Samuel David Wyche was an American football quarterback and coach.
47 Facts About Sam Wyche
2.
Sam Wyche was a quarterback and head coach for the Cincinnati Bengals and a quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers.
3.
Sam Wyche was known for introducing the use of the no-huddle offense as a standard offense.
4.
Sam Wyche played for the Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, St Louis Cardinals, and Buffalo Bills.
5.
Sam Wyche coached at the University of South Carolina and Indiana University, and for the San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Buffalo Bills.
6.
From 1963 to 1965, Sam Wyche played college football at Furman University as a quarterback.
7.
Sam Wyche was an initiated member of Kappa Alpha Order fraternity.
8.
Sam Wyche earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Furman University and his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of South Carolina.
9.
From 1966 through 1967, Sam Wyche played for the Wheeling Ironmen of the semi-professional Continental Football League.
10.
Sam Wyche signed with the American Football League expansion Cincinnati Bengals for the 1968 season, when he started three games and served as backup to John Stofa and Dewey Warren.
11.
Sam Wyche rushed 12 times for 74 yards and caught one pass for five yards.
12.
Sam Wyche rushed 12 times for 109 yards and one touchdown.
13.
Sam Wyche played in all 14 games, starting three, with 26 completions in 57 attempts for 411 yards and three touchdowns.
14.
Sam Wyche rushed 19 times for 118 yards with two touchdowns.
15.
From 1971 to 1973, Sam Wyche played for the Washington Redskins, who appeared in Super Bowl VII.
16.
Sam Wyche primarily played as the team's holder on field goals.
17.
In 1974, Sam Wyche played for the Detroit Lions, with only one pass attempted.
18.
Sam Wyche was selected in the inaugural World Football League draft in 1974.
19.
Sam Wyche completed his only pass completion for five yards.
20.
Sam Wyche was signed by the Buffalo Bills on October 27,1976.
21.
Sam Wyche did not play any games during his time with the team.
22.
In 1967, while at the University of South Carolina working on his MBA degree, Sam Wyche was an assistant coach for the Gamecocks.
23.
Sam Wyche was an assistant coach and directed the passing game for the San Francisco 49ers from 1979 to 1982.
24.
Sam Wyche was on the coaching staff of the 1981 team that won Super Bowl XVI.
25.
Sam Wyche was hired as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals in late December 1983.
26.
Sam Wyche introduced the concept of having 12 or more players huddle on the field, then having a few leave the field.
27.
Sam Wyche called it the "sugar huddle"; it was meant to confuse the defense as to the personnel grouping.
28.
Sam Wyche chided the fans who were doing the throwing, and alluded to the reputation of their in-state rivals, the Cleveland Browns:.
29.
Sam Wyche complained that Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was more interested in fining him than finding a solution that worked.
30.
On December 24,1991, just three years after the Bengals' Super Bowl appearance, Sam Wyche was fired by owner Mike Brown, who had taken over the team upon the death of his father, club founder Paul Brown, four months earlier.
31.
Controversy erupted when the Bengals claimed Sam Wyche had resigned, relieving the team of any future payments, but Sam Wyche stated he was fired.
32.
Sam Wyche was hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as head coach in 1992.
33.
Sam Wyche spent the next four years as head coach of the Buccaneers, where he drafted Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, and John Lynch, players who would be key members of the successful Buccaneers teams under his successors, Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden.
34.
From 2004 to 2005, Sam Wyche was the quarterbacks coach for the Buffalo Bills.
35.
In 2002,2003 and from 2006 to 2008, Sam Wyche volunteered as the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for the Pickens High School Blue Flame in Pickens, South Carolina.
36.
Sam Wyche helped the Blue Flame get to the second round of the playoffs in 2006.
37.
Sam Wyche was a registered substitute teacher in Pickens County schools.
38.
In 1996, Sam Wyche worked as a sports analyst with Marv Albert on a weekly NFL game for NBC.
39.
Sam Wyche worked as an analyst for CBS with Kevin Harlan on the weekly NFL games from 1998 until week 2 in 2000 when his voice gave part way through a game between Miami and Minnesota.
40.
Sam Wyche returned to CBS in 2001, where he did the first two games of the NFL season with Gus Johnson, and Brent Jones.
41.
Sam Wyche enjoyed golf, tennis, jogging and riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
42.
Sam Wyche underwent a biopsy on lymph nodes in his chest in 2000.
43.
Sam Wyche's left Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve was severed during the procedure, leaving his voice consistently hoarse and scratchy.
44.
Sam Wyche's brother, Bubba, was a quarterback at Tennessee and in the Canadian Football League and World Football League.
45.
On September 9,2016, Sam Wyche was admitted to the Carolinas Medical Center's Dickson Heart Unit in Charlotte, North Carolina, awaiting a heart transplant due to congestive heart failure.
46.
Sam Wyche was diagnosed with melanoma in 2019 and died at his home in Pickens, South Carolina, on January 2,2020, three days short of his 75th birthday.
47.
On November 4,2008, Sam Wyche secured a seat on the County Council for Pickens County, South Carolina.