Charles Henry Noll (January 5, 1932 - June 13, 2014) is an American professional footballer, assistant coach and head coach. His sole head coach position was to Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1969 to 1991. When Noll retired after 23 years, only three other head coaches in NFL history had longer tenure with a team.
After six years playing a career that included two NFL Championships as a member of his hometown Cleveland Browns, and several years as an assistant coach with various teams, in 1969 Noll took over the helm of the dying Steelers (who had played only one team) - a season in the 36 years before, lost 21-0), and turned it into a perpetual competitor. As head coach, Noll won four Super Bowls, four AFC titles, and nine Central Division championships, earning an overall record of 209-156-1, a post-season 16-8 record, and has won records in 15 of his final 20. season. His four victories at the Super Bowl are ranked 2nd behind Bill Belichick for most of the head coaches in NFL history.
Between playing and coaching, Noll won a total of six NFL Championships, and was selected for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, the first year of eligibility.
Noll builds a team through a clever lecturer and very thorough guidance. During his career, he was famous for the opportunities he gave African Americans, started the first African American quarterback and had the first black assistant coach. He is often credited with maintaining the morale of the West Pennsylvania region despite the sharp economic downturn by forming champion teams in the image of a blue-collar fan base.
Video Chuck Noll
Biography
Initial life
Little
Noll was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the youngest of three brothers (by eight years) of William Noll (a butcher, often unable to work due to Parkinson's disease) and Katherine Steigerwald Noll (who works for florists). The family lived at home, Noll's mother grew up with her twelve siblings, near East 74th Street, in a neighborhood with a large African-American population, a fact that helped explain Noll's early chances for African Americans in the NFL (both players from college skins traditional black and then as coach). On the local youth soccer team Noll plays with Harold Owens, the nephew of Olympic star Jesse Owens.
High School
Noll attends Benedictine High School. He started working in seventh grade and by the time he entered high school, he had saved enough money for two years for $ 150. Throughout high school he continued to work, earning 55 cents an hour at the Fisher Brothers meat market after school. Education is always important to him, so regardless of schedule, he learns enough to pass the 28th in class 252.
He plays back and handles high school soccer teams, winning the All-State award. During his senior year, he was appointed to the All Universe Universe Universe Catholic team by the Diocese of Cleveland newspaper.
Higher Education
Noll plans to attend Notre Dame, but during practice before his first year he suffers from epileptic seizures in the field. Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy refused to take the risk of allowing Noll to play there and so Noll received a football scholarship to the University of Dayton. Noll graduated with a degree in secondary education. As a member of the Dayton Flyers football team, he is a lineman, linebacker, and a captain compatriot, and earned the nickname, "Pope", for his "grip" of the game. "
Player for Cleveland Browns
Noll was designed by Cleveland Browns with pick 239 in the 1953 NFL draft. During his first year, Browns lost to the Detroit Lions in the NFL championship. The next two years, Brown is the NFL champion.
Although coined as a linebacker, Coach Paul Brown uses a small Noll as one of his "guard guards" to send a call to the quarterback (starting with Otto Graham). Brown recalled that Noll soon "could have called the drama itself without the help of the bench. That's how smart he is." According to Art Rooney, Jr. (search director of the Steelers before and during most of Noll's term), Noll felt humiliated by Brown's use of him that way and "disliked the term" messenger boy "so much that as a coach of the Steelers he entrusted all dramas that summoned to his quarterback. "
Noll only paid $ 5,000 per season with Browns and so while there he acted as a substitute teacher at Holy Name High School and sold insurance on the side. During that period, Noll also attended the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in the evenings. He told Dan Rooney that he decided not to become a lawyer because "he does not really like the constant confrontation and arguments that come with being a lawyer."
Conversely, when Noll lost his early guard position to John Wooten, he chose to retire at the age of 27 and hopes to begin his coaching career at his alma mater. He was shocked, however, when he was not offered an open position at the Dayton University coaching staff. Fortunately, he was offered a position by Sid Gillman on the Los Angeles Fillers staff, during his first season.
Train a career
Assistant career train
Noll was an assistant coach for American Football League then Los Angeles and then San Diego Chargers from 1960 to 1965. He later became Don Donula's assistant coach from the NFL Baltimore Colts from 1965 to 1968, when he was elected NFL Pittsburgh Chief Steelers coach.
Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers
Noll is considered part of Sid Gillman's guidance tree. He later recalled Gillman as "one of the game's main investigators and offensive specialists.In six years, I have more exposure to football than I usually get in 12 years." During his six-year tenure with Chargers, where he is a defensive line coach, defensive line coach and defensive co-ordinator, the team appears in five AFL championship games. Gillman says that Noll "has a great way with players," especially "If a man does not do the expected job, Chuck can ride on his back." The large battle of Ernie Ladd said that Noll was "a fiery man" but also "the best teacher I ever played." "He and I are always fighting, always fighting, but he has a great way of teaching.I take my hat off to Chuck, he is one of the main reasons for our success." The line of defense under the Noll was known as "Fearome Foursome," and during the late 1961 defensive Earl Faison was named AFL rookie of the year.
During the time of Noll in Chargers, Al Davis also became an assistant and scouts. Davis later became coach and general manager of Oakland Raiders, a major rival of AFC Steelers in the 1970s.
Colts Baltimore
With the Colts, Noll is a defensive backfield coach and then a defensive coordinator. Together with assistant coach Bill Arnsbarger, the Colts utilize a shift in the rotating zone zones and maximum defense packages. In 1968, Noll last season as a defensive coordinator, the Baltimore Colts drew 13-1 records and tied the NFL season record to the fewest allowed points (144).
Shula was impressed by Noll's approach: "He explained how to do things and write techniques.He was one of the first trainers around me who wrote in great detail all the techniques used by players - for example, backped and defensive back positions at the receiver. He's like a classroom teacher. "
The 1968 Colts won the NFL championship by routing Cleveland Browns 34-0 in Cleveland, but was shocked by AFL champion New York Jets, 16-7, at Super Bowl III at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The next day Noll was interviewed for a head coach position in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Noll was named the 14th head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers on January 27, 1969, after Penn State coach Joe Paterno declined an offer for the position. He was the youngest coach in NFL history at the time. Steelers owner, Art Rooney, will credit Don Shula as someone who recommends Noll as head coach. Noll implements a defense system in Pittsburgh that becomes the legendary "Steel Curtain" defense. His coaching style earned him the nickname of The Emperor Chaz by Myron Cope sports broadcaster. Noll was the first head coach to win four Super Bowls, training the Steelers to win at Super Bowl IX (1975), Super Bowl X (1976), Super Bowl XIII (1979), and Super Bowl XIV (1980).
The key to Noll's coaching success during this run is the Steelers skills in selecting outstanding players in draft NFL college players. First-choice first-round Noll is Joe Greene, a defender from North Texas State, who later became All-Pro of all time and installed a line of defense. Over the next few years, Steelers composed quarterback Terry Bradshaw (Louisiana Tech) and ran back Franco Harris (Penn State) as the first round. In the 1974 draft, Noll and Steelers achieved an unprecedented level of drafting success or since then, when they selected four future Hall of Fame players with their first five choices: wide receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, central midfielder Jack Lambert, and Mike Webster's center. To this day, no other design by any team includes more than two Hall of Famers in the future.
A very thorough coach, Noll is known during the rehearsals to think of the basics - such as the three-point position - things expected by professional players. For example, Andy Russell, who was already a Pro Bowl linebacker before Noll arrived and one of the few players that Noll guarded after clearing the list in his first year, was told by Noll that he did not have the correct foot position. As a result of Noll's attention to detail, Russell then became a key member for the first two Super Bowl teams and embarked on a linebacker tradition that continues today in Pittsburgh.
Noll is a much-read person who values ​​education and is also expected of his team, so he is looking for players who learn useful or practical subjects in college and have an interest outside of football. "I do not want to pick people who just take a wood shop or some other easy course they can do to play soccer." he explained.
While most of his contemporaries, as well as current NFL head coaches, impose strict curfew rules on his players, Noll is very lax in off-field behavior. This is shown in Super Bowl IX. While his Noll colleague - head coach of Minnesota Vikings, Bud Grant - keep his team tight in their hotel room except for training before the game, Noll told his team after arriving in New Orleans to go out on Bourbon Street "and get a party from your system now."
The hallmark of the team during the 1970s was the stifling defense known as the Steel Curtain. Linemen L. C. Greenwood, Joe Greene, and Ernie Holmes and Dwight White, Jack Ham linebackers, and Jack Lambert had an unprecedented level of collective talent in the NFL.
The team that won Super Bowls IX and X used run-oriented violations, mainly featuring Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier blocking again. Over the next few years, Terry Bradshaw matured into a remarkable passer, and the team that won the Super Bowl XIII and XIV made full use of the tandem recipients of Lynn Swann and John Stallworth.
Noll is notoriously shy and does not like the media or gives many interviews. His 1970s team is so talented that his contributions as head coaches (and team architects) are often ignored.
In 1989, Noll finally achieved some recognition as the NFL Coach of the Year, as he guided the Steelers into the second round of the playoffs. The team is not very talented and lost in its first two regular season matches with a score of 51-0 and 41-10. However, Noll did an outstanding job of keeping the team focused and continuing to improve his game as they made the playoffs and played competitively in two playoff games.
Post-training life
Noll retired as head coach of the Steelers after the 1991 season with a record of 209-156-1, a regular season and a postseason combination. She was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993.
The last team he coached gave him a stationary bike prize, which he really used.
Noll maintains a residence in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, but he spends some time at his home in Florida. Its mobility is limited by chronic back problems. Noll holds a degree of Administration Advisory ceremony at the Pittsburgh Steelers front office but has no real role in team operations after retirement. He spent about half a year in Pittsburgh with his wife, Marianne. They have a son, Chris, who is a teacher at a private high school in Connecticut.
Noll died of natural causes at a Pittsburgh condominium in his town on June 13, 2014, after years of Alzheimer's disease, heart problems, and back problems. Noll's funeral was held on June 17, 2014 at St. Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh.
Maps Chuck Noll
Legacy
Noll's legacy includes providing opportunities for African Americans. Under the Noll, Joe Gilliam became the first African American quarterback to start just a few seasons after the AFL started Marlin Briscoe, and James Harris (Gilliam started in front of Terry Bradshaw briefly during the 1974 season). In 1975, Franco Harris became the first African American to win the Super Bowl MVP award. During the 1980s, Tony Dungy (who played under Noll in the late 1970s) started his career as an NFL assistant coach, initially as Steelers' Defensive Backs Coach, and later became the first African-American Co-ordinator in the NFL. Noll greatly promoted Dungy as a qualified head coach candidate, but that did not happen to Dungy with the Steelers when Noll retired after the 1991 season. But Dungy did head coach Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then became the first African American coach to win the Super Bowl (XLI) together Indianapolis Colts.
On August 2, 2007, the pitch at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania is dedicated and renamed Chuck Noll Field in honor of the former coach. For over 40 years the Steelers have held their summer camp in St. Louis. Vincent College, because it is Noll's idea to bring the team away from distractions in the city to prepare for the season each year.
Chuck Noll was honored on October 7, 2007 at Heinz Field during a pre-match ceremony.
On September 30, 2011, Pittsburgh honored Noll by naming a new path after him. Chuck Noll Way connects North Shore Drive to West General Robinson St. The streets run along Stage AE, on the North Shore of Pittsburgh.
Head coaching note
See also
- List of National Football League head coaches with 50 wins
- List of American Football League players
References
External links
- Hall of Fame Pro Football: Member Profile
- ESPN Greatest Coach: [1]
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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