43 Facts About Weeb Ewbank

Wilbur Charles "Weeb" Ewbank was an American professional football coach.

Weeb Ewbank led the Baltimore Colts to consecutive NFL championships in 1958 and 1959 and the New York Jets to victory in Super Bowl III in January 1969.

Weeb Ewbank immediately began a coaching career after graduating, working at Ohio high schools between 1928 and 1943, when he entered the US Navy during World War II.

Weeb Ewbank was discharged in 1945 and coached college sports for three years before reuniting with Brown as an assistant with the Cleveland Browns, a professional team in the All-America Football Conference.

Weeb Ewbank left the Browns after the 1953 season to become head coach of the Colts, a young NFL team that had struggled in its first season.

In 1956, Weeb Ewbank brought in quarterback Johnny Unitas, who quickly became a star and helped lead a potent offense that included wide receiver Raymond Berry and fullback Alan Ameche to an NFL championship in 1958.

The Colts repeated as champions in 1959, but the team's performance slipped over the next three seasons and Weeb Ewbank was fired three weeks after their final game of the 1962 season.

Weeb Ewbank, who was known as a mild-mannered coach who favored simple but well-executed strategies, retired after the 1973 season and settled in Oxford, Ohio.

Weeb Ewbank was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978, and died twenty years later in Oxford on November 17,1998, the 30th anniversary of the "Heidi Game".

Weeb Ewbank captained the football and basketball teams when he was a senior.

Weeb Ewbank played on the school's football team as a quarterback under head coach Chester Pittser.

Weeb Ewbank was the center fielder on the baseball team and a forward on the basketball team.

Weeb Ewbank was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity while at Miami.

Shortly after graduating from Miami in 1928, Weeb Ewbank took his first coaching job at Van Wert High School in Van Wert, Ohio, overseeing the football, basketball, and baseball teams.

Weeb Ewbank remained there until 1930, when he moved back to Oxford and took a position coaching football and basketball at McGuffey High School, a private institution run by Miami University.

Weeb Ewbank took a break from coaching in 1932 to pursue a master's degree at Columbia University in New York City and filled in as Miami's basketball coach in 1939 after the previous coach left for another job, but otherwise held his coaching positions at McGuffey until 1943.

Weeb Ewbank joined the US Navy in 1943 as American involvement in World War II intensified.

Weeb Ewbank was assigned for training to Naval Station Great Lakes north of Chicago, where Paul Brown, a former classmate who succeeded him as Miami's starting quarterback, was coaching the base football team.

At Great Lakes, Weeb Ewbank was an assistant to Brown on the football team and coached the basketball team.

Weeb Ewbank's next stop was as head football coach at Washington University in St Louis for the 1947 and 1948 seasons.

Weeb Ewbank was brought in to oversee the Browns' linemen after backfield coach John Brickels quit to take a job at Miami University and tackles coach Bill Edwards left to become the head coach at Vanderbilt University.

Weeb Ewbank expected to coach quarterbacks, having played the position in college, but Brown insisted that he oversee the tackles.

Weeb Ewbank got his first professional head coaching job in early 1954 for the NFL's Baltimore Colts, a franchise that had started play the previous year.

Weeb Ewbank brought in Otto Graham to tutor Unitas, who complemented an improving team that included Berry, fullback Alan Ameche, halfback Lenny Moore and defensive back Don Shula.

When he came to Baltimore, Weeb Ewbank had promised to create a system like Paul Brown's in Cleveland, but said he would need time to turn the team into a winner.

Weeb Ewbank was succeeded by former player Don Shula, a 33-year-old assistant coach with the Lions.

Weeb Ewbank remains the longest tenured head coach in the history of the Baltimore Colts.

Weeb Ewbank took over a team that had not had a winning record in its first three years of existence and hired a coaching staff that included Chuck Knox, Walt Michaels, and Clive Rush, all future head coaches.

The St Louis Cardinals selected Namath as the twelfth overall pick of the NFL draft, but Namath later said he chose the Jets in part because he got along with Weeb Ewbank and was impressed by how he had developed Unitas while with the Colts.

Weeb Ewbank liked that the Colts were favored, thinking it would make them complacent, and did not want to agitate them by boasting about the Jets' chances.

Weeb Ewbank was named the AFL's coach of the year after the season, but the team did not post a winning record in any of the following four years.

In December 1972, Weeb Ewbank announced that he would retire as head coach after the 1973 season, saying he wanted to spend more time with his wife.

Weeb Ewbank continued as general manager and was named the team vice president.

Weeb Ewbank agreed to coach quarterbacks at Columbia University in 1975.

Weeb Ewbank moved back to Oxford in retirement and wrote a book in 1977 called Football Greats.

Weeb Ewbank was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978, but said later that year that he was glad to be out of coaching.

Weeb Ewbank's coaching style was laid-back but efficient, combining his mild personality with an orderliness inherited from Paul Brown.

Weeb Ewbank is the only man to coach two professional football teams to championships, and the only man to win the NFL championship, the AFL championship and a Super Bowl.

Weeb Ewbank was selected as the head coach on the AFL All-Time Team in 1970.

Weeb Ewbank won the Walter Camp Distinguished American Award in 1987 and was inducted into the Jets' Ring of Honor in 2010.

Weeb Ewbank suffered a dislocated hip in the aftermath of the Jets' 1968 AFL championship game win, and had other health issues in his later years.

Weeb Ewbank broke his leg and had two hip replacements in the 1990s.

Weeb Ewbank died at 91 on November 17,1998, the 30th anniversary of the "Heidi Game", after suffering from heart problems.