Dennis Earl Green was an American football coach.
29 Facts About Dennis Green
2.
Dennis Green coached the Vikings to eight playoff appearances in nine years, despite having seven different starting quarterbacks in those postseasons.
3.
Dennis Green was posthumously inducted into the Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor in 2018.
4.
Dennis Green was the second African American head coach in NFL history.
5.
Dennis Green was the Minnesota Vikings head coach from 1992 to 2001.
6.
Dennis Green was hired by the Cardinals to serve as the head coach for the 2004 season, a franchise then noted for its futility, which had posted only one winning season in a quarter-century.
7.
Dennis Green grew up in a working class household in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the corner of Walnut and N 12th street.
8.
Dennis Green's father died when Green was 11 and his mother died of breast cancer when he was 13.
9.
Dennis Green was in attendance at the March 2,1962 NBA game in Hershey, Pennsylvania where Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points.
10.
Dennis Green began his football coaching career, returning to the University Iowa in 1972 as a graduate assistant.
11.
Dennis Green then served as an assistant coach at the University of Dayton, University of Iowa and Stanford University, where he coached under Bill Walsh in 1977 and 1978.
12.
In 1979, Dennis Green joined Bill Walsh's staff on the San Francisco 49ers, where he coached special teams.
13.
Dennis Green returned to Stanford in 1980 as offensive coordinator, coaching with Jim Fassel and Jack Harbaugh.
14.
Dennis Green was named the Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year, as chosen by writers and broadcasters, in 1982 at Northwestern.
15.
Dennis Green left Northwestern in 1985, doing a stint as the wide receivers coach for the San Francisco 49ers under his former boss at Stanford, Bill Walsh.
16.
In 1989, Dennis Green took the head coaching position at Stanford University, inheriting a team that had graduated 17 of its 21 starters from 1988.
17.
Dennis Green was a disciple of Bill Walsh's West Coast offense and was touted by Walsh and other NFL pundits as a likely candidate to be the second African-American head coach in the NFL.
18.
On January 10,1992, Dennis Green was named 5th head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, replacing the retiring Jerry Burns.
19.
Dennis Green was the second African American head coach after Art Shell in the modern NFL era, and the first to do so without ever playing in the NFL.
20.
Dennis Green was the third in NFL history after Fritz Pollard in the 1920s and Shell.
21.
Dennis Green was reportedly the pioneer of using the team's day off on Tuesday to do charity work in the community, which eventually became common in the NFL.
22.
However, as the team's fan-base grew accustomed to regular season success, Dennis Green came under criticism for failing to advance the team deeper into the playoffs.
23.
In 1997, Dennis Green published his autobiography No Room For Crybabies, in which he responded to the criticism and perceived personal vendettas by Twin Cities sports writers Bob Sansevere, Dan Barreiro, and Patrick Reusse.
24.
Dennis Green threatened to sue the team as his response to the Lou Holtz rumors.
25.
Dennis Green's tirade is still used heavily in NFL media coverage today, often comically, to describe the obvious flaws of an opponent and the failure to capitalize on that knowledge.
26.
On March 11,2009, it was announced that Dennis Green would be the head coach of the San Francisco franchise for the United Football League's inaugural season.
27.
Dennis Green remained as head coach for the 2011 seasons as well, his final season with the Mountain Lions.
28.
On Thursday July 21,2016, Dennis Green died at the age of 67 due to complications from cardiac arrest.
29.
Dennis Green took great pride in helping assistant coaches advance their careers.