1. Alex "Allie" Sherman was an American football player and coach who played 51 games in six seasons in the National Football League as a quarterback and defensive back, and afterward served as head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League and of the New York Giants of the NFL.
Allie Sherman later worked as a cable television and sports marketing executive and media personality.
Allie Sherman won three consecutive Eastern Conference titles with the Giants from 1961 to 1963, and coached in three NFL Pro Bowls.
Allie Sherman collected two NFL Coach of the Year Awards, in 1961 and 1962, the first time such an honor was awarded to the same person in consecutive years.
Allie Sherman was the first "media" NFL head coach, producing and hosting his own shows on television and radio, and becoming a frequent on-air football analyst.
Allie Sherman was Jewish, and his parents migrated to New York in 1920.
Allie Sherman was born in Brownsville in New York City's borough of Brooklyn, then lived in New Lots, East New York, and Crown Heights.
Allie Sherman became the captain of the Boys' High handball team, which won division titles.
Allie Sherman graduated in 1939 with a 96 average at the age of 16, and entered college.
Allie Sherman had taken a football with him to the Catskills, and spent time throwing it at trees to improve his accuracy.
Allie Sherman became the starting quarterback in 1940, and played for the team from 1940 to 1942.
Allie Sherman is a member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Long Island, New York, and the Brooklyn College Hall of Fame.
Allie Sherman was so dedicated, he insisted on rooming with a lineman.
Allie Sherman wanted to absorb the way a lineman thought.
Allie Sherman spent the 1948 season as a rookie head coach and quarterback for the Paterson Panthers, a minor league New Jersey team, and won the championship.
When Owen retired as the Giants' coach after the 1953 season, and Allie Sherman did not get his job, he became head coach of the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The Bombers made the playoffs three years in a row; and, with the CFL's 12-man squads and broad pre-snap motion rules, Allie Sherman gained a reputation for designing complex offensive schemes that made defenses dizzy.
Lombardi, a good friend, wanted Allie Sherman to join him as the Packers' offensive coordinator; but Allie Sherman wanted the Giants' head coaching position.
Allie Sherman traded for a number of younger players to bolster an aging squad, such as star quarterback Y A Tittle, swift receiver Del Shofner, and defensive backs Erich Barnes and Allan Webb, and then led the Giants to the NFL Eastern Conference championship, which landed them in the NFL championship game.
In 1965 and 1966, with the support of owner Wellington Mara, Allie Sherman added two retired Giants to his staff, Emlen Tunnell and Rosey Brown.
Shortly beforehand, Allie Sherman was told that Tunnell and Brown were not invited because of the club's segregation policy.
Allie Sherman quickly informed the Bowl committee that no Giants personnel would attend the banquet unless everyone was invited.
Allie Sherman coached the Giants for another five seasons, but with an aging defense and retirements of Tittle, Gifford, and others, the team began rebuilding with younger players and went through up and down years.
Friends with new NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, a former public relations executive, Allie Sherman saw merit in Rozelle's strategy to increase the NFL's value by increasing its television coverage, franchises, and entertainment marketing, which would expand NFL rights fees and revenues.
Allie Sherman conducted never-before-done daily press conferences during training camp and, every Monday morning after a game, presented game film clips and evaluations.
Allie Sherman held a big Christmas party for all of press, even his critics.
Allie Sherman produced and owned the first pro football coach's weekly television program, on independent NYC station WPIX, reviewing film of the Giants' prior game and discussing football with invited players, coaches, and guests, giving many fans their first peek inside professional football and "up close and personal" moments with the players.
Allie Sherman co-produced and hosted a Monday night radio program, Ask Allie, airing on the Giants' station, WNEW, where it was just himself sitting in a booth, smoking a cigar, and directly taking fans' call-in questions and comments.
The press respected Allie Sherman for facing fans weekly and always treating them graciously.
In 1985 Sabol and Allie Sherman co-created and produced a new type of show, Monday Night Matchup, shown on ESPN just before ABC's national Monday Night game, where Allie Sherman and co-hosts, such as Ron "Jaws" Jaworski, would break down the teams into key match-ups and use stop-action film and graphics to analyze the upcoming game.
Allie Sherman led an effort with several New York friends and other parties to purchase an NFL franchise.
Ross asked Allie Sherman to join WCI and use his coaching and media expertise to build good teams and develop these potential assets.
Allie Sherman recognized its marketing and revenue potential for sports programming.
Allie Sherman created cable's first sports subscription package with Ohio State University Chancellor Gordon Gee.
Allie Sherman managed WCI's position and built a similar Pirates subscription package for WCI cable customers.
In each WCI cable system, in big cities like Dallas and Chicago, Allie Sherman continued to acquire college and professional sports rights, and then built regional sports networks to exhibit the games and specially created related programming.
Allie Sherman positioned WCI's growing cable systems as an integral part of the sales and marketing of national pay-per-view events, especially high-priced championship fights.
Allie Sherman took over the team's management and marketing, to expand the fan base to bigger, broader audiences.
Allie Sherman used Pele and other stars to sell the game's excitement, reached out to regional youth soccer clubs, negotiated a special television deal for more exposure, and made Cosmos games into an event.
Sherman became close with Pele, and Pele requested that Sherman produce his 1977 farewell game.
Allie Sherman put together a package of an ABC special game presentation, a worldwide syndicate of TV networks in 117 countries, global sponsors to market it, had Frank Gifford as host with myriad celebrities and officials, ending with a special award presented by Muhammad Ali.
In 1994, new New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, asked Allie Sherman to become president of the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation and try to turn OTB into a money maker with a better image.
Also, in a private-public partnership, Allie Sherman worked with the New York Racing Association and Warner Cable in a joint venture with OTB to create a new, low-cost daily racing channel, showing races from around the country that customers could bet on over the phone and then watch at home.