Marv Levy

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Marv Levy
born on August 3, 1925 in Chicago , Illinois
Career information
Active : 1973 - 1997
College : Harvard University
Teams
Career statistics
Wins / losses as Head Coach (NFL)     143/112
Play as Head Coach (NFL)     255
Coaching stats at pro-football-reference.com
Career highlights and awards
( XXV , XXVI , XXVII , XXVIII )
Pro Football Hall of Fame

Marvin Daniel "Marv" Levy (born August 3, 1925 in Chicago , Illinois ) is a former American head coach in American football . He coached the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for five years , the Chicago Blitz in the United States Football League for one year, the Kansas City Chiefs for five years and the Buffalo Bills in the National Football League for twelve years . Levy won the Gray Cup twice with the Alouettes and reached the AFC Championship Game four times in a row with the Bills - but they lost all four subsequent Super Bowls . He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001.

Life

Levy's family was from Montreal , Canada . His father served in the Battle of Belleau Forest in World War I and later was a businessman in Chicago.

Levy graduated from high school in 1943 and became a weather observer at a gliding school with the US Army Air Forces . Levy, of Jewish descent, later commented that he saw football as "serious, but never deadly serious." He was known for motivating his teams with historical stories. However, if war metaphors were used by others to describe football games, he made it clear to them that he was fighting in a war and that war and football are by no means comparable. He once said about the importance of the Super Bowl that it was not a must-win, the Second World War was a must-win (must win). He graduated from Coe College , Iowa , with a degree in English literature. He graduated from Harvard University with a Masters degree in English history in 1951.

Head coach

After he achieved initial success as a coach in college football in the 1950s and 1960s , Levy was signed by the Montreal Alouettes in 1973 and won the Gray Cup in 1974 and 1977 . After two less successful trips to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Chicago Blitz , the 63-year-old Levy became the new head coach of the Buffalo Bills in 1986 .

Levy led the Bills, one of the weakest and most unpopular teams in the NFL to date, to the top of the league within a few years. He introduced the so-called "K-Gun offense", a hurry-up offense that ran through the entire playing time , with which quarterback Jim Kelly , running back Thurman Thomas , wide receiver James Lofton as well as Andre Reed and tight end Keith McKeller dominated many opponents. On defense , he built a tough defense with defensive end Bruce Smith and linebackers Cornelius Bennett and Darryl Talley , and showed off in the special teams with Steve Tasker , one of the best gunner in the league. Levys Bills reached the Super Bowl four times in a row in the early 1990s. The tragedy was that both the Super Bowl XXV (with 19:20 against the New York Giants after Scott Norwood's missed field goal in the final seconds), the Super Bowl XXVI (with 24:37 against the Washington Redskins ), the Super Bowl XXVII (at 17:52 against the Dallas Cowboys ) and Super Bowl XXVIII (at 13:30 also against the Cowboys) were all lost.

In 1997 Levy finished his coaching career, worked sporadically as a commentator and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2006 he worked for one year as general manager of the Bills before retiring at the age of 81.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/nfl-coaching-great-marv-levy-remembers-the-euphoria-of-vj-day-1.485820
  2. ^ For these athletes, being a veteran was much more than just having experience . Los Angeles Times
  3. ↑ http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-01-10/sports/1992010088_1_marv-levy-war-stories-football-war
  4. ↑ http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/125394/sports-contd-jonah-goldberg
  5. ↑ [1]
  6. ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/10/sports/la-sp-1111-crowe-20101111
NFL 1990s All-Decade Team

QB : Brett Favre  | John Elway  | RB : Barry Sanders  | Emmitt Smith  | Terrell Davis  | Thurman Thomas  | WR : Cris Carter  | Jerry Rice  | Tim Brown  | Michael Irvin  | TE : Shannon Sharpe  | Ben Coates  | T : Willie Roaf  | Gary Zimmerman  | Tony Boselli  | Richmond Webb  | G : Bruce Matthews  | Randall McDaniel  | Larry Allen  | Steve Wisniewski  | C : Dermontti Dawson  | Mark Stepnoski  | EN : Bruce Smith  | Reggie White  | Chris Doleman  | Neil Smith  | DT : Cortez Kennedy  | John Randle  | Warren Sapp  | Bryant Young  | LB : Kevin Greene  | Junior Seau  | Derrick Thomas  | Cornelius Bennett  | Hardy Nickerson  | Levon Kirkland  | CB : Deion Sanders (& PR ) | Rod Woodson  | Darrell Green  | Aeneas Williams  | S : Steve Atwater  | LeRoy Butler  | Carnell Lake  | Ronnie Lott  | P : Darren Bennett  | Sean Landeta  | K : Morten Andersen  | Gary Anderson  | KR : Mel Gray (& PR) | Michael Bates  | HC : Bill Parcells  | Marv Levy

personal data
SURNAME Levy, Marv
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Levy, Marvin Daniel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American football coach
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois , United States