)
NCAA: 81–19–2 (.804)
Coaching stats at PFR

Gillman played football as an end at Ohio State University from 1931 to 1933. He played professionally for one season in 1936 with the Cleveland Rams of the second American Football League. After serving as an assistant coach at Ohio State from 1938 to 1940, Gillman was the head football coach at Miami University from 1944 to 1947 and at the University of Cincinnati from 1949 to 1954, compiling a career college football record of 81–19–2. He then moved to the ranks of professional football, where he headed the NFL's Los Angeles Rams (1955–1959), the American Football League's Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers (1960–1969), and the NFL's Houston Oilers (1973–1974), amassing a career record of 123–104–7 in the National Football League and the American Football League. Gillman's 1963 San Diego Chargers won the AFL Championship. Gillman was inducted as a coach into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989. He is the sole coach in the history of American football to have earned both honors.

Biography

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gillman was Jewish.[1] He played college football at Ohio State University under coach Sam Willaman, forming the basis of his offense.[2] He was a team captain and All-Big Ten Conference end in 1933. While attending Ohio State University, Gillman was a brother of the Nu chapter of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.

Always deeply interested in the game, while working as a movie theater usher, he removed football segments from newsreels that the theater would show, so that he could take them home and study them on a projector he had bought. This dedication to filmed football plays made Gillman the first coach to study game footage, something that all coaches do today.[3]

Gillman played one year in the American Football League (1936) for the Cleveland Rams, then became an assistant coach at Denison University, Ohio State University, and was an assistant coach to Earl Blaik of Army, then head coach at Miami University and the University of Cincinnati. His record over 10 years as a college head coach were 81–19–2.

He returned to professional football as a head coach with the Los Angeles Rams, leading the team to the NFL's championship game, and then moved to the American Football League (AFL, 1960–1969), where he coached the Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers to five Western Division titles and one league championship in the first six years of the AFL's existence.

His greatest coaching success came after he was persuaded by Barron Hilton, then the Chargers' majority owner, to become the head coach of the AFL franchise he planned to operate in Los Angeles. When the team's general manager, Frank Leahy, became ill during the Chargers' founding season, Gillman took on additional responsibilities as general manager.

As the first coach of the Chargers, Gillman gave the team a mercurial personality that matched his own.

He had much to do with the AFL being able to establish itself. Gillman was a thorough professional, and in order to compete with him, his peers had to learn pro ways. They learned, and the AFL became the genesis of modern professional football.

"Sid Gillman brought class to the AFL", Oakland Raiders managing general partner Al Davis once said of the man he served under on that first Chargers team. "Being part of Sid's organization was like going to a laboratory for the highly developed science of professional football."

Through Gillman's tenure as head coach, the Chargers went 87–57–6 and won five AFL Western Division titles. In 1963 they captured the only league championship the club ever won by outscoring the Boston Patriots, 51–10, in the American Football League championship game in Balboa Stadium. That game was a measure of Gillman's genius.

He crafted a game plan he entitled "Feast or Famine" that used motion, then seldom seen, to negate the Patriots' blitzes. His plan freed running back Keith Lincoln to rush for 206 yards. In addition to Lincoln, on Gillman's teams through the '60s were these notable players: wide receiver Lance Alworth; offensive tackle Ron Mix; running back Paul Lowe; quarterback John Hadl; and defensive linemen Ernie Ladd and Earl Faison (Alworth and Mix are Hall of Famers). Gillman was one of only two head coaches to hold that position for the entire 10-year existence of the American Football League (the other being fellow Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram, who coached the Dallas Texans and Kansas City Chiefs from 1960 through 1974).

Gillman approached then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle in 1963 with the idea of having the champions of the AFL and the NFL play a single final game, but his idea was not implemented until the Super Bowl (originally titled the AFL-NFL World Championship Game) was played in 1967.

Following his tenure with San Diego, he coached the Houston Oilers for two years from 1973 to 1974, helping bring the club out of the funk it had been in for many seasons prior, and closer to playoff contention. He later served as the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears in 1977 and as a consultant for Dick Vermeil's Philadelphia Eagles in 1980.[4]

In July 1983, at age 71, Gillman came out of retirement after an offer from Bill Tatham, Sr. and Bill Tatham, Jr., owners of the United States Football League (USFL) expansion team the Oklahoma Outlaws.[5] Gillman agreed to serve as Director of Operations and signed quarterback Doug Williams, who later led the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII. Although Gillman signed a roster of players to play for the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based franchise, he was fired by Tatham six months later in a dispute over finances. He then served as a consultant for the USFL's Los Angeles Express in 1984.

Influence

Gillman's influence on the modern game can be seen by listing the current and former coaches and executives who either played with him or coached for him:

Coaching tree

Numbers indicate Super Bowls won by Gillman's "descendants", a total of twenty-six, including Super Bowl 50 winning coach Gary Kubiak.

Don Coryell, the coach at San Diego State University when Gillman was coaching the San Diego Chargers, would bring his team to Chargers' practices to watch how Gillman ran his practices. Coryell went on to coach in the NFL, and some of his assistants, influenced by the Gillman style, included coaches Joe Gibbs, Ernie Zampese, Tom Bass, and Russ A. Molzahn. A larger and more extended version of Sid Gillman's coaching tree, which in some ways could be called a forest, can be found here.[6]

Personal life

Gillman was married to his wife, Esther. They had four children. The Gillmans lived in Carlsbad, California before moving to Century City in 2001.[7]

Honors and death

Gillman was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983, and into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1990 he was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[8] He is the only head coach in the history of football in America to receive both these honors, each the pinnacle in its level. Upon his death in 2003, Gillman was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Head coaching record

College
Year Team Overall ConferenceStanding Bowl/playoffs
Miami Redskins (Independent) (1944–1947)
1944 Miami 8–1
1945 Miami 7–2
1946 Miami 7–3
1947 Miami 9–0–1W Sun
Miami: 31–6–1
Cincinnati Bearcats (Mid-American Conference) (1949–1952)
1949 Cincinnati 7–44–01st
1950 Cincinnati 8–43–12ndL Sun
1951 Cincinnati 10–13–01st
1952 Cincinnati 8–1–13–01st
Cincinnati Bearcats (Independent) (1953–1954)
1953 Cincinnati 9–1
1954 Cincinnati 8–2
Cincinnati: 50–13–113–1
Total:81–19–2
      National championship         Conference title         Conference division title or championship game berth

AFL/NFL
TeamYearRegular SeasonPost Season
WonLostTiesWin %FinishWonLostWin %Result
LA1955 83172.71st in NFL Western Conference010.00Lost to Cleveland Browns in NFL Championship game
LA1956 48033.35th-T in NFL Western Conference---
LA1957 66050.04th in NFL Western Conference---
LA1958 84066.72nd-T in NFL Western Conference---
LA1959 210020.06th in NFL Western Conference---
LA Rams Total2831147.50100.01 NFL conference championship
LA Chargers1960 104071.41st in AFL West Division0100.0Lost to Houston Oilers in AFL championship game
SD1961 122085.71st in AFL West Division0100.0Lost to Houston Oilers in AFL championship game
SD1962 410028.64th in AFL West Division---
SD1963 113078.61st in AFL West Division10100.0Beat Boston Patriots in AFL championship game
SD1964 85161.51st in AFL West Division010.00Lost to Buffalo Bills in AFL championship game
SD1965 92381.81st in AFL West Division010.00Lost to Buffalo Bills in AFL championship game
SD1966 76153.83rd in AFL West Division---
SD1967 85161.53rd in AFL West Division---
SD1968 95064.33rd in AFL West Division---
SD1969 86057.13rd in AFL West Division---
LA-SD Chargers AFL Total8648663.61420.01 AFL title, 5 AFL division championships
Hou1973 18011.14th in NFL AFC Central---
Hou1974 77050.02nd in NFL AFC Central---
Houston Oilers815034.8---
Professional Total123103754.31516.71 AFL title, 5 AFL division championships, 1 NFL conference championship
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See also

References
  2. Peterson, Bill (August 16, 2006). "Cincinnati's Connection to Football's "West Coast Offense"". City Beat. Archived from the original on January 28, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2006.
  3. Bach, John (January 2001). "Sid Gillman used film to change football while at the University of Cincinnati". University of Cincinnati Magazine. Retrieved September 7, 2006.
  4. Pierson, Don (January 4, 2003). "Sid Gillman 1911-2003". Chicago Tribune.
  5. Oklahoma Outlaws to Join USFL;Chicago Herald;July 8, 1983; Page 22.
  6. "Sid Gillman Coaching Tree". Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  7. "Gillman Helped Engineer West Coast Offense". ESPN. January 7, 2003. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  8. "Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Home". scjewishsportshof.com.
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