Former Coach of the Houston Oiler, Houston Gamblers and University of Houston Cougars Jack Pardee died two weeks ago. Pretty good for a guy who was told to get his affairs in order 40 years ago after they found a cancerous mole. RIP. Helluva life.
From
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl...ack/index.html
Jack Pardee's career was simply amazing.
The 10 things you need to know about the football career of Jack Pardee, who died at 76 last week of gallbladder cancer:
1. He scored 57 touchdowns his senior year in high school, as a back on a six-man football team in west central Texas.
2. He played college football for Bear Bryant.
3. He was a linebacker and the defensive leader for George Allen's Washington team in 1972 -- the team that, in Super Bowl VII, became the 17th victim in the Dolphins' unbeaten season.
4. He was a World Football League head coach in 1974, with the Washington-turned-Norfolk-turned-Florida franchise. The Florida Blazers lost in the 1974 World Bowl.
5. He was the first NFL coach for Walter Payton, working for three years with the Bears, from 1975 to 1977. He walked a disciplinary tightrope with the enigmatic Payton early in his career.
6. He followed George Allen as Washington's coach, going 24-24 in three years, and preceded Joe Gibbs as Washington's coach.
7. He coached Jim Kelly with the USFL Houston Gamblers in 1984 and '85.
8. He coached the University of Houston, and Heisman-winning quarterback Andre Ware, for three years.
9. He coached the NFL's Oilers for five years, including the Wild Card game in which Houston blew the 35-3 lead. So egoless was Pardee that when he took the job and asked for an office where the team practiced, he was told there was no office space whatsoever there. The only space in the cramped locker-room facility was a janitor's closet. "Can it be cleared out?'' Pardee asked? "Can we fit a small desk in there?'' In the broom closet went a small desk and chair, and Pardee had to wedge himself around the corner of the desk to sit down. When he had a meeting with someone -- a player, for instance -- the player would have to stand in the hallway or pull up a chair to the desk, with the chair being mostly in the hallway.
10. He coached, finally, the Birmingham Barracudas of the Canadian Football League in 1995. Notable for two things: Birmingham is 850 miles south of the nearest Canadian border. And the 'Cudas cut Ickey Woods in his last-gasp attempt to continue playing football.
Amazing: The man coached in the WFL, the NFL, the USFL, the NFL again, and the CFL. Four leagues. One other story: The Oilers were playing a preseason game one August Saturday evening in San Diego, and after the game, Pardee stuck around the stadium to tape his coach's show. His PR man, Chip Namias, and PR lieutenant, Dave Pearson, drove Pardee back to the hotel in a rental car. Pardee still was in his coaches' clothing for the show -- coaches' shorts and a polo shirt. On the way back to the hotel, he asked to stop at a Ralph's, a grocery store chain, so he could get some beer. They went into Ralph's, Pardee got two six-packs, and they went to pay. Only one checkout stand was open. So they waited. And waited. An NFL coach, in his coaches clothing, patiently waiting with his two six-packs 10, 15 minutes for the long line to go down, and not complaining.
Jack Pardee, his office in the janitor's closet. Pardee, in the long checkout line at midnight at a Ralph's, in his coaching togs, with a couple of sixes. Pardee, playing for Bear Bryant and George Allen, coaching Payton and Warren Moon and Kelly. Quite a football life.
Jack Goes To The After Pardee
