Hank Stram

Henry Louis Stram (; January 3, 1923 – July 4, 2005) was an American football coach. He is best known for his 15-year tenure with the Dallas Texans / Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL).

Stram won three AFL championships, more than any other coach in the league's history. He then won Super Bowl IV with the Chiefs. He also coached the most victories (87), had the most post-season games (7) and the best post-season record in the AFL (5–2). 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. Stram never had an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, or special teams coach during his career with the Chiefs.

Early life

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

Coaching career

Early jobs

He was an assistant football coach for the Boilermakers from 1948 to 1955 and the head baseball coach from 1951 to 1955. In 1996, Stram and Len Dawson were inducted into the Purdue Athletic Hall of Fame. After coaching at Purdue, Stram was an assistant at Notre Dame, Southern Methodist University, and Miami. Stram was Miami's backfield coach and credited with installing the multiple offense that helped lead the team to a 6–4 record in 1959.

Dallas Texans / Kansas City Chiefs

In 1959, Lamar Hunt recruited Stram to coach his Dallas Texans in the new AFL, which commenced play in 1960. Hunt had previously been a bench player at SMU when Stram had been coaching there and the Texans' position had been turned down by Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bud Wilkinson and New York Giants defensive coordinator Tom Landry. The Texans played their first game in the new AFL in September 1960 and proved to be successful from the beginning.

In 1962, the Texans won the AFL Western Division and the AFL championship. The Texans won the championship against the Houston Oilers 20–17 in what was the longest professional football championship game ever played. Tommy Brooker kicked a field goal at 17:54 of overtime to win the game for the Texans and stop the Oilers from winning their third straight title.

The Dallas Texans became the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963 and continued their success. In 1966, they won the AFL title again on the back of one of the best defensive teams in the history of professional football featuring three hall of famers and eight all star players. The Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills 31–7 in Buffalo. The Chiefs played the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I with the Packers winning 35–10. To overcome the Chiefs' defense, Packers' coach Vince Lombardi used a short passing game which proved successful, with quarterback Bart Starr becoming the first Super Bowl MVP.

In a 1968 game against the Oakland Raiders in Kansas City, the Chiefs entered the game without a healthy wide receiver ready to play. Stram went in to pro football's past and resurrected the T formation. The Chiefs won the game 24–10 running the ball 60 times for over 300 yards while passing only three times for 16 yards.

The Kansas City Chiefs won the AFL championship again in 1969. In Super Bowl IV, his ingenious innovations, the "moving pocket" and the "triple-stack defense", dominated the Minnesota Vikings on both sides of the ball. In the Super Bowl, Stram became the first professional football coach to wear a microphone. Stram's recorded comments from that game have become classics: "Just keep matriculatin' the ball down the field, boys.", "How could all six of you miss that play?" "65 Toss Power Trap", "Kassulke was running around there like it was a Chinese fire drill", and his assessment of the Vikings' confusion and ineffective play: "They look like they're flat as hell.". In the clip where he asks an official "How could all six of you miss that play?" the official's response, not about the play, but about Stram not being allowed on the field during a game, leads the confused Stram to mutter, "No. What?" The Super Bowl victory was the second straight by a team from the AFL and added credibility to the newer league, which would complete a planned merger with the NFL the following season.

In 1971, the Chiefs won the AFC West championship. The Miami Dolphins defeated the Chiefs on Christmas Day 1971. The teams played the longest game in the history of professional football. After that, the Chiefs did not enjoy the same success, resulting in Stram leaving the franchise. Stram's tenure in Kansas City ended with a 35–15 loss at home to the same Viking team the Chiefs defeated in Super Bowl IV.

Following a 5–9 finish in the 1974 season, which was at the time the worst record in franchise history (and only the third losing season it had suffered), Stram was fired.

Stram's 129 victories were the most in Chiefs history until 2023 when Andy Reid surpassed him with his 130th win.

New Orleans Saints

Stram became the head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 1976, but posted losing records in his two seasons, 4–10 and 3–11. Hampering Stram's efforts to rebuild the typically struggling Saints was a severe elbow injury to quarterback Archie Manning, who missed the entire 1976 season and parts of the 1977 campaign. Stram also 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.

Perhaps the biggest highlight of his New Orleans tenure was a 27–17 win over his former team, the Kansas City Chiefs, at Arrowhead Stadium in 1976, Stram's first victory with the Saints. The 1977 campaign culminated in an historic home loss to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers who were riding a 26-game losing streak over two seasons. Stram took the loss hard, burning the game film. He was fired after the final game of the season.

Legacy

Stram helped develop Hall of Famers Len Dawson, Bobby Bell, Buck Buchanan, Curley Culp, Willie Lanier, Jan Stenerud, Emmitt Thomas, and Johnny Robinson, and others like Ed Budde and Otis Taylor. He 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. Stram recruited heavily from historically black colleges, so his teams were diverse, and he also instituted weight-training and off-season mini-camps.

Later life and death

Stram made a guest appearance as himself on the TV show Coach. In the episode, Stram was attending a coaching convention with fellow coaches Barry Switzer and George Allen. Hayden Fox, the fictional protagonist of the show, also attended the conference.

Hank Stram retired to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he built a home in the town of Covington. He died at St. Tammany Parish hospital in Covington, from complications due to diabetes, on July 4, 2005.

Head coaching record

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center;"

! rowspan="2"|Team !! rowspan="2"|Year !! colspan="5"|Regular season !! colspan="4"|Postseason

!Won!!Lost!!Ties!!Win %!!Finish!! Won !! Lost !! Win % !! Result

!DAT||1960

||8||6||0||.571||2nd in AFL West|| — || — || — || —

!DAT||1961

||6||8||0||.429||2nd in AFL West|| — || — || — || —

|- ! style="background:#FDE910;"

!DAT||1962

||11||3||0||.786||1st in AFL West|| 1 || 0 || 1.000 || AFL champions

!KC||1963

||5||7||2||.417||3rd in AFL West|| — || — || — || —

!KC||1964

||7||7||0||.500||2nd in AFL West|| — || — || — || —

!KC||1965

||7||5||2||.583||3rd in AFL West|| — || — || — || —

|-! style="background:#fdd;"

!KC||1966

||11||2||1||.846||1st in AFL West|| 1 || 1 || .500 || AFL champions. Lost to Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I

!KC||1967

||9||5||0||.643||2nd in AFL West|| — || — || — || —

|-! style="background:#fdd;"

!KC||1968

||12||2||0||.857||1st in AFL West|| 0 || 1 || .000 || Lost to Oakland Raiders in AFL Division Playoff

|- ! style="background:#FDE910;"

!KC||1969

||11||3||0||.786||2nd in AFL West|| 3 || 0 || 1.000 || AFL champions. Super Bowl IV champions

!KC||1970

||7||5||2||.583||2nd in AFC West|| — || — || — || —

|-! style="background:#fdd;"

!KC||1971

||10||3||1||.769||1st in AFC West|| 0 ||1 || .000 || Lost to Miami Dolphins in AFC Divisional Game

!KC||1972

||8||6||0||.571||2nd in AFC West|| — || — || — || —

!KC||1973

||7||5||2||.583||2nd in AFC West|| — || — || — || —

!KC||1974

||5||9||0||.357||3rd in AFC West|| — || — || — || —

! colspan="2"|DAT/KC total||124||76||10||.620||||5||3||.625||

!NO||1976

||4||10||0||.286||3rd in NFC West|| — || — || — || —

!NO||1977

||3||11||0||.214||4th in NFC West|| — || — || — || —

! colspan="2"|NO total||7||21||0||.250||||0||0||.000||

! colspan="2"|Total||131||97||10||.575||||5||3||.625||

References

Sources

Hank Stram with Lou Sahadi, They're Playing My Game, Morrow, New York 1986
Edward Gruver, The American Football League: A Year-by-Year History 1960–1969 McFarland & Company 1997
Brad Adler, Coaching Matters: Leadership & Tactics of the NFL's Ten Greatest Coaches Brassey's Inc 2003 pages 56–57
"Stram gets Texan post", Dallas Morning News December 21, 1959
"Texans now rule AFL kingdom", Dallas Morning News December 24, 1962
MacCambridge, Michael (2005), America's Game. New York:Anchor Books.

Early life

Coaching career

Early jobs

Dallas Texans / Kansas City Chiefs

New Orleans Saints

Legacy

Later life and death

Head coaching record

See also

References

Sources

External links