Sidney Gillman (October 26, 1911 – January 3, 2003) was an American football player, coach and executive. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wide receivers at the sides of the line of scrimmage, was instrumental in making football into the modern game that it is today. He was inducted as a coach into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983, and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989.
Gillman played football as an end at Ohio State University from 1931 to 1933. He played professionally for one season in 1936 with the Cleveland Rams of the second American Football League. After serving as an assistant coach at Ohio State from 1938 to 1940, Gillman was the head football coach at Miami University from 1944 to 1947 and at the University of Cincinnati from 1949 to 1954, compiling a career college football record of 81–19–2. He then moved to the ranks of professional football, where he headed the NFL's Los Angeles Rams (1955–1959), the American Football League's Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers (1960–1969), and the NFL's Houston Oilers (1973–1974), amassing a career record of 123–104–7 in the National Football League and the American Football League. Gillman's 1963 San Diego Chargers won the AFL Championship.
Early life and playing career
Sidney Gillman was born on October 26, 1911, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to a Jewish family. His father was an Austrian immigrant who was in the movie theater business. He attended North High School, and was elected captain of his high school football team in his senior year, and played on a state All-Star team.
He played college football at Ohio State University under coach Sam Willaman, forming the basis of his offense. Gillman was not impressed by Willaman's coaching ability. and All-Big Ten Conference end in 1933. His participation in the inaugural Chicago College All-Star Game caused him to arrive late for Redskins training camp, and he would fail to make the team. He played one year in the American Football League (1936) for the Cleveland Rams.
Ohio State
At his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction, Gillman stated that Schmidt made a "definite contribution to [Gillman's] life". Schmidt's number of plays and formations far exceeded his contemporaries, and he instituted a wide-open high scoring offense, extremely unusual for the 1930s (outside of the Southwest Conference), which also was a boon to the school growing its attendance during the Great Depression. However, Schmidt's pursuit of high scoring, even in lop-sided games, resulted in his nickname being, Francis "Shut the Gates of Mercy" or "Close the Gates of Mercy" Schmidt.
Miami University and University of Cincinnati
In 1944, Gillman became head coach at Miami University, succeeding Holcomb, and coached there through 1947, where his record was 31–6–1. After a year at Army under Blaik, Gillman became head coach at the University of Cincinnati from 1949 to 1954, with a record of 50–13–1, three Mid-American Conference championships, and two bowl games; while making full use of situational substitution. He used film study and player grades at Cincinnati, and was once admonished by the NCAA for having the players review film during halftime of a game. The Rams were a team bolstered and hindered by its emphasis on explosive offense as quarterbacked by Norm Van Brocklin. A trade for Jim Cason with the San Francisco 49ers also proved helpful in the rookie season that saw Gillman's coaching described as "red-meat, un-finessed brand of football" on the way to a record of 8–3–1 that narrowly beat the Chicago Bears for the right to play for the 1955 NFL Championship Game (their fourth appearance in the past five seasons) against the defending league champion Cleveland Browns, appearing in their sixth straight NFL Championship Game. Playing at home in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum due to the rotation of the time, the Browns never trailed while forcing six Van Brocklin interceptions on their way to a 38–14 victory.
His second season with the Rams, which saw them trade away future Hall of Fame defensive star Andy Robustelli in the offseason after a falling out with Gillman, was a disaster, as the team lost eight of their first ten games and ended with a 4–8 overall record, their first losing mark since 1944 when the team was still in Cleveland.) and receiver Elroy Hirsch, each future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Van Brocklin and Gillman had clashed over tactics in 1957, and Van Brocklin would at times override Gillman. After that season, Van Brocklin demanded a trade or he would stay home and run his business, rather than join the team for the 1958 season. Hirsch retired after the 1957 season.
A multi-player deal with the Cardinals for Ollie Matson did not help matters. The season ended on a middling note as the Rams won their last two games of the year to finish at .500. The 1958 season was the closest the Rams got to the top of the division, finishing one game behind the Baltimore Colts. The 1959 season saw the Rams close the year with eight straight losses that led to Gillman‘s dismissal. As the first coach of the Chargers, Gillman gave the team a mercurial personality that matched his own.
It was with the Chargers that Gillman developed the innovative aggressive downfield passing attack for which he would become known, and which would change football. "Sid Gillman was the father of modern-day passing.... It had been thought of as vertical, the length of the field, but Sid also thought of it as horizontal. Sid used the width of the field." They learned, and the AFL became the genesis of modern professional football. "Just being part of Sid's organization was like going to a laboratory for the highly developed science of professional football." On the other hand, Chargers receiver and tight end Dave Kocourek (1960-65) found Gillman a people person who was not given proper credit for his interpersonal skills. Future Hall of
Fame receiver Lance Alworth said of Gillman, "Sid Gillman is a fantastic person, with a brilliant mind, and he has taught John [Hadl] a lot."
Described as "impulsive" by quarterback John Hadl, in 1965, Gillman had arguments with defensive stars Ernie Ladd and Earl Faison over salaries and bonuses, in light of rookie bonuses being paid in sums that far exceeded the salaries of these two star players. Ladd and Faison took the position they would play out their contracts and become free agents. They were both traded by Gillman to Houston before the 1966 season. The league's owners were all concerned about paying bonuses to veteran players, and the effect on the league's viability. Commissioner Joe Ross voided the trade after Gilman alleged tampering against Oilers’ owner Adams. Faison and Ladd ultimately became free agents, with Ladd joining the Oilers and Faison returning to the Chargers for three games before Gilman waived him with an injury notation; the expansion Dolphins ultimately claiming the injured Faison. He started only one game in Miami and saw his career end in 1966. Gillman called Faison, the former four-time All-AFL defensive end, one who "has a long way to go to become average, much less outstanding."
Hadl stated that these removals were part of the beginning of the decline of the Chargers in the late 1960s. When once asked about the money made by players, Gillman responded by saying “With some of them, football is a vocation. With some, it's an avocation. You know what football is to me? It's blood.” They narrowly lost each time in the AFL Championship Game to the Houston Oilers.
In 1962, with injuries to Kemp and rookie future Hall of Fame receiver Lance Alworth, the Chargers had their only losing season in their AFL tenure (4–10).
John Hadl had been drafted in 1962 as quarterback, but the 1963 season would have 35-year old Tobin Rote as the primary starter at quarterback. That year, under an MVP season from Rote (with Alworth second in the balloting), they captured the only league championship the franchise ever won by outscoring the Boston Patriots, 51–10, in the American Football League championship game in Balboa Stadium. Gillman crafted a game plan, "Feast or Famine", that used motion, then seldom seen, to negate the Patriots' blitzes. Speedy Duncan, Kenny Graham, Dick Westmoreland, and Frank Buncom. Mix grew up in Los Angeles in a sometimes hard-pressed Jewish family, living in a neighborhood where they were the only Jews, and had taken great pride as a young teenager in 1955 when he learned the Rams new head coach, Gillman, was also Jewish. As a player, he found Gillman hard but fair, treating everyone equally. Gillman and Al Davis (also Jewish), emphasized recruiting from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), and Gillman instituted a training camp policy that players would room together based on position so that black and white players would room together, a rarity in the early 1960s.). Gillman approached NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle in 1963 with the idea of having the champions of the AFL and the NFL play a single final game,
Later NFL career
Houston Oilers
Gillman served as a quality control coach for the Dallas Cowboys in 1972. After a fifth straight loss to start the season, Gillman took over as coach by firing Peterson, which saw them win once the rest of the way.
In 1974, Gillman hired Bum Phillips (the defensive coordinator for the 1967-71 Charger teams) to serve as defensive coordinator. The 1974 team won on opening day before going on a five-game losing streak. Midway through the season, Gillman and the Oilers acquired future Hall of Fame defensive tackle Curley Culp and a first-round draft choice in 1975 from the Kansas City Chiefs for John Matuszak (each player had threatened to jump to the World Football League). They then won four games in a row to get to 5–5 before trading wins and losses in the last four games of the year, which included a win over the Cleveland Browns to close the season at 7-7 (.500), their first non-losing season in four years. the Oilers jumped to ten wins in the following season (1975). The Bears, with Walter Payton leading the way in rushing yards (1,852), won 9 games and earned their first postseason appearance in 14 years, which ended in a loss in the Divisional Round. However, Gillman resigned after the year when his ideas about opening up the offense was rejected. For four months of 1978, Gillman was the coach of the football team at United States International University; one of the coaches he hired was Tom Walsh, who would coach the team when Gillman left in early 1979. Gillman taught Jaworski and future Hall of Fame receiver Harold Carmichael their signature "meet me at the corner" play.
United States Football League
In July 1983, at age 71, Gillman came out of retirement after an offer from Bill Tatham Sr. and Bill Tatham Jr., owners of the United States Football League (USFL) expansion team the Oklahoma Outlaws. Gillman agreed to serve as director of operations and signed quarterback Doug Williams, who later led the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII. Although Gillman signed a roster of players to play for the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based franchise, he was fired by Tatham six months later in a dispute over finances.
Gillman then served as a consultant for the USFL's Los Angeles Express in 1984, where John Hadl was the coach and future Hall of Famer Steve Young was the quarterback. He later did work for the Eagles as a quarterback coach in 1985 (Randall Cunningham's rookie year) before serving as an unpaid consultant to the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) football team (as coached by Mike Gottfried) in 1987, earning a game ball after Pitt upset Notre Dame.
Legacy
Gillman's innovations in passing offense are often praised as the foundation of modern football, but "Perhaps his most lasting legacy was his use of film to study players and formations...." This dedication to filmed football plays made Gillman the first coach to study game footage, something that all coaches do today.
Gillman's influence on the modern game can be seen by listing the current and former coaches and executives who either played with him or coached for him, or coached under such people, including among others:
- George Blackburn, former coach for Miami (OH), Cincinnati, and Virginia
- Paul Dietzel, played and coached under Gillman, head coach at Louisiana State University, Army, South Carolina
- Al Davis, late coach and owner of the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders
- Chuck Noll, coached the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl titles
- Ara Parseghian, former coach at the University of Notre Dame who led the Fighting Irish to two national titles
- Bo Schembechler, former coach at the University of Michigan
- Bill Walsh, who coached the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl titles (coached under John Rauch at Oakland, who had coached under Al Davis, who owned the Raiders when Walsh coached there and who coached under Gillman)
- George Allen, coached under Gillman in 1957, former coach of the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins
- Bum Phillips who coached for Gillman for 5 years in San Diego prior to coaching for him in Houston Coryell went on to coach in the NFL, and some of his assistants, influenced by the Gillman style, included coaches Joe Gibbs, Ernie Zampese, Tom Bass, and Russ A. Molzahn. A larger and more extended version of Sid Gillman's coaching tree, which in some ways could be called a forest, can be found here.
Head coaching record
College
AFL/NFL
{| 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
|- style="background:#fdd;"
!LA||1955
||8||3||1||.727||1st in NFL Western Conference|| 0 || 1 || .000 || <Small>Lost to Cleveland Browns in NFL Championship</Small>
|-
!LA||1956
||4||8||0||.333||T-5th in NFL Western Conference|| - || - || - ||
|-
!LA||1957
||6||6||0||.500||4th in NFL Western Conference|| - || - || -||
|-
!LA||1958
||8||4||0||.667||T-2nd in NFL Western Conference|| - || - || - ||
|-
!LA||1959
||2||10||0||.200||6th in NFL Western Conference|| - || - || - ||
|-
! colspan="2"|LA Total|| 28 || 31 || 1 || .475 |||| 0 || 1 || .000 ||
|- style="background:#fdd;"
!LA Chargers||1960
||10||4||0||.714||1st in AFL West Division|| 0 || 1 || .000 || <Small>Lost to Houston Oilers in AFL championship game</Small>
|- style="background:#fdd;"
!SD||1961
||12||2||0||.857||1st in AFL West Division|| 0 || 1 || .000 || <Small>Lost to Houston Oilers in AFL championship game</Small>
|-
!SD||1962
||4||10||0||.286||4th in AFL West Division|| - || - || - ||
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
!SD||1963
||11||3||0||.786||1st in AFL West Division|| 1 || 0 || 1.000 || <Small>Beat Boston Patriots in AFL championship game</Small>
|- style="background:#fdd;"
!SD||1964
||8||5||1||.615||1st in AFL West Division|| 0 || 1 || .000 || <Small>Lost to Buffalo Bills in AFL championship game</Small>
|- style="background:#fdd;"
!SD||1965
||9||2||3||.818||1st in AFL West Division|| 0 || 1 || .000 || <Small>Lost to Buffalo Bills in AFL championship game</Small>
|-
!SD||1966
||7||6||1||.538||3rd in AFL West Division|| - || - || - ||
|-
!SD||1967
||8||5||1||.615||3rd in AFL West Division|| - || - || - ||
|-
!SD||1968
||9||5||0||.643||3rd in AFL West Division|| - || - || - ||
|-
!SD||1969
||4||5||0||.444||3rd in AFL West Division|| - || - || - ||
|-
!SD||1971
||4||6||0||.440||3rd in AFL West Division|| - || - || - ||
|-
! colspan="2"|LA/SD Total|| 86 || 53 || 6 || .619 |||| 1 || 4 || .200 ||
|-
!HOU||1973
||1||8||0||.111||4th in AFC Central|| - || - || - ||
|-
!HOU||1974
||7||7||0||.500||2nd in AFC Central|| - || - || - ||
|-
! colspan="2"|HOU Total|| 8 || 15 || 0 || .348 |||| - || - || - ||
|-
! colspan="2"|Professional Total|| 122 || 99 || 7 || .552 |||| 1 || 5 || .167 ||
|}
Awards and honors
Gillman has received the following awards and honors, among others;
- Gillman was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983
- He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989
- He was inducted into the Ohio State Hall of Fame in 1981
- He was inducted into the University of Cincinnati James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 1981
- He was inducted into the Chargers Football Hall of Fame in 1985
- He was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1990
- He was inducted into the Miami University Hall of Fame in 1991
Personal life and death
Gillman and his wife Esther had four children and were married for 67 years (until his death).
On January 3, 2003, Gillman died in his sleep at age 91. He was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
See also
- List of American Football League players
- List of National Football League head coaches with 50 wins
- List of select Jewish football players
References
External links
- Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - Sid Gillman, Miami University Libraries
- Sid Gillman Collection, Cradle of Coaches Archive, Miami University Libraries