30 Facts About Hank Stram

Henry Louis Stram was an American football coach.

Hank Stram won three AFL championships, more than any other coach in the league's history.

Hank Stram coached the most victories, had the most post-season games and the best post-season record in the AFL.

Hank Stram is largely responsible for the introduction of Gatorade to the NFL due to his close association with Ray Graves, coach at the University of Florida during Gatorade's development and infancy.

Hank Stram never had an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, or special teams coach during his career with the Texans and Chiefs.

Hank Stram was born in Chicago as Henry Louis Wilczek on January 3,1923.

Hank Stram's Polish-born father, Henry Wilczek, a tailor, had wrestled professionally under the name Stramm, the German word for "sturdy," and the family's surname was eventually changed to Stram.

Hank Stram later grew up in Gary, Indiana, and graduated from Lew Wallace High School class of 1941.

Hank Stram served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, interrupting his university career.

Hank Stram was an assistant football coach for the Boilermakers from 1948 to 1955 and the head baseball coach from 1951 to 1955.

Hunt had previously been a bench player at SMU when Hank Stram had been coaching there and the Texans' position had been turned down by Bud Wilkinson and Tom Landry, then an assistant at the New York Giants.

Hank Stram went in to pro football's past and resurrected the T formation.

Hank Stram had to deal with continuous discipline problems caused by his leading rusher, Chuck Muncie, who was in the early stages of a cocaine addiction which would lead to his trade in 1980 from New Orleans to the San Diego Chargers.

Hank Stram was fired after the final game of the season.

Hank Stram was an innovator, a shrewd judge of talent, and an excellent teacher.

Hank Stram would take players that had been unsuccessful on other teams, such as Len Dawson, who had failed to catch on with both the Steelers and the Browns, and help them develop their potential.

Hank Stram recruited heavily from historically black colleges, so his teams were always diverse, and he instituted weight-training and off-season mini-camps.

Hank Stram was the first coach in professional football to use Gatorade on his sidelines and run both the I formation and two-tight end offense, still used in professional football today.

Hank Stram was considered a motivational genius, and his emphasis on the Chiefs' wearing of a patch commemorating the AFL in Super Bowl IV was one of his typical ploys, extracting maximum effort from players who had been derided by proponents of the NFL.

Hank Stram was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2003, nine years after Bud Grant, the man whose team he had convincingly defeated in Super Bowl IV, had been enshrined.

At the Hall of Fame ceremonies, Hank Stram was so weakened by the effects of diabetes that Len Dawson pushed his former coach onto the stage in a wheelchair.

Hank Stram was the only head coach who lasted the entire history of the AFL.

Hank Stram began broadcasting games for CBS in 1975, originally calling games with Frank Glieber.

Hank Stram's key broadcasting trademark was his habit of predicting the next play before it happened.

Hank Stram was hospitalized in Indianapolis for a week and later resumed his career with CBS.

Hank Stram remained a part of CBS' television broadcast team until 1993.

Hank Stram married Phyllis Marie Pesha in 1953 and they stayed together as husband and wife until his death due to complications from diabetes in 2005.

Hank Stram made a guest appearance as himself on the TV show Coach.

Hank Stram retired to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he built a home in the town of Covington.

Hank Stram died at St Tammany Parish hospital in Covington, from complications due to diabetes, on July 4,2005.